#36: Steve Dummer and Stevie Higgins
We are pleased to welcome back Steve Dummer to our Midday Music Concert series accompanied by Stevie Higgins.
Inspired by some of the classical jazz masters this concert will feature music from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess including Summertime arranged by Jascha Heifetz, Horovitz's Sonatina and some fifties jazz with Alec Templeton's Pocket Size Sonata.
Steve Dummer is a conductor, clarinettist, educator and all-round enthusiast for participation in music-making at every level. He is the musical director of Kidenza, founder and director of Talkestra, which tries to reach new audiences for concert music, conductor of the Horsham Symphony Orchestra, which, under Steve’s directorship, has become “one of the best community orchestras” in the UK, conductor of the Ensemble Reza Community Orchestra, musical director of CoMA Sussex, a regular tutor and conductor at Dartington International Summer School and director of the Junior Course of the European Youth Summer Music. His latest project, Stane Street Sinfonietta, is a professional orchestra for players living in the South East of England formed in collaboration with the composer John Woolrich. They gave their debut concert in November 2018.
As a clarinettist, he gives regular recitals and concerts throughout the UK and abroad and records for television and film. He has given world premieres of music written for him by many composers including Peter Copley, Paul Carr, Barry Mills and Patrick Harrex and is recording a CD of the complete clarinet music by John Hawkins including the Clarinet Concerto with Stane Street Sinfonietta and conductor Holly Mathieson. He was a member of Juan Martin’s Flamenco Group featuring on the much-admired CD ‘Musica Alhambra’, a founder member of the zany jazz band Itchy Feet and now plays the piano, clarinet, saxophone, melodica, rubber breadstick and composes and undertakes balloon modelling for the great Speakeasy Revival Orchestra. Stevie Higgins Studied at Oxford University, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio in London and is now a conductor and pianist, working with the UK’s major opera houses including Glyndebourne, ROH, ENO and Scottish Opera.
Stevie’s conducting experience has included work for the Musica Nel Chiostro opera festival in Batignano, Tuscany, where he was musical director for 6 years, Music director of Opera Faber in North Portugal, conducting L’Elisir d’Amore and Don Giovanni with the Orquesta da Norte and the Orquesta Nacional de Porto and the LPO and Philharmonia orchestras at the Royal Festival Hall in Jude Kelly’s celebrated production of Carmen Jones.
Stevie has also worked for many TV and film companies in the role of Music Supervisor, producing films and documentaries for FilmFour, BBC2, and Channel 4. He appeared on the recent ‘Maestro at the Opera’ on BBC2 as a mentor to Josie Lawrence. A member of ENO’s music staff for six years, Stephen conducted Magic Flute for the company and created a new commission The Duchess of Malfi, a co-production with ENO and the theatre company punchdrunk, which he premiered in July. Recent engagements include La Boheme, Magic Flute and Hansel und Gretel with Co-opera-co ( for whom he is music director) on a UK tour, MD for a tour of concerts with tenor Alfie Boe, and the world premiere of Dr Dee, a new piece by Damon Albarn for the Manchester festival and ENO as part of the 2012 cultural Olympiad, which he recorded for EMI. He recently conducted Phantom of the opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre for six months and has just returned from the Chatelet theatre in Paris where he was working on a new production of Sunday in the Park with George. This summer’s engagements include conducting L’Elisir d’amore at Opera Holland Park and the world premiere of Conor Mitchell’s Cabaret songs performed alongside Britten’s setting of Auden poems which will open this year’s Aldeburgh Festival.