Our Cast
Pete Ashmore
John Weaver, Vulcan, Mr Wordly
Pete trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where he developed a life-long passion for single malt whiskey and long walks in inclement weather.
His theatre credits include: The Jungle Book, A Christmas Carol (Watermill Theatre); Venice Preserved, The Provoked Wife (RSC), The Lovely Bones, Treasure Island (Birmingham Rep); Arms and the Man (Watford Palace Theatre); Private Lives, A View from the Bridge, The Winter’s Tale, Under Milk Wood, David Copperfield (Mercury Theatre); The Itinerant Music Hall (Lyric Hammersmith); Mansfield Park (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds & No. 1 tour); Grimm Tales (Library Theatre); The Jungle Book (Lyric Theatre, Belfast);. Macbeth (National Theatre); Vernon God Little, The Ruffian on the Stair, The Queen of Spades, The Lady Aoi, La Musica, Venice Preserved, Nothing (the Citizens Theatre & E59E59); Public Property (Hampstead Theatre); One Snowy Night (Chichester Minerva Theatre). Television includes: Silent Witness, Holby City and The Bill
Artur Zakirov
Louis Dupré / M. Pygmalion (Pygmalion)
Louis Dupré / Mars (Mars and Venus)
Upon his graduation from the Kazan Choreographic College in Russia in 1998, Artur Zakirov ecame a member of the ballet ensemble of the Kazan National Opera at the age of seventeen. Following a collaboration with the French choreographer Karine Saporta in 2001, he joined the National Choreographic Center of Caen in France where he worked in
contemporary dance. Since he discovered Baroque dance for himself in 2011 through collaboration with Natalie van Parys, he has regularly collaborated with her company Les Cavatines and the company L’Eventail performing in many choreographic creations by Marie-Geneviève Massé.
Among the most notable performances in which he has participated have been the production entitled Amadis de Gaule and staged at the Royal Opera of Versailles, Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie at the Paris Opera and Pygmalion by the same composer at the Potsdam Musik Festspiele. He also performs in important halls such as the Rudolfinum in Prague with "A night for the King'', and travels with the production "Rameau, Maître à danser" such places as the Bolshoi in Moscow, Barbican Center in London, BAM in New-York and Seoul’sArts Center. Artur Zakirov also collaborates with other choreographers and renowned stage directors of
historical works.
Chiara Vinci
Hester Santlow / Galatea (Pygmalion)
Hester Santlow / Venus (Mars and Venus)
French-Italian performer Chiara Vinci was born in London. She trained at the Arts Educational and Ballet Rambert schools. She works professionally as a dancer, actor and opera singer. She also trained and works closely with her singing teacher Jenny Miller, director of Barefoot Opera. Her recent roles for that company include Serpina in La Serva Padrona and Gianetta in L’Elisir d’Amore.
Most recently, Chiara created the role of Sophie Kroll in Maxwell Davies’s opera Kommilitonen with Welsh National Youth Opera. Future work includes the role of Carolina in Il Matrimonio Segreto with Pop-up Opera and the lead role of Susan in the new musical Paris Snow written by Patrick Kealey.
Evelyn Nallen / Recorder
Music director and producer Evelyn Nallen, creator of this project, made her BBC debut as a recorder player at the age of nine and since then has appeared on BBC TV and BBC Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4. Together with harpsichordist David Gordon, she formed the innovative early music/jazz group Respectable Groove. Their take on Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas integrates improvisation with written compositions. Evelyn devised a programme with Respectable Groove and the French baroque dancer Gilles Poirier called Dido’s Got the Blues.
In 2012, Evelyn worked with the baroque dancer and dance historian Moira Goff to create the score for The Loves of Mars and Venus which underpins the present entertainment. She teaches at the Royal Academy of Music, Junior Department.
David Gordon / Harpsichord
Harpsichordist, jazz pianist and composer David Gordon trained as a mathematician at Bristol University before turning to music full-time, and he has since toured all over the world with: the gypsy-tango band Zum, the baroque orchestra The English Concert, the piano-led jazz group David Gordon Trio and the early music/jazz group Respectable Groove, and also violinists Nigel Kennedy, Christian Tetzlaff and Andrew Manze and singer Jacqui Dankworth. A self-taught jazz player, he appears on countless CDs as composer, leader and sideman; many of his works have been broadcast worldwide, and he has compositions regularly commissioned by festivals, publishers and fellow musicians.
Recent activities include the writing of a concerto for recorder and strings, entitled 'Romanesque', premiered at the Ryedale Festival, the release of the David Gordon Trio's latest CD, Alexander Scriabin's Ragtime Band, solo appearances in Germany with Concerto Köln (harpsichord) and in Finland with Sinfonia Lahti and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (piano and melodica). His community opera Semmerwater, commissioned by Swaledale Festival, won a coveted Ability Media International Award. Plans include a jazz setting of some the psalms for Jacqui Dankworth, to take place in abbeys and cathedrals around the country, recording and touring - possibly in Japan - a new CD with David Gordon Trio, entitled Pachyderm, writing and arranging for a project with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and writing the soundtrack for an independent British film
Derek Scurll / Percussion
Derek Scurll plays drum kit and orchestral percussion, and has a busy gigging life as well as teaching. He moved to Cambridge in 1995 to study music at Selwyn College Cambridge, and has stayed in the Cambridge area ever since. He has been playing with Prime Brass regularly since 2007 and has recorded with St John’s College Choir and with the composer and conductor Bob Chilcott
Malcolm Creese - double bass
Malcolm Creese combines Baroque, classical and jazz performances with film, television and recording work. He was a chorister at St. John’s in Cambridge, and he studied cello at London’s Guildhall School of Music, later switching to double bass. He has performed or recorded with John Williams, Carolyn Sampson, James Galway, the Allegri, Fitzwilliam and Sacconi String Quartets, the Choir of Westminster Abbey, the London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, English Chamber, and Concertgebouw Orchestras, George Shearing, George Benson, Mel Tormé, Cleo Laine, Diana Ross, Depeche Mode and Sting. Malcolm’s film credits include Gladiator, Shrek, Cold Mountain, Paddington and Lord Of The Rings. He plays in the highly successful trio Acoustic Triangle, alongside pianist Gwilym Simcock and saxophonist Tim Garland. He is an experienced record producer and he has taught and examined at London’s Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College. Malcolm has held the position of Artistic Director of Swaledale Festival since October 2007.
