Lunchtime Music
Recital Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR
Free booking required
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Or, for unreserved seating plans, add a second ticket to your basket.
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Rowan Tidball clarinet
Joanne Sealey piano
Programme tbc
Jiaowen Liu cello
Charles Matthews piano
Barber Sonata for Cello and Piano in C minor, Op.6
Martinů Variations on a Theme of Rossini for 'Cello and Piano, H 290 (1942)
Rowan Tidball was raised in Cornwall where his musical upbringing was rooted in traditional folk music. He began playing the clarinet at seven and quickly found a passion for jazz with his teacher Simon Gilby, who taught him to improvise and introduced him to his first jazz band. Outside of these early influences, Rowan’s first introduction to music came through a deep love of the score in the Lord of the Rings trilogy which in fact inspired Rowan’s choice to take up the clarinet.
Rowan has enjoyed many musical opportunities, which have taken him around the UK, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, sometimes performing with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Folk Ensemble, and as a soloist recording a jazz album in Edam with Guitarist John Vickers as well as playing in renowned festival orchestras in the UK festival circuit.
He is in his 4th year at RBC studying with Douglas Mitchell and Mark O'Brien. Rowan plans to enjoy a musical life filled with anything and everything, and whenever at home, he doesn’t turn down the opportunity to play the old favourite folk tunes with his mum and dad.
Jiaowen Liu is a second-year MMus student at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, learning cello under Tim Smedley. She earned her undergraduate degree at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing.
Since starting her master’s at RBC, she has taken part in a wide range of performance projects. She plays chamber music such as piano quintets, string quartets and collaborates with various Conservatoire orchestras. She has performed twice with Brigantes Orchestra in Sheffield. She has also reached the finals of both the Herbert Lumby Prize and the Strings Prize at RBC.
In 2026, she received the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Stanley Wood Memorial Violoncello Scholarship.
Running time approx. 55 minutes