Special guests for our Mexico-Manchester Fiesta Night include:

Andrew Whettam

Andrew is one of the UKs leading marimba players. He has given world premiere performances of more than a dozen solo and ensemble works, including several written by his father, Graham Whettam. He has appeared as a soloist with the Manchester Camerata, Goldberg Ensemble and New English Orchestra.

He has performed as a soloist throughout Britain and as far afield as Moscow, Russia, and Kunming, China. As a chamber musician he has toured abroad in Austria, Czech Republic, Faeroe Islands and France. He has taken part in several Arts Council sponsored tours in the UK.

Andrew studied percussion at the Royal Northern College of Music and became joint winner in the Incorporated Society of Musicians Young Performers competition. He has had a distinguished career as an orchestral percussionist, having played and recorded with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Royal Ballet. He has performed at the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Huddersfield and Salzburg Festivals. Theatre credits include the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Exchange Theatre and Really Useful Theatre Company.

He is also a composer and arranger and his compositions include "A Thread of Life", for children's orchestra.

Anne Lawes

Ann began her musical studies at the age of 8 on the piano, and subsequently on the violin and clarinet. Ann went on to study the violin with Rodney Friend and the late Hugh Bean at the Royal College of Music in London. Whilst at the College, she was the recipient of numerous awards for chamber music, solo and orchestral playing, and on graduating from the College, Ann was awarded a diploma in both violin teaching and performance.

Over the past twenty years, She has had an extremely successful orchestral playing career. She was a sub-principal 1st Violin with Northern Sinfonia, and has also been Principal 2nd Violin with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and more recently Principal 2nd Violin with the world famous Halle Orchestra. Unfortunately, Ann had to retire from this last post due to a serious illness which has left her with subtle yet extensive neurological damage which has compromised Anns ability to play the violin to such a high level.

During her orchestral playing career, Ann has taught both privately and on the staff at schools and colleges, most notably and recently at the Royal Northern College of Music. She has, on numerous occasions, been on selection panels for orchestral vacancies as well as giving coaching to students on orchestral playing. Following a period of study and working in orchestral management, Ann has returned to playing the violin and is currently working as a freelance violinist in the North West of England.

John Kenny

John Kenny is a guitar player and songwriter with over 2, 000 gigs under his fingers. He has formed and managed most of the bands he's worked with.

John has played most styles from Folk to Rock including gigs with a Blues Brothers band and an Elvis Presley band.

John now works as a guitar teacher and is based in the North of England.

Elaine Fox

Elaine is a Mezzo Soprano having received vocal training with Robert Alderson of the Royal Northern College of Music. Her international cabaret and concert experience has taken her to the Metropole Hotel in London, the Grand Palace Hotel in Istanbul and Rosie O’Gradie’s in Florida amongst other places. In 1993 she formed the Ingcognito vocal quartet which performs in cabaret and concert throughout the U.K.

Her musical theatre roles have included parts in Me and My Girl, Anything Goes, Phantom of the Opera, Kiss Me Kate, My Fair Lady and many others.

Camille Audsley

Camille originally studied fashion and textiles and worked initially with two top designers in London. She returned to the North of England where she started her own business as a fashion designer in Manchester which she ran for 5 years.

She developed an interest in working with children and in the early 1990s trained as a teacher following studies in illustration. She also gained a degree in interdisciplinary design. Now she has her own art studio where she develops material for exhibitions. She has exhibited in a number of cities in the UK and worked for a short while in California, USA.

 

 

are delighted to have been involved as performers in the Manchester-Mexico Exchange in June 2010.

The Mexico-Manchester Arts Exchange trip to Mexico City and Oaxaca allowed us to take our experience and understanding of the Arts to some of the poorest people in the world, entertaining and empowering them to want to work to make more of their own lives.

On June 7th 2010, 17 artists from Manchester journeyed to Mexico for two weeks to work with the poor on groundbreaking new arts projects. Visual artists, pianists, marimba and violin players, singers, music producers and actors joined together to perform and create new works for and with the Mexican people.

The trip was organised by award winning BBC TV producer John Forrest along with Mexican charity, Armonia, who were our hosts in Mexico.

For more information about the project take a look at the official website, www.mexicomanchester.co.uk

Read our blog of the journey at http://2baap.blog.com

 

would like to thank would like to thank Ultra Electronics Airport Systems for their technical support during our Mexico-Manchester project.