You are warmly invited to this joyful presentation of music featuring Ken and Rachel Bartels and the Rushmere Concert Choir, directed by Richard Hubbard (St Edmundsbury & Ipswich Music Development Director). The concert is free - just turn up!

    

RACHEL BARTELS  
 
Rachel was brought up in Clydach, near Swansea. She studied the harp at the Royal Academy of Music, gaining a Bachelor of Music degree in 1995 and winning the coveted Guy Magrath and Julia Leany Prizes for individual harp recitals. A successful competitor, Rachel was a finalist in the Texaco Young Musician of Wales Competition in 1989 and, two years later, won the Mark Jones Award, a prize instituted in memory of a young bandsman killed in an IRA bomb attack in Deal.  
 
A keen Eisteddfodwraig, Rachel has won first prize at all the major Eisteddfodau, culminating in winning the Blue Ribbon at the Royal National Eisteddfod in Neath in 1994. 
 
Rachel has appeared on many occasions playing live on television including appearances on the Margaret Williams Show, with Bryn Terfel and on ‘Songs of Praise’. She was also part of ‘Live Music Now’ which is an organisation founded by Lord Menuhin to take music into all parts of the community.  

As a busy soloist Rachel has performed at the Royal Albert Hall, the Festival Hall and the Barbican. In October 1997 as part of  the All Souls Orchestra she accompanied Cliff Richard on his Gospel Tour around Britain. Rachel was also part of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust recital scheme which invited her to perform recitals throughout the country.   

 
KEN BARTELS 
 
Ken Bartels was born in Woodford Green, Essex. He received lessons at school on the flute, clarinet and saxophone, and also studied the piano privately.  From the ages of 15 to 18 he studied at the Guildhall Junior Department where he was awarded the ‘Lutine Prize’ for his flute playing. He was also awarded the Associated Board’s Gold Medal Award at this time for achieving the highest mark in the country for his Grade 8 flute exam. 

After leaving school Ken studied for his BMus at Royal Holloway College, University of London, and then for a P.G.C.E. at Middlesex Polytechnic.  

Since leaving college Ken has combined instrumental teaching with free-lance playing and examining for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. He has appeared on the BBC TV  series ‘Come Holy Spirit’ , ‘Summer Sunday’ and ‘Songs of Praise’, and has also played for the Radio 4 ‘Daily Service’. Other highlights include playing on a UK Gospel tour with Cliff Richard.  Ken regularly plays in a flute and harp duo with his wife, Rachel, with whom he has recorded three CDs.