S
e
c
r
e
t
C
e
n
t
e
r
Six premieres, a SongStream, and a Critical Edition Today’s recital of the complete art songs of Ronald Center features 6 premieres, marks the launch of Sally Garden’s latest SongStream ‘Secret Center’, and sees the publication of her Critical Edition of the songs of this shy composer of Huntly. more at www.monsgraupius.org Sally Garden (mezzo-soprano) is an Angus farmer’s daughter and the youngest of four professional musician siblings. She was educated at the Universities of Aberdeen, Heriot-Watt, and also Edinburgh where she gained her doctoral degree in music. After appearing as a finalist in the Mary Garden International Prize, she was fortunate to be able to continue her studies (begun as a youngster at NESMS) with the distinguished Italian mezzo Laura Sarti MBE. Appointed Historical Musician in Residence at the Wighton Heritage Centre, Dundee (2003-06) she directed the first major interpretive programme on the Wighton Collection of music – one of Scotland’s finest national heritage collections. She has a lively concert, recital, and research career featuring both cross-discipline and international collaborative work, and has made festival appearances in both Scotland and Scandinavia. She recently appeared with leading Norwegian musicians Jon Faukstad and Øystein Rudi in Aberdeen, and will shortly take up a special invitation to travel to Norway to further work she began during the Grieg 2007 centenary year. Donald Hawksworth (piano) hails from Yorkshire. After studies at the Royal College of Music, London, where Arthur Benjamin and Frank Merrick were his piano teachers, he moved to the north east of Scotland to teach - latterly becoming Music Adviser for the Aberdeen area. A versatile musician, he has enjoyed a long recital career as pianist, organist and harpsichordist, has recorded for the BBC (including the violin sonata of Ronald Center), and has premiered compositions written for him by the Scottish composers Martin Dalby and John McLeod. In recent years he has concentrated on chamber music, performing throughout Scotland with the Aberdeen Trio and Morven Duo, and has made a number of stimulating contributions to the Sound festival of new music. He has also travelled extensively to examine for the Associated Board (Southeast Asia in particular) and in pursuit of his other interests, mountaineering and photography. Acknowledgements National Library of Scotland North East of Scotland Music School Tony Freeth • Kirsti Dinnis © Sally Garden 2008
© Sally Garden 2008