Lunchtime Recital Friday 6th May 2022
Piano and Violin – Anna Le Hair & Arwen Newband

Programme:

Schubert Sonata in A major D 664

1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante
3. Allegro

Kreisler Variations on Corelli’s La Folia

Rebecca Clarke – Midsummer Moon

 Not necessarily in that order!

Anna Le Hair is a pianist and piano teacher based in Tring, Hertfordshire. Anna gained an honours degree in music at Edinburgh University where she studied piano with Colin Kingsley, and harmony with Kenneth Leighton. Her postgraduate studies were at the Royal College of Music, London, where her professors included Peter Element and Hubert Dawkes.
Since then, Anna has enjoyed a busy and varied career as a performer, teacher, accompanist, adjudicator, conductor and ABRSM examiner. She gives regular performances both as a soloist and with her regular duo partners, and also as a chamber musician, playing in many venues in Britain and abroad. Anna has performed at many festivals in Britain, most recently in Kings Lynn, and including the Edinburgh Fringe and Buxton, where she was nominated for the title of ‘Performer of the Fringe’. She has also recently played at festivals in Spain and Croatia.  In February 2014, she gave a recital tour in New Zealand with her duo partner, the violinist Arwen Newband. The Icknield Trio (Anna, Arwen and Sarah) opened the Piano Trio Society’s Festival in Notting Hill last year, and are performing this summer in the St Lawrence Jewry summer Festival in the City of London.

Arwen Newband started to learn the violin at the age of 6. A New Zealander, she attended Auckland University where she studied with Mary O’Brien. She freelanced  with the Auckland Philharmonia  before gaining a scholarship which enabled her to study with Emanuel Hurwitz in London. She then embarked on a career which has included freelancing with various English orchestras as well as performing as a soloist and chamber musician.  She has performed concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Khachaturian, Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi and has given many chamber music concerts, recently forming a duo with pianist Anna Le Hair, with whom she has recently returned from a Recital tour of New Zealand. She is also a  committed teacher, enjoying bringing the challenges of music to children (and adults) of all ages and abilities.

Another very enjoyable recital with three carefully chosen pieces each with different styles.

• Schubert Sonata in A major D 664
• Rebecca Clarke – Midsummer Moon
• Kreisler Variations on Corelli’s La Folia

As Arwen told us Rebecca Clarke’s Midsummer Moon has hints of The Lark Ascending, though it’s a nightingale and a moon. And ending with Fritz Kreisler’s Variations on Corelli’s La Folia – where else could they have ended?

Anna has accompanied Arwen so many ties that they rarely make eye contact, sensing the flow and pace of the music – just the occasional flash of a smile.

Anna has played for us three times, once on Zoom during the lockdown. Arwen was a new face for us, but one we hope we will see more of. Although she grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, she and her family had lived in Potters Bar (Sunnybank Road) for quite some time, and we were pleased to welcome some of her friends and hope they may come to other recitals in the future.