Our Key Artists
The English Chamber Orchestra's key artists
Stephanie Gonley
Leader & Principal
Roberto Forés Veses
Principal Guest Conductor
John Mills
Associate Leader
Read all about our key artists here at the ECO…
Stephanie Gonley has a wide-ranging career as concerto soloist, soloist/director of chamber orchestras, recitalist and chamber musician. She has appeared as soloist with many of the leading orchestras in the UK, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, the Manchester Camerata, The Hallé, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
Stephanie Gonley is the leader of the English Chamber Orchestra and appears with them regularly as director and soloist. She is also leader of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Stephanie was leader of the Vellinger Quartet for some time, and she still enjoys performing a wide range of chamber music with such ensembles as the Nash Ensemble and the English Chamber Orchestra Ensemble.
As Director/Soloist, Stephanie Gonley has performed with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Oriol Ensemble Berlin, the Vancouver Symphony, the Academy Of St. Martin in the Fields, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Arensky Chamber Orchestra, Lancashire Sinfonietta and Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra.
Her concerto performances abroad have been with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Hannover Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Noord Nederlands Orkest, RTE National Symphony Orchestra. Regina Symphony (Canada), Norrköping Symphony, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Regensburg Phiharmonic, and the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Her recordings include the Dvorák Romance with the ECO and Sir Charles Mackerras for EMI, the Sibelius Violin Concerto for BMG/Conifer with conductor Adrian Leaper and a CD of baroque repertoire which she directed.
Stephanie Gonley is currently Professor of Violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she also studied with David Takeno. She is also a professor at Trinity Laban.
Amongst other awards, she was a winner of the prestigious Shell-LSO National Scholarship.
A winner of the Evgeny Svetlanov Conducting Competition and Luigi Mancinelli International Opera Conductors Competition, Valencia-born conductor Roberto Forés Veses conducts at many of the world’s leading orchestras and opera houses. Recent debuts have included the English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Di Milano (formerly ‘La Verdi’) and Israel Camerata Jerusalem. The forthcoming months will see debuts and returns with, among others, the Seville Symphony Orchestra, Basque National Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Pays de la Loire and Moravian Philharmonic. He will helm major opera productions at the opera houses of Zurich and Lausanne.
From 2011 until 2021, he was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orchestre National d’Auvergne – where he presided over a chamber orchestra tradition famous across France and internationally. Under his directorship, the ONA became much-in-demand as a recording orchestra – making many recordings, mainly for Warner Classics and boutique label Aparte Music, and in 2019 Forés Veses launched the orchestra’s own label. He has led the orchestra on several international tours, including to Japan, South-America and Brazil.
The many orchestras he has conducted also include, among many others, the NHK Symphony, Saint-Petersburg Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov”, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Prague Philharmonia, Het Residentie Orchestra (Netherlands), Orquesta Sinfónica da Porto Casa da Música, Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, RTVE Symphony Orchestra (Madrid), Orquestra de la Comunidad Valenciana, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Opera is also close to his heart – he has conducted at the Bolshoi Opera, Teatro Regio Di Torino, at the opera companies of Montpellier, Helsinki, Lyon, Rouen, Saint-Etienne and elsewhere.
Fores Veses regularly performs at many international festivals, including La Folle Journée de Nantes and Tokyo, La Chaise-Dieu, Murten Classics, Printemps des Arts (Monaco), Stresa Festival, Les Flâneries musicales de Reims, Festival de la Vézère, Festival de Polignac, Festival Bach en Combrailles and the Berlioz Festival. In 2018 he was invited to join select other Svetlanov Competition winners in a special festival marking the 90th anniversary of Svetlanov’s birth, at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.
Maestro Forés Veses has made more than a dozen recordings. Recently released are Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Alena Baeva (Warner Classics); Strauss’s Metamorphosen with Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht; Mahler’s arrangement of Schubert’s Death And the Maiden, and symphonies by Roussel, Honegger and Jean Rivier. Coming soon is Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1, one of the final recordings with Nicholas Angelich (Warner Classics).
John Mills studied at the Royal College of Music as a scholar under professor Rodney Friend, one of the great concertmasters.
As well as being one of the leaders of the Sinfonia of London, John is a member of the angling Chamber Orchestra and works as a guest leader with groups including the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra and others.
John is well known as a chamber musician and for 20 years has been the leader of the highly acclaimed Tippett Quartet, performing, and broadcasting across the UK and worldwide. He has recorded extensively, releasing over 40 discs with the quartet for EMI, Decca, Somm, Naxos, Signum, Classic FM and others.
John has a fine reputation as a soloist, appearing with the English Chamber Orchestra and performing double concerti with Maxim Vengerov, and with Stephanie Gonley around the UK and abroad.
Over the last 10 years, John has been performing and broadcasting the major violin repertoire worldwide including performances at the Liszt Hall in Budapest and concerts across New Zealand. Other recent performances include Erollyn Wallen’s concerto gross with the Refugee Orchestra project, Bach with the English Chamber Orchestra, Brahms, Elgar and Glazunov concertos around the UK.
John is in demand as an orchestra leader in commercial music. His studio work includes leading soundtrack sessions for The Batman, Jurassic World, Nightmare Alley, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins Returns, and Marvel’s Doctor Strange. He has worked closely with composers including Michael Giachinno, Marc Shaiman and Alan Menken. The Tippett Quartet is heavily featured on the soundtrack for the movie Knives Out by director Rian Johnson.
John plays on a c.1720 violin by Francesco Goffriller of Venice.