Leah Wing & Lydia Newlands
Leah Wing & Lydia Newlands
Thursday, 16 February 2023, 19:30
From starting to learn the flute at age nine, Leah Wing’s life has been filled with the joy of music. She was awarded the Year 5 Music Prize at Allfarthing Primary School, the same year she started playing, having being taught and nurtured by World Heart Beat's founder Sahana Gero.
In addition to performing regularly throughout her secondary school career, she continued to attend the World Heart Beat Music Academy, and perform with the 51st State Band, through which she achieved a Jack Petchey Award, which she used to obtain her first piccolo.
Leah worked rapidly through her graded exams and secured a Distinction in her ATCL Diploma Recital at age 16. At this age she became a Scholar of the World Heart Beat Music Academy, a scheme sponsored by Gucci Timepieces and Jewellery, which gave her the opportunity to travel to Rome to perform with a band alongside Nicola Piovani at a major Gucci event. Leah was also part of the award-winning Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra, gaining a place at age 12, and ultimately becoming principal flautist in her final year, age 17.
After being awarded a place at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Leah was able to be a part of many more ensembles, most notably playing piccolo with the RNCM Symphony Orchestra for Stravinsky’s Firebird and, most recently, Shostakovich 8 at the Bridgewater Hall.
At the RNCM Leah has worked on a variety of contrasting projects and ensembles including some more contemporary ones, such as the Jazz Collective and the Ark Ensemble. She thoroughly enjoys branching out musically and enhancing her jazz skills.
Leah is accompanied by Lydia Newlands on piano for this performance.
Lydia Newlands studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Philip Jenkins and Geoffrey Pratley. She acquired her LRAM in 1984 and graduated with honours
a year later. While at the RAM, she gave over twenty concerts including a solo performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto K.488. Lydia twice won the Christian Carpenter Prize for Piano Accompaniment, and was awarded the Alice Payne and Wilfred Parry Scholarships for outstanding ensemble playing, enabling her to pursue post-graduate studies at the RAM.
Lydia’s versatility as a freelance accompanist has led to a wide and varied range of engagements. Her work has included children’s education programmes for BBC Radio Four, touring Germany and Holland with the English Eurythmy Theatre, accompanying for the British Flute Society