The Progressive Cellist
8-10 June 2001
David Smith and 
Brenda Blewett, accompanist
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A friendly and informal course

The course is designed to give cellists guidance and encouragement in all aspects of playing and performance technique as well as the benefit of working with a professional accompanist familiar with repertoire. This is especially valuable for students who are preparing for grade examinations, competitions, auditions and recitals.
The participating students should be Grade VI and above, and will have the opportunity to play repertoire of their choice in the performance classes.

There will be discussion sessions dealing with all aspects of the cello Ð teaching problems, concert techniques, instruments, repertoire, career planning, practice technique, stylistic considerations in Bach playing etc.
There will be opportunities for cello ensemble playing, with a joint performance in the final student concert.
A public concert will be given by the tutors on Friday evening. Please see page three for booking details.
Students will participate in a concert on Sunday afternoon.

David Smith was born in London and has lead a varied and unusual musical life. Having studied at the Royal Academy of Music, he then toured with D'Oyly Carte, played in West End shows and in summer seasons on Bournemouth Pier, appeared with numerous baroque and chamber groups, and became the youngest member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of nineteen. He remained with the RPO for five years and then joined a BBC light music string orchestra which featured in the programme 'Grand Hotel'.

He left the BBC to devote his time to chamber music and continuo playing, which lead to performances with Yehudi Menuhin, Neville Marriner, Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner and Paul Steinitz, and to his joining the Alberni String Quartet. In over twenty years as a member of the quartet he has performed in many parts of the world, and has also gained a reputation for his teaching and coaching.

He is professor of Cello and Chamber Music at Chetham's School of Music, and at the Royal Academy of Music, where he also runs the LRAM 'Art of Teaching' course for undergraduate and post-graduate cello students.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He plays on a cello made in 1706 by Giovanni Grancino of Milan.

Brenda Blewett read music at Oxford University and then continued at the Royal College of Music, where she studied piano with David Parkhouse and accompaniment with Robert Sutherland and was awarded the Ellen Marie Curtis Prize for her interpretations of Haydn and Mozart. She has since had a busy career as an accompanist and chamber musician, performing in major venues in the U.K., Europe and North America as well as touring extensively in Norway and Sweden. She has given live broadcasts on Classic FM, BBC radio and television and NRK radio in Norway. Brenda is currently an accompanist at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester and a visiting accompanist at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo. She has made CD recordings on the Simax and Victoria labels and her recording of the Haydn trios for flute, cello and piano was chosen as 'Record of the Month' by the German Music Journal 'Alte Musik Actuell'.