CONCERT PROGRAMME BIOGRAPHY
In
2002, at the age of only twelve, Jennifer Pike won the BBC Young Musician of
the Year competition, following her celebrated performance of Mendelssohn’s
Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.
At the same age she won fourth prize in the Yehudi Menuhin International
Violin Competition. Public recognition of her unfaltering success continued at
the start of 2008 when she was honoured with the Times Breakthrough Award at
the South Bank Show Awards in recognition of the impact she has made across
the arts.
She
has appeared as soloist with major orchestras and given recitals around the
UK, Europe, the Middle East and the USA. She was invited to play Saint-Saëns’
Havanaise with the Hallé Orchestra when she was eleven. The following
year she performed with the BBC Philharmonic in the BBC Proms in Hyde Park,
and in 2004 she played with the Hallé in the Last Night of the Proms in
Manchester, both broadcast live on BBC television.
At
the age of fifteen she made her BBC Proms début in the Royal Albert Hall, and
since then she has made her evening recital débuts in London’s Wigmore Hall
and Purcell Room, all to great critical acclaim.
Last
year she played the Sibelius Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra,
Mozart’s Concerto No 5 with the Ulster Orchestra and Bruch’s First
Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in concerts recorded for
Radio 3. She performed Mozart’s Concerto No 3 with the Academy of St Martin
in the Fields in the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Sibelius with the Tampere
Philharmonic in Finland and London’s Cadogan Hall, and celebrated her 18th
birthday with an evening recital in the Wigmore Hall. She has also performed
with the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, City of London
Sinfonia, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra,
Bournemouth Symphony, Liverpool Philharmonic, London Festival and Royal
Philharmonic Orchestras, playing concertos by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart,
Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, and Prokofiev.
Future
plans include the Mendelssohn with the CBSO, RPO and the Brussels
Philharmonic, the Sibelius with the Philharmonia, The Lark Ascending with
the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, a series of broadcast recitals and the
première and recording of Andrew Schultz’s Violin Concerto with the
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
At
the age of 16 she was awarded a postgraduate scholarship to study with David
Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, winning the Derek Butler
London Prize in 2007. In 2005 and 2007 she won the prestigious MBF Manoug
Parikian Award. She is also grateful for the support of the Philharmonia/Martin
Scholarship Fund.
She is playing a violin made by Matteo Goffriller in 1708, which is currently made available to her by the Stradivari Trust established by Nigel Brown. For more information on helping the Trust raise the funds needed to secure the instrument for Jennifer’s long-term use please contact Emily Smith at instrument.schemes@gmail.com.
‘Her
playing has led to her being hailed as one of Britain’s brightest musical
prodigies for a generation. I heard in Jennifer a remarkable understanding of
music far beyond her years. It was really quite astonishing.
I felt it was like listening to a 12-year-old Menuhin.’
Daily
Mail, May 2002
‘Breathtaking’
The
Guardian, May 2002
‘The
most rewarding part of the whole five-hour venture came in the first five
minutes, when 15-year-old Jennifer Pike played a pair of movements from Bach's
solo Partita No.3 with great subtlety and composure’ The
Daily Telegraph, August 2005 (BBC Proms)
‘Equipped
at 16 with phenomenal tuning, pace, control of timbre and range of dynamics,
she brought the house down with Saint-Saëns' Introduction and Rondo
Capriccioso’
The
Independent, March 2006 (Barbican Hall)
Please note that no modification of this programme note may be carried out without the prior consent of the artist. Please contact jeremypike@lineone.net for further information or check with www.hazardchase.co.uk for the latest biography and photograph.
Reviews
“Her
playing has led to her being hailed as one of Britain’s brightest musical
prodigies for a generation. ‘I heard in Jennifer a remarkable understanding
of music far beyond her years. It was really quite astonishing.
I felt it was like listening to a 12-year-old Menuhin.’” - Daily
Mail, May 2002.
“Breathtaking” – The
Guardian, May 2002.
“The
most rewarding part of the whole five-hour venture came in the first five
minutes, when 15-year-old Jennifer Pike played a pair of movements from Bach's
solo Partita No 3 with great subtlety and composure.” - The Daily Telegraph, August 2005 (BBC
Proms).
“There
could be no better way to open a three-concert day devoted to the violin than
a solo from Britain's foremost young fiddler: the 15-year-old Jennifer Pike
stepped on to the platform and delivered the prelude and gavotte from Bach's
Third Partita with perfect poise and assurance, her instrument sounding clear
and strong."
- The Independent, August 2005 (BBC Proms)
For additional biographical details click here (not for publication)
Please contact www.hazardchase.co.uk for a hi-res photo