SCORDATURA COLLECTIVE
Scordatura Collective is a mixed chamber ensemble dedicated to performing music written by women and those of marginalised genders. Our repertoire reaches from the sixteenth century to the present, with a focus on playing music from the past alongside contemporary music. We are committed to promoting music which has been unfairly neglected; to support and perform current composers; and to inspire the next generation to compose.
Since being founded in March 2017, Scordatura has performed music by composers as diverse as Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Clara Schumann, Chen Yi, Margaret Bonds and Judith Weir. We have also worked with young and emerging composers, both to provide performance opportunities for existing works and to comission new music. The ensemble is committed to playing to as wide an audience as possible, and to developing new audiences through education and outreach work.
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Scordatura has recently been supported by organisations including the RVW Trust, the Hinrichsen Foundation, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation and the Exuberant Trust. In 2019 they won second place at Nonclassical's 'Battle of the Bands' competition for new and experimental music.
Our Musicians
Scordatura Collective is a flexible ensemble who play in different combinations depending on our repertoire. Here are our core players.
Rachel Watson (cello/Artistic Director) jointly founded Scordatura in 2017. Now based in London, she was brought up in Aberdeen and studied at the University of Oxford and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She now combines a busy freelance career combining performing, teaching and research.
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As an orchestral player, Rachel toured China with the London Arte Chamber Orchestra and was a founding member of Street Orchestra Live, an innovative orchestra taking music outside of the concert hall. She has performed at venues including St Martin in the Fields and St John’s Smith Square, and appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra of the University of Alicante as part of the 2016 Perugia Music Festival.
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Rachel teaches for London Music Masters, a charity bringing high quality music provision to less advantaged schools. She is currently researching early 20th century female orchestral musicians as part of a PhD at King's College London.
Corinna Boylan (cello/co-founder) has performed extensively across the United States, Canada, and Europe with performances broadcast live in Asia as well as on Classic FM, ARTE Classic and BBC3. She holds diplomas from the Royal Academy of Music in London, The Juilliard School, and Columbia University, where she won every prize offered in music performance. She is currently a Leverhulme Fellow and received another Leverhulme sponsorship during her time in Southbank Sinfonia. Additionally, she can be heard on Berlin Classics, Chandos Records, Signum Records, and Rubicon. Her primary teachers are Josephine Knight, Julia Lichten, Clive Greensmith, and Minhye Clara Kim.
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Claudia Fuller (violin) currently divides her time between the United Kingdom and Germany, working on orchestral, chamber and education projects within a variety of musical genres. Alongside freelance work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, she is currently employed with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln. As leader of Street Orchestra Live, she enjoys taking orchestral music out into communities across the UK, performing in hospitals, care facilities, market places and schools, and in the past has worked on educational projects at Dartington International Music Festival, Broadstone Music Service and the Bermuda Festival.
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From 2012-2018 Claudia was 1st violinist of the Halcyon Quartet, during which time they were guest artists at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival and Bermuda Festival, recipients of the Eaton Square St David’s Prize and the Royal Academy of Music Harold Craxton Prize, and performed on BBC Radio 3 as part of the Proms Plus Composer Series in 2015.
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Claudia is a passionate performer of and advocate for new music, and in 2018 her ensemble Duo Kairos were fellows at New Music on the Point Festival in the United States. She is also a performer with groups including ensemble x.y. and An Assembly; one of her favourite aspects of performing with Scordatura is providing a platform for contemporary composers who are too often ignored by the larger institutions of classical music.
Ana Popescu Deutsch (violin) was born in Satu Mare- Romania, and went on to study at the George Enescu Music Highschool in Bucharest, and later on at the Royal Academy of Music completing both her undergraduate and master's degrees. She performed as part of the European Union Youth Orchestra, touring both Europe and America and sharing music on stages such as the Konzerthaus,Berlin and New York’s Carnegie Hall alongside Itzhak Perlman. Later she also played with the Pro Youth Philharmonia, Hampstead Garden Opera, Light of Music Ensemble and during 2018 was a fellow of Southbank Sinfonia.
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She is very passionate about Transylvanian folk music and its influences on the works of Hungarian and Romanian composers of the region, creating two educational videos for the “Ligeti in Wonderland Festival” held in Queen Elizabeth Hall (May 2018).
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She is currently dividing her time between playing chamber music, teaching and participating in
orchestral projects.
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As well as playing with Scordatura Collective, she is a member of the Bednarski String Quartet and has been a guest violinist in different chamber groups, playing a very varied repertoire, ranging from classics such as Haydn’s op. 77 “Lobkowitz” string quartets to the contemporary works by Cheryl Frances Hoad and Jocelyn Pook.
Henrietta Hill (viola) is from Derbyshire, and enjoys a varied musical career with a special interest in chamber music and contemporary music. Her debut CD with the Rest Ensemble under the Sheva Contemporary Label of chamber music and a Solo Viola Sonata by esteemed British composer Robin Holloway, was released in June 2018. Henrietta studied for a Masters in Performance at the Guildhall School of Music with Matthew Jones. Since graduating, she has held a three year Junior Strings Fellowship there. She has performed with the Wihan Quartet, Richard Lester, Andrew Brownell, Krysia Osostowicz, Robin Ireland, Rafael Todes, Ursula Smith and Jaqueline Ross. She is a member of Alkyona Quartet; the Drucker Piano Quartet and Scordatura Collective. Henrietta was a MMSF Viola Fellow with the Philharmonia Orchestra 2016-2018.
Henrietta is also a recent Natural Sciences graduate from Robinson College, University of Cambridge, where she was based before pursuing her viola studies in London. Henrietta is very grateful to the Harrison-Frank Family Foundation for loaning to her a beautiful new viola by Paul Noulet.
Poppy Beddoe (clarinet) performs extensively throughout the UK and Europe. With the Oriole Quartet, she has appeared at the Barnes Festival, the Clifton International Music Festival and in Carmona, Spain. In 2014 Poppy formed the Temple Ensemble, a mixed chamber ensemble which expands and contracts according to the chosen repertoire. The group has performed at the Wigmore Hall, in many venues around the UK, and at the Pastel en Scène and Marcilhac Festivals in France where, each year, Poppy organises an eight-concert tour.
Poppy is also in much demand as a soloist and orchestral musician, with regular engagements as the principal clarinet of the Barnes Festival Orchestra, the Nonclassical Orchestra and various other freelance orchestras around London. Poppy has a BMus from King’s College London (2014) and MA (Performance) from the Royal Academy of Music (2016). Poppy is a Chamber Music coach and Musicianship Teacher at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and she also teaches Clarinet and Chamber Music at Bradfield College.
Thomas Ang (piano) is a former student of Hamish Milne and Diana Ketler at the Royal Academy of Music. He has wide-ranging interests across the repertoire, and is a champion of the music of Medtner and Kapustin. He has gained recognition for his thoughtful and critical programming and been praised for his technique. With Scordatura Collective he performs music by women (and others...), while his piano duo (Duo Ex Libris) focusses almost wholly on the contemporary repertoire. He also has sympathies for neglected music of the 20th century, especially that of Russian and British composers.
Thomas's performances have led him worldwide, and he has played and conducted premieres around the UK, US, Asia, and Australia. He has appeared on Radio 3 several times, and also works in opera, ballet, and silent film.
Scordatura Collective is committed to bringing music by composers of all genders to the next generation. Our education programme has included working with schools, open rehearsals and collaborations with organisations including Bath Strings Academy. We are keen to expand this area of our work, so please contact us if you would like any further information.