Catherine Strachan, Cello
with David Hammond, Piano
Catherine Strachan grew up in Aberdeen, where she benefited from a superb start to her musical education thanks to the local authority music service and local youth orchestras. Catherine studied modern and baroque cello performance with Myra Chahin and Alison McGillivray at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly RSAMD), and followed this with an MA in baroque performance practice at the University of York.
Catherine is now based in York, where she enjoys a varied career as a freelance cellist and string teacher. She performs regularly with various local ensembles including Otley Baroque, Leeds Baroque and York Guildhall Orchestra. She also recently performed the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Thirsk Sinfonia.
Upcoming projects include cello and piano recitals with David Hammond in Chester, York and Aberdeen, and Catherine will also be the baroque cello tutor at HISS (Historically Informed Summer School) in Beverley in August 2022.
David Hammond grew up in Thame, Oxfordshire, where he was taught piano by Judy Thompson.
He has been working in York as a musician since graduating from the University of York in 2002, where he studied piano with Liz Haddon. His career has taken him to all sorts of varied places, such as Castle Howard, York Minster, the Royal Festival Hall and Bridgewater Hall.
Much of his work involves accompanying soloists and groups on the piano, including concert work, exams and university assessments. Groups include the South Bank Singers, the Sounds Fun choir, York Philharmonic Male Voice Choir and Fiddlers Wreck ceilidh band. He is a regular musician at the Unitarian Chapel in York, and recently performed the Beethoven Triple concerto with Catherine.
Aside from this he has run workshops in Javanese Gamelan in conjunction with the University of York, plays with two ceilidh bands and sings with the Clerkes of All Saints, a Yorkshire-based liturgical choir.