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The Piatti Quartet members are
former or current award-winning students of the Royal Academy of
Music and the Royal College of Music where they have studied with
members of the Chilingirian Quartet, Amadeus Quartet, Alberni Quartet
and Vellinger Quartet. In 2007 The Royal College of Music
commissioned them to give the premiere performance of William
Hurlstone's Phantasy String Quartet (also recorded), marking the
composer's centenary. Between them the members of the Piatti Quartet
hold a range of prizes including MBF Awards, Martin Musical
Scholarship Awards, the Croydon Concerto First Prize and Making Music
Awards. The Piatti String Quartet is extremely grateful for the
generosity and support of Ian Ellis. Over the past three years the
Piatti String Quartet has worked extensively throughout the UK and
Europe. They have performed at venues around London including the
National Gallery, St James's Piccadilly and Senate House. They are
also busy working for various festivals and have most recently
performed at the Northern Aldborough Festival and the Brantwood
Concert Series.
Award winning harpist Paula Popa has
performed for HRH The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, HRH Prince Michael of Kent GCVO, Princess
Marina Sturdza of Romania, Baroness Scotland, Lord Eddie George
(former governor of the Bank of England) and many other prestigious
figures. Having won five First Prizes in the UK, Paula has gone on to
perform solo recitals in some of the most prestigious venues in
London including Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, Saint James's
Piccadilly, Saint John's Smith Square, Handel House Museum, the
Victoria & Albert Museum, the Wallace Collection and the National
Gallery. Paula has recently graduated with a Masters Degree in
Advanced Performance from the Royal College of Music, London.
Jonathan Parkin was born near
Durham in 1984, graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2007
with a first class BMus degree, and was awarded both a Wilkins-Mackerras
and a H R Taylor Trust scholarship to continue his postgraduate
studies there.He is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research
Council and the Craxton Memorial Trust, and holds an MBF Education
Award. He studies with Robert Hill and Richard Hosford. He has
performed at London venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, Purcell
Room, St Martin-in-the-Fields and St James's Piccadilly. This summer
he won Second Prize in the Tunbridge Wells International Young
Artists Competition. At the RCM, Jonathan has played principal
clarinet in orchestras under Ashkenazy, Haitink and Norrington. Last
year he worked alongside the London Philharmonic Orchestra, having
won a place on their 'Future Firsts' apprentice scheme for 2007-8.
This April, he appeared in a sold-out concert at the Purcell Room
with the Future Firsts Ensemble. He has since appeared with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra. He is currently on trial as Principal
Clarinet (second seat) with the Northern Sinfonia. He remains an
active chamber musician, and performed in Summer 2008 with the
Fibonacci Sequence.
Sebastian Stanley was born in
Spain in 1984 but moved to England aged four. He started playing the
piano at the age of 13, and completed his BMus degree at the Royal
College of Music under Niel Immelman, and his postgraduate degree
(also at the RCM) with Ruth Nye. He was a finalist in the 2008 Royal
Overseas League Competition, and has won the London Emanuel Trophy,
the prize for Best Performance of a work by a British Composer at the
International Haverhill Competition, and the Chappell Gold Medal
(2006) at the Royal College of Music. He won the Gold Medal at the
International Louise Henriette Competition in Oranienburg, Germany in
2004. He has also won many awards at UK festivals. Sebastian performs
widely in the UK and in Germany, in venues including Steinway Hall
and St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. He has given 20 recitals in
the UK this year. His concerto repertory includes several of the
Mozart Piano Concertos, and Liszt's Piano Concerto in E flat major
(which he performed at the age of 17). Sebastian has recently
performed at the Texas International Piano Festival, performing at
venues throughout Fort Worth.
Philip Achille is a second year
undergraduate student at the Royal College of Music in London, where
he studies alto saxophone and chromatic harmonica on the BMus degree
programme. He has been playing the chromatic harmonica for ten years
and has taken part in more than 25 festivals, competitions and
concerts in seven countries: the UK, USA, Holland, France, Germany,
Vienna and Estonia. In November 2005, aged 16, Philip became the
World Youth Harmonica Champion (Solo Chromatic) and the Open
Harmonica Champion at the World Harmonica Festival in Germany, which
is held every four years. He received the Tabor Foundation Award at
the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2006 competition, and won the
Starbucks Young Musician 2006 contest at the Birmingham International
Jazz Festival. In 2007, Philip was a featured soloist during the BBC
Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and also performed at the Royal
Variety Performance in front of the Queen, where he led the show's
finale with a harmonica solo. He was a finalist in the Eurovision
Young Musicians 2008 competition, and performed with the Vienna
Symphony Orchestra in front of an audience of 50,000. In September,
he was a guest artist at Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Birthday In The Park'
in Hyde Park. His film & TV credits include performing on the
soundtracks to Mr Bean's Holiday (2007), French Film (2008), and
Little Britain USA (2008). In addition to the saxophone and
harmonica, Philip plays piano, double bass and bass guitar.
Nathan Tinker was born to a
Japanese mother and English father in 1989. He started learning piano
in Japan at the age of five. During his early years he studied under
a number of well known Japanese pianists of various styles. He is now
studying full time at the Royal College of Music under Gordon
Fergus-Thompson. Nathan's second study is composition under Jonathan
Cole and he is an avid composer. Since moving to London to attend
college full time, Nathan has also started to explore Jazz. Prior to
coming to the RCM, Nathan graduated from St Mary's International
School in Japan in 2007, where he was awarded the certificate of
honour in recognition of his musical accomplishments. With the school
he took part in performances in France, Vienna, Czech Republic and
the United States. He has also given a number of private concerts in
Japan where he usually plays his own compositions alongside more
well-known classical and romantic repertoire. In his last year of
high school Nathan formed his own orchestra, The Kanto Plains Youth
Orchestra, with whom he organized and conducted rehearsals for a
summer concert and attracted the attention of Japanese conductor
Keitaro Harada who also conducted the performance of Rachmaninov's
Second Piano Concerto with Nathan as the soloist. Nathan has formed a
small jazz group, The Frontiers, with some of his peers at the RCM
and works regularly there as an accompanist. He has performed on
Japanese television TV-Tokyo and recorded at the BBC where he
accompanied the British representative in the Eurovision Young
Musician of the Year.
Born in China, Meng Yang Pan started
to play the piano at the age of three. She was accepted to study at
the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 1996. In 1998 she won
First Prize in the 'MIDO' piano competition in China followed by
Second Prize in the Ettlingen International Piano Competition for
Young People in Germany 1999. In the same year, Meng Yang was awarded
a full scholarship by the Wall Trust to study at the Purcell School,
where she worked with Tessa Nicholson. During her three years at the
Purcell School, she appeared both as a soloist and chamber musician
at the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, St. John's Smith Square,
Purcell Room and UNESCO in Paris. In 2003, Meng Yang was awarded a
full scholarship, supported by the Evelyn Tarrant Award, Elsa and
Leonard Cross Scholarship and Hilda Anderson Deane Prize to study at
the Royal College of Music under Gordon Fergus-Thompson. She
participated in masterclasses with John Lill, Barry Douglas, Dmitri
Alexeev, Ferenc Rados, Ronan O'Hora and Jonathan Plowright. In 2006,
she won the first prize in the Robert William and Florence Amy Brant
International Pianoforte Competition and the Hopkins Gold Medal and
Esther Fisher Prize for Best Undergraduate in the Chappell Piano
Competition at the RCM. She was also the winner of the Sarah Mundlak
memorial Prize for Piano in July 2007 at the RCM together with one of
the RCM's most prestigious prizes, the Tagore Gold Medal for making
an outstanding contribution to College life. Meng Yang is currently
studying as a postgraduate student with the RCM's Head of Keyboard
Vanessa Latarche. She is a Clore Scholar supported by Richard Carne
and Cosmina and Douglas Liversidge Awards. Meng Yang performs
frequently in concert. In October 2007, she performed the John
Ireland Piano Concerto with conductor John Wilson in the 125th
Anniversary Concert in college and soon after, played for Prince
Edward at the Duke of Edinburgh Award concert. In December 2007, Meng
Yang performed in one of the most prestigious events at the RCM, the
Soirée d'Or, where she raised £4,900 for the RCM
Scholarship Fund. In April this year, she performed in the presence
of HRH Prince Charles in the award ceremony where she received her
Tagore Gold Medal. This was followed by a performance with
international concert pianist and conductor Vladmir Ashkenazy at the
RCM 125th Birthday in May.
Victoria Lyon is the fifth child of
six children, all of whom are musicians. She first started playing
violin when she was six years old, and later won a DFEE scholarship
to Wells Cathedral School in Somerset, during which time she was a
member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. She started
her studies at the Royal College of Music in 2001 gaining a
Foundation Scholarship. She has studied with Mateja Marinkovic, Yossi
Zivoni and most recently with Maciej Rakowski . On graduating from
the RCM, Victoria auditioned for, and gained a place with the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming its youngest member and worked with
them for a year until her string quartet Escala took part in
Britain's Got Talent and were subsequently signed to Sony BMG. They
currently perform in venues all over the world and are making an
album to be released this June.
Sarah-Jane Brandon was born in
Cape Town and completed a Performer's Diploma in Opera at the South
African College of Music, University of Cape Town in 2007. While
studying there Sarah-Jane sang the roles of Pamina and Countess
Almaviva in collaboration with Cape Town Opera and performed
frequently with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra. Since
September 2007 she has been a student at the Royal College of Music,
where she is currently studying at the Benjamin Britten International
Opera School under Janis Kelly. She is supported by the Josephine
Baker and Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trusts, and has been awarded a
Stephen Catto Memorial Scholarship and a Lucy Ann Jones award at the
RCM for this year's studies. Her studies for 2008-9 are also
supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. Her awards since
coming to the UK include the Maggie Teyte Prize and the Miriam
Licette Scholarship, second place in the Richard Tauber Competition,
the Lorna Viol and Audrey Strange Prizes of the Royal Overseas League
Competition and the Cuthbert Smith Prize at the Lies Askonas
competition, RCM (all 2008). In December 2007, Sarah-Jane toured
China with the Amadeus Orchestra as a soprano soloist. In London, she
has performed at the Wigmore Hall and the Crush Room of the Royal
Opera House. Recently, she sang Maddalena in Handel's La Resurrezione
for the RCM at St George's Hanover Square and at the Bridgewater Hall
with Stephen Cleobury and the Academy of Ancient Music. She has just
sung Sandrina in La finta giardiniera for the Benjamin Britten
International Opera School. Her plans include Lisaura in Alessandro
for the London Handel Festival.
Vojtech Šafarík was
born in the Czech Republic and graduated from the Prague
Conservatoire before completing his studies at the Benjamin Britten
International Opera School at the Royal College of Music, where he
was taught by Timothy Evans-Jones. His roles include Leporello in Don
Giovanni for the International Opera Studio of the Komische Oper,
Berlin, Doctor in Pelléas et Mélisande for Independent
Opera, Badger and Parson in The Cunning Little Vixen for Music at
Woodhouse, Father in The Jewel Box for Bampton Classical Opera, Marte
in La Contessa dei Numi for the international music festival
Ceský Krumlov, and Masetto in Don Giovanni and Vítezslav
Novák's Vrchní in Lucerne. His roles for the Benjamin
Britten International Opera School include Mozart's Count Almaviva,
Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen, Ottone in L'incoronazione di
Poppea and Mercurio in Atalanta. His concert performances include The
Fairy Queen in Aix-en-Provence under William Christie and in Salzburg
under Roger Norrington, Barber's Dover Beach at Cadogan Hall for the
RCM's Rising Stars series, several performances with the London
Mozart Players including Bach's St John Passion, and Brahms's Requiem
under Leif Segerstam. He is a Samling Foundation Scholar, and is also
supported by the Josephine Baker Trust. He was Second Prize winner of
the Clonter Opera Prize 2008, and holds the Independent Opera
Postgraduate Voice Fellowship for 2008-9.
Alisdair Hogarth studied
privately with Philip Fowke, and then at the Royal College of Music
with John Blakely and Roger Vignoles, where he won all the major
prizes for piano accompaniment. In the same year he was selected as a
Park Lane Group Young Artist. At the RCM, his studies were supported
by the Fishmongers' Company Music Scholarship, the Michael Whittaker
and Robert McFadzean Whyte Awards. Alisdair is an alumnus of the
Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme and is currently studying with
Peter Katin. Alisdair made his concerto debut in 1996 as soloist with
the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
(broadcast on Classic FM) and has since performed many concertos with
a variety of orchestras, including tours of Hungary and the Czech
Republic (performing at the Rudolfinum, Prague). He has broadcast on
BBC television, BBC Radio 3 and World Service, Classic FM and New
Zealand Concert FM. Recent performances have included appearances at
the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Cadogan Hall,
Bridgewater Hall and Philharmonic Hall, as well as many recitals for
British music societies and festivals. Committed to
song-accompaniment, Alisdair formed a group of young professional
singers, The Prince Consort, which aims to promote piano-accompanied
song. Following their highly-acclaimed recital debut at the Purcell
Room as part of the 'Fresh' Young Artists Series two years ago, the
group perform frequently at music societies and festivals throughout
Europe and are planning a tour of New Zealand for the 2009 season.
They are now recording their first commercial CD and DVD, to be
released in 2009, preceded by a residency at the Britten-Pears School
in Aldeburgh. The Prince Consort will also be appearing with Graham
Johnson, performing the Brahms Liebeslieder Walzer. Future
engagements for the group include concerts at Aldeburgh and several
appearances at the Wigmore Hall. Alisdair has also worked with
singers including Sir Thomas Allen, Rosemary Joshua, Lillian Watson
and Donald Maxwell. He is the regular accompanist to many of his
generation's finest young singers, including Anna Leese, Jennifer
Johnston, Andrew Staples, Jacques Imbrailo, Tim Mead and Sarah-Jane
Brandon.In commercial spheres Alisdair is regularly invited to work
with Katherine Jenkins, Blake, Lesley Garrett, The Opera Babes, Amici
Forever, Nicky Spence and The Choirboys. He is also appearing as a
pianist in the latest Scorcese-produced movie, The Young Victoria,
with Rupert Friend, Emily Blunt, Miranda Richardson and Jim
Broadbent. He also appeared in The Duchess, with Keira Knightley and
Ralph Fiennes, which was recently released to great success. |
