Alison Wells

Alison Wells recently returned to the UK after many years in the United States, where she was on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Peabody Institute. Before that she taught at Trinity College of Music and The Purcell School in London and on the specialist music scheme at Wells. A graduate of Cambridge University, the Royal Academy of Music, and Yale University, she studied with Ralph Kirshbaum, David Strange and Aldo Parisot. She made her South Bank recital debut in 1989, supported by the Maisie Lewis Charitable Trust. Ms Wells was a founder member of the Pirasti Trio, performing throughout the UK, Europe and the USA, and recording for ASV. In the summers she participates in festivals in the USA, returning to the Heifetz International Institute for many years, and, more recently, to the Madeline Island and Green Mountain Chamber Music Festivals. She is passionate about teaching and the anatomy of movement, and she recently became the firsrt British string player to become a Licensed Body Mapping Educator. Former pupils have been winners at competitions internationally and hold positions in orchestras across the world.

Ms Wells is an advocate for increasing access to musical training. She was involved with several inner city initiatives in Baltimore and served as Chair of the Board of TUBA: The Uganda-Baltimore Alliance, providing mentorship to a brass band project in rural Uganda.

 

Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir

Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir comes from Reykjavik, Iceland, but left home young to study at the Juilliard School in New York and later in Germany. She currently enjoys a happy mix of performing and teaching from her base in Amsterdam and has been fortunate enough to make her living over the years mostly from playing chamber music. She was a founding member of the Miami String Quartet, principal viola of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the violist of the Chilingirian String Quartet for several years. She is now a member of the The Brunsvik String Trio, the Erard Ensemble and the London-based Endymion Ensemble. Lately she increasingly turns her attention to teaching; has previously been on the faculty of The Trinity College of Music and the Royal College of Music in London and The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She is currently professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and has been the viola professor at the International Masterclass in Apeldoorn since 2005. Ásdís is very interested in all things related to good body use in order to help herself and her students play the viola more efficiently. She has followed a teacher-training course for the Alexander Technique, Body Mapping and practises various types of yoga and meditation.

Diane Daly

Diane is in demand as a chamber musician, director and improvisor at home and abroad. She enjoys devising her own work, and has been invited to perform world premieres of works by leading Irish composers including Sam Perkins, Linda Buckley and Deirdre Gribbin. In other genres she has performed and recorded alongside many of the biggest names in rock and leads her own gypsy jazz trio.

Passionate about education, her teaching focus is on the development of the whole musician as a creative artist, fostering joy-filled music making, autonomy and self-expression.  She is a qualified Dalcroze Eurhythmics teacher and recently became Europe’s first accredited string playing Body-Mapper.

In 2022, her doctoral research was awarded the inaugural Aloys Fleischmann prize for outstanding practice based research, developing the concepts of embodiment, presence, creativity and connection in string playing.

Diane is currently Head of Strings at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.  www.dianedaly.com