Catherine Rimer

I am delighted and honoured to be an Ambassador for SaMM, which does such excellent work supporting music-making in Devon.

Having witnessed first-had the expertise, energy and enthusiasm of the highly skilled staff, as well as the wide-eyed wonder and enjoyment of the young participants, I know that this is hugely worthwhile enterprise.

Saturday Music Mornings is a fantastic initiative with tutoring across the board of musical genres. I myself have witnessed teenagers gaining insights into the formal structure of a Schubert Symphony, followed by an imaginative class for younger ones, who were telling a story with vegetable 'puppets'!

Having such opportunities to make music together can be life-changing for students at all levels, and is surely needed now, more than ever. Lockdown showed many of us how essential the arts are for nurturing the soul !

It is especially important to encourage creativity in the next generation as it also means that these core values may be upheld and shared in the future ...

I urge you to please support and promote the excellent work at SaMM.

Biog

Catherine Rimer is an experienced and versatile ‘cellist and teacher who performs internationally with leading ensembles on both period and modern instruments. She was born and raised on Tyneside and studied the 'cello at the R.N.C.M., the R.A.M., with Steven Isserlis at Prussia Cove and with Steven Doane at the Eastman School, N.Y. She also had inspiring coaching from Eli Goren, William Pleeth and the Amadeus Quartet, among others. As a member of Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, she has played on numerous projects including the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage throughout 2000. During 2021 she played continuo for his live web stream of Bach's "John Passion" from the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford (recently released on Deutsche Gramophon DVD) and she has also filled this role at the BBC Proms, the Berlin Philharmonie, Buckingham Palace, Aldeburgh Festival and at the Château de Versailles. Catherine is also a member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment where she plays guest principal on occasion, including many digital concerts for OAE Player - Strings Reunited, Embers of Romanticism, Baroque Christmas classics - and with Isabelle Faust and Antonella Manacorda in a programme of Schumann.

Cellist