The Lindsay String Quartet was formed at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Each member won all the prizes for quartet playing, and after graduation were awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship. All their homes are in Sheffield and they are widely known in the district, and were formerly quartet-in-residence at Sheffield University. They have acquired a considerable reputation extending beyond the boundary of their home town and have toured abroad extensively. They have made radio recordings, an Omnibus film on BBC TV and have recently played at the Bath Festival.
Osian Ellis began playing the harp as a child. He cannot remember the time when he was not playing musical instruments. He has performed all over the world and broadcast and televised extensively. Several well known composers have written works especially for him. He has appeared in shared poetry and music recitals with Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Paul Robeson, Dame Edith Evans, Richard Burton, Princess Grace, Dame Sybil Thorndike and many others. He gives lecture recitals which are spell-binding and fascinating and in them he usually includes his own arrangements of well-known national songs. To these he sings while accompanying himself on his harp.
Counterpoint was formed in 1973 by six former members of the choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge. Through its distinctive sound and wide range of vocal colour the group is able to perform an extensive repertoire dating from the fifteenth century to the present day. A particular feature of their ever-expanding programme is the performance of music taken from the Romantic period and of works written especially for the group. Their highly successful debut was at the Wigmore Hall in 1976 and has been followed by performances at the Purcell Room and the Queen Elizabeth Hall. They have also appeared on radio both here and abroad.
Kathryn Stott‘s captivating performance at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1978 secured her position as the youngest finalist, aged nineteen, and the first of two British competitors to reach the finals since 1963. She was born in Lancashire and studied with Barbara Kerslake, and continued to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Louis Kentner and Vlado Perlemuter. She then went to the Royal College of Music where her teacher was Kendall Taylor. In 1976 she won a variety of awards and recorded a recital for Thames Television. This is the third occasion on which the Society has looked to the finalists in the Leeds Festival as a means of encouraging young artists. Members will no doubt remember Linda Bustani (1973) and Audras Schiff (1976) both of which gave us such pleasure.