Rupert was born in Carmarthenshire, and grew up in the town of Llandeilo. After starting on the trumpet, Rupert switched to the trombone at the age of 12. Much of Rupert's youth was taken up by playing in the various youth music ensembles in Carmarthenshire and west Wales, as well as the Welsh national ensembles.
Rafael Payare is grateful to the traffic chaos in Caracas. As a member of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, he would often get last-minute phone calls from jammed conductors telling him to start the rehearsal for them. The experience was invaluable and at the age of 37 he is now one of the leading conductors of his generation – he has just been announced as the new Music Director of the San Diego Symphony. He joins the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on 27th March with a programme of Mozart and Strauss, which will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
We are very pleased to welcome Naomi Watts to our Cello section!
Naomi won a scholarship to study at the Purcell School of Music from the age of fourteen where her cello teacher was Pal Banda. She went on to the Royal College of Music in 2005 to study with Amanda Truelove, Helene Dautry and Thomas Carroll. Whilst at the RCM, Naomi was loaned a beautiful Gofriller Cello and performed at Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall and appeared on Television in America playing the Amarylis Fleming Stradivarius Cello for a CBS news programme.
Nathan Fifield is a champion of ballet repertoire, having conducted many top ballet companies across the globe. Now we welcome him as Conductor and Presenter of our new show, An Afternoon/Night at the Ballet, in which we present a selection of works from cherished ballet scores, including Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, Delibes’ Sylvia and Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre. Find out more about Nathan ahead of our performances with him at Northampton Royal & Derngate on Saturday 24 June, 7.30pm and The Orchard Theatre on Sunday 1 July, 3pm.
