Penny Driver Masterclass

The Susanne Beer Cello Corner Foundation is hosting a cello masterclass with Penny Driver at St James’ Islington on Saturday March 19th, from 10-12:45.

We are looking for six cellists to take part in the masterclass. The cost is £40 for performers, £10 for observers (this means a student cellist) and free for all parents and guardians.

Each participant will have 25 minutes to perform their piece and have a public lesson with Penny, plus observe the other five lessons. The piece should be roughly 5 minutes or can be part of a longer piece or movement. The pianist is Yoko Misumi of the Greenwich Trio and her fee on the day is included in the cost. An advance rehearsal can be arranged directly with Yoko Misumi at additional cost.

Please send either a recommendation from your teacher or a video of yourself to [email protected].

Deadline for entry is March the 9th.

We hope many of you will apply and also attend as it should be a great day for all aspiring cellists.

Penny Driver is a recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral cellist. She was Co-principal with Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and plays regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She is cellist of Ostara Chamber Players, who began giving concerts in a Finsbury Park front garden during the first lockdown and now give occasional Sunday morning concerts in the Park Theatre.

Penny teaches at Wells Cathedral School, one of the UK’s five specialist music schools, where she attracts students internationally, many of whom go on to win scholarships to the major conservatoires in London, Europe and the USA. She is regularly invited to give performance classes to undergraduate and masters students at the Royal Academy of Music and was for many years Professor of Cello at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.

Penny is a dedicated chamber music teacher too, both as part of her work at Wells and in London where she co-directs con spirito chamber music Sundays (www.conspirito.co.uk) together with pianist Tamar Andrusier.
Penny studied the cello with Ralph Kirshbaum, whilst taking a degree in Russian at Cambridge University, and as a postgraduate at the Royal Northern College of Music. She was awarded a Countess of Munster scholarship to study with Marc Johnson of the Vermeer Quartet in the USA where she was a finalist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s concerto competition. She completed her studies in Moscow with legendary Russian teacher Natalia Shakhovskaya.

http://www.pennydriver.co.uk/