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Adrian Bradbury is a distinguished British cellist celebrated for his rich tone, expressive musicianship, and versatility across solo, chamber, and orchestral repertoire. With a career spanning major concert platforms in the UK and internationally, he is equally at home performing core classical works and contemporary compositions.
A committed chamber musician and collaborator, Bradbury is known for his attentive ensemble playing and musical insight. Alongside his performing work, he is dedicated to teaching and mentoring young musicians, sharing his experience and passion for the cello with the next generation of performers.
London Chamber Orchestra is a dynamic and versatile ensemble dedicated to bringing exceptional live music to audiences across the UK and beyond. With a passion for both classical masterworks and contemporary repertoire, the orchestra combines artistic excellence with an engaging, modern approach to performance. Known for its refined sound, collaborative spirit, and commitment to musical storytelling, London Chamber Orchestra works with outstanding soloists and conductors while also championing emerging talent. Whether performing in prestigious concert halls or more intimate settings, the orchestra aims to create inspiring musical experiences that connect deeply with every audience.
Andrew West is an English pianist widely respected for his artistry as both a soloist and chamber musician. Renowned for his sensitivity, intelligence, and expressive depth, he has performed at many of the UK’s leading venues and festivals, earning particular recognition for his work in song accompaniment.
A frequent collaborator with distinguished singers and instrumentalists, West is admired for his nuanced interpretation and ability to bring clarity and character to a wide-ranging repertoire. Alongside his performing career, he is also dedicated to teaching and mentoring the next generation of musicians, sharing his deep understanding of piano literature and collaborative performance.
Tenebrae is an internationally acclaimed British vocal ensemble renowned for its exceptional precision, rich blend, and expressive interpretations of choral music. Founded in 2001 by conductor Nigel Short, the choir is particularly admired for its performances of Renaissance sacred repertoire, while also championing contemporary works and innovative collaborations.
Tenebrae has earned numerous awards, including multiple Gramophone Awards, and is frequently praised for the clarity and intensity of its sound. Performing in major concert halls and festivals around the world, the choir is recognised as one of the finest vocal ensembles of its generation.
Thomas Kelly started playing the piano aged 3 and aged 9 performed Mozart’s 24th Concerto with Orchestra. Thomas studied at the Purcell School for Young Musicians and is currently the Benjamin Britten Fellow at the Royal College of Music, (the highest award for any pianist at the RCM) where he is guided by Professors Dmitri Alexeev and Vanessa Latarche.
Thomas was a prizewinner at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition, enjoying critical recognition and in 2022 won 2nd Prize and the semi-final concerto prize at Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition. He has won numerous international competitions including 1st prizes at the Pianale International Piano Competition (2017), Kharkiv Assemblies (2018), Lucca Virtuoso e Bel Canto Festival (2018), Theodor Leschetizky Competition (2020), and Intercollegiate Sheepdrove Piano Competition (2022). In 2024 Thomas was awarded the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother Rose Bowl upon graduating the RCM, and most recently became a finalist of the International Liszt Competition in Utrecht which will take place in January 2026.
He regularly collaborates with fellow musicians, including stepping in for Nikolai Demidenko alongside Dmitri Alexeev in his transcription of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite for 2 pianos in 2021, and performing Messiaen’s Turangalila-Symphonie with Jac van Steen conducting the RCM Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall. Past performances include Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Steinway Hall, Leighton House, St James’ Piccadilly, Stoller Hall (Manchester), West Road Concert Hall (Cambridge), Leeds Town Hall, Kammermusiksaal Berlin Philharmonie, Paris Conservatoire, the TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, the Lunel-Viel festival near Montpellier, StreingreaberHaus in Bayreuth, Teatro Del Sale and the British Institute in Florence. Thomas was also recently featured on the BBC Arts In Motion documentary series in a masterclass with Yuja Wang.
Thomas has also been a C. Bechstein Scholar supported by the Kendall-Taylor award, generously supported by the Keyboard Charitable Trust, and is grateful for the generous support of Talent Unlimited. Thomas is currently looking forward to a solo Wigmore appearance and regular concerto appearances among other upcoming performances.
To be confirmed…
Spanish accordionist Sofía Ros is rapidly establishing herself as one of the leading voices of her generation. In 2025, she was named BBC Radio Scotland Young Classical Musician of the Year, following her solo debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Andrew Gourlay, performing Piazzolla’s Aconcagua Concerto at Glasgow City Halls. She has appeared as a soloist with the Concerto Orchestra of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, after winning First Prize in the institution’s 2024 Concerto Competition.
Her 2025/26 season includes recital tours supported by the Hattori Foundation and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, along with engagements in the International Masters Series of Fundación Eutherpe and the Alicante Concert Society during the 2026/27 season. Sofía has performed at major international venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Musikverein and Konzerthausin Vienna, Purcell Room in London, Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, and the Altes Rathaus in Vienna. She has been featured in leading festivals including the Edinburgh International Festival, St Magnus Festival, East Neuk Festival, and Switzerland’s 1001 Harmonies Festival. Winner of the Trophée Mondial de l’Accordéon and the Manhattan International Music Competition, and finalist in the Royal Over-Seas League Competition, her work has been highlighted on BBC Radio Scotland’s Classical Now and BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. In the United States, she has performed with the Irving, Plano, San Angelo, and Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestras, under conductors including Héctor Guzmán. In Europe, she has performed Aconcagua at the Vienna Opera Ball with conductor Alastair Willis, and was praised by Revista Ritmo for her “extraordinary expressive unity with the instrument.” Beyond the concert stage, Sofía is deeply committed to educational outreach. During a recent tour of Texas, she led workshops in underserved schools, and as part of Live Music Now Scotland, she regularly performs in hospitals, care homes, and community centres. Born in the Canary Islands, she began playing the accordion at the age of five. At thirteen, she earned a full scholarship to study at St. Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh, receiving the Director’s Recital Prize in 2020.
She is currently based in Glasgow, studying with Djordje Gajic at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Her development has been supported by the ABRSM EU Undergraduate Scholarship, Craxton Memorial Trust, Drake Calleja Trust, Talent Unlimited, and Help Musicians UK. Sofía performs on a Pigini Sirius Compact bayan, handcrafted in Castelfidardo, Italy, and is dedicated to expanding the role of the classical accordion through performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and new music.
British Saxophonist Rob Burton won the Woodwind Category Final of BBC Young Musician 2018 and went on to secure a place in the Grand Final at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, where he performed as concerto soloist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Highlights since then include appearances with some of the UK’s leading orchestras, such as Britten Sinfonia and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra as well as at prestigious international festivals, including Leicester, Cheltenham, Harrogate, and Oundle International Festivals. Featured as one of Classic FM’s “Stars of Tomorrow”, he has performed in prestigious London venues, namely Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, St. James’ Piccadilly, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
Rob was winner of Silk Street Sinfonia’s Young Artists Concerto Competition, the 2019 Hans Schaeuble Award in Switzerland, as well as winner of the ‘Sussex Prize for Woodwind’ in the Royal Overseas League Annual Music Competition Final. An avid performer of new music, his recent performances have included multiple premieres, of music by Brian Elias, Richard Baker, Fabian Panisello and New Zealand-composer, Ross Harris.
His 2021/2022 season included his debut at London’s Wigmore Hall and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as appearing as concerto soloist for the world premieres of new concerti by British composers Paul Carr and Nathan James Dearden.
Rob previously studied Classical Saxophone on a full scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music with Huw Wiggin, and as Sax.co.uk scholarship holder at the Junior Guildhall School of Music, during which he was Principal Saxophone with the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain. He has recently completed his Masters degree at the Zürich University of the Arts (ZHdK) in the renowned class of professor Lars Mlekusch, and has been accepted on the prestigious Advanced Diploma degree at the Royal Academy of Music, starting September 2024.
Selected as a 2022 Rahnkultur Fonds scholarship winner, Rob is also a Vandoren UK artist and is grateful for the support of YCAT through their aftercare scheme for BBC Young Musician finalists.
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I’m a graduate of the prestigious Tonmeister course in Music and Sound Recording at the University of Surrey in the UK, and began my career working at the Decca Record Company. Decca led the world in the art of classical recording, and it was my extraordinarily good fortune to work with such incredible artists as Sir Georg Solti, Luciano Pavarotti and Dame Joan Sutherland, and to learn my craft from such legendary producers and engineers as Christopher Raeburn, Peter Wadland, Chris Hazell, Jimmy Lock, John Dunkerley and Simon Eadon.
After a brief spell working in radio (mainly travelling around Africa and Asia building studios) I moved to Abbey Road Studios, where I was soon promoted to become the engineer in charge of Studio One, possibly the most famous classical and film-scoring room in the world. Here I worked with literally hundreds of producers and engineers from all the major record companies and recording teams – it was an amazing educational opportunity, and in a world where most engineers tend to work with and learn from a relatively small collection of peers, this gave me an almost unparalled breadth of experience.
With EMI Classics, I travelled extensively across Europe and North America, recording major artists such as Sir Simon Rattle, Itzhak Perlman, Wolfgang Sawallish, Mariss Jansons, Antonio Pappano and Seiji Ozawa. At Abbey Road I set up a joint venture with Apple Computers that became Abbey Road Interactive. This pioneered many of the multimedia techniques that are now commonplace, including producing the UK’s first ever DVD, as well as creating websites and Enhanced CDs. I also developed Takelog, a software package for running recording sessions, which at one stage had been used on the film scores of six of the ten highest grossing movies of all time.
After completing an MBA from Imperial College Business School, and seeking new challenges, I left Abbey Road to join Warner Music Group. My task there was to persuade and prepare a somewhat reluctant organisation that this new-fangled internet thingy was really not going to go away, and that it would be a good idea to adjust its systems and processes accordingly. So a part of my work was to construct and maintain a huge global database of repertoire metadata, linked to an ever-growing archive of digitised material. This work has developed massively since I left, and can be seen today in all manner of streaming and download services, from Spotify to Apple Classical.
After four years in record company senior management, the siren call of working again at the sharp end of music production became too loud to ignore. So I decided to set out as a freelance producer and engineer and musician, and that’s what I’ve now been doing for the past two decades. I love the variety that the freelance life gives me. When working in large organisations the natural tendency is put people in boxes – “you are employed to do X, and therefore all you will do, or maybe even all you can do, is X”. But I abhor being pigeonholed this way. I am proud that I have developed world-class skills in many seeming disparate functions, and love the opportunities that I am offered to use a wide variety of them.
To give a flavour of the range of things I can do, I have put up a selection of examples of my work that show how my various skills have been used on different projects.
Turkish violinist Deniz Sensoy was named one of Classic FM’s Rising Stars of 2024, awarded the 2024/25 London Symphony Orchestra Conservatoire Scholarship, and selected as a Britten Pears Young Artist. She has received the ‘Future’s Women Stars’ Prize from the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, and the title of ‘Glowing Star of the Year’ from İş Bank. She was awarded the prestigious Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Scholarship to complete her Bachelor’s degree at the Royal College of Music, London. She now pursues her Master’s studies with Alexander Gilman at RCM, where she is supported by a full ABRSM scholarship. She has been selected as a Junior Fellow and will continue her studies on the Artist Diploma programme at RCM from September 2026.
Deniz made her Wigmore Hall debut in 2023, to which she now returns annually. She performed as soloist alongside Maxim Vengerov in celebration of his 40-year stage career at the Royal Albert Hall with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom she holds a two-year Fellowship beginning in 2025. As a member of the LGT Young Soloists, she has appeared at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Luxembourg, and Melbourne Recital Hall, continuing to tour internationally with the ensemble, performing at prestigious venues around the world. Other festival and concert appearances include the Lerici Music Festival, Cagliari International Music Festival and Südtirol Festival in Italy, Zorlu PSM and Istanbul Atatürk Cultural Center in Turkey, Morges Music Academy in Switzerland, and the Richard Jakoby Concert Hall in Germany. She has collaborated with Classic FM on a video recording for International Women’s Day at Southbank Centre in London.
She made her orchestral solo debut at the age of eight with the Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra and has since performed with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, İzmir State Symphony Orchestra, Olten Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others. She performed as soloist with the YMSO at Cadogan Hall and with the RCM Symphony Orchestra at Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall in a live-streamed performance. She represented Turkey as concertmaster of the ‘Iguazú en Concierto’ International Youth Symphony Orchestra, performing for an audience of over 5,000 at the UNESCO-organised International Music Festival in Iguazú in 2014. She has worked with distinguished violinists including Maxim Vengerov, Midori Goto, Alina Ibragimova, Dora Schwarzberg, Kolja Blacher, Alexander Markov, Mincho Minchev, Igor Ozim, Andrej Bielow, Daniel Rowland and Esther Yoo, as well as quartets such as the Brodsky Quartet, Quartetto di Cremona, Sacconi Quartet, and Marmen Quartet, through her ensemble, the Fiora Quartet, where she plays first violin.
Deniz currently plays on a Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù violin (Cremona, 1732), generously loaned by a private foundation and the RCM, as well as a Thomas Perry violin (Dublin, 1822), kindly loaned by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins. Her studies are also supported by the Contemporary Educational Foundation of Turkey (CEV) and MESA Holding.
Archie Bonham is a British pianist based in London, specialising in chamber music and song repertoire. Since 2024, he has been the Adami Award for Collaborative Piano Fellow at the Royal College of Music, where he is based in the Strings Faculty. In the same year, he was the New Horizons Fellow in Vocal Collaborative Piano at the Aspen Music Festival and School, working in the vocal studios of Renée Fleming, Carol Vaness and Stephen King, and performing widely in art song recitals and chamber music concerts across the festival.
Also in 2024, Archie was a Young Artist at Britten Pears Arts and the Shipston Song Festival, and served as the official pianist for the Wigmore Hall French Song Exchange — a competitive year-long programme led by Dame Felicity Lott, François Le Roux and Seb Wybrew, culminating in two recitals at Wigmore Hall and a performance at the Salle Cortot in Paris. His work at Britten Pears Arts included a particular focus on French song, mentored by Véronique Gens, Susan Manoff, and Audrey Hyland. He has won pianist prizes at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards at Wigmore Hall (2023) and the Ashburnham English Song Awards (2024), where he also received the prize for Best Duo, and during his studies at the Royal College of Music was awarded nearly all of the institution’s major prizes for vocal collaboration. He regularly appears in recital series’ across the country with singers and instrumentalists.
In 2026, Archie will join the faculties of the New Virtuosi International Violin Mastercourse in Oxford and the Oxenfoord International Vocal Summer School in St Andrews. Alongside his work at the Royal College of Music and freelance performing, he is Senior Piano Tutor at Gresham’s School in Norfolk. After undergraduate studies at the University of York, he completed a Master’s degree in Solo Piano and an Artist Diploma in Collaborative Piano at the Royal College of Music, studying with Danny Driver, Simon Lepper, Roger Vignoles, Kathron Sturrock. His studies were generously supported by the Needley Family Scholarship and the Viola Tunnard Trust.
A dynamic young cellist who plays with “full-blooded commitment” and “delicious dancing grace” (Telegraph), Leo Popplewell studied at Clare College, Cambridge, and later at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
In 2017 he formed the multiple award-winning Mithras Trio. They were selected as Kirckman Concert Society Artists in 2019, and BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists for the 2021-23 seasons. In 2022 he joined the London Mozart Players as co-principal cellist.
His studies have been generously supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Help Musicians UK, and the Craxton Memorial Trust.
Described as an ‘energetic and agile violinist’ with ‘bold, passionate colours’ Ionel Manciu is quickly building a reputation as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader.
Recent highlights include recordings of Chausson’s Concert and Bosmans’ Violin Sonata for BBC Radio 3. Ionel was appointed First Concertmaster of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. Moreover, he regularly collaborates as Guest-Concertmaster all around the world.
He is a sought-after chamber musician, and as a founding member of the Mithras Trio he won the 10th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition and 67th Royal Over-Seas League Competition. They are currently BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, Kirckman Music Society Young Artists and members of the Countess of Munster Trust Recital Scheme.
Julian was a chorister at King’s College Cambridge before deciding that a career in medicine called. Now living in Norfolk he regularly performs with Brenda Blewett and will be singing a selection of English songs by Britten, Vaughan Williams, Michael Head and Gerald Finzi.
Brenda recently retired as joint head of accompaniment at Chetham’s School in Manchester and now concentrates on her career as a concert accompanist.
Described by The Strad as “exuberant… seductive… with bravura and oodles of personality”, prize-winning violinist and composer Joo Yeon Sir has appeared as a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras, at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Wales Millennium Centre, and Liverpool Symphony Hall.
Joo Yeon’s extensive repertoire incorporates a substantial span of works, from Bach to the modern day. Her own compositions can be heard in concert, as well as being broadcast on the BBC, and Scala Radio. Notable compositional collaborations include her work with guitarist Laura Snowden, with whom Joo Yeon gives regular composition and education workshops.
She has performed recitals at Wigmore Hall and Bridgewater Hall, with pianist Irina Andrievsky, and is regularly featured on the BBC, Classic FM, Scala, RTE, and France Musique Radios.
Irina was born in Upha, Russia. She received her first piano lessons at the age of seven, winning first prize in the Ufa piano competition at the age of 10. At the age of 11 she went to Moscow to study at the Central Music School for Specially Gifted Children, a branch of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she would later graduate with distinction and receive her doctorate. In 1991 Irina emigrated to Israel and continued her music career, mainly performing solo recitals and chamber music. For the past 14 years Irina has developed an impressive career as a piano teacher in Israel, raising a generation of promising young pianists.
Since moving to the UK, she has participated in master courses and festivals in France, UK, Russia, and Israel, and has given solo and duo recitals with different instrumentalists; she possesses a very broad duo and accompaniment repertoire for violin, viola and cello. At present Irina is actively associated with Royal College of Music in London.
Photo Credit: Rino Pucci
violins: Benedict Holland & David Greed viola: Heather Wallington cello: Jennifer Langridge
In demand since its formation in 2017, the Victoria String Quartet has gone on to perform for chamber music societies and festivals throughout the UK and has been hailed as an ensemble ‘brim full with pedigree and wide experience’ (Buxton International Festival), performing at venues including Kendal (Lake District Summer Music), Pinner and Buxton Festivals, London, Manchester (Bridgewater, RNCM and Stoller halls), north Norfolk, north and west Wales and the Scottish Borders.
In addition to gathering return invitations to chamber music societies and festivals, the Victorias are curating an ongoing programme of creative projects: a collection of short chamber works about (and by) Sir John Manduell (Divine Arts), a recording of the Weber, Cooke and Brahms clarinet quintets, and a CD of string chamber music by Richard Pantcheff (to be released 2024 Prima Facie), with BBC Radio 3 presenter Tom McKinney. A recent autumn residency at Marchmont House in the Scottish Borders saw the Quartet performing and recording a collection of string chamber works by Scottish composer Helen Leach. Enthusiasts for lost and undiscovered works, in 2022 the Quartet gave the first public performances of Elgar’s Six Fragments for String Quartet and are looking forward to recording them in 2024. Since its inception, the Quartet has also enjoyed sharing the concert platform with eminent colleagues such as the quartet, Quatuor Danel, Peter Hewitt and Irina Andrievsky (piano), Leo Popplewell (cello), Richard Simpson (oboe) and John Bradbury, (Clarinet).
Having worked with the finest conductors for 30 years as a member of groups such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Philharmonia and Hallé, Leon learnt the repertoire and conductor’s craft from inside the orchestra, and finally made the transition to the podium in 2015, when he left Academy of St Martin in the Fields and went to study in St Petersburg with Alexander Polishchuk. Since then he has conducted orchestras across the UK, Europe, India, South Africa and Mozambique.
During his playing career, he performed concertos around the world and served as a guest with ensembles such as the Lindsays, Brodsky Quartet and Zukerman Chamber Players. He is professor of double bass at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in
London and gives masterclasses in the US, Europe, South Africa and the Far East.
British pianist, Peter Hewitt, is a masterful musician who has attracted great critical acclaim for his exceptional performances which combine a flawless technique with intense natural musicality and a searching intellect.
His latest video recording of Piano Suite Number Two by Jeffrey Joseph (a composer at Trinity Laban Conservatoire) is available on Youtube. Peter describes the work as “a fun and quirky composition which is very straightforward to listen to and has very interesting harmonies and sounds”
Equally at home at the organ, piano, harpsichord, and forte piano, Ben regularly collaborates with both instrumentalists and singers as an accompanist, and as an ensemble and continuo player has worked with several notable groups; The Royal Northern Sinfonia, Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, The Sixteen, and the BBC Philharmonic amongst them.
Ben combines a selective freelance career as an accomplished conductor and keyboardist with his role as Associate Artist Manager at James Brown Management. Additionally, and in partnership with Matthew Searles, Ben leads Affiné Creative, a boutique creative consultancy.
Ben’s debut solo album showcases the dance-inspired organ music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Dieterich Buxtehude, recorded at Ben’s alma mater, The University of York.
As a chamber musician, Benedict was a founder member of the Matisse Piano Quartet and the Music Group of Manchester, and is currently a member of the virtuoso chamber ensemble I Musicanti and together with friends David Greed, Heather Wallington and Jen Langridge, of the Victoria Quartet.
As an experienced orchestral leader, he has guest-led many of the UK’s major orchestras, including the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Northern Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, Orchestra of Opera North and BBC Philharmonic and until 2023, he was the violinist and occasional violist with the contemporary ensemble Psappha.
Piers Adams (recorders), Julia Bishop (violin), Angela East (cello) & David Wright (harpsichord)
Recently described in the New York Times as ‘the wildly virtuosic little band’ – the ensemble has been at the cutting edge of baroque music performance for over a quarter of a century. Formed in 1997 by recorder virtuoso Piers Adams, together with violinist Julia Bishop, cellist Angela East and the late Julian Rhodes, harpsichord (a role now filled by David Wright) – and named after the original ‘red priest’ Antonio Vivaldi – the quartet has developed a truly unique style, combining high-energy performance, boundary crossing arrangements and theatrical presentation, delighting audiences across the globe.
Hannah Lang (flute), Peter Adams (cello) & Peter Hewitt (piano)
The Litmus Trio was formed in 1997 and since then has enjoyed a busy schedule of concerts each season playing for numerous music festivals and clubs and at major venues around the UK
The unusual combination of flute, cello and piano has a surprising number of fine works written for it, and the Litmus Trio have performed works by Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn, to name some of the greats. As well as this their repertoire also contains fascinating, rarely heard works by lesser known composers such as Weber and Martinu. The Litmus Trio have also made a significant number of lighter arrangements of popular works ensuring that this trio is always in demand.
Mancunian tenor Lawrence Thackeray graduated from the Opera Course at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2015 after having originally trained in acting at The University of Salford before studying Musical Theatre for a year at The Royal Academy of Music. He then made the change to Opera in 2010 and studied classical singing at The D.I.T Conservatory of Music in Dublin before moving to London in 2013.
Lawrene is at home in opera, oratorio and lieder and his diary shows extensive commitment both in the UK and abroad. Lawrence has a particular connection with Norfolk as his mother, who is head of vocal studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire has a house in South Creake. Lawrence has an engaging personality and connects immediately with the audience.
Harpenden-born soprano Alison Langer is a proud GSMD alumni and recipient of an International Opera Award bursary (2017) and the Richard Agnes memorial prize. She has made her name rapidly in the opera world with an impressive performance of Violetta in Opera North’s production of La Traviata. The Times critic said…….
“Alison Langer is a vivacious, vulnerable Violetta….delivers quality on every front…the power and sweetness in her voice to convey Violetta’s essential mixture of outward verve and vulnerability.”
Alison Langer is quite the star soprano. Her voice is round, consistent and beautiful. She is married to Lawrence Thackeray and have a young son Ted.
Peter Hewitt devotes his music making to solo piano playing, chamber music and Lieder. Over the last 30 years he has built up many long term musical partnerships and has given thousands of concerts playing an average of 60 concerts each season. His recital work regularly takes him all around the UK, America & the Middle East.
Peter’s ongoing recording project of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas has attracted terrific critical acclaim. The five star review in International Record Review magazine said, “This is Beethoven speaking directly to us… Hewitt’s technique is flawless… here is the finest Beethoven piano sonatas debut disc I have heard for years; it deserves a place in every CD collection.” Vladimir Ashkenazy wrote about Peter’s amazing “attention to detail and devotion to the music. Hewitt is very musical… it touched me.” The great British Beethoven player John Lill commented, “Hewitt’s extraordinarily perceptive qualities and deeply sensitive soul are so well suited to this music. The Op.31 performances are inspiring!”
Recent past seasons have included regular appearances at all the major London venues, tours of Scotland and Wales, a performance at London’s South Bank Centre as part of the prestigious Fresh Series for outstanding musicians, tours to the Middle East, a performances of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with the London Festival Orchestra, an Emperor concerto at St George’s Bristol and a tour of the USA with recitals and masterclasses in Berkeley, Las Vegas, Louisiana, Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska and Philadelphia. He was recently invited to appear in a Virtuoso Pianists series in London featuring six of Europe’s finest virtuoso pianists.
Recent UK tours included performances of the Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky Piano Trios at St John’s, Smith Square, London, the Turner Sims Hall, Southampton, St George’s, Bristol and St David’s Hall, Cardiff. Peter also gave a series of nationwide Brahms sonata recitals featuring the complete duo sonatas for violin, cello and clarinet with piano which saw him give over 40 Brahms performances from the east corner of Kent to the west tip of Wales and including London and Scotland.
This season he is continuing with an ongoing project playing all five of the Beethoven concerti and is exploring the works of Grieg, not only the complete violin sonatas with violinist Peter Fisher, but also a recorded selection of his Lyric Pieces and Moods, released on CD in 2024. He’ll also be embarking upon a series of solo recitals devoted to Beethoven piano sonatas and there will be a further CD recording of Chopin Polonaises.
When not engaged in music making activities, Peter is a very keen gardener especially the growing of fruits and vegetables. He also enjoys walking and he walks many miles each week sometimes listening to music but mostly listening to nature. Medieval history is another keen interest with a special emphasis on the Plantagenets, a subject that has taken him around the UK and France looking at castles, cathedrals, churches and other historic buildings as well as enjoying the good food and wine of France. Peter also has a great love of humour and knows a good joke on almost all subjects!
He has recorded for BBC Radio and Television, broadcast on Radio 3, Classic FM, Australian Broadcasting Company and New Zealand Radio and also made critically acclaimed commercial recordings for LITmus, Tremula and Meridian.
David Green was the leader of the Orchestra of Opera North from 1978 – 2023 and was the youngest leader in the country at that time of his appointment. His solo and concerto repertoire is extensive, and he has appeared with most of the region’s orchestras as concerto soloist. He has recorded Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’ on the Naxos label with the Orchestra of Opera North and Elgar’s Violin Concerto with Hertfordshire Youth Orchestra.
As guest leader, David has appeared with many of the UK’s most prestigious ensembles, including the Philharmonia, Royal Opera, Hallé, Royal Liverpool, CBSO, BBC Scottish and BBC Philharmonic orchestras, and is currently Music Director of the Sinfonia of Leeds and Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra.
Kimi studied at Soai University of Music in Osaka with Machie Oguri, at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva with Nobuko Imai, and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with Garth Knox.
During the course of her career she has won numerous prizes, including the 2nd Tokyo International Viola Competition and the Kyoto Aoyama Music Award.
In addition to solo performances with the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, she has appeared at various festivals including Viola Spaces, Verbier Festival Academy, Luzerne Festival, Takefu International Music Festival, Groba Music Festival and Les Estivals de Megève.
The former Assistant Principal of the BBC Philharmonic orchestra, Kimi now divides her time between principal guest work for ensembles in the UK and Europe alongside a busy chamber music career.
John Bradbury is a leading British clarinettist. Born in 1967, he read Natural Sciences at St. John’s College, Cambridge and went on to the Royal Academy of Music where he won the Hawkes Clarinet Prize and the Principal’s Prize. In 1993, John joined the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and and two years later joined the London Symphony Orchestra, as second clarinet.
In 1997 he was invited to his present post – Principal Clarinet with the BBC Philharmonic. Since then, the orchestra has recorded over 120 CDs, made over 500 broadcasts, given 50 Proms and over 20 international tours. John has appeared as soloist with the orchestra many times, notably performing the Mozart Concerto under Gunther Herbig, and recording the Busoni Concertino under Neemi Jarvi. His Scherzetto by Malcolm Arnold was Editor’s Choice in “The Gramophone”.
John is the brother of Adrian Bradbury the cellist.
Simon Leach (0rgan) graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music and is a former organ scholar of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King. He combines the post at Canongate with teaching posts at the ESMS Schools in Edinburgh and St Mary’s Melrose. He is the organ tutor at Manchester University, an Academy tutor for the Royal College of Organists and an examiner for the ABRSM. Simon enjoys giving solo recitals in this country and abroad and has particularly enjoyed performing at Westminster Cathedral, St Patrick’s Cathedral and St Thomas 5th Ave, New York and Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris. He is on the team of organists that play for the BBC Radio 4 Daily Service and has played the organ for ITV’s Coronation Street on several occasions. Prior to his appointment at the Canongate Kirk, Simon held positions at the Holy Name Church, Manchester and St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Edinburgh.
Leon Bosch is one of the world’s best double bass players. He grew up in South Africa, the son of the political activist Jonas Fred Bosch, and spent time in a police cell for organising protests while at school. He left the apartheid regime behind to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Leon is committed to rediscovering neglected music, as well as expanding and diversifying the double bass repertoire. Nicknamed the ‘Paganini of the double bass for his ability to astonish audiences with his virtuosic performances, Leon Bosch has rapidly established an international reputation as one of the foremost advocates of the ‘Cinderella of Instruments’ and as a passionate interpreter of the works of Bottesini. Having worked with the finest conductors for 30 years as a member of groups such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Philharmonia and Hallé, he learnt the repertoire and conductor’s craft from inside the orchestra, and finally made the transition to the podium in 2015, when he left Academy of St Martin in the Fields and went to study in St Petersburg with Alexander Polishchuk. Since then, he has conducted orchestras across the UK, Europe, India, South Africa and Mozambique.
Away from music, he runs marathons and ultra-marathons and holds a master’s degree in Intelligence and International Relations from Salford University. He is professor of double bass at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London and gives masterclasses in the US, Europe, South Africa and the Far East. He is also a regular contributor to music journals.
Rob Burton Cambridgeshire Saxophonist Rob Burton won the Woodwind Category Final of BBC Young Musician 2018 and went on to secure a place in the Grand Final at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, where he performed as concerto soloist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Highlights since then include appearances with some of the UK’s leading orchestras, such as Britten Sinfonia and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra as well as at prestigious international festivals. Featured as one of Classic FM’s “Stars of Tomorrow”, he has performed in prestigious London venues, namely Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, St. James’ Piccadilly, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
Rob studied Classical Saxophone on a full scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music with Huw Wiggin, and as sax.co.uk scholarship holder at the Junior Guildhall School of Music, during which he was Principal Saxophone with the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain. He completed his master’s degree at the Zürich University of the Arts (ZHdK) in the renowned class of Professor Lars Mlekusch.
Founded in 2012, The MAGNARD ENSEMBLE have built a reputation for delivering both high-quality concert performances and dynamic educational projects. Since making their international debut at the Culture & Convention Centre Lucerne, Switzerland in January 2017, the Ensemble have appeared at venues such as Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall and St Martin-in-the-Fields as well as festivals and concert societies nationwide, including a residency at the Britten-Pears Foundation, Aldeburgh.
The quintet held the Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music, London, as well as the inaugural joint fellowship between the RAM Open Academy and the Wigmore Hall Learning Department. The Ensemble have also been selected artists for Making Music, the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust, the Tillett Trust Young Artist Platform and the Tunnell Trust.
The Ensemble are also known for their passion for new music The Ensemble created their Revolting Rhymes and Marvellous Music project to celebrate the centenary of Roald Dahl’s birth. They are passionate about working with children.
Currently studying at the Royal College of Music on a full scholarship under the tutelage of Danny Driver, Amiri holds the Ann Driver Trust Scholarship, supported by the Victor Dandaleh Foundation. He previously studied at Trinity Music Academy under Richard Evans.
Amiri regularly performs across the UK and abroad. Amiri’s Royal Festival Hall concerto debut with Chineke! Orchestra was universally acclaimed, described as a “Royal Festival Hall debut of considerable panache” (Geoff Brown, The Times) as he brought “confidence and a touch of grandiloquence to Grieg’s Piano Concerto.” (Richard Fairman, The Financial Times).
He was also selected as one of the first Tabor Piano Ambassadors for the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition, representing the Royal College of Music. He continues to work with the competition to deliver education and outreach initiatives.
Amiri uses his versatile music experiences to inspire his playing. Until age 14 he sang as a treble with the renowned Trinity Boys Choir, performing in opera productions at Glyndebourne, Royal Opera House, Garsington, and English National Opera. He also performed at the Aldeburgh Festival and Amina Mundi Festival in Pisa alongside the Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, as well as touring Japan in 2015.
Described by BBC Music Magazine as a “worthy successor to Julian Bream, Australian born guitarist is one of the most exciting artists of his generation. He studied g from the age of 7 and percussion from 13. In 2004 he became the youngest instrumentalist to receive a Fellowship Award from the Royal Northern College of Music where he is now professor of guitar.
He left Australia with a music degree from the University of Western Australia.
Ogden’s performances have taken him throughout the UK, into Europe, the USA, South East Asia, South Africa and Australia in recital, on radio and on television. In London, Ogden regularly appears as a soloist and chamber musician at major venues including the Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Barbican. Ogden’s recording of all three solo Rodrigo guitar concertos with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra was greeted with wide acclaim. Rodrigo’s daughter wrote to the guitarist: “This recording has confirmed your position among the greatest guitarists.” in Ogden is married to British opera singer Claire Bradshaw with whom he frequently appears in concert. The duo has toured Australia and South Africa and perform regularly in festivals, for music societies and on radio.
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