Team

Dr Abigail Dolan

Abigail Dolan’s career combines worldwide performances as a concert flautist with roles in arts administration and research into musical performance. Abigail is the artistic director of the Intimate Engagements concert series at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and the Coordinator of Cambridge Centre for Musical Performance Studies.

Abigail has appeared solo and in various chamber music ensembles in numerous international festivals and concert venues, including Kaiser Saal in Frankfurt, Neues schloss in Stuttgart, Auditorium Chatelet in Paris, the Bourges Festival, Cambridge West Road concert hall and Summer Music Festival, Guildford International Festival, Anton Philipzaal in The Hague, The Jerusalem Theatre and Tel-Aviv Museum. She has made live recordings and broadcasts for radio stations such as the Hessische Rundffunck in Frankfurt, Radio Suisse Romande in Geneva and Kol Israel in Jerusalem, and has participated in television programs for France 3 and Israeli television. Concerto performances include her arrangement for flute of Mendelssohn’s violin concerto and the Nielsen flute concerto performed with the Symphonova Orchestra; the Oeden Partos’ flute concerto with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra; Paul Ben-Haim's Divertimento Concertante for flute and chamber orchestra with the Kaprizma Ensemble (first recording). Solo-flute performances include Abigail’s collaboration with dancer and choreographer Amos Hetz, for which Abigail performed John Cage's Cheap Imitation for flute solo, in Zurich, Potsdam and Stuttgart festivals. Chamber music collaborations include performances with soprano Emma Kirkby, cellist Thomas Carol, violinist Pierre Amoyal, pianist Shelley Katz, the Lendvai String Trio, harpist Lucy Wakeford, Ensemble Lumina, the Tate Ensemble, Kaprizma Ensemble, the Musica Nova Ensemble, and pianist David Dolan, with whom she regularly performs as a duo. Between 1995 and 2000 Abigail played with The Israel Camerata. Abigail’s discography under the French label Selena includes French repertoire for flute and piano with David Dolan, as well as a French music programme for flute, viola and harp with Ensemble Lumina. The CD was nominated “CD of the month” (December 2000) by the French professional magazine Haute Fidelité. Her performance of Michael Wolpe's flute concerto with the Ars Musica chamber orchestra at the international Palermo Festival won the Special Festival Award and was issued on CD (Memus publication). She has recorded works written by the Israeli composers Andre Hajdu (The Jerusalem Artists Series) and Yinam Leef (The Rubin Academy in Jerusalem).

Abigail has been teaching flute and chamber music as part of the Instrumental Award Scheme, University of Cambridge. She has been conducting workshops for performers in various occasions, including at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Royal College of Music and King’s College, London. She presented papers at the Grove Forum at the Royal College of Music, at the CMPCP Performance Studies Network International Conference in Cambridge, as part of the Directions in Musical Research seminar at the Institute of Musical Research (IMR), London University, at the Centre for Cognition, Computation and Culture at Goldsmiths College, at the School of Music at the University of Leeds, as part of the Israel Musicological Society Conference and the Performa Conference in Aveiro in Portugal, at the Orpheus Institute in Belgium, at a Saul Seminar at the British Library, as part of the ASH Colloquia at Clare Hall in Cambridge, and at the CHARM/RMA Annual Conference.

Abigail’s research focuses on the study of musical performance, examining it from historical and cognitive perspectives, with a special interest in exploring ways to apply the insights gained in performance. Her research interests include: 20th century changes in performance style, with a focus on the French School of flute playing, expressivity in performance, and historical recordings as an inspirational source. Abigail received her PhD from King’s College London. Entitled Landmarks in Flute Performance Style on Record 1900-1950, it is an examination of the changes in flute performance style in 78rpm recordings, focusing on tone qualities and expressivity in performance. The research was awarded the AVI Fellowship and the Edison Fellowship of the British Library Sound Archive.

Abigail is the founder and Artistic Director of the Intimate Engagements chamber-music concert series at Clare Hall, Cambridge. The series provides a unique format in which prominent artists combine their performance with informally sharing their personal reflections on the musical themes. The series was inaugurated in 2008 by soprano Emma Kirkby, and since then featured distinguished artists, including pianist Ronan O’Hora, cellist Paul Watkins, violist Alina Ibragimova and the Ludwig String Trio, to name just a few. The series is known for the warm, intimate encounter created between musicians and their audiences, which provides for a distinctively enjoyable and stimulating musical experience. Abigail was elected as Fellow Commoner for a conspicuous and exceptional contribution to the College life.

Dr Shelley Katz

Shelley’s eclectic career includes performances worldwide as a conductor and pianist, alongside composing and research into music technology.

Shelley completed his PhD through the Ton-Meister (audio engineering) program at the University of Surrey. Expert in music technology, his research into new technologies for ultra-high-fidelity sound reproduction and gestural control of artificial systems led to the conceptualisation and design of the Symphonova. He is the holder of several granted patents in loudspeaker related technologies, and designed the highly-acclaimed Podium Sound loudspeakers, the only audiophile quality, passive flat-panel loudspeakers in the world.

As a pianist, Shelley graduated from the Julliard school (cum laude). While in New York, he played under Skrowaczewski as a member of the New York Contemporary Ensemble. After moving to Germany, Shelley worked as a conductor and Studienleiter at the Staatstheater Mainz, the Theater der Stadt Koblenz, as solorepetitor at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and as conductor of the Duisburg Studio Orchestra. Following his interest in vocal accompaniment, Shelley developed close performance and recording relationships with some of the world’s greatest singers, including tenor Nikolai Gedda, with whom he played a three-year farewell tour throughout Europe, with soprano Katia Ricciarelli and Dame Gwyneth Jones, recording O Malvina for Deutsche Gramophone, with countertenor Jochen Kowalski, recording Lieder by Mozart Beethoven Schumann for Cappriccio, with soprano Dagmar Schellenberger, recording Blumenlieder by Robert Stolz for CPO, with bass-baritone Jonathan Veira, recording Forgotten Memories and Of Fire and Dew by John Jeffries for Somm Recordings, with soprano Diana Gilchrist, recording Songs of Canada for the Canadian Heritage Society, and with Baritone Eugene Holmes and soprano Bonnita Glenn, providing the recording for a Unicef Gala for Koch/Schwann. Shelley also assisted conductor Edo De Waart in the preparation for the first recording of Die Gezeichneten by Schreker for the Marco Polo label. Solo recordings include Bach’s Goldberg Variations and piano works by Canadian composers for the Canadian Heritage Society.

Shelley has been performing as an accompanist and in chamber-music concerts in leading festivals and venues worldwide, including the Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square and Purcell Room in London, and in a performance for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. At the Reid Hall in Edinburgh, the Musikverein in Vienna, and in Berlin at the Bellevue Castle, at the Staatsoper, the Apollo Saal, the Deutsche Oper, the Hebbel Theater, the Sommerfestspiel and the Brandenburg Dom. Performances in Germany also include the exclusive Markgraflichen Theatre in Bayreuth, the Staatsoper in Munich, the Staatsoper and Konzert Saal in Hamburg, the first lieder abend at the Semper Oper in Dresden after its renovation and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. Shelley has also performed in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Montreal’s Place des Arts, Lisbon’s Teatro Nacional, the Isola di San Giorgio in Venice, at the Prague’s Spring Festival, in Moscow’s Kremlin Armory (broadcast on Russian National Television) and at the Rachmaninoff Concert Hall, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Nagoya Metropolitan Art Space and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Barcelona’s National Concert Hall and the Concert Hall Santiago del Compostello.

Expert in music technology, Shelley’s research into new technologies for ultra-high-fidelity sound reproduction and gestural control of artificial systems led to the conceptualization and design of the Symphonova Orchestra, of which he is the founder, principle conductor and director. Shelley is the holder of several granted patents in loudspeaker related technologies, and designed the highly-acclaimed Podium Sound loudspeakers, the only audiophile quality, passive flat-panel loudspeakers in the world. His thesis at the University of Surrey examines rule-based expression in computer-mediated performances of orchestral excerpts from romantic opera.

As a composer, Shelley has written incidental music, music theatre, symphonic works and chamber music. Commissions include the oratorio to those on His left for two actors, soprano, baritone, choir and orchestra, commissioned for its premiere performance in Eastbourne and supported by the city (with subsequent performances in both the UK and Germany), Drei Jüdische Lieder for soprano and orchestra commissioned by the city of Duisburg in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Kristal Nacht, and The world’s greatest national anthems in two minutes or less commissioned by the Dresdner Bank for an exhibition of political cartoons.

Shelley is a former Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, and Musician in Residence at the BISC (Herstmonceux Castle near Hailsham), the overseas undergraduate college of Queens University, Canada.

Goran Tchubrilo

Composer Goran Tchubrilo was trained at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz in Austria.

He started his training in sample based music production in 2005, with Vienna Symphonic Library as his main (but not only) area of interest. He is the author and lecturer of the Vienna Training Center.

Apart from his work as composer and (digital) orchestrator/arranger, he also teaches instrumentation and orchestration at the Audiocation Academy.

Gregory Ser

Gregory Ser came across the Symphonova at the Limmud conference in December 2015 and became immediately enthralled and inspired by its possibilities. Since then, he has been Symphonova's stage engineer, collaborator and loyal fan.

Born in Moscow, Gregory came to the UK in 2007 and studied music at Leeds College of Music and Thames Valley University, graduating in 2012 with a music technology and composition degree. Gregory discovered his passion for music and composition at an early age and receives private music training in Moscow. His interest in music continues throughout his current studies at a law school and results in multiple projects ranging from playing in pop and rock bands to writing music for avant-garde art installations. Gregory currently leads a choir called 'Tabouli' based in New North London Synagogue and writes music as an independent artist.