THE GIBBS FAMILY
A delightful and very musically talented family with whom we've had
the great pleasure of working many times. We first met Robert Gibbs
when we needed a violinist to perform pieces by Paganini and Bach
for our production of 'Mutiny on the Bounty', and then discovered
that his father, Alan, was also a musician and a composer. We asked
if Alan would be interested in composing a piece for IRDP's production
of 'Tartuffe'. He came up with a wonderfully lively modern 'Tartuffe
Suite' which was recorded on a cold winter's day in a church in central
London, with Alan playing the Organ and Robert on the Violin. We thought
that the Organ and Violin combination worked so well, that we also
asked them to record pieces by Grieg and Rameau and Alan for the production
of Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities', this time in the church at Ardleigh
in Essex. Robert and his wife, Michiko (also a violinist), have recorded
duets for IRDP's 'Sherlock Holmes' productions, and Alan, Robert and
Vivienne (together known as the St. Margaret's Trio) recorded for
us music by Haydn for 'Pride and Prejudice'. Alan has also produced
another marvellous composition for the dramatisation of Conrad's 'Heart
of Darkness' - a haunting piece with huge depth and atmosphere which
was recorded with the help of Tony Maloney in his studio in Croydon.
Alan performed Synthesiser, Percussion and Vocals, and Vivienne put
in a fantastic performance on the Cello. It is a piece which shows
the versatility and outstanding musical abilities of both Alan and
Vivienne and contributed to the award for Best Sound for IRDP's production
of 'Heart of Darkness' at the International Radio Festival of New
York in 1991.
The picture shows Robert and Alan Gibbs at the time of the recording of
Alan's 'Tartuffe Suite'.
ALAN GIBBS was born in 1932 in Chipping Norton,
Oxfordshire, where he attended the local grammar school. Here his
teacher, Edwin Rose, provided musical inspiration, and at 18 Alan
became an ARCO and won a music scholarship to Durham University. After
National Service, Alan went into schoolteaching, but continued to
study composition under Matyas Seiber. Alan's 'Sonata 1' for Organ
was composed for John Webster who played it at the Internationale
Orgelwoche in Nuremberg, and 'Sonata 2' was for Conrad Eden, who recorded
it for RCA on the Durham Cathedral organ. Alan has composed many more
pieces for the Organ, as well as for most other media, his performers
including Kevin Bowyer, Martin Weyer, the McVicker-Barham Duo, Michael
Rippon, Ramzi Yassa, Clifford Benson, BBC Singers, BBC Northern Singers,
Chichester and Llandaff Cathedral choirs, to name but a few! Alan
works extremely hard, and somehow has also found the time to edit
and write books about Gustav Holst for Thames Publishing. Alan's music
is published by Bardic
Edition.
VIVIENNE WHYSALL is Alan's wife and Robert's mother,
and a very talented cellist and pianist. She and her sister, Thirza, were born
in Roorkee in northern India, attending Woodstock School in the Himalayas where
the teaching of music was outstanding. Vivienne then came to England to study at
the Royal College of Music, and subsequently studied Cello privately with Pierre
Fournier and gave many recitals with her sister. She was a member of the City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
ROBERT WHYSALL GIBBS was born in London in
1965. He studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College
of Music, and also at Yale Summer School. His principal teachers have
been Margaret Norris, Jaroslav Vanacek and Trevor Williams. He has
taken part in master classes with Menuhin, Andrievsky, Delay, Harth,
Osim and others. He has studied chamber music with the Tokyo and Fine
Arts Quartets and Hans Keller. He has won many awards, including the
English-Speaking Union, Royal Overseas League and Countess of Munster
awards, the Gold Medal at the Royal College of Music in 1987, as well
as ten other violin and chamber music prizes. He was offered scholarships
to the RCM and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and accepted
the former, having gained his ARCM with Honours before entering.
Since leaving the Royal College, Robert has performed the major concerto
repertoire with various orchestras, and has appeared as a soloist on many
occasions with the London Festival Orchestra at the Barbican Hall, the Queen
Elizabeth Hall and Royal Albert Hall, as well as abroad in Germany, Spain,
Belgium, Holland, Bulgaria, throughout the Far East and in South and Central
America. He has also given many recitals in the UK, two recital tours in Japan,
broadcast recitals for Radio France and Hong Kong Radio, plus several solo
broadcasts for the BBC and Classic FM Radio in Britain.
Recent recordings include Arnold Bax violin sonatas (with Mary Mei-Loc
Wu) and Rawsthorne and Korngold chamber music (with the Carl Flesch
Quartet) for ASV; Stravinsky's 'Soldier's Tale' and 'Pulchinella'
and Corelli's Concerti Grossi for Arte Nova; and Elgar sketches for
the companion CD to the BBC Symphony Orchestra's première recording
of his Third Symphony in Anthony Payne's elaboration. Robert is now
Leader of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, as well as Guest leader of the
New Queen's Hall, BBC Philharmonic, London Festival and other orchestras
at home and abroad.
MICHIKO UENO, Robert's wife and mother to
their three young children, Marina, Thomas and Isa, was born in Tokyo
in 1969 and was a pupil at the famous Toho Music High School. She
came to England to study at the Royal College of Music, her violin
teacher being Jaroslav Vanacek, and took her Violin Recital and Teachers'
Diplomas in 1990. She has since performed regularly in the Glyndebourne
Touring Opera and other orchestras, including frequent deputizing
in the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Michiko and Robert have given two-violin
recitals in Tokyo and London. Their children are already showing signs
of having inherited the family's musical genes. Michiko's picture
was taken during the recording session at LBC's studios for the music
for 'Sherlock Holmes'.
Many thanks to Alan for kindly providing all the biographical details.
If you'd like to see profiles of other people we've worked with,
CLICK HERE.
home | links
| search | mail
IRDP website by Marja Giejgo
this web page is brought to you by:
|
