This performance forms part of the Hattori Foundation early evening concert series. This is a very friendly series, in true Salon-style, where guests are invited to enjoy a pre-concert drink included in the ticket price, a one-hour performance (without interval) and then meet the performers and Trustees in the Club's bar after each recital for complimentary refreshments.
Programme (60 minutes, no interval)
George Frideric Handel
Oboe sonata in C minor HWV 366 Antonio Pasculli Concerto sopra motivi dell'opera 'La favorita' di Donizetti Thea Musgrave Night Windows i. Loneliness iii. Nostalgia Gilles Silvestrini Six Etúdes pour Hautbois VI - Le ballet espagnol Gerald Finzi arr. Howard Ferguson Interlude for oboe and piano P. I. Tchaikovsky (Arr. by Diego Marani) Swan Lake Theme |
The Hattori Foundation was established as an Educational Trust by the Hattori Family and granted charity status in 1992.
The aim of the Foundation in the field of music is to encourage and assist exceptionally talented young instrumental soloists or chamber ensembles who are British Nationals or resident in the UK and whose talent and achievements give promise of an international career. |
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Jessica EllisJessica Ellis is a British oboist born in 2003. In September 2025, Jessica began her Masters in Oboe Performance with a Scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music, studying with
Christopher Cowie (Principal Oboe Royal Opera House) having completed a BA Hons in Music at Selwyn College University of Cambridge. She previously studied with Professor Juliana Koch (Principal Oboe London Symphony Orchestra). She also held scholarships at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester studying with Rachael Clegg and Stephane Rancourt and the Junior Royal Academy of Music London working with Josephine Lively. Jessica holds her LRSM Performance Diplomas on both oboe and piano with Distinctions. She has won many national and international oboe competitions including the Cox Memorial Award at Eastbourne Young Soloist Competition in 2023 and the Young Woodwind Player of the year at Gregynog Young Musician Competition. In her first year at Cambridge she was the recipient of the Selwyn College Williamson Prize for Music Performance. In 2024 she reached the semi finals of the Royal Overseas League Music Competition at Royal Overseas House in London. Jessica is a passionate chamber musician and in 2023 Jessica was awarded a full scholarship to the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival at the Juilliard School in New York. She was part of a prize winning Quintet that performed at the Lincoln Centre. As part of an award winning Quintet at Cambridge under the Instrumental Award Scheme Jessica has performed at Kettles Yard, All Saints Church and West Road Concert Hall. Jessica successfully auditioned for the Schleswig - Holstein Festival Orchestra in 2025 and 2024, and performed in Hamburg, Schleswig - Holstein, Weisbaden, Lower Saxony and in Denmark on tour with the Festival Orchestra. Highlights were playing Principal Oboe for internationally renowned pianist Lang Lang and working with renowned conductor Christoph Eschenbach at Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. In 2025 and 2023 Jessica was placed on the reserve list for the Verbier Festival Orchestra. In October 2025, Jessica joined the London Sinfonietta at the Queen Elizabeth Hall to play Boulez Explosante Fixe under Sir George Benjamin. She has also played professionally with the Royal Northern Sinfonia at The Glasshouse, Newcastle and on tour. She is currently Principal Oboe in the Royal Academy of Music’s Symphony Orchestra. She was previously Principal Oboe of the Cambridge University Orchestra for 3 years and an active member of various orchestras in Cambridge and Dorset. She also played first oboe in the JRAM and Chetham’s Symphony Orchestras. In June 2024, Jessica performed the Strauss Oboe Concerto with the Cambridge Graduate Orchestra at West Road Concert Hall. Other performances as Concerto soloist include Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto with the Bedford Symphony Orchestra in 2021 at the Bedford Corn Exchange as well as giving Concerto performances in The Stoller Hall Manchester playing the Mozart Oboe Concerto and Grappenhall playing Vivaldi’s Oboe Concerto. Jessica has taken part in masterclasses with Nicholas Daniel, Jonathan Kelly, George Caird, Nick Deutsch, Viola Wilmsen and Diana Doherty. Jessica plays on a Marigaux M2 Oboe with the generous support of the UMUK Sound Foundation. Jessica is most grateful for the support she receives during 2025-2026 from Help Musicians, The Drake Calleja Trust, The Countess of Munster Musical Trust and The Hattori Foundation for her Masters funding. |
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James EllisJames Ellis is a PhD candidate and Visiting Tutor in Musicology at Royal Holloway University of London. His publications include those for the 'Journal of Sound and Music in Games' and the 'Journal of the Royal Musical Association' with forthcoming chapters in edited collections publishing in 2026. James’s research centres around ludomusicology and musical analysis with a focus on player interaction, identity and engagement with audiovisual texts and the development of gestural theories of music to illuminate concepts of immersion. James has presented at numerous conference events including Ludomusicology, DiGRA, Music and the Moving Image at New York University. James is also an active pianist who teaches as a Visiting Music Teacher at St George's Weybridge and regularly performs as a chamber musician with career highlights including Schumann Piano Concerto with the London Mozart Players and performing for members of the Royal family.
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