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Nick Byrne Mmus. LRAM.

Nick Byrne was born in Liverpool into an extremely musical family. Originally thinking that it was a double bass, Nick took up the cello aged eight and began lessons with Gethyn Jones. He went on to study music at Hull University, where he won the Andrew Brown Performance Prize. Nick was then awarded the Sir Thomas Beecham Scholarship to study Post-Graduate Performance at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with David Strange and Colin Carr.

Nick continued studying in Winnipeg, Canada, where he won the University of Manitoba concerto competition and made numerous recordings for CBC radio, including performances with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Measha Brueggergosman and Groundswell New Music.

Nick currently works as a freelance cellist and plays regularly with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He also performs as session player for the Liverpool Session orchestra and has recorded with many pop artists, appearing on BBC Radios 1, 2 and 3.

Rob Chalmers

Rob left his I.T. background behind him when graduating from the Music department at York University with a Masters Degree in 2002 and has since made a living from playing and teaching the guitar.

Rob currently performs in the duo Two's Company as well as playing electric guitar in various functions bands. He has experience of playing a variety of genres including pop, classical, folk and jazz. He has played guitar in many shows including Fame at the Dancehouse Theatre, Manchester and a recent touring production of The Essence of Ireland. He has also appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe and Chester Music Festival.

Rob currently teaches guitar both from his home studio and in 3 Wirral secondary schools, as well as running group workshops. He has been a tutor for the last 8 years on the National Youth Music Camp held at John Dankworth and Cleo Laine's Stables Theatre and was invited to direct the camp in 2009.

Claire Stranger-Ford

Claire Stranger-Ford hails from Bridlington East Yorkshire and started playing the violin with Anne Wilkes (formerly of RLPO). She studied music at the University of Leeds with an integral year at the Franz Liszt College of Music and also did a year of Postgraduate at the RNCM. Her teachers during this time were Benedict Holland, Dietrich Hasch, Dr Christopher Rowland and Malcolm Layfield.

Claire plays as a freelance violinist with several UK orchestras including RLPO, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Opera North, Northern Ballet Theatre, WNO and RSNO. She also plays in the Caldara string quartet and performs as a solo violinist at weddings under the guise violin4weddings.co.uk.