The Chamber Ensemble

The ASMF Chamber Ensemble was formed in 1967, drawing its membership from the principal players of the internationally acclaimed orchestra the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF).

Founded in 1958 by Sir Neville Marriner and led today by Music Director Joshua Bell, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields has evolved into a musical powerhouse, an orchestra renowned across the world for its commitment to the musical freedom of its players and the sharing of joyful, inspiring performances. The Chamber Ensemble, led now by ASMF Director/Leader Tomo Keller, was formed to perform the larger-scale chamber music repertoire with outstanding musicians who have a history of working and collaborating closely together.

The Chamber Ensemble now performs in multiple configurations from wind trios to string octets. Its touring commitments are extensive and include regular tours of Europe and North America, whilst recording contracts with Philips Classics, Hyperion, and Chandos have led to the release of over thirty albums.

Our Musicians - Chamber String Ensemble 2024

Tomo Keller

Leader

Chair supported by Simon Haslam and Kate Alcock

Biography

Tomo Keller was born in Stuttgart to German-Japanese musicians and started playing the violin at the age of six. At ten years old he gave his first performances with orchestra, going on to study at Vienna’s University for Music and Performing Arts and New York’s Juilliard School of Music. Numerous top prizes and awards followed: the Fritz Kreisler Competition, the Johannes Brahms Competition and the German Music Competition Berlin where he was awarded the Grand Prize. He has since performed at major concert halls all around the world and has been invited to music festivals including the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele, Edinburgh Festival and Bravo! Vail Colorado. He has also been a frequent guest on radio and television broadcasts on ARD, BBC, NHK and ORF.

Tomo is a much sought-after orchestral leader and director, having led the London Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and has also appeared with more than 20 orchestras as guest leader across Europe, the USA and Asia. Tomo was appointed Director and Leader of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2016 and appears with them worldwide as leader, director, chamber musician and soloist.

As a soloist, Tomo has also performed with the Beethovenhalle Orchestra Bonn, St Petersburg Camerata, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Concert tours have led him all across Europe, as well as Russia, Asia, America and the Middle East.

2021/22, Tomo was artist-in-residence at the Loh-Orchestra Sondershausen in Germany, featuring as soloist, director and conductor, and premiered a new piece written for him by Christoph Ehrenfellner. Wiener G’schichten also received its UK premiere in London with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 2022.

Tomo’s recordings include solo works by Bach, Bartok and Ysaye, orchestral recordings including Stravinsky’s Apollon musagète with Sir John Eliot Gardiner/LSO and Grammy Award winning Avant Gershwin with Patti Austin and the WDR Big Band. In 2020 a DVD/CD box set with all Beethoven piano concertos was released by Deutsche Grammophon to great critical acclaim, featuring pianist Jan Lisiecki with Tomo directing the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. A CD with works by Kurt Atterberg will be released on Ondine in 2023, featuring the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Tomo as soloist and director in Atterberg’s Suite for violin and viola.

He has given violin, chamber music and orchestral master classes at all major London Music Colleges as well as at Yale university and numerous other schools in the USA and the Far East. In early 2022 he was appointed Professor of violin at the HEMU Sion in Switzerland.

Tomo plays a fine violin by Antonio Stradivari known as the ‘ex-Braga’, kindly loaned to him through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

tomokeller.com

YouTube Channel

Clio Gould

Guest Violin

Chamber String Ensemble 2024

Biography

Clio Gould enjoys variety in her career as a violinist and performs as soloist, chamber musician, director and concertmaster internationally and at home in the UK. She has held major and longstanding positions as Concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , Principal Violin of the London Sinfonietta and as Artistic Director of Scottish Ensemble , directing from the violin. Clio has appeared as concerto soloist with most of the UK’s major orchestras covering a wide-ranging repertoire. Known as one of Britain’s foremost interpreters of contemporary violin music, she has been given the opportunity to work with many of today’s leading composers. Highlights include performances at the Royal Festival Hall of Pierre Boulez’s epic work for solo violin and live electronics, Anthemes 2 for the composer’s 85th birthday celebrations. She also worked closely with Oliver Knussen, giving many performances in Sweden, Japan, Finland and Hungary of the Knussen Violin Concerto, conducted by the composer. She gave the UK premiere of this work at the Aldeburgh Festival with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Clio regularly contributes to film and TV soundtracks at Abbey Road Studios and Air Lyndhurst Stydios, where she frequently leads studio orchestras. She plays with the Colin Currie Group in Europe and Japan. Clio teaches at the Royal Academy of Music and directs the Sainsbury Royal Academy Soloists. She has been awarded Honorary Membership of the Academy.

Martin Burgess

Principal Second Violin

Biography

Martin began playing with the Academy in 1992, taking up the position of Principal Second Violin in 1998. Having studied with Emanuel Hurwitz and the Amadeus Quartet he brought with him the love of chamber music. He leads the Grammy nominated Emperor Quartet (winners of the prestigious Evian International String Quartet Competition). The Quartet has released critically acclaimed CDs of music by Britten, Walton, Martinu and James MacMillan. They have also performed on several film soundtracks, notably There Will Be Blood and Norwegian Wood (both written by Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead).

Martin enjoys a wide variety of playing away from both these ensembles, a highlight including touring the world with Peter Gabriel.

Jennifer Godson

Associate Principal Second Violin

Biography

Jennifer Godson was awarded the Dove Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music, an honour which had also been given many years previously to her aunt, Daphne Godson. Whilst at the Academy she joined the Fairfield String Quartet with whom she recorded and toured extensively throughout Britain and abroad.

She joined the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in 1985 and the orchestra gradually became the main focus of her musical life. She began playing in the Academy Chamber Ensemble in 2006.

An interest in period performance lead to her becoming a founder member of Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique and also appearing as guest leader with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with whom she played regularly for many years.

Robert Smissen

Principal Viola

Biography

Born in Mansfield Nottinghamshire, Robert Smissen won a scholarship to Chethams School of Music and went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music, from which he graduated with distinction. After playing with the European Community Youth Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe he took the position of Principal Viola with the Northern Sinfonia before joining the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, with whom he has been Principal Viola for over 25 years. He often performs as a soloist with the orchestra, and as a member of the ASMF chamber ensemble and the Pro Arte Piano Quartet he has performed, broadcast and recorded all over the world. Outside of music, being a father of five keeps him more than busy, but his other interests include walking his six dogs, gardening, DIY, early renaissance art, philosophy, cooking and cricket.

Fiona Bonds

Associate Principal Viola

Biography

Fiona studied Viola in London and Berlin and is currently associate principal viola of the ASMF, principal viola of city of London Sinfonia and much in demand as a guest principal in orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, and Philharmonia orchestras.

As a member of the Grammy nominated Emperor string quartet Fiona has played at all the major festivals in the UK and through Europe and North America. She is a frequent guest in the London studio orchestras, playing on a variety of film soundtracks and for artists such as Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney and Coldplay

Fiona is a keen participant in the ASMF learning and participation programmes, particularly enjoying workshops at the Connection, for people who have experienced homelessness. In 2025/26 she is launching a series of chamber concerts in her home town, supported by the recently launched Marriner Project, supporting ASMF player led initiatives.

Alice Neary

Guest Cello

Chamber String Ensemble 2024

Biography

Alice enjoys a varied performing career as a chamber musician, soloist and as principal cellist of BBCNOW. Alice is delighted to have recently joined the London Haydn Quartet. Familiar to listeners of Radio 3, festival performances include BBC Proms chamber series, Marlboro (USA), Bath International, Santa Fe (USA), AWE New Zealand and Lofoten. Recent concerto performances include Strauss Don Quixote, Honegger and Cheryl Frances-Hoade concertos with BBC NOW.

Alice was a member of the Gould Piano Trio from 2001-2018 – highlights include the complete piano trios of Beethoven, Schubert and Dvorak at the Wigmore Hall, commissioning of new works from Sir James MacMillan and Mark Simpson, regular US tours and over 25 CD releases.

Alice has appeared as guest cellist with numerous groups including the Nash Ensemble, Ensemble 360 and the Endellion, Elias, Sacconi and Heath quartets. She collaborates with pianists Viv McLean, Jâms Coleman and Benjamin Frith. Regular visits to IMS at Prussia Cove, Marlboro Festival USA and Wye Valley Chamber Music festival provide ongoing inspiration. This season included a return to Marlboro Festival including Dvorak Piano Quintet with Mitsuko Uchida, artist-in residence at Presteigne Festival and appearances as guest principal cello with the ROH Covent Garden, Philharmonia, Academy of St Martin’s and BBC Symphony Orchestra. Future plans include a US tour with Academy of St Martins chamber ensemble, concerts with the London Haydn Quartet and the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas with Viv McLean.

Alice studied with Ralph Kirshbaum (RNCM) and, as a Fulbright scholar, with Timothy Eddy at Stonybrook, USA. She has been tutor in cello at RNCM and RCM and now teaches at RWCMD where she was awarded a Fellowship in 2015. She and her husband, David Adams founded the Penarth Chamber Music Festival in 2014. Celebrations for this 10th anniversary year included a commission for string trio from Huw Watkins. Alice plays a cello by Alessandro Gagliano of 1710.

Will Schofield

Associate Principal Cello

Biography

Will Schofield was born in London to Australian and Italian parents. He read music at Edinburgh University and went on to study with Radu Aldulescu in Rome and at the Menuhin Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland.

Will has been cellist with the Grammy nominated Emperor String Quartet since the group was formed in 1992. He started playing with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields the following year, and membership of these two groups has been the primary focus of his playing career ever since. With the Quartet he has played throughout Europe, North and South America and in Africa, appearing at all of the major festivals in the UK and at numerous festivals abroad including Prague Spring Festival, ‘Mostly Mozart’ New York, Flanders, Monte Carlo, Montpelier/Radio France and Kuhmo in Finland. The Quartet records for BIS, the latest project being a complete cycle of Britten. He has also played as a guest with the Allegri and Maggini Quartets and with the Schubert Ensemble of London.

With the Academy Will has had the opportunity to play the key repertoire for Chamber Orchestra at the highest level, working and recording with musicians such as Murray Perahia, Joshua Bell, Janine Jansen, Julia Fischer and, of course, Sir Neville Marriner.

As a freelance cellist Will has played as Guest Principal Cello with many of the country’s top orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra, and with orchestras in Ireland and Spain. He has played on numerous film soundtracks, and with the Emperor Quartet has collaborated with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood on several projects, most notably the soundtrack to the 2007 movie There Will Be Blood.

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