| Official website for Composer Sue Aston from Cornwall |
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Sue Aston's love and passion for Cornwall and the natural landscape
is well known. However, this multi talented
composer and professional violinist has appeared on classical, folk and contemporary
recordings on radio and television, both nationally and internationally. This page gives you some insight into her inspirational journey so far... |
Sue Aston is lucky to have worked with such eminent musicians as Simon Rattle, Nigel Kennedy, Peter Donohoe, Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Charles Groves, Esa Pekka Salonen, Gordon Giltrap and Chris De Burgh.
This classically trained violinist has released her own successful albums bridging the gap between Celtic folk and lovers of classical violin playing.
Her forays into folk have seen her work with Australian guitarist Pete Hawkes and support folk legends Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick.
Her classical work includes performances with The D’oyly Carte
Opera Company, The Cotswold Sinfonia
and
Orchestra Da Camera – with whom she took part in a documentary for
Channel 4 about
the composer Rodriguez, entitled ‘Shadows and Light’. With
Peter Donohoe's Corinthian Orchestra, Sue's work included a televised concert which formed part of the Jersey Music
Festival.
Sue Aston was leader of the 'New String Orchestra' for a concert
at the Imperial College , London , with a performance of ‘Variations on
a theme by Thomas Tallis’, by Vaughan Williams. She was also
a violin soloist with the Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Orchestra
at Birmingham Cathedral, for a performance of Vivaldi’s concerto for
four violins, with CBSO leader Peter Thomas, and
Jackie Ross, Head of Strings.
The BBC1 ‘Heaven and Earth Show’ interviewed Sue about her composition work on one of their episodes about the Cornish landscape.
Sue’s solo videos have been shown on Classic FM TV and are currently being broadcast daily on the Sky classical music channel ‘OMusic’. ‘The Home Coming’ is one of Sue’s most popular pieces, and has been viewed over 350,000 times on You Tube.
Sue Aston has hosted violin master classes in Cornwall, which have been attended by violin students from around the world. Sue has released two solo CDs and a DVD, which have been described as 'Celtic music for the classically appreciative’ by Cornish World editor Nigel Pengelly. Sue Aston CDs and DVDs are available from Amazon.co.uk.
‘The Forbidden City’ is an original work by Sue Aston, and was commissioned by a youth theatre group in London. This piece was composed for unaccompanied solo violin, and has been arranged for this performance with piano accompaniment. A new version of this will feature on her new CD available in 2009
Sue Aston also runs the Aston String Quartet which is Cornwall's version of the Kronos Quartet. The ensemble specialises in premiering new works by contemporary composers.
