Surrey Mozart Players

Philip Ellis
www.philipellisconductor.com

This concert will be conducted by Philip Ellis who was appointed as Music Director of the Surrey Mozart Players in March 2023.  

Since winning first prize in the Leeds Conductors’ Competition in 1991, Philip Ellis has worked extensively throughout the UK conducting many concerts with the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Concert Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, London Mozart Players, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North, City of London Sinfonia, Northern Sinfonia and over 400 concerts with English Sinfonia.  He is a passionate supporter of Music Education and has worked extensively with amateur orchestras, community and youth groups throughout his career.  He is very much looking forward to a long and exciting collaboration with Surrey Mozart Players as their new Music Director, working together with this wonderful orchestra on the next stage of their already distinguished musical journey.

He made his international debut conducting the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 1987, leading to engagements with Hong Kong Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Symphony, Belgian National Orchestra, Flanders Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, St Petersburg Symphony, National Orchestra of Mexico, Western Australian Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Würtembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Neue Philharmonie Westfallen and many broadcast concerts with the BRTN Philharmonic (Brussels) for radio and television.

Philip Ellis works extensively as a conductor for dance.  As conductor for Birmingham Royal Ballet since 1989, he has conducted the majority of their productions.  He also regularly guest-conducts for international ballet companies: The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, La Scala Ballet in Milan, Paris Opera Ballet at the Opera Garnier, The Australian Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Mikhailovsky Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Hong Kong Ballet, Tokyo Ballet, Korean National Ballet and Gothenburg Ballet.

On CD, he has recorded Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf and Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals with the Philharmonia. Copland Rodeo, Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, El Salon Mexico and a series of Concert Classics discs with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Contemporary Clarinet Concertos for Nimbus with Emma Johnson and Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations with Dimitri Ferschtman, recorded live in concert from the Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam.   

In his free time, he is a keen artist, particularly interested in portraiture - working in a wide range of media. A selection of his work can be seen on his website www.philipellisconductor.com and on instagram @philellisart. 

Charlotte Spruit

www.charlottespruit.com

Charlotte Spruit is a soloist and chamber musician, praised for her passionate and energetic performances. Charlotte won the first prize as well as the audience prize and the Genuin Classics prize at the Leipzig International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in 2022. She also won the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International Auditions held at Wigmore Hall in 2023 and was named Classic FM rising star in 2024. 

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Recent solo engagements include performances at the Wigmore Hall in London, Konzerthaus Berlin, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. As a soloist, Charlotte has performed with renowned orchestras, including the Residentie Orkest The Hague, The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Ecurie, the Pauliner Barockensemble, and Ensemble Esperanza. ​

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A passionate chamber musician, Charlotte has collaborated with acclaimed musicians including Janine Jansen, Rachel Podger, Gidon Kremer, Tabea Zimmermann, Lawrence Power, and Christian Tetzlaff. She is regularly invited to perform in festivals, including the Chamber Music Connects the World festival at the Kronberg Academy, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Bachfest Leipzig, and the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival where she performed with the Doric String Quartet.

Charlotte also enjoys exploring innovative ways of bringing music to audiences, for example by bringing together different forms of art. She has collaborated with artist Jérémie Queyras, creating performances combining painting and music. Together they won the first prize at the Goodmesh Concours in 2022.

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Charlotte began her violin studies aged 4 with Coosje Wijzenbeek. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music with David Takeno, and at the Royal Academy of Music with Ying Xue, Rachel Podger, and Pavlo Beznosiuk, where she was awarded a Bicentenary Scholarship and the HRH Duchess of Gloucester Prize upon graduation.

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Charlotte is looking forward to a busy 2024-25 season, including a solo recital at the Wigmore Hall, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto at the Cello Biennale in Amsterdam with Jean-Guihen Queyras, Kristian Bezuidenhout and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, and a recital at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Charlotte plays an 18th-century anonymous Italian violin, kindly on loan from the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation. 

© www.charlottespruit.com

Surrey Mozart Players season concludes with three classics - Borodin’s opera Prince Igor was left unfinished on his death; but we are fortunate that he counted a great orchestrator as a loyal friend. Rimsky-Korsakov recognised Borodin’s natural genius for melody, characterisation and colour, he worked tirelessly to ensure that many of Borodin’s uncompleted ideas were not lost, but presented to the world in the best possible light. The Prince Igor Overture is a prime example of this devotion.

Charlotte Spruit is our soloist in Brahms’s masterly Violin Concerto. We are incredibly excited to work with Charlotte, a brilliant young Dutch musician, so accomplished in a wide range of styles and genres. Her debut recording just released on Linn records is testament to her unique and virtuosic talents and is highly recommended.

To conclude our season one of Dvořák’s most joyous and radiant symphonies, written in homage to his friend, champion and mentor Brahms, Dvořák’s G major symphony No.8 is that rare mixture of geniality and genius; a master musician wearing his scholarship lightly - the overriding feeling in this work is that seems to radiate sunshine and lyricism from within.
   

© Philip Ellis 2025

The concert takes place at Holy Trinity Church in the centre of Guildford.

Holy Trinity Church
High Street
Guildford
GR1 3RR

By Road

Guildford is reached via the A3 (London or Portsmouth directions).  

By Train

The church is approximately 10 minutes walk from Guildford Mainline Station which is served by regular trains to/from London Waterloo and Victoria, Portsmouth, Reading, Gatwick Airport, Haselmere and Ascot.

Parking

The nearest car park is:

Castle Car Park, Sydenham Road, GU1 3RW (for Holy Trinity & Trinity Centre)

Accessibility

A ramp is available at one of the entrances to the church.  Please contact us on surreymozartplayers@gmail.com if you have any specific requirements.

Refreshments

Drinks will be available before the concert and during the interval.