Brandenburg Sinfonia
As well as its renowned work in the UK, the Brandenburg Sinfonia is also in great demand abroad and has in recent years visited France, USA, Bermuda, the Channel Islands, Barbados, Cyprus, Malta and Russia.
The varied range of activities undertaken by the orchestra include a major concert series at St Martin-in-the-Fields and a Classical Music cruise on the QE2.
A large number of artists of international standing have worked with the orchestra including Richard Bonynge, Yvonne Kenny, Emmanuel Hurwitz, Lesley Garrett, John Georgiadis, John Wallace, Emma Kirkby, James Bowman and Gordon Hunt.
Its repertoire ranges from Bach to Lloyd Webber and its members give over one hundred performances of orchestral, chamber, choral and operatic music during the year.
Mihkel Kerem — leader
Since graduating from the Royal College of Music in 2006, Mihkel has been in great demand as a violinist, composer and arranger.
Mihkel is the leader of Brandenburg Sinfonia (London) and a section principal in Camerata Nordica (Sweden).
His music and arrangements are played by ensembles and orchestras all over the world. He regularly performs with the London Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the John Wilson Orchestra.
As a recitalist and soloist Mihkel has appeared around the world performing with many orchestras including the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Estonian Opera Orchestra, Brandenburg Sinfonia, Bardi Symphony Orchestra and Southbank Sinfonia, performing all the major concertos as well as some lesser known works, such as Trandafilovski's violin concerto (of which Mihkel gave the London premiere in 2004).
Mihkel has worked closely with Bernard Haitink, Sir Roger Norrington, Christopher Warren-Green, Gordan Nikolic and Terje Tønnesen to name but a few great musicians. He has been the leader of Southbank Sinfonia, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Bardi Orchestra, Camerata Nordica and been a section principal in the John Wilson Orchestra as well as appearing with Amsterdam Sinfonietta, English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
His compositions to date include 3 Symphonies, 3 Concertos (violin, viola and two cellos), and 10 other works for orchestra. Chamber compositions include 9 String Quartets, a String Sextet, a String Octet, 3 Sonatas for Violin and Piano, 2 Wind Quintets and several pieces for piano. Mihkel’s works have been performed in the USA, Russia, UK, Germany, Holland, and many other European countries. He has been composer in residence at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival in Germany and the Aurora Chamber Music Festival in Sweden. Performers have included the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra with Neeme Järvi, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Oulu Sinfonia, Joensuu City Orchestra, Camerata Nordica and the Chilingirian String Quartet: several concerts have been dedicated solely to his music.
In 2012, Toccata Classics released a CD of his 4 Violin Sonatas. A second CD of Symphony No. 3, Lamento for Viola and Strings and the String Sextet was released in 2013.
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