cellist curator collaborator
Performer, arranger and curator, cellist Clare O'Connell plays as a soloist and chamber musician.
Since founding her own concert series Clare’s practise has developed into a mixture of performing, writing, arranging and curating projects in which she collaborates with musicians and artists who inspire her. She is most interested in the intent behind a piece of music and finding the perfect context in which to present it.
She is also a member of visionary ensemble Lontano and the Storytellers Ensemble, a group of musicians devoted to the written word; she has a duo partnership with internationally acclaimed harpist Eleanor Turner; and performs regularly with musicians & collaborators such as Liam Byrne (viola da gamba) , Tom Rogerson (piano), Milos Milivojevic (accordion), Viv McLean (piano), and Daniel Pioro (violin).
She founded and curates Behind The Mirror: her own series of intimate chamber music concerts in Berkhamsted, for which she has commissioned many new works from composers Edmund Finnis, Alex Mills, Leonardo Margutti, Luke Bedford, David Bruce, Freya Waley Cohen and Rubens Askenar, experimenting with varying instrumental line-ups, making her own arrangements of a vast array of music for unusual groups of instruments, and interweaving music poetry and storytelling to add another dimension to the concert experience.
Her arrangements explore the parallels between composers both ancient and modern, allowing the music to speak on its own terms unconfined by historical context, and give the listener another lens through which to experience a piece of music as well as giving it another life. The often seemingly disparate groups of instruments used always afford a uniquely rich sonic experience. They have been performed in Westminster Abbey, the Wigmore Hall and on BBC radio 3.
Clare’s recording output ranges from ultra classical contemporary chamber music by composers such as Michael Finnissey, Jennifer Fowler & Gabriel Jackson, to drones for Jonny Greenwood & sessions for Radiohead, Arcade Fire & Sir Paul McCartney.
Her debut solo album The Isolated Cellist, a collection of ancient & modern music for solo and layered cello was released by Stone Records in April 2021, and she is currently fundraising for her second solo album of contemporary music with NMC which will feature new commissions from Edmund Finnis, Emily Hall, Nick Martin, Natalie Klouda, Alex Mills and Emilie Levienaise Farrouch.
She is a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford where she studied Ancient & Modern History followed by postgraduate study at the Royal College of Music & the Hochshule für Künste in Bremen, Germany with internationally acclaimed cellist and teacher Alexander Baillie. She plays on a cello by Stefan Krattenmacher.
"she has a deep understanding of the way the music works and a joy in the simple act of playing which illuminates everything - from the most complex to the most basic music put in front of her."
Harvey Brough - composer, producer, arranger
Clare is supported by PRS Foundations’s The Open Fund
LIght flowing
I am currently seeking funds to record a radiant body of newly commissioned work for solo and layered cello, with harp, double bass and electronics, by 6 leading British composers to be released a solo album, Light Flowing, with NMC Recordings
I have commissioned all but one of these pieces, which are inspired and tied together conceptually by ideas of light, depth, simplicity, the search for a perfect line, and capturing an otherworldly beauty that these composers represent within their different sound worlds.
REPERTOIRE: (all commissioned by me, except where indicated)
Edmund Finnis – Three pieces (solo cello) 7” (commissioned by London Sinfonietta)
Figures of Eight (cello & bass duo) 7”
Alex Mills – Zenith (cello & harp) 11”
Nick Martin – Vocalise (cello and loop pedal) 16”
Natalie Klouda – Uhtceare (solo cello) 8”
Emily Hall – You Sail to the Sky (cello & loop pedal) 8”
Emilie Levienaise Farrouch – new piece for solo cello, loop pedal and electronics 8”
I have secured half of the funds required from PRSF, Vaughan Williams Foundation, the Hinrichsen Foundation and NMC Recordings. To make up the other half I need your help! If you would like to support this work in the service of new music at the highest standard possible, please consider making a donation. I would be enormously grateful for your invaluable support.
It is hugely important to me to be serving these composers in this way, ensuring that this new body of music by some of the finest young British composers working today is given a life in perpetuity through recording. It is music of the highest calibre and derserves to be heard.
Donations of £100 will receive a signed copy of the CD on release.
concerts 2024
Minerva Theatre, Chichester 7pm: Carnival of the Animals with Michael Morpurgo
Cardiff University: Uncharted Territory music by Freya Waley Cohen, Messiaen and George Crumb
BEHIND THE MIRROR: Eulogy - string quartets by Edmund Finnis, Nick Martin and Mendelssohn with Jonathan Morton , Clio Gould and Oliver Wilson
Sanctuary, Stamford with Eleanor Turner (harp)
BEHIND THE MIRROR: Revelation - music by Bach and Piazzolla with Miloš Milivojević
Park Lane Chapel Norwich: Brahms cello sonatas with Viv McLean
BEHIND THE MIRROR: string quartets by Edmund Finnis, Tom Coult and Ravel with Jonathan Morton , Clio Gould and Oliver Wilson
Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall: Old Ambiet with with Liam Byrne and Tom Rogerson
Nottingham Chamber Music Festival: Schubert - Death and the Maiden Quartet
Red Kite Concerts: Vox Balanae by George Crumb with Sarah O’Flynn and Roderick Chadwick
BEHIND THE MIRROR: String Trios by Schubert, Schnittke and world premiere of Eldhav, a new commission by Nick Martin with Eloisa Fleur Thom and Luis Tunnicliffe
Kings Lynn Festival: With Sarah Thurlow (clarinet) and Ian Farrington (piano) music to include Debussy ‘s cello Sonata and Kiss on Wood by James Macmillan.
BBC Prom at the Glasshouse International centre for music: with Daniel Pioro, Ruby Hughes and David Gordon music by Hildegard von Bingen, JS Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude, John Dowland, Elizabeth Jaquet de la Guerre , Vaughan Williams and Edmund Finnis
Three Choirs Festival: Uncharted Territory music by Freya Waley Cohen, Messiaen and George Crumb
Chapel Concerts, Park Lane, Norwich: Unchartered Territory
Chapel Concerts, Park Lane: String Trios by Schubert, Schnittke and Nick Martin with Eloisa Fleur Thom and Luis Tunnicliffe
The Warehouse, London : Lontano Festival of American Music - music by William Dougherty, Sruthi Rajasekar, Odaline de la Martinez, Aaron Einbond, Elizabeth Ogonek and Daniel Thomas Davis
The Warehouse, London : Lontano Festival of American Music - music by Ursula Mamlok, Tanoia León, Alba Potes and Ruth Schonthal
The Warehouse, London : Lontano Festival of American Music - music by Elena Ruhr, Caroline Shaw, Linda Catlin Smith, William Grant Still, Jesse Montgomery, George Walker and Jennifer Higdon
The Warehouse, London : Lontano Festival of American Music - music by Arlene Sierra, Fred Lerdahl, Charles Shadle, Dan Asia, Joshua Nicholls and Louis Karchin
Echor Music : 7.30pm Hastoe Village Hall - Duo recital with Eva Thorarinsdottir - programme to include the Duo Op.7 by Zoltán Kodály
Highgate International Chamber Music Festival, St Anne’s Highgate. Fundraiser for Haringey Music Service - Music by Vivaldi, J Collier, Debussy, Dobrinka Tabakova and Shostakovich
Behind the Mirror at The Old Town Hall, Berkhamsted: The Frost and the Boughs - a winter celebration curated by David Le Page featuring new folk-inspired arrangements of classic pieces, from Vaughan Williams’ ‘Linden Lea’ to festive favourites such as ‘O Tannenbaum’.
behind the mirror
Clare’s concert series acts as an experimental seedbed for new music and new collaborations, presenting classical music in an imaginative, sometimes unexpected way. Each year sees the creation of at least eight unique programmes and two new commissions.
The series is supported and funded by a devoted and loyal following which she has built up over the past 10 years.
A meditation on solitude, sorrow, love, death, loneliness and hope using multi tracking and looping, recorded at home.
Pièces de viole, Livre 3, Suite No. 6 in G minor: No 87, Minuet
Marin Marais, Clare O’Connell
Arie, Op 8: No. 6, Che si può fare
Barbara Strozzi, Clare O’Connell
There's a Rumour Going Round, We Don't Know What It Is, But We All Get In Line
Kit Downes, Aidan O’Rourke, Clare O’Connell
Stù Criato
Enzo Gragnaniello, Clare O’Connell
The Girl Climbed the Stairs to Bed
Kit Downes, Aidan O’Rourke, Clare O’Connell
Canzonetta spirituale sopra la nanna
Tarquinio Merula, Clare O’Connell
Pièces de viole, Livre 4, Suite d’un Goût Etranger: No 87, Le Badinage
Marin Marais, Clare O’Connell
Hymn to Nikkal
Alex Mills
Pièces de viole, Livre 4, Suite No. 6 in E minor: No 55a, Le Biscayenne
Marin Marais, Clare O’Connell
Douglas and Aileen Stood In Front of the Blue Plaque
Kit Downes, Aidan O’Rourke, Clare O’Connell
Augellin
Stefano Landi, Clare O’Connell
Lu Passariellu
Traditional. Clare O’Connell
Seachrán Si
Traditional. Clare O’Connell
OLD AMBIENT
Improvisation interspersed with pieces hailing from the 16th century, creating a new musical landscape that embraces modernity and pays homage to the old.
Liam Byrne spends most of his time playing either very old or very new music on the viola da gamba. An obsession with the instrument’s most obscure 16th and 17th century repertoire is a recurring theme in his work, whether in devising baroque performance installations for the Victoria & Albert museum, or in collaboration with the Appalachian fiddler Cleek Schrey, or creating new electronic works with Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurðsson. www.liambyrne.net
Tom Rogerson is a pianist, keyboardist, and composer based in the UK and works solo and as a collaborator.
He is the founder, and keyboardist, of the electronic rock band Three Trapped Tigers. His collaboration with Brian Eno 'Finding Shore' was released on Dead Oceans in 2017, and his debut solo album 'Retreat To Bliss' in March 2022. He also performs at and curates a semi-regular improv night called Proof Positive in Dalston, London. www.tomrogerson.com
O’CONNELL-TURNER DUO
O’Connell Turner Duo by @ycatttt
"Their playing throughout reflected their personal rapport: warm, responsive, almost telepathic in their communication of fine detail."
"The arrangements were so fresh and new that it was if one was hearing them for the first time"
William Ruff @ReviewsGate.
"Two of the most talented and intelligent musicians I’ve had the privilege to work with. Bringing impeccable technique and sensitivity to everything they do they are also much more in tune with the meaning and intention of the material than many musicians."
Harvey Brough Composer & Musician
Internationally acclaimed harpist & composer, Eleanor Turner is a leading expert on contemporary harp music. www.eleanorturner.biz
"scrupulous attention to the harp's dynamic and rhythmic possibilities" The Times
