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Luke on his Solo Performance at St David’s

10 June 2015

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Woodwind

We caught up with graduate Luke Russell after he performed William Mathias’ Flute Concerto with the British Sinfonietta at St David’s Cathedral Festival (rehearsals pictured above).

Luke’s been very busy since he graduated in 2010. He was appointed Co-Principal Flute at Southbank Sinfonia, performing at venues across Europe including Royal Festival Hall, Barbican Hall, Ischia, Anghiari and at the Paris Conservatoire.

Recent career highlights include performing at the iTunes Festival as part of an orchestra backing Miloš, Nicola Benedetti and Alison Balsom; and performances at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has also played with the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera and the Hallé orchestra.

Luke wasn’t the only graduate from the college playing at the concert – four violinists, three viola players and a cellist were also RWCMD alumni, and the orchestra is managed by another graduate, Dave Danford.

How did it feel to be playing this piece with the orchestra?

It felt fantastic! I’m very used to sitting within the orchestra and being a cog in the machine, but it was a lot of fun to be out the front alongside the conductor. It’s not that often flute players get the opportunity to play solo concertos with orchestra, so it was something I really enjoyed and would like to do more of in the future.

Is this a piece of music that you particularly love?

I wasn’t familiar with Mathias’ Flute Concerto before this performance, but I had played his Flute Sonata at college and also some of his orchestral works with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

The concerto is a really good piece for one that isn’t well known. The first movement exhibits the lyrical beauty of the flute with some soaring melodies, followed by an explosive second movement and then finished off by a third movement full of technical fireworks and virtuosic writing! It was great fun to perform and the audience seemed to have a good time as well!

How was it playing in Wales with lots of RWCMD alumni?

St David’s Cathedral is a fantastic performance venue so it’s always a pleasure to perform there in any capacity. It’s always great working and performing with people you’ve known since college and some of the musicians in the orchestra I’ve known since my first year of undergraduate at RWCMD! It’s so nice to catch up and hear how people are progressing with their musical careers and life in general.

The British Sinfonietta has a real sense of community about it, whether we’re touring Denmark playing film soundtracks, in the recording studio backing a vocal artist or performing concertos in Pembrokeshire, they are a joy to work with and full of RWCMD Alumni! I’m looking forward to my next concert with them – Brahms’ Requiem – safely seated back in the woodwind section amongst my friends.