Leon read music at Cambridge and then went on to Berlin and Rome from 1957 to 1961, when he became Assistant Conductor of the Scottish National Orchestra.

He also conducted Scottish Opera and was Musical Director of the New Opera Company at Sadler’s Wells for 30 years (later in association with English National Opera). During this time he conducted over 20 British opera premieres.

He has conducted most of the British symphony orchestras and appeared frequently in all of London’s major concert halls, on BBC radio, Television and the ‘Proms’.

He has performed at many prestigious music festivals abroad and has been Musical Director of the English Baroque Orchestra since 1975.

Andrew Lawrie was introduced to music at the age of three by his first teacher, Wallace Galbraith MBE, and went on to study at the RSAMD junior school under Jerre Gibson from the age of seven until leaving school at sixteen. He read aeronautics at the University of Glasgow and during this time combined his keen interest in sound with his engineering studies by working closely with loudspeaker designers Acoustic Reproduction Technology. He moved on to develop techniques for noise reduction of jet engines while working for Rolls-Royce.

Although recently Andrew has ostensibly been working towards a PhD in mathematics, much of his time has been devoted to developing his musical career. Over the years he has led the Kelvin Ensemble, the Ayrshire Symphony Orchestra, the Cambridge Graduate Orchestra, the Chamber Musicians of Cambridge and he currently leads the Cambridge Camerata.

Andrew has a very keen interest in chamber music, and formed the Cambridge Graduate Chamber Ensemble to give recitals and entertain formal functions. With them he has played to a great many dignitaries, including the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prime Minister of India. In their new guise as the Skeldon Ensemble, they gave their inaugural recital in Strasbourg, August 2008.

Andrew plays on a violin made by his grandfather, George Weir, which he built when he was seventeen years old so that he could learn the fiddle and join a Scottish country dance band. Eighty years later, his grandson has followed in his footsteps, and uses his instrument to play with the Karl Sandeman Trio on the dancing circuit throughout the south-east of England.

Lesley Fotherby trained in art at colleges in Bath and London and at Leicester University after which she taught in secondary schools, worked in a Young Adults Centre and tutored adult education classes before becoming a full-time painter. She has been gallery artist with Chris Beetles Gallery since the 1980s and exhibits there regularly. Chris Beetles exhibits work by contemporary artists, together with that of 19th century watercolourists and illustrators. Further details can be found on the following website: www.chrisbeetles.com

The work Lesley is doing in preparation for her next exhibition (Chris Beetles Gallery, Ryder Street, St James’s, London) is mostly in oils and watercolour and covers a variety of subjects from landscapes to performers. It will feature many sea pictures and a variety of subjects from landscape to performers. The landscape work is influenced by where she has lived, from the Yorkshire Dales to South Cambridgeshire.

Lesley feels fortunate to have been able to work for many years with performers who have allowed her to sit in on their classes and rehearsals including the National Youth Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and the City of Cambridge Symphony Orchestra. She is particularly interested in movement and how to portray something transitory, be it the position of a musician in performance or the way light changes a landscape. Some of Lesley’s paintings are displayed in the foyer during the intervals of CCSO concerts.