Described as a ‘profoundly gifted artist’ by Gramophone Magazine, Katya Apekisheva has earned her place as one of Europe’s most renowned and gifted pianists. Born in Moscow, into a family of musicians, she attended the Gnessin Music School for exceptionally gifted children making her stage debut at the age of 12. She continued her studies in Jerusalem at the Rubin Music Academy and later at the Royal College of Music in London. From these auspicious beginnings she went on to be a Prizewinner of the Leeds International Piano competition and has gone on to enjoy a career performing with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Halle Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, working with renowned conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, David Shallon, Jan Latham-Koenig and Alexander Lazarev.
Her latest disc is a collection of impromptus of which international piano called ‘a fascinating and engrossing album’. As a recording artist, Katya has received widespread critical acclaim for her interpretations from Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice award and International Piano Magazine’s Critics’ choice to Classic FM’s CD of the week as well as a Classical Brit award to name but a few. Katya’s discography includes solo and chamber works by Mussorgsky, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Dvorak and Rachmaninov.
Recent and future highlights include performances in Russia, Norway, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Germany, Australia and at home in the UK at the Bath Mozart Fest, St. George’s Bristol and the prestigious Wigmore Hall – where she is a regular presence. Her intense artistry and delicacy makes Katya a most sought after collaborative pianist, working with artists such as Janine Jansen, Natalie Clein, Guy Johnston, Maxim Rysanov, Jack Liebeck, Boris Brovtsyn, Alexei Ogrinchouk and Nicholas Daniel and she appears regularly at major chamber music festivals around the world. Katya also has a highly successful and personally rewarding piano duo partnership with Charles Owen, performing regularly at festivals worldwide. Together they are co-Artistic Directors of the London Piano Festival which began in 2016.
Maksym Artemenko began his journey with the piano at an early age but embarked on formal studies and serious repertoire development at the age of 14. By 16, he was accepted into the Kharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts, where he studied under the esteemed Professor Olga Fekete. In 2023, he proudly completed his bachelor’s degree in piano performance.
Maksym has earned recognition through his participation by getting prizes in numerous international competitions, including the Sheepdrove Piano Competition, Czerny Competition, Amadeus International Competition, and the Chopin Competition (Narva, Estonia). He has also performed at prestigious festivals such as the Lancaster International Piano Festival, Kharkiv Assemblies and the Chamber Music Academy YSOU. He has also appeared on stage at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall (Youth Proms) and has given solo recitals in Germany, Spain, France, and across the UK.
Throughout his career, Maksym has had the privilege of participating in masterclasses with world-renowned pianists and professors, including Dmitri Alexeev, Alexander Kobrin, Vanessa Latarche, Martino Tirimo. These experiences have been instrumental in shaping his artistry.
Since September 2023 his studies are generously supported by the Alfred and Therese Kitchin Scholarship and the Sheepdrove Trust.
Latvian cellist Kristina Blaumane is invited to play as a soloist with orchestras, recitalist and chamber musician around the world.
Born in Riga and graduated from the Latvian Academy of Music, where she studied with Eleonora Testeleca and Guildhall School of Music and Drama (prof. Stefan Popov).
She has performed as a soloist with London Philharmonic Orchestra (under Vladimir Jurowski, Osmo Vänskä, Andrey Boreyko and Thierry Fischer), Amsterdam Sinfonietta (Lev Markiz and Pieter Oundjian), Chicago Civic Orchestra (Andris Nelsons), MDR Symphony orchestra (Kristjan Jarvi), Kremerata Baltica, Britten Sinfonia, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Latvian National Opera Orchestra, Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonietta Riga, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Sofia Soloists, Plovdiv Opera Orchestra, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Ensemble Ubertini, Dalarna Sinfonietta and others.
Kristina is a keen chamber musician and has worked in partnership with such artists as Isaac Stern, Leif Ove Andsnes, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Yo Yo Ma, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Boris Brovtsyn, Roman Mints, Maxim Rysanov, Katya Apekisheva, Jacob Katsnelson, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Misha Maisky, Nikolaj Znaider, Tatyana Grindenko, Oleg Maisenberg among others, and has performed at the festivals such as Lockenhaus, Gstaad, Salzburg, Verbier, Basel, Jerusalem, Amsterdam Cello Biennale, Utrecht, Spitalfields, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, Homecoming and Crescendo.
Kristina has been an avid promoter of new music. She made a number of world premieres, among them cello concertos by Dobrinka Tabakova, Kristaps Petersons, Peteris Plakidis, Artem Vassiliev and most recently-Elena Langer. Kristina appears as a soloist on the ECM debut disc of composer Dobrinka Tabakova, which reached number 2 in the UK classical charts and has received a GRAMMY nomination.
Besides this CD Kristina has recorded for ONYX, QUARTZ, Harmonia Mundi, BIS and BMG labels.
Kristina is a winner of many awards including Latvian Philharmonic Young Musician of the Year, Latvian Television Competition “Alternativa”, Carmel International Competition, Musicians Benevolent Fund and Lord Mayor’s Prize.
She is a three time laureate of Grand Music Award (Lielā Mūzikas Balva), the highest prize given by the Latvian State in the field of music (2005; 2007; 2023).
Since 2007 Kristina combines her busy career with a principal cello position in London Philharmonic Orchestra.
“Violist Meghan Cassidy stands out with a fine tone, a good feeling for chamber music and a real personality” (Tully Potter, The Strad).
Meghan enjoys a diverse musical career as a soloist, chamber musician in festivals world wide and an orchestral principal. As a soloist the 2026 season includes a tour of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra with violinist Danny Koo. The tour will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Orion Orchestra with performances at Cadogan Hall London, 14th May, and The Jubilee Hall Aldeburgh, 16th May.
Meghan was a member of the prizing winning Solstice Quartet 2006-2016 (competitions include 1st prizes from the Royal Over-Seas League, the Park Lane Group and The Tillett Trust). Alongside a chamber music career Meghan is 1st Guest Principal Viola with The London Mozart Players, and Sub-Principal Viola with The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra where she is looking forward to a return performance at Carnegie Hall in May 2027. In the spring 2019 she was made an Associate of The Royal Academy of Music. That same year Meghan was the Solo Violist for Hugh Jackman’s U.K. and European Arena Tour of The Man The Music the Show. To celebrate composer Malcolm Arnold’s Centenary in 2021 she performed his Viola Concerto with the Ealing Symphony Orchestra.
Meghan records many soundtracks for Film, TV, and pop with London’s Studio Orchestras. She also performs Violin and Viola for the multi award winning musical Hamilton in the West End where she has been a member since 2024.
As a passionate advocate for musical education, she is a Tutor for Nicola Benedetti’s Foundation. Meghan is Founder and Artistic Director of the Marylebone Music Festival in London. The Festival will enjoy its 11th Anniversary season 15th-21st June 2026, all proceeds from the Festival go to Charity where over £70,000 has been raised. In June 2020 The Marylebone Music Festival, released an Album with Air-Edel Besant Hall Records ‘Songs from the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens’
Joanne Chiang is a London-based Taiwanese percussionist specializing in musical theatre and the performing arts. She made her West End debut as a percussionist on My Neighbour Totoro at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, becoming the first Taiwanese percussionist to work in the West End. Her other West End credits include deputy percussionist on Spirited Away at the London Coliseum.
Prior to focusing on musical theatre, Joanne made her solo debut in England with the world premiere of Buried Chants by Rūta Vitkauskaitė, commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music in 2020. She has since collaborated with a wide range of composers and music labels across Europe and Asia.
Praised by Classical Voice North America for her “shining, rounded timbre,” Hilary Cronin won First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2021 London Handel International Singing Competition and was selected by BBC Music Magazine as a Rising Star of 2022.
Hilary trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and at Royal Holloway University of London where she was awarded the Dame Felicity Lott Bursary and the Driver Prize for Excellence in Performance.
Since then, she has established a reputation as an outstanding performer of Baroque music. Conductors with whom she has collaborated include David Bates, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Harry Bicket, Harry Christophers, Jonathan Cohen, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Maxim Emelyanychev, John Eliot Gardiner, Sofi Jeannin, Stephen Layton, Paul McCreesh, Christophe Rousset, András Schiff, Dinis Sousa and Peter Whelan.
Hilary’s 2025 – 2026 engagements include the title role in Cesti’s L’Orontea for MusikTheater an der Wien, St John Passion with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Handel’s Hercules with The English Concert, Messiah and Christmas Oratorio with Polyphony, and Mahler Symphony No. 4 with Royal Northern Sinfonia. She also joins Springhead Constellation for The Heavens Rejoice: A Bach Easter Trilogy.
Her recordings include J. S. Bach Christmas Oratorio with English Baroque Soloists on DG, Second Lady Dido and Aeneas with La Nuova Musica on Pentatone SACD and Telemann Donner-Ode with Solomon’s Knot on cpo.
Otis Enokido-Lineham is a British/Japanese conductor currently based in London. He has worked internationally as a conductor across the fields of Symphonic, Contemporary, Opera and Youth/Community Music.
Last season’s highlight including winning 1st prize at the Giancarlo Facchinetti Conducting Competition in Brescia and reaching the finals of the 2025 International Khachaturian Competition in Armenia, both of which have led to upcoming debuts and concerts throughout Europe.
For the 22/23 season Otis was an Assistant Conductor with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). He also held the position of Associate Conductor with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group NEXT Programme and worked with both ensembles in a variety of concerts and projects. This season he debuts with the Orchestra Sinfonica della Città Metropolitana di Bari, Cambridge Philharmonic and in a new opera production at Teatro Coccia.
In the world of opera he has worked with English Touring Opera, Wild Arts, the Aldeburgh Festival and at St Endellion Festival, which he returns to later this year for a performance of Britten’s War Requiem.
Since 2021 Otis has taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School as Head of Orchestras and features in their CD release ‘Around The World In 80 Minutes’ alongside artists such as Maxim Rysanov on Orchid Classics. He has also worked with the National Youth Orchestra, Purcell School Symphony Orchestra, London Schools Symphony Orchestra, National Children’s Orchestra and on a side-by-side project with the London Mozart Players and students from the GDST.
In the field of contemporary music, he has worked with several of the major ensembles in the UK including London Sinfonietta, BCMG and at the Aldeburgh Festival. Abroad he has performed with the Divertimento Ensemble, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto and Danubia Orchestra and continues a number of these collaborations in the next season.
Peter Facer grew up in Hertfordshire and attended Girton College, Cambridge where he read music, graduating with a double first class degree. He then studied as a postgraduate at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he graduated with distinction and received the DipRAM for an outstanding final exam. After this, he moved to Germany to continue his studies at music conservatoires in Hanover and Rostock. During his final semester, he was offered the role of Principal Oboe with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
After working with WASO for some years, he relocated to Great Britain and was subsequently appointed as Co-Principal Oboe with Britten Sinfonia, a position which he held until 2025, when he was promoted to Principal Oboe. Besides Britten Sinfonia, he regularly appears as a guest principal oboist with the Royal Opera House, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Irish Chamber Orchestra and many other UK orchestras.
Peter also enjoys frequent collaborations with conductor John Wilson, and is a founder member of Wilson’s newest venture: Sinfonia of London – a hand-picked orchestra comprising the finest players from Britain’s orchestral scene.
As a concerto soloist, Peter has recently performed the Marcello Oboe Concerto with the Britten Sinfonia at Wigmore Hall, and whilst with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra gave the premiere performance of Andrew Schultz’s quadruple concerto Maali.
Peter is also a composer and arranger, and is published by Universal Edition. He was a recent prize-winner in the Aglaia composition awards and his oboe works The Praying Mantis and Manhattanhenge were performed in the semi-final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, and in the final of the Royal Overseas League Competition.
In 2019, Peter was honoured to be made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
Cellist Rebecca Gilliver is principal cellist of the London Symphony Orchestra where she has been a member since 2002. She studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal Northern College of Music, where her teachers included William Pleeth, Melissa Phelps, Moray Welsh and Ralph Kirshbaum. She is also a Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as well as a teaching guest at several courses, including the Deeside Cello Project, Alpine Kammermusik, and her own Dorset Cello Classes. She has also given masterclasses at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and the Julliard School, New York.
Rebecca’s wide-ranging career combines working as a soloist, chamber music, orchestral work and teaching. Early success in national and international competitions led to critically acclaimed debuts at the Wigmore Hall, London and Carnegie Weill Hall, New York. She has played as a concerto soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, to name a few, under the batons of Sir Mark Elder, Sir Antonio Pappano, Paarvo Jervi and François Xavier-Roth. Rebecca plays as much chamber music as she can get and has been a long-standing participant at IMS Prussia Cove and guest at the Nash Ensemble.
Rebecca is also involved with musical outreach, both at the LSO Discovery Department and outside the orchestra. She runs a small local music initiative, Worlds End Music, which brings professional musicians living in her area of Kent together with their local audience.
Richard Gowers is Principal Conductor of the London Handel Orchestra and Choir of the 21st Century, and Director of Music at St George’s Hanover Square, Handel’s church in London. He appears regularly as a soloist at the world’s most prestigious venues, including multiple performances at the Philharmonie Berlin at the invitation of the Berlin Philharmonic, at the Musikverein in Vienna with trumpeter Matilda Lloyd, Suntory Hall, Tokyo as soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Antonio Pappano, and further solo appearances with the LPO, Philharmonia and Ulster Orchestra.
As a conductor he gave his debut with the Academy of Ancient Music at the Monreale Festival of Sacred Music in Sicily, and appears regularly at the London Handel Festival directing programmes of Handel and Bach’s Passions. In the world of opera he was Assistant Conductor to Finnegan Downie Dear at the 2025 Aix-en-Provence Festival, and directed the children’s chorus in Barry Kosky’s
Carmen at the Royal Opera House.
As an organist he presents recitals across Europe, Australia and the USA, and performs regularly with trumpeter Matilda Lloyd, with their album Fantasia released on Chandos Records. His own critically-acclaimed recording of Messiaen’s La Nativité du Seigneur was named a Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’, described in the magazine as “tremendously focused and intensely cerebral playing…[conveying] the fundamental musicality of the work”. He has frequently appeared live on BBC Radio 3, as well as on Radio 4, Classic FM, and BBC Television.
As a pianist he specialises in song repertoire and chamber music. In 2017-19 he held a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Michael Dussek and Joseph Middleton and won prizes for song accompaniment and chamber music. He was awarded the Schubert Institute UK Prize at the 2019 Leeds Lieder Festival, and has appeared at Wigmore Hall, Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival and Oxford Lieder Festival and with singers such as Mary Bevan, Ashley Riches, Kieran Carrel and Helen Charlston.
Gowers was a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge, where he sang the notorious ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ solo at the 2007 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, broadcast live on BBC Radio 4. He became a prizewinning Fellow of the Royal College of Organists aged 17, and subsequently spent a year at the Mendelssohn Conservatoire in Leipzig with a Nicholas Danby Trust bursary, before returning to King’s as Organ Scholar and graduating with a starred first in Music. In 2025 he completed the Konzert Examen course in Stuttgart with Prof. Nathan Laube. Richard Gowers is based in London, where he combines performing with teaching at the Royal Academy of Music and Cambridge University, for which he founded an annual online Harmony and Counterpoint course. He was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in 2024.
Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sasha Grynyuk studied at the National Music Academy of Ukraine and later at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. For many years and up to this day Sasha is also benefiting from the artistic guidance of the founder of the Keyboard Trust Noretta Conci-Leech.
Sasha was described by legendary Charles Rosen as “an impressive artist with remarkable, unfailing musicality always moving with the most natural, electrifying, and satisfying interpretations”.
Winner of numerous competitions, prizes and awards, Sasha was chosen as a ‘Rising Star’ for BBC Music Magazine and International Piano Magazine. His successes also include First Prizes in the Grieg International Piano Competition and the BNDES International Piano Competition, in addition to winning the Guildhall School of Music’s most prestigious award – the Gold Medal.
Sasha has performed around the world in major venues including Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Weil Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall, New York), Teatro Real (Rio de Janeiro). He has performed with such orchestras as the Royal Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica Brasiliera, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine.
His album of music by Glenn Gould and Friedrich Gulda for Piano Classics was chosen as the record of the month for the German magazine Piano News and shortlisted for the New York Classical Radio.
Sasha is an Ambassador of the London Music Fund established by the Mayor of London in support of talented children from London’s under-served communities.
With a voice described as ‘bell clear and beautiful’ (The Stage), English-Dutch countertenor Francis Gush is a graduate of the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Lawrence Zazzo and Rosa Mannion.
Enjoying a burgeoning international operatic career, Francis has performed with companies such as Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Tolomeo– Giulio Cesare, cover), English Touring Opera (Cesare– Giulio Cesare), the Opéra de Lille (Athamas– Semele, cover) and the English National Opera (Engage). Francis also recently made his international debut, performing the title role Titus in Titus L’Empéreur at the Händel Festspiele in Halle (Opera Settecento) to critical acclaim. This summer, Francis will make his debut at the Buxton International Festival, singing Harold in Dommett’s contemporary opera, Disorderly House, as well as Ixion in Charpentier’s Orphée with Vache Baroque.
Equally comfortable in concert and oratorio, Francis has made his debut with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, singing a programme of Purcell and Blow. Other notable concert work includes his performance at the Wigmore Hall with Steven Isserlis, which was described as a ‘show-stealing turn’ (The Arts Desk), and his ‘blow-away performance’ (The Stage) as Arsace in Hampstead Garden Opera’s Partenope / Handel. Francis has also covered the Spirit (Dido and Aeneas / Purcell) at the BBC Proms with La Nuova Musica.
Francis completed a season as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing as the solo singer in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi.
Richard Hyams is a highly experienced trombonist with over 35 years of freelance performance across a wide range of orchestras and ensembles. He studied privately with James Casey and Arthur Wilson, and has since built a diverse career spanning both classical music and musical theatre. His touring credits include major productions such as Scrooge, Cabaret, and Dr. Dolittle.
Richard was a founding member of the Empire State Band, which performed for 25 years, and he currently appears with Tom Carradine’s show, as well as the Lee Memphis King ETA and Peter Gill’s Show.
He is particularly looking forward to performing The Leaden Echo in today’s concert.
Combining fierce pianism, an unrivalled breadth of repertoire, and a level of interpretative refinement that ascends to the realms of poetry, Vadym Kholodenko rises as an artist the likes of which the world has rarely seen since the great pianists of the Golden Age. Gold Medallist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Kholodenko’s distinguished pianism and profound artistic gifts have led to invitations from many of the world’s finest orchestras and concert halls.
Recent and forthcoming concerto highlights include those with leading orchestras of North America (Atlanta Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra); Europe (Budapest Festival Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, London Philharmonic, and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra); and Asia & the Far East (National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra). In recent seasons, he has held the position of Artist-in-Residence with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (Texas, USA), and the SWR Symphonieorchester (Stuttgart, Germany), and in 2025 made his debut at London’s BBC Proms.
Kholodenko has forged strong musical partnerships with many of the world’s leading conductors, including Karina Canellakis, Myung-Whun Chung, Christoph Eschenbach, Iván Fischer, Marie Jacquot, Cristian Măcelaru, Susanna Mälkki, Gemma New, Sir Antonio Pappano, Dima Slobodeniouk, Thomas Søndergård, Krzyzstof Urbański, and Kazuki Yamada, amongst others.
In recital, Kholodenko appears on the world’s leading stages – from London, Paris, and Vienna, to Boston, Chicago, and New York – where he is praised for his “iron-clad technique, capable of moments of crystalline delicacy” (The Guardian). He is also a thoughtful and committed chamber musician, enjoying rewarding collaborations with an array of such artists as Clara Jumi-Kang, Anastasia Kobekina, Vadim Repin, and the Belcea and Jerusalem string quartets. He has made numerous recordings with violinist Alena Baeva, with whom recent and forthcoming appearances include concerts in the cultural capitals of Florence, London, and Paris.
Possessing an extraordinary facility for the assimilation of music, the sheer scale of Kholodenko’s knowledge and command of the piano literature is unrivalled, and he holds a vast array of active repertoire. His discography to date encompasses solo piano works by a diverse list of composers (J.S. Bach, Balakirev, Beethoven, Chaplygin, Kurbatov, Liszt, Medtner, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Rzewski, Schubert, Scriabin, Siloti, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky, amongst others). Recordings for the Harmonia Mundi record label include the Grieg Piano Concerto, Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No.2, and the complete cycle of Prokofiev’s piano concertos.
Kholodenko’s recordings have been described as “truly outstanding” (Gramophone Magazine), and received such accolades as Editor’s Choice Award (BBC Music Magazine), and the much-coveted Diapason d’Or de l’année. His latest release – a pairing of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated! for the Quartz Music label (2022) – met with tremendous critical acclaim, described as “carefully contoured and impactful” (BBC Music Magazine), and “playing that pulls no punches: Kholodenko is in the elite of classical pianists” (Norman Lebrecht, for The Critic).
Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Vadym Kholodenko took his first piano lessons at the age of six, and began touring internationally at thirteen years old. He was educated at the Kyiv Lysenko State Music Lyceum and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, under the renowned pedagogues Natalia Gridneva, Borys Fedorov, and Vera Gornostaeva. He won First Prize at the Sendai International Piano Competition (2010) and Schubert International Piano Competition (2011), before taking the Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (2013). He is now resident in Luxembourg.
After his initial request to play the double bass was discouraged due to the size of the family car, Ashok settled on the cello aged 8 and has loved playing it ever since.
Half Indian, a quarter Czech and a quarter Irish by blood, Ashok was born in London. He moved to Malawi as a baby, where he lived happily, and warmly for 3 years, before being brought back to cold, rainy North London. Musical ancestors on his Indian side include his great-great-uncle -the Bengali composer, lyricist, singer, writer, lawyer, philanthropist and educationist Atul Prasad Sen (1871-1934), whose songs are known throughout India – and Ashok’s grandmother Ratna Killick – a talented pianist who met and performed with Lord Yehudi Menuhin on one of his visits to India.
Despite the genes, Ashok’s musical start was somewhat shaky – being asked to leave his school’s choir and attaining a mediocre pass in his Cello Grade 1. However, thanks to the endless dedication of his wonderful teachers (and a patient, practice-supervising mum), things quickly improved. He has gone on to perform around the world, as a member of the Artea Quartet, Barbirolli Quartet, Cellophony and Chineke! Chamber Ensemble. Ashok has taught cello at the Yehudi Menuhin School and given classes at the Royal Academy of Music.
As a cellist he has won various competitions and prizes, but the biggest ‘achievement’ by far that he continues to be a part of, is raising two children – Enzo & Anoushka – with his wife Natalie Klouda, whilst both of them continue to be performing musicians and jointly run the Highgate International Chamber Music Festival.
Ashok regularly records from the major London studios and from the Kloudas’ own SoundKlouda Studio. He has played principal cello on tracks which have been streamed billions of times, with artists such as Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and Rosalía. Most children in the Western world have likely heard his cello on the recent film ‘K-Pop Demon Hunters’. Classically, Ashok has recorded for Decca, Nimbus Alliance, Lyrita, Edition Classics and Champs Hill Records.
An avid Formula One fan, Ashok would probably have been an engineer of some sort had he not ended up pursuing music. As his colleagues will attest to, he can often be found tinkering with his instrument’s setup – trying to optimise every aspect of it. He also loves table tennis, Star Trek and all things dark chocolate.
Kateryna Kolosok is a Ukrainian violinist who began studying the violin at the age of six. She graduated from the Kyiv Music College with a Junior Degree, where she received professional training and performed in various student and ensemble projects.
She has participated in the baroque project Kryla Orchestra Open Opera Ukraine, gaining experience in historically informed performance. Her festival and orchestral experience also includes performances at the Hiiumaa Homecoming Festival (Estonia) and with the Philharmonisches Jugendorchester Berlin (2024).
Three months ago, she moved to the United Kingdom to continue her studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where she is studying under Roman Mints.
Born into a family of musicians in Novosibirsk, and settling in New Zealand in 1996, Natalia has established herself internationally as a versatile performing artist. Since her debut with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of seven, Natalia has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Lord Menuhin, Philharmonia, Singapore Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Christchurch Symphony, Tokyo Royal Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic and numerous others.
Natalia has collaborated with several distinguished conductors including Lionel Bringuier, Matthias Bamert, Arvo Volmer, Olari Elts, Vladimir Verbitsky, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Eckehard Stier, Dmitri Slobodenyuk, Vladimir Ashkenazi, Valery Polyansky and Mikhail Gerts. Following her 1st prize wins at ‘Premio Paganini’ and Michael Hill International Violin Competitions, Natalia recorded with pianist Olga Sitkovetsky for Dynamic, Fone, Trust Records, Atoll, with violinist/violist Yuri Zhislin for Naxos and Orchid, with Alexander Karpeyev for SOMM Records and pianists Ivan Martin and Dinara Klinton for Orchid Classics. Her latest album of Schumann, Prokofiev and Szymanowski was chosen BBC magazine Chamber Choice of the Month , 2024. October of 2024 saw release of Vierne Piano Quintet on Sony Classical (France).
Natalia has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician in prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Kings Place, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Buckingham Palace, the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall. She has performed chamber music with such distinguished musicians as Maxim Vengerov, Gidon Kremer, Paul Meyer, Eric Le Sage, Michael Collins, Emmanuel Pahud, Yuri Bashmet, Ivan Martin, Daishin Kashimoto, Alessio Bax, Claudio Bohorquez, Natalie Clein, Lise Berthaud and Tabea Zimmerman.
Passionate educator, Natalia and her husband Yuri Zhislin established a concert series in London to enable young soloists to perform as soloists with Camerata Tchaikovsky.
Natalia has been appointed a Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music in London in 2010, The Yehudi Menuhin School in 2024 and currently resides in London.
Sofi Lomidze is an 18-year-old Ukrainian violinist. She began her musical journey at the age of three at the Betz Dan Jewish Cultural Centre in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and later studied under the guidance of her influential violin teacher, Olena Yevheneva, at the Kharkiv Children’s Music School. Sofi is a laureate of numerous international violin competitions in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Spain, Georgia, and Ukraine.
After the war began in Ukraine in 2022, Sofi was forced to leave her homeland. She has being studying at The Purcell School for Young Musicians in London under the guidance of Aistė Dvarionaitė. She has performed with the Sitkovetsky Chamber Orchestra and is a regular guest with the Royal Orchestral Society Orchestra and the St James Chamber Orchestra.
Sofi has participated in masterclasses with distinguished musicians including Roman Mints, Leonid Zeyde, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Daniil Kurganov, Sergey Malov, and Olga Kaler. She is actively involved in fundraising concerts in support of Ukrainian children and humanitarian causes, including raising funds for medical ambulances, and has performed alongside musicians such as Roman Mints, Dima Udovichenko, and Nicholas Daniel.
She has performed at a number of prestigious venues, including Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and Duke’s Hall. Sofi believes there is no other path to baring her soul in duty to God and endowing people with her inner light than through the violin.
Iryna Marchuk is a Ukrainian violinist born in Chernivtsi in 2001. She began playing the violin at the age of seven and received her early musical education in Ukraine before continuing her studies in London. Since 2024, she has been a student at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where she studies with Roman Mints.
After the outbreak of the full-scale war in 2022, she relocated to Germany and spent the 2022–2023 academic year as a guest student at the Hochschule für Musik Dresden. During this period, she also became a member of the Ukrainian National Youth Orchestra and took part in major international events, including the Bachfest Leipzig and other European cultural projects. Iryna has been a three-time participant of the Homecoming Chamber Music Festival (Estonia), where she performed alongside distinguished international musicians, further deepening her experience in chamber music.
Her competition achievements include prizes at national and international competitions in Ukraine, including the international “Chords of Khortytsia” competition and the Mykhailo Elman International Violin Competition, as well as advancing to the second round of the Stockport International Young Musicians Competition in 2025.
Iryna is the recipient of the Pavel Kushnir Scholarship (2025) and the Shield Award (2024). She frequently appears in both solo and chamber settings and regularly performs across London at a variety of distinguished venues. She also performs actively as a member of various orchestras.
One of the most outstanding and original musicians of his generation, Roman Mints has collaborated with such prominent musicians as Gidon Kremer, Misha Maisky, Sharon Bezaly, Nicholas Daniel, Ingrid Fliter, Alexander Kobrin, Vadym Kholodenko, Katya Apekisheva, Kristina Blaumane, Maxim Rysanov, Nils Mönkemeyer, Gweneth-Ann Jeffers and Anna Dennis. He has also worked alongside conductors Andrew Davis, Saulius Sondeckis, Vladimir Ziva and Natalia Ponomarchuk, among others.
Roman has performed with leading ensembles including the London Mozart Players, London Chamber Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Brno Philharmonic, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. He has also been a member of the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, the oldest contemporary music group in Russia.
Roman has recorded for ECM, Harmonia Mundi, Quartz and Melodiya, with albums featuring a number of world-premiere recordings. An album of works by Dobrinka Tabakova for ECM was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium. He was also featured on another ECM album of Tabakova’s music, Sun Triptych, which was awarded BBC Music Magazine Orchestral Choice in December 2025. His latest album is Kol Nidre, an album of Jewish music, released by Quartz Music in November 2025.
His recording of solo violin music, using an innovative recording approach invented by Roman and dubbed “spatial orchestration,” was selected as CD of the Week by WQXR Radio New York and included on the annual wish list of Fanfare magazine critics. The album of Leonid Desyatnikov’s music for violin and orchestra was nominated for an ICMA Award and received a Five-Star review for both performance and recording in BBC Music Magazine. His album of Hindemith Sonatas with pianist Alexander Kobrin won a Supersonic Award from Pizzicato magazine.
Roman has given world premieres of over one hundred works by composers including Dobrinka Tabakova, Leonid Desyatnikov, Langer, Kurbatov, Bennett, Irvine, Burrell, Filanovsky and Kourliandsky.
In 1998, Roman Mints co-founded the Homecoming Chamber Music Festival in Moscow, which gained widespread recognition for its intellectually driven, thematically curated programmes. Since its inception, he has authored more than sixty such programmes. In 2002, he co-directed the Suppressed Music project in Russia, comprising concerts and a conference devoted to composers whose music had been suppressed; a book and CD were subsequently released by Klassika XXI Publishing House.
Beyond the classical sphere, Roman has collaborated with free-improvising saxophonist Paul Dunmall, vocalist Alisa Ten, the Brian Irvine Ensemble, the Pokrovsky Ensemble, and IDM bands EU and AIGEL. He has also participated in theatre productions including Langer’s Ariadne and Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, and has worked with theatre directors Vasily Barkhatov and Tim Hopkins, choreographers Alla Sigalova and Oleg Glushkov, and film director Alexander Zeldovich. His recording of the Mozetich Violin Concerto Affairs of the Heart has been used in productions by Hong Kong Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Q-Dance Company.
Roman teaches violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Following the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Roman has been actively involved in charitable work in support of the Ukrainian people, including benefit concerts at the Duke’s Hall at the Royal Academy of Music and at St John’s, Waterloo, raising funds for medical supplies and ambulances for Ukrainian hospitals.
In the summer of 2024, Roman co-founded the Open Bar Chamber Music Festival in Montenegro. Later the same year, he founded Another Music Festival in London.
Roman Mints began playing the violin at the age of five. In 1994, he won a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London and also studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, winning prizes at both institutions. His principal teachers were Felix Andrievsky, Larisa Svetlova and Natalia Fikhtengoltz. Roman lives in London and plays a Francesco Ruggieri violin, circa 1685.
Based in London, Julia enjoys a vibrant and multi-faceted career as a performer, educator and artistic curator that regularly sees her appear at prestigious venues and festivals both as a soloist and alongside many distinguished artists and ensembles.
The recipient of an EMI Music Foundation Award, she made her London concerto debut in 2006 performing the Elgar Concerto at St. John’s Smith Square which immediately led to further engagements including a performance of Haydn’s C major Concerto with the International Mahler Orchestra at the same venue as well as Elgar with the Ternopol Philharmonic Orchestra in Ukraine. Other concerto performances have included Lalo in London and Vivaldi in Cologne. As a recitalist she has appeared around the UK, Belgium, Italy, Germany and at venues such as the Purcell Room, Oxford’s Holywell Music Rooms, Trieste Opera House, St. Martin in the Fields, the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Charterhouse Festival and the Tacoma International Music Festival, USA. Most recent festival appearances have included the Chichester, Swaledale, Leamington, Lower Machen, Uckfield and Shipley Arts Festivals. Julia has collaborated with many renowned artists including Shlomo Mintz, Roger Vignoles, Vadim Tsibulevsky, Roman Mints, Anna Kandinskaya, Mikhail Bereznitsky, Madeleine Mitchell, Roger Chase, Emanuel Abbühl, Joan Enric Lluna, Kathron Sturrock, and Oleg Poliansky to name a few.
A passionate chamber musician, she spent eleven years performing as the cellist of the Erato Piano Trio, one of the UK’s leading young ensembles which she founded in 2005. After winning the 2006 Anglo-Czech Trust Competition, the Trio performed at many important venues across the UK and mainland Europe such as the Purcell Room, Martinu Hall Prague, Zurich’s famous Tonhalle, St. David’s Hall Cardiff, as well as for the prestigious Pharos Trust series in Nicosia, Cyprus. In 2013 they made their debut in Asia with an extensive
tour across China, performing in major halls in cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Xiamen. They were members of the Making Music Concert Promoters and Concordia Foundation Young Artist Schemes, which awarded them numerous recitals across the UK.
Their recording of chamber works by David Braid was released on the Toccata Classics label in 2012. Julia’s other chamber music engagements have included tours to Croatia and Italy with the acclaimed British ensemble Fibonacci Sequence as well as chamber music recitals in Singapore and Montenegro. Since 2022 she is the cellist of Trio Lalique (alongside pianist, Ilya Kondratiev and violinist, Yuri Kalnits) which has been described as ‘superb’ and ‘sensational’ by critics.
Julia is joint Artistic Director of ‘ChamberMusicBox’, a chamber music collective she founded in 2016 with violinist, Yuri Kalnits that brings together distinguished artists from the UK and all across Europe to perform hugely diverse programmes in formations from duo to small chamber orchestra. Her vision and leadership won plaudits during the Covid-19 pandemic when ChamberMusicBox became one of the first UK arts organisations to promote socially-distanced live concerts and staged the internationally noted Fermata Festival, which brought together top UK musical talent with an exhibition of over 100 visual artworks created by classical musicians during lockdown.
As an orchestral player, Julia regularly works as a guest with distinguished orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Mozart Players, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Contemporary Orchestra and has played guest principal cello with the English Symphony Orchestra, Northern Ballet Sinfonia and the London Concert Orchestra. Julia’s varied schedule increasingly also features commercial music, recording for film and television, as well as performing with rock legends such as Rod Stewart.
Alongside her performing career, Julia has earned a reputation as an exceptionally gifted and sought-after teacher. As well as teaching in London as well as online, she is regularly asked to give masterclasses and workshops internationally, with recent invitations to Cyprus and Slovenia. Passionate about education, she also shares her knowledge around all aspects of cello playing with her ever-growing YouTube community.
Julia was taught by Raphael Wallfisch, and Klaus Heitz at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover before completing her degree at the Royal College of Music with Leonid Gorokhov, where she also trained as a pianist. She performed in numerous masterclasses and received guidance from distinguished musicians such as Lluis Claret, Bernard Greenhouse, Alexander Ivashkin, Alexander Baillie, Salvatore Accardo, the Chilingirian Quartet and, most importantly, Russian cellist, Alexander Volpov.
Julia plays on an exceptional instrument made by Charles Boullangier in 1882.
Anna Nemchuk (18) began playing violin at the age of five with Katerina Skrypak. She continued
her studies at the Odesa Special Music School named after Professor Stolyarsky, where she also began piano.
She has participated in numerous competitions, including the International Festival-Competition Chords of Khortytsia and the Evgeny Stankovich International Instrumental Competition. She was invited to the Morawa Music Academy in Poland, where she also took part in the Hedwig Prize Competition.
After moving to the UK with her family in May 2022, Anna joined the Junior Guildhall, studying violin with Itamar Rashkovsky. That summer, she attended Pro Corda’s chamber music and violin courses. Since then, she has performed widely as a soloist, in chamber ensembles, and with orchestras, as a principal second violin of the Thames Valley Youth Orchestra and performing with the Junior Guildhall Symphony Orchestra and chamber groups.
From 2023 to 2025, Anna studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and in September 2025, she began the BMus (Performance) course at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, continuing to deepen her training as a violinist.
Lily Payne began studying the clarinet at the age of seven under the guidance of her mother. In 2014 she joined The Purcell School, where she studied with Joy Farrall and graduated in 2022.
She continued her studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Andrew Marriner and Rob Ault (bass clarinet), where she was awarded direct second year entry and graduated in 2025 with First Class Honours.
Lily’s performance highlights include Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet in Russia as part of the Moscow Meets Friends International Festival. In 2021 she made her concerto debut performing Copland’s Clarinet Concerto at Cadogan Hall, and she has also appeared at Wigmore Hall performing Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie.
As part of Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday, Lily performed his ’Domaines‘ for solo clarinet, broadcasted live on BBC Radio 3, for which The Times wrote: “Payne in particular showed remarkable expressive flair in Domaines, shading the notes with multiple subtleties.” She also performed as second clarinet alongside Antony McGill in Mozart’s Gran Partita with the Guildhall Wind Soloists and was a finalist in the prestigious Needlemakers Prize.
Lily has taken part in masterclasses with renowned clarinettists including Karl Leister, Pascal Moragues, and Martin Fröst. In October 2025, she began her masters studies at the Lübeck Academy of Music with Jens Thoben.
Born in London, Nathan Perry started playing the double bass aged 8, beginning his studies at the Royal College of Music’s Junior Department with Frances Preston. A year later he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Yehudi Menuhin School, where he studied with Caroline Emery and graduated in 2023. He is currently in his third year at the Royal College of Music, where he continues his studies with both Caroline and Rodrigo Moro Martin, as an ABRSM Scholar.
Motivated by a desire to show the double bass as a solo and chamber instrument as much as possible, Nathan endeavours to demonstrate that it is capable of the same level of technique, depth of tone colour, and profound musicianship as any other string instrument.
Recently, Nathan was a semi-finalist in the 2025 Bromsgrove International Competition as its youngest competitor, and achieved 2nd Place in the Aileen Gore String Competition in Dublin. Previously, in 2023, Nathan was in the International Society of Bassists Solo Division Competition as one of the youngest competitors in the competition’s history, where he was awarded 3rd Prize. Other awards include 1st prize at the RCM Double Bass Competition 2024, String Category Winner of Gregynog Young Musician of the Year 2022, and Prizewinner at the Haslemere International String Competition 2023. Nathan has performed as a soloist with the Dorking Chamber Orchestra and Menuhin School Orchestra, along with solo appearances at the Lichfield Festival, North Norfolk Music Festival, and in venues such as the Amaryllis Fleming Hall, and London’s Kings Place. Along with fellow RCM bassist Levi Andreassen, he was featured in a duo performance on the Menuhin School’s first commercial album with Orchid Classics, ‘Around the World in 80 Minutes’.
Nathan is an avid chamber and orchestral musician, and currently enjoys an active freelance career. He regularly performs with outstanding orchestras, such as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orpheus Sinfonia, Le Foyer des Artistes, and Sinfonia Cymru, working with many renowned conductors, including the late Sir Andrew Davies, Martyn Brabbins, Jac van Steen, and Ryan Bancroft. Nathan is a member of the LGT Young Soloists, an ensemble comprised of outstanding young musicians from across the globe, who perform internationally in venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. In 2024, he also appeared at the Chamber Music on Valentia Island Festival.
Alexandra Raikhlina is a Moscow born young and exciting violinist with a passion for chamber music.
After moving to Belgium in 1990 she was Laureate of the “Charles de Beriot” competition in Belgium before being awarded a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School. Later she received a full scholarship to complete her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Alexandra has performed extensively as a soloist and a chamber musician in Belgium, England, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, Greece, Germany, Portugal, Hong-Kong, Indonesia and Australia. She has appeared as a soloist and a chamber musician in Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Fairfield Halls, the Sage Gateshead, Centro Cultural De Belem and Helbphilharmonie.
Amongst the numerous prices and awards she received are: Craxton Foundation, the Martin Scholarship Foundation and was awarded the LSO String Scheme Experience. She was a prize winner at the Richmond upon Thames Performing Arts festival and a finalist and special prize winner (for best performance of a sonata) at the International Koningin Sophie Charlotte competition.
Alexandra has appeared as a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Epsom Symphony Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Newcastle University Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra.
Alexandra is a keen chamber musician, has frequently performed with the Edinburgh Quartet and Ensemble 360, was shortly a member of the Matangi Quartet and regularly performs with the Shostakovich Ensemble.
Latest chamber music projects have included regular collaborations with leading UK musicians such as: Alexander Sitkovetslky, Boris Brovtsyn, Jack Liebeck, Natalie Clein, Krzysztof Chorzelski, Thomas Carroll, Katya Apekisheva and Philip Dukes.
Alexandra’s BBC Proms appearance was part of the “Composers Portrait” programme broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Other radio appearances have included performances on BBC Radio 3’s “Free Thinking Festival” and for BBC “In Tune”.
Alexandra has participated in Festivals including the Gstaad, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Paxos, Oxford Lieder Festival, Oxford May Music Festival, Highgate International Chamber Music Festival, Northern Chords Festival, Ulverston Festival, Marryat Players Festival, North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, Surrey Hills and Petworth Festival.
Alexandra held the position of sub-principal first violin with the Royal Northern Sinfonia from 2009 to 2022. Alexandra was recently chosen as inspirational woman by the “JesmondLocal” for International Women’s Day.
Alexandra is Founder and Artistic Director of Brundibár Arts Festival based in Newcastle/Gateshead.
In October 2023, Alexandra released her first CD “Forgotten Voices Rediscovered”.
Mikhail Rudoy (viola) was born on March 8th, 1986 in Moscow. He began his violin studies at the age of 5. In 2001 he entered the Moscow Special Gnessin Music School where he studied with Prof. E. Ozol. In 2004 he continued his studies at the Moscow State Conservatory with I. Naidin (Borodin Quartet) and at Ghent University with Prof. M. Kugel. Mikhail’s chamber music teachers include Prof. A. Bonduryansky (Moscow Trio) and Prof. A. Shishlov (Shostakovich Quartet).
He is a prize winner of numerous international chamber music competitions, including:
- III Prize at the 14th International Johannes Brahms Chamber Music Competition (Pörtschach, Austria, 2007)
- Grand Prize at the 1st T. Gaidamovich Chamber Music Competition (Magnitogorsk, Russia, 2007)
- I Prize and Special Prize at the 3rd International Sergey Taneyev Chamber Ensemble Competition (Kaluga, Russia, 2008)
- II Prize at the “Night & Sun” International String Quartet Competition (Rovaniemi, Finland, 2009)
- II Prize at the International Nikolay Rubinstein Competition of Chamber Ensembles and String Quartets (Moscow, Russia, 2010)
In 2011 – 2022 Mikhail was a member of the New Russian Quartet. The ensemble had an extensive international concert history, including performances at the Royal Festival Hall (Purcell Room) and Kings Place in London, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Seoul Arts Center, as well as numerous concerts in Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and other countries. The New Russian Quartet has collaborated with such prominent musicians as Shlomo Mintz, Boris Berezovsky, Alexey Volodin, Alexander Rudin, Vadym Kholodenko, and many others.
Since 2022, Mikhail Rudoy has been living in Estonia. He regularly performs with the X-Tet Ensemble, collaborating with Yuri Zhislin, Evgenia Epshtein, and Alexey Steblev.
Australian-born violinist and composer, Patrick Savage, enjoys a diverse international career that spans classical, cinematic, and popular music. A former Principal First Violin of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and first violinist of the Tippett String Quartet, Mr. Savage has performed as guest concertmaster with leading orchestras worldwide. He currently serves as the first violinist for the West End production of Hamilton in London.
In 2024, Mr. Savage released the critically acclaimed The Golden Age of Hollywood: Concert Works for Violin and Piano, in collaboration with pianist Martin Cousin. Featuring world-premiere recordings of rare works by legendary Hollywood composers, the album was named Chamber Music Choice of the Month by BBC Music Magazine in June 2024.
A frequent presence on Australian radio, Mr. Savage recently completed a set of premiere recordings for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, including his own violin and piano arrangement of Camille Saint-Saëns’ score for the 1905 silent film, The Assassination of the Duke of Guise.
Beyond the concert platform, Mr. Savage is a member of BAFTA and an accomplished composer for film and television. His scoring work, in collaboration with French composer Holeg Spies, includes the scores for the cult horror film The Human Centipede and the award-winning Abruptio.
Konstantin is a North London-based trombonist and educator. Having graduated from the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, Konstantin held the First Trombone position at the Moscow Provincial Theatre for over six years. His orchestral career includes working at the Moscow-based Ensemble of Song and Dance and the Belgorod State Philharmonic, where he played in a big band. As a freelance musician, Konstantin performed in symphonic orchestras, rock bands and chamber ensembles.
London-based trombonist Stephanie Shore is an accomplished freelance musician whose career spans orchestral, theatre, and session performance. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied with Dudley Bright, Mark Templeton, Ian Bousfield and Matt Gee, and has been recognised with awards including the RAM Brass Prize (Highly Commended) and Don Lusher Soloist Prize (2nd Prize). As a freelance musician she has performed with ensembles including the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, London Film Orchestra, Orion Orchestra, the Tailleferre Ensemble and the A R Rahman & Firdaus Orchestra in India. Stephanie is the principal trombonist with Symphonica, a DJ orchestra outfit, with whom she tours the UK and beyond.
Her extensive theatre credits include productions such as Aladdin (UK Tour), Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang (UK tour) The Barricade Boys, Come What May, and I, Joan at Shakespeare’s Globe, alongside tours with the Neil Diamond – Hello Again show and James Bond & More. She is also active as a session musician, recording for television and video game soundtracks, and performing with several UK big bands.
In 2014, Stephanie setup Chapel Brass alongside her sister (Trumpeter Rebecca Waite), a brass quintet who perform for a wide range of events, from recitals to corporate and community engagements.
Beyond the stage, she is passionate about music education and outreach, having worked with organisations such as English Touring Opera, Wigmore Hall, Spitalfields Music, and the National Portrait Gallery, delivering workshops in schools and for people living with dementia.
Milena Simovic was born in Belgrade. Presented as a “musician with innate musicality” by critics in Great Britain, Milena enjoys a versatile career as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, North and South America.
Milena’s concerts have been broadcasted live on BBC Radio 3, Medici TV, Rai Uno in Italy, Arte etc. and her performances praised as “…exceptionally delivered performance, charged with brilliant combination of operatic quality, which was jaw-dropping at times”, “seductive and exciting…with rare artistic sensibility” in the press.
Milena holds a professorship at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London and is a resident viola and a chamber music coach at the Villa Musica in Germany, Culture Festival in Sardinian town of Santulussurgiu, and PYFA Academy in Wales UK, which enjoys versatility of students from all continents. Milena is also a regular member of external jury for professional and masters studies at the Royal Academy in London.
As a soloist and passionate chamber musician, Milena performed in halls around the world, Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Royal Albert Hall, Purcell Room in London, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hall in Hamburg, Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Opera House in Tel Aviv.
As a chamber musician, Milena collaborated with Ivri Gitlis, Vadim Repin, Antoni Menezes, Julian Rahlin, Denis Kozhukhin, Itamar Golan, Roman Simović, Gordan Nikolić.
She collaborated with numerous conductors including Sir Colin Davis, Daniele Rustioni, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Pablo Gonzalez and Nil Venditti.
Milena was Nigel Kennedy’s “recording artist” between 2015 and 2017, with whom she recorded 3 CDs, while this season is releasing a CD with a concerto for viola and choir by Muhamed Feriuz, for the famous house Signum.
Milena Simović received Bachelor and Masters of Music from the Belgrade University of Arts Faculty of Music, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Milena continued her further studies with viola and has completed Advanced Studies at the Zurich University of the Arts as well as Introduction in Psychology at the Yale University.
Milena Simović lives in London and plays a Paolo Antonio Testore viola from 1740.
Praised as “a sensitive and absorbing interpreter” (Musical America), Korean-American violinist Elly Suh stands out as a performer whose musical charm, interpretative originality, and unique creative vision breathe fresh life to concert stages around the world.
Suh is celebrated as one of the leading Paganini interpreters of her generation, and is currently undertaking a major recording project of Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin. Reflecting her modern creative spirit and innovative approach to music, the Paganini Vault project is a narrative audio-visual album – serving as just one example of Suh’s subtle but compelling expansion of the traditional boundaries and expectations of classical music, as we move further into the 21st century.
Alongside her charming interpretations of the major works of the violin literature, Elly Suh is recognised as a major exponent of contemporary works for violin. Herself a talented composer and musical arranger, Suh brings individuality and a unique creative voice to all her performances – often through newly composed cadenzas, improvisations, or orchestral arrangements of both known and unknown works. Her self-composed cadenza for Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.4 in the semi-finals of the Queen Elisabeth Competition for Violin, Belgium (2019) – which incorporated the Belgian National Anthem – was received with enormous popularity and wide critical acclaim, appearing on several major televised news channels.
Suh has been a regular on the competition circuit since 2012, when she took Second Prize at the Naumburg International Violin Competition, New York. Since then, she has gone on to take either the Grand Prix, Top Prizes, or Special Prizes at more than ten international competitions, including the Moscow International David Oistrakh Violin Competition, Premio Paganini International Violin Competition, Michael Hill International Violin Competition, Leipzig International Bach Competition, International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and London International Classic Olympus, amongst others.
Whilst studying in New York, Suh worked regularly as Guest Concertmaster with Lincoln Center’s American Ballet Theatre Orchestra. Now an international soloist, recent and forthcoming engagements include performances with the ORT Orchestra della Toscana, Orchestra della Magna Grecia, L’Orchestra della Fondazione Teatro Carlo Felice, Leipzig Pauliner Barockensemble, Korean Chamber Orchestra, New York Classical Players, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, the Lviv Virtuosos Chamber Orchestra, and a tour of Germany with the Janacek Chamber Orchestra. In concert, she has appeared on such stages as Carnegie Hall, Smetana Hall in Prague, Dubai Opera, London’s Bechstein Hall, Lotte Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Center, and Lincoln Center, and has performed at the Al Bustan Festival, Pharos International Festival, Dubai InClassica Festival, and the Salzburger Festspiele.
Born in Seoul, Suh first began violin lessons at the age of five. Instantly recognized as possessing a fiercely prodigious talent, she went on to enter The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division in New York at just 10-years-old. Under the tutelage of eminent professors including Robert Mann, Joel Smirnoff, and Sally Thomas, she went on to obtain both her Bachelor’s Degree and her Masters of Music at The Juilliard School, before embarking on post-graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music. Following this, Suh moved to Europe to undertake post-graduate studies at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg under the guidance of the celebrated violinist Pierre Amoyal.
Elly Suh lives in London, and plays on a Guarneri del Gesù violin on generous loan from an anonymous patron, through the kind assistance of Florian Leonhard Fine Violins.
“A versatile and accomplished artist” was how Classical Music Magazine described Stacey many years ago and the Scottish press heralded him as “A Wizard” of the Double Bass. Neither may have realised at the time that more versatilities and wand waving were to follow. He is Principal Bass with the National Symphony Orchestra, Alina Orchestra and New London Orchestra.
Historically he held seats as Principal Bass with the London Chamber Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Orchestra of the Swan, Primavera Chamber Orchestra, the English Soloist’s Ensemble, Johann Strauss Gala Orchestra and for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber for many years. Stacey has also appeared as a guest principal with larger groups such as the Royal Concertgebouw, the Royal, London and BBC Philharmonics, the Hallé, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Opera North, English National Opera and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Stacey made his concerto début on the Bass at the age of thirteen and on the Piano at seventeen. He won the Eugene Cruft Prize for the Double Bass at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied as a scholar and later taught. Stacey appeared live on Russian television and radio after becoming a special prize winner at the first International Koussevitzky Double Bass competition in Moscow in 1995.
Having had a tremendously busy career as a concerto soloist, chamber musician and orchestra principal performing on recordings, live television and radio broadcasts, not to mention having a busy commercial career recording the soundtracks to numerous Hollywood films and Pop tracks. Stacey diversified his career further creating his own music festival in London in 2002 playing Double Bass, piano, and conducting. His extensive repertoire and skills impressed others in the West End and went on to be offered associate conductor positions for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom sequel “Love Never Dies” subsequently ‘Les Misérables’ for Sir Cameron Mackintosh and then the Lion King for Disney.
After passing with Distinction in Conducting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Stacey studied conducting briefly in Finland with Jorma Panula and Atso Amila. Head of Conducting at the Sibelius Academy at the time, Atso was keen to offer Stacey a place at the prestigious conservatoire, but the idea was declined due to other professional commitments. Jorma Panula, legendary conducting guru, who mentored the likes of Esa Pekka Salonen, Sakari Oramo, Mikko Franck, Jukka-Pekka Saraste said: “Yes!! You describe the music!” after he saw Stacey conduct Dvorak’s 9th Symphony, with the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra in Finland. He even held the doors and called him Maestro!
Atso, a highly regarded composer, conductor in his own right said “Stacey has so much more to offer than just clear beating like most other conductors offer these days and he looks like he loves being on the podium. Even more interestingly his approach is humble, honest and non stuffy. He has a very positive charisma combined with a humble way of working with others and the music? – the essence of it.”
Stacey has been fortunate to conduct many of his esteemed colleagues in several notable orchestras in the United Kingdom and abroad. Including the National Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, MKCO, Orchestra of the Swan and at the Malcolm Arnold festival.
Stacey’s career as a soloist has seen him perform numerous concertos in prestigious venues throughout the world and is one of the few bassists in England to make regular concerto appearances. He was deeply honoured to perform Bottesini’s B Minor Concerto with the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra at the Vredenburg International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht, Holland. He impressed audience and colleagues alike at the ease at which he performed the technically challenging Dragonetti’s Grande Allegro with the wonderfully spirited London Chamber Orchestra at St John’s Smith Square, London.
Stacey has also enjoyed sharing the recital stage with eminent ‘cellists Steven Isserlis, Torleif Thedeen, Jakob Koranyi and Daniel Mueller-Schott. Performances with the “Mighty” Belcea Quartet and Ian Bostridge at the Gulbenkian International Music Festival Lisbon and Perth International Music Festival were also a highlight of his playing career. Other International artists such as Nigel Kennedy have commented that Stacey is a “remarkable talent”. For over ten years he was reunited with his chamber music family at Julian Rachlin and Friends International Festival in Dubrovnik, Croatia and at Janine Jansen’s International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht, Holland. He was always very proud to be included in a family which also included one of the most famous ‘cellists of all, Mischa Maisky and the ground-breaking revolutionary Clarinettist Martin Frost. Oh and not forgetting Sir Roger Moore 007. See his Elephant on YouTube and all will be revealed.
Stacey is Principal Conductor and the Managing and Artistic Director of “The Esprit Ensemble” and his session orchestra, “First Take Music”, who have recorded numerous video games at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios in London.
Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Teresa Berganza, Pincas Zuckerman, Itzhak Perlman, Maxim Vengerov, Montserrat Cabillé, Luciano Pavorotti, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Andras Schiff, Radu Lupu, Renée Fleming, Willard White, Wynton Marsalis, Kung Wa Chung, Sarah Chang, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Giulini, Sir Georg Solti, Lutoslawski, Rostropovich, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras, Mariss Jansons, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Joshua Bell, Mischa Maisky, Ian Bostridge, Mark Ainsley, Anthony Marwood, Richard Lester, Gustavo Núñez, Henk Rubingh, Torlief Thédeen, Radovan Vlatkovic, Mihaela Ursuleasa, Milan Turkovic, Martin Frost, Nigel Kennedy, Nick Dodd, Sir Roger Moore, John Malkovich, Aleksey Igudsman, Sir Michael Parkinson, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, George Michael, Stevie Wonder, Gregory Porter, Roxette, New Blud, Boy George, West Life, Emma Bunton (Baby Spice), Travis, Mushroom, Peter Gabriel, Taylor Swift, White Stripes, Cold Play, Michael Ball, Enya, Diana Rigg, Jim Davidson, Griff Rhys Jones, Simon Callow, Rory Bremner, Selina Scott, Vanessa May, Simon Callow, Peter Gabriel, Kylie Minogue and Dame Edna Everage to name but a few…
Sofiia Yavorska is a 23-year-old Ukrainian violinist with extensive performance and teaching experience across Europe. She received her early musical education at the Odesa Special Music School named after Professor P. S. Stolyarsky, studying under A. M. Lapteva.
In 2020, she entered the Kyiv Conservatory (NMAU named after P. I. Tchaikovsky) in the class of Professor M. Kotorovych. In 2022, she continued her studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with Professor Mari Tampere-Bezrodny, successfully graduating from both institutions with two Bachelor’s degrees in violin performance. She is currently pursuing her artistic development in London as a Master’s student at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance under Professor Roman Mints.
Throughout her studies, she has frequently performed as a soloist and chamber musician, participating in numerous academy concerts, as well as organizing student concerts and recital programs, gaining valuable experience in both performance and project presentation. After moving to Estonia, she began working closely with the Embassy of Ukraine in Estonia, organizing a series of diplomatic concerts that combined cultural and artistic objectives with the mission of supporting Ukraine.
As a performer, she has appeared on prestigious stages including the Berlin Philharmonic, Köln Philharmonic, Bonn Opera, Hannover Opera, and Thomaskirche Leipzig (Bachfest), collaborating with internationally renowned soloists and conductors. Between 2023 and 2025, she was a member of the first violin section of the Estonian National Opera Orchestra, gaining important professional orchestral experience. She also regularly performs at chamber music festivals, including the Hiiumaa Homecoming Festival and the Tallinn Chamber Music Festival.
Winner of the 1993 BBC Radio Two Young Musician of the Year, Yuri studied at the Royal College of Music. Described as “a musician with lyrical talent and truly romantic temperament”, Zhislin appeared as a soloist with orchestras worldwide, including the BBC Concert Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Oxford Philharmonic, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Queensland Symphony and the Santiago de Chile Symphony among others. Yuri has worked with conductors including Fabio Mastrangelo, Olari Elts and Alex Walker.
In 2014, Zhislin made his debut at the legendary Carnegie Weill Hall in New York.
Yuri’s chamber music partners have included Maxim Vengerov, Natalie Klein, Maria Joao-Pires, Sergei Nakariakov and his wife Natalia Lomeiko.
He has made a number of recordings for Naxos, SOMM Recordings, Nimbus Alliance and Orchid Classics with Camerata Tchaikovsky string orchestra, of which he is an Artistic Director.
A CD by Camerata Tchaikovsky, founded by Zhislin in 2004, was chosen “BBC Music Magazine orchestral CD of the month” in April 2016 and in December 2021, their Christmas Without Words EP reached No.12 on the US Classical Billboard Chart.
Yuri has made a number of arrangements, including Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto arranged for viola and strings, described by The Strad as a “revelatory arrangement”, and Christmas favourites for the Camerata Tchaikovsky Christmas EP album.
As a conductor, he has worked with orchestras in Russia, Spain and the UK. His recent appearance as a Guest conductor with the Bristol Ensemble at St George’s Bristol has been described as “a concert wonderfully held together by Yuri Zhislin”.
Zhislin is a professor of violin and viola at the Royal College of Music and gives masterclasses across Europe. He is also regularly invited as a Chair and jury member of numerous international violin competitions.