Camera Obscura - David Le Page (violin), Graham Instrall (percussion), David Ayre (bass), Matthew Sharp (cello/voice)/ Le Page Ensemble - DLP, Catherine Leech (violins), Malcolm Henderson (viola), Christopher Allan (cello)
Influences
Bach, Frank Zappa, Monteverdi, Tom Waits, Steve Reich, Stravinsky, Copland, Glenn Gould, Eugene Ysaye, Victor Hugo, Charlotte Bronte, Radio 4, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Jenkins, Benjamin Britten, Alec Guinness, David Oistrakh, Bergerac (Jim not Cyrano de...), David Lynch, Led Zeppelin, John Adams, Nirvana, Terry Gilliam, Bela Bartok, Turner (Joseph Mallord William not Anthea...), Wilde (Oscar not Kim...)
Sounds Like
Purcell + Bach + Lionel Hampton + Michael Tippett + Art Blakey + Mervyn Peake + a nice cup of tea = Camera Obscura
A barnstorming virtuoso group, tighter than any string quartet, wittier than a stand-up, with more to say than a roomful of parrots...Philip Sheppard
David Le Page was born in Guernsey and began learning the violin at the age of seven. He gained a place at the Yehudi Menuhin school, aged eleven, where he studied with Margaret Norris and received chamber music coaching from Peter Norris and Hans Keller. He was a prize winner in both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and the Yehudi Menuhin competition and completed his studies in Bern with Igor Ozim and in London with Sidney Griller.
David has worked with a diverse selection of artists and ensembles including the Kreutzer quartet, Billy Jenkins, Thomas Ades, Chroma, Keith Tippett, Errolyn Wallen, Guy Johnson, Julius Drake, Abdullah Ibrahim, John Tavener, Sir Michael Tippett, Phillip Sheppard, Lucy Bailey, the Medici quartet, Charles Owen, the Gogmagogs and the St Petersburg quartet. He is director of the English Mozart Ensemble and has formed his own groups the Le Page Ensemble, Camera Obscura and Subway Piranhas.
Since 1995 he has been the violinist with the Composers Ensemble giving world premieres of works by John Woolrich, David Matthews, Gerald Barry, Tansy Davies and Julian Anderson amongst others. In 2006 they gave the first performance of Thomas Ades ‘Court Studies’ at the Aldeburgh festival with the composer at the piano. The ensemble has made many recordings for the BBC and has appeared at most of the major festivals in the UK including Cheltenham, Huddersfield, Brighton and Spitalfields.
In 1999 David was appointed leader of the Orchestra of the Swan, a Stratford-upon-Avon based chamber orchestra, which has garnered critical acclaim for its imaginative programming and commitment to new music. The orchestra has commissioned many new works and has gained a reputation for inspiring live performances. David regularly appears as soloist and director with orchestra. Solo appearances this season have included the Beethoven violin concerto, Haydn Sinfonia Concertante and premieres of Paul Patterson’s double violin concerto ’Allusions’, and ‘Gonzalez’ by Joe Cutler. Next season David will give four performances of Piazolla’s ‘Four Seasons’ including one at the newly refurbished Birmingham Town Hall.
Recordings include the Complete Tippett quartets, Shostakovich quartets, ‘The Music of Neglected English Composers’ with Roger Eno, Keith Tippett’s piano quintet ‘Linuckea’, Music by Gerald Barry, Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ (also on DVD), ‘Frantic Mid-Atlantic’ with Evelyn Ficarra, ‘The Rune of Hospitality’ with Mark Chambers, ‘Pierrot Dreaming’ music by Thea Musgrave and the Goldberg Variations with Le Page Ensemble. He is currently recording the Sonatas and Partitas by Bach and an album of his own material ‘As The Crow Flies’ due for release in 2007.
David plays on a violin by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume made in 1874 and currently lives in Northamptonshire and the Midi Pyrenees area of France. For details of concerts visit www.davidlepage.co.uk
Dozens of years of the personalities’ development whose paths had crossed several times to break up subsequently, have finally found its unifying way, and hopefully forever, in the form of a group. click on DILETANT CLUB
We have the honour to inform you about the final product of our 2 months’ endeavour. It concerns the “ultralo-fi” recordings that will be gradually completed as they will emerge and we hope that the dilettante components of our endeavour will delight you and that you will stay with us…
Hello. I went to the Orchestra of the Swan concert last night. It was absolutely wonderful! You really are inspirational...and I was blown away by the cellist. Stunning, stunning, stunning!! Oh, and your stuff up at the top of this page is fab. :)
D.Le P! Great to hear some of your stuff again, and I can't wait to hear your vertiginal caprices - Le Pag will be grooving in his grave.
All the best & hope to ketchup soon,
Dylan
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