Your Tutors

Niccolò Paganini - Music Director

Niccolò Paganini studied at the Conservatoire "Arrigo Boito" in Parma where he obtained a senior diploma in Musical Theory and Solfeggio, and further qualifications in violin and composition. He subsequently studied choral music and chorus conducting with Maestri Giovanni Barzaghi e Pier Paolo Scattolin.

Whilst undertaking his musical studies, he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Parma with a degree in Modern Literature and Musicology. His thesis was entitled "Paganini and the Ducal Orchestra of Parma". He will soon complete a specialist degree in Musicology from the University of Pavia.

He currently teaches at a high school in Parma. He also gives courses on music education, music history, choral singing, piano and guitar in schools throughout the provice of Parma.

Niccolò is an expert on the violinist Paganini and is frequently invited to talk at conferences and give interviews, recently to the German TV station SWR. He has also collaborated on the production, by Provobis FMN Fuhrmann Media Network, of a documentary on his eponymous ancestor, the renowned Genoese genius.

He published a paper entitled "Paganini and the Ducal Orchestra of Parma" in the "Quaderni dell'Istituto di Studi Paganiniani", the music journal of the Civico Istituto di Studi Paganiniani of Genoa, and in the "Gazzetta di Parma".

Over the years, he has conducted several different choral groups, from children to adults. He conducted the San Benedetto Chorus live on Rai TV on the occasion of the 900th anniversary of the cathedral of Parma; also at the Teatro Regio of Parma and for various other worldwide live broadcasts from Turin and Milan.

Niccolò is president of the Association of Parma Choruses and is Artistic Director of the San Benedetto Association. For many years he has organised two important chorus festivals: "Schools in…chorus!" and "International Chorus Festival Adolfo Tanzi".

Since December 2003, he has participated in the project "LADIMUS", a workshop for the dissemination of music, based at the Casa della Musica in Parma.

David Edwards - Stage Director

DAVID EDWARDS is a freelance director, writer and presenter. He was born in London and graduated in Classics from Cambridge University. David has directed opera around the world in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Houston, Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, London (including ten revivals for The Royal Opera), Milan, Vienna, Singapore and regularly in Tokyo at the New National Theatre where he has taught on the Young Artists' programme for over a decade. His original scripts have been performed in London and Aldeburgh (Wagner & Berlioz, Verdi in Venice, Wagner, Britten & the Sea, From Bayreuth to Busseto, Verdi's Singers on record, Wagner in Exile) and at the Chicago Humanities Festival (Opera at the Movies, Exiled In America). He is Production Director for The Mastersingers, staging excerpts from DER RING and DIE MEISTERSINGER with emerging Wagner singers, and for many years was a regular tutor at the Motley Theatre Design Course in London. Future projects include BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE with the Philharmonia, FIDELIO in Singapore, and CURLEW RIVER in Japan and the U.K. www.davidedwardsopera.com

Mary Hill - Répétiteur / Pianist

Mary Hill studied piano, organ and viola and played the Bach D minor concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra whilst still at school. She studied music at Oxford University , the Guildhall School of Music and the London Opera Centre, where she later joined the staff as a coach. In the 60's and 70's she sang with the Schutz Choir under Roger Norrington, the Monteverdi Choir under John Eliot Gardiner, and the Elizabethan Singers.

She founded Abbey Opera in 1965. In 1976 Antony Shelley became its conductor and formed Abbey Orchestra. The company productions (many of them premières and lesser-known opera rarities) played in all the major venues in London and visited Rennes ( France ) and the Edinburgh Festival. Many concerts for the Camden Festival were recorded for broadcast by Radio Three. In 1996 Abbey Opera was affiliated to Birkbeck College .

Mary has worked for Glyndebourne, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Kent Opera, Opera Rara, the Northern Ireland Opera Trust, the Royal Opera at Stockholm , and Virginia Opera Association, USA . She was involved in accompanying for the BBC and also gave recitals in the South Bank ( London ). In 1985 she became Acting Director, then Director of Opera Studies at the Royal College of Music, and from 1989 Assistant to the Director of Opera at the Royal Academy of Music and coach for the National Opera Studio. She is currently Chief Coach and Opera Co-ordinator at the Royal Academy of Music.

friendsinconcert.co.uk