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Young cellist to join orchestra


Sinfonia Cymru


THREE years after chair- ing the judging panel that led to Laura van der Hei- jden winning the title BBC Young Musician 2012, con- ductor Gareth Jones has invited the remarkable young cellist to join Sin- fonia Cymru on their 2015 Welsh tour,which comes to The Riverfront, Newport on Saturday, March 28. Gareth first heard Lau-


ra as a fourteen-year old when adjudicating the string final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year and was immediately struck by her potential. “The most memorable aspect of Laura’s playing was the level of her musi- cianship, which was espe- cially apparent in the slow movement of the Brahms F Major Sonata,” notes Gareth, “In competitions such as BBC Young Musi- cian, to blowaway an audi- ence with a performance of a Brahms slow move- ment is extremely rare.” Laura, now seventeen,


will be performing Shos- takovich’s First Cello Con- certo, as well as studying A-


WINNER: Laura van der Heijden Picture: Sam Trench


levels this coming summer and preparing for perfor- mances with the Philhar- monia Orchestra. Laura recently per-


formed at the 2015BAFTAs with a moving musical tribute to the late Richard Attenborough, and later this year will be working with Welsh composer/ pianist Huw Watkins, with whom she recently formed


a trio together with violin- ist Tobias Feldmann. The programme includes Beethoven’s 8th, Sibelius’s Pelleas et Melisande and Copland’s Quiet City.


Saturday, March 28, 3pm The Riverfront, Newport Tickets newport.gov. uk/theriverfront | 01633 656757


In The Spotlight By GERAINT DAVIES


Claims that funding cuts are damaging British art


A FEW months ago, follow- ing an announcement of a further cut in the UK Arts Council budget, composer Karl Jenkins commented that Germany was a far more cultured nation than Britain. Apparently Ger- man spending on the arts (albeit within a healthier economy than Britain’s) has continued to increase in recent years. He is not the only one


to reach this conclusion. Leading British artist An- ish Kapoor said ‘‘Britain could not be more differ- ent from Germany’’ where there was a “healthy re- spect for arts and artists’’. Despite this there is no doubt Britain still possess- es world-class performers and ensembles (last week’s stunning concert from the Philharmonia Orchestra at St.David’s Hall was a case in point and would bear comparison with any or- chestral concert anywhere in the world) as well as art- ists and contributors in the


world of film (as attested by recent successes at the Oscars). Despite the recent level


of public spending on the arts, it is noteworthy that in recent years British art- ists and composers seem to have had far more in- ternational significance than their German coun- terparts. All the more sur- prising as Germany virtu- ally invented the postwar avant-garde with ground- breaking figures such as composer Karlheinz Stock- hausen, choreographer Pina Bausch and artists Anselm Kiefer and Ger- hard Richter. So it appears we are outdoing other countries in many ways. Maybe it isn’t just a question of how much money is being poured into the arts. May- be radical art arises from other things. Maybe, some would argue,from depriva- tion and repression rather than from a cosy subsi- dised environment. But


this will be of little com- fort to many regional arts centres which have been hit so hard by these cuts – more so than the big insti- tutions in London-centric Britain. More worrying to me


is the way the arts are viewed in education. The slashing of budgets for this country’s instrumen- tal teaching services have been well publicised and will, I fear, only be fully felt several years down the line as instrumental tui- tion increasingly becomes the preserve of those who can afford to pay. As certain other areas


of the curriculum become increasingly emphasised in response to political pressure, the squeeze on the arts will continue. The subject under the most im- mediate threat is drama as it is not compulsory and is therefore the easiest to remove. – maybe Karl Jenkins and Anish Kapoor have a point.


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