HANNAH MARCINOWICZ

As a soloist, Hannah is currently an artist on the Tillett Trust Young Artists’ Platform. She will be making her Wigmore Hall debut during the 2008/09 season, as well as giving numerous performances around the UK. In October 2007, she gave a recital in the Royal Festival Hall as an award-winner of the Philharmonia Orchestra Martin Musical Scholarship Fund. As a Park Lane Group Young Artist, she recently gave a critically-acclaimed recital in the Purcell Room, where she premiered a new work by leading British composer, Giles Swayne. The Telegraph described her as an ‘excellent saxophonist with a gorgeous tone’, whilst The Evening Standard commented on her ‘richness of tone and depth of feeling’. The Times described her and duo partner Daniel Swain as, ‘a fine team of soloists that showed considerable prowess throughout, and Marcinowicz made a feisty case for the saxophone in straight classical music. If only more composers would write for it’. Based on the success of this recital, the Park Lane Group has also awarded her a Wigmore Hall recital during the 2008/09 season.
Hannah graduated in 2005, with First Class Honours, from the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied saxophone and clarinet with Richard Addison. Whilst at the RAM, she received a Foundation Award and the Henry Ellice Lees Prize. Since then, she has received awards from the Philharmonia Orchestra Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, The Leverhulme Trust, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Craxton Memorial Trust to enable her to continue her studies at the Conservatoire National de Région de Cergy-Pontoise in Paris with international soloist, Jean-Yves Fourmeau. Hannah has worked with a number of top UK orchestras and has, in particular, performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Concert Orchestra and Northern Sinfonia. She regularly played for the West End show Evita as well as touring South-East Asia with a production of My Fair Lady. She also appears regularly as guest saxophonist with The Grahamophones, one of the country’s leading Swing Bands.

In September 2005, Hannah played the bass clarinet and tenor saxophone solo in Vaughan-Williams’ Sixth Symphony, under Sir Colin Davis, at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. The concert was broadcast live on BBC 2 and BBC Radio 3. She received excellent reviews for this performance in The Times, The Evening Standard, and The Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In June 2006, she recorded two ‘Classic Experience’ albums with the pianist Richard Shaw for Cramer Music Limited. She is currently an artist on the Live Music Now! scheme, giving concerts and workshops the length and breadth of the UK.

www.hannahsax.com

NAOKO MIYAMOTO

Violin


Naoko Miyamoto made her first appearance as soloist with orchestra at the age of eight, playing Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins with the Sydney Youth Orchestra. Since then, she has performed in many prestigious venues around the world giving performances of concertos by Wieniawski, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Vieuxtemps, Bruch, Vivaldi, Bach, Sibelius, Mozart and Hindson. She has appeared with some of the worlds leading orchestras including the Philharmonia, New Zealand Symphony, Queensland Symphony and Kuring-gai Philharmonic Orchestras. She has also won numerous prizes and awards in international competitions in Australia, Germany, Poland and New Zealand.
Naoko has recently completed her Masters programme at the Royal Academy in London, where she studied with Maurice Hasson, having previously graduated with a BMus 1st class Hons. At the Academy she was a Leverhulme Orchestral Fellow and was also generously supported by awards from the RAM, Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, Tait Memorial Trust, Australian Music Foundation and Countess of Munster Musical Trust. Whilst at the RAM, Naoko received regular masterclasses from Maurizio Fuks, Alexander Pavlovic, Thomas Brandis and Sylvia Rosenberg, and she performed in a public masterclass with Maxim Vengerov. She has also participated in courses at the Encuentro de Musica y Academia de Santander, Spain, the International Holland Music Sessions, the LSO St Luke’s Academy and the Menuhin Academy in Blonay, Switzerland, where she took part in masterclasses with Alberto Lysy and Liviu Prunaru. She has worked as soloist and concertmaster with such conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Leif Segerstam, Stephen Hough, Mark Elder, Ola Rudner, Robin Ticciati and Robin O’Neill.
Recent performing highlights have included the Dvorak Romance with the Philharmonia Orchestra for Sir Charles Mackerras’s 80th Birthday Concert, the Mozart Rondo with the Royal Academy Soloists at the Bury St Edmund’s Festival and appearances at the Lincoln International Chamber Music Festival in both 2006 and 2007. Last year, Naoko made her Queen Elizabeth Hall debut, and in November she performed in the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. After participating in the International Musician’s Seminar in Prussia Cove in April last year, Naoko was selected to take part in their Open Chamber Music Session, where she performed with Adrian Brendel and Sue Knight.
Naoko’s debut CD on the Trust label, playing the Hindson Violin Concerto with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, will be released later this year.

SITKOVETSKY TRIO

Alexander Sitkovetsky violin
Wu Qian piano
Leonard Elschenbroich cello

"their performance was reminiscent of the Beaux Arts Trio in its heyday"
Independent Jan 2008


The Sitkovetsky Trio is a collaboration between three young musicians who share a passion for Chamber Music. Having all previously studied together for many years at the Yehudi Menuhin School, the trio has recently been awarded a Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music in London and has also won the Philharmonia/Martin Musical Scholarship Chamber Music Award. They were chosen for the Tillett Trust Young Artists’ Platform scheme in February 2008.

In January 2008, the trio made their highly successful Southbank debut playing a recital in the Purcell Room under the auspices of the Martin Musical Scholarship. They were also recently invited to play in front of Her Majesty the Queen in London. The Trio is making its debut appearance at Wigmore Hall in November 2008.

All three players already have busy careers as soloists and chamber musicians.

Alexander Sitkovetsky, born in Moscow into a family with an established musical tradition, made his concerto debut at the age of eight and the same year came to study at the Menuhin School. Lord Menuhin was his inspiration throughout his school years and they performed together on several occasions including the Bach Double Concerto, Bartok Duos and when Alexander played the Mendelssohn concerto under Menuhin’s baton. He has gone on to perform in international music festival throughout Europe, has appeared in many famous halls not only in the UK (the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and St. John’s Smith Square) but also in Israel, Russia, Germany, Italy, Japan and the USA. Last season he gave toured with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in Bangkok, Bermuda, the USA, Japan and Europe. He made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra and featured as a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic and BBC Concert Orchestras.

Wu Qian was born in Shanghai, where she received her early training before coming to the Menuhin School at the age of eleven. At fifteen she performed Mozart’s E flat concerto in the Queen Elizabeth Hall and again at the Menuhin Festival in Switzerland. She also played the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 2 with the Philharmonic Orchestra in St. Johns Smith Square. She made her debut recital at the South Bank Purcell Room in 2000 and has since played there again on several occasions, including for a recital broadcast by BBC Radio 3 the following year. She has appeared in many of the UK’s major venues including the Wigmore and Bridgewater Halls, and she has made her debut recital in City Hall Hong Kong. In December last year she was selected by the Independent as a “Rising star for 2007”. She is currently studying for her Masters degree at the RAM.

22 year old German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich has already received invitations for orchestral performances from international conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Semyon Bychkov, Fabio Luisi, Paavo Järvi, Manfred Honeck and Christoph Eschenbach, and as a chamber musician from Gidon Kremer, Katia & Marielle Labeque and from Anne-Sophia Mutter. He has appeared as a recitalist at Festivals throughout Europe with pianists such as Marc-André Hamelin, Martin Helmchen, Kirill Gerstein and Anna Vinnitskaya. He has just recorded his debut CD for Naxos featuring works by Alfred Schnittke. He has already received awards from the Kronberg Academy, the EBU-Union and the Verbier Festival. He plays the `Leonard Rose’ Matteo Goffriller Cello.

SOLSTICE STRING QUARTET

Jamie Campbell 1st Violin
Nicholas Shardlow 2nd Violin
Meghan Cassidy Viola
Gregor Riddell Cello


Founded at Cambridge University in 2003, and now based in London, the Solstice Quartet has proven itself to be a vital young ensemble of outstanding talent and musicality, and has enjoyed widespread success with its varied schedule of recitals, collaborations and study. In February 2008 they won selection for the Tillett Trust Young Artists’ Platform and as a result will make their Wigmore Hall debut in February 2009.

The quartet has appeared throughout the UK and internationally, performing at major music festivals such as Dartington, Canterbury ‘Sounds New’ Festival and Aberystwyth, and has performed live on BBC Radio 3. Recent appearances include a major recital at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival of New Music, where the quartet presented music by seminal Georgian composer Giya Kancheli, who honoured them with his attendance. Other notable performances include Barber’s Dover Beach with tenor Steven Varcoe, and Mendelssohn’s Octet with the Szymanowski Quartet; the quartet also enjoys ongoing collaboration with distinguished clarinettist David Campbell, with whom they have performed quintets by Brahms, Mozart and Bliss. Forthcoming plans include concerts in Suffolk and London with pianist Tom Poster.

The Solstice Quartet has been fortunate in its association with many eminent musicians; among others, members of the Endellion, Belcea, Fitzwilliam, Alberni and Wihan quartets, alongside tuition from Hugh Maguire, James Boyd, Simon Rowland Jones and the late Howard Davis. Only a few months after forming they were selected for the 28th International String Quartet Academy at the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme, to which they have returned several times and with whom they enjoy a close association. More recently the quartet has developed close links with members of the internationally renowned Alban Berg Quartet, studying with them at the Chigiana Academy in Siena; they plan to continue their study with members of the ABQ next year in conjunction with ‘ProQuartet’ the European Centre for Chamber Music.

Interest in new music is a motivating factor for the quartet; it has given performances of music by prominent contemporary composers such as Howard Skempton, Ross Edwards, Ivan Moody, John Tavener and Giles Swayne. Additionally, two of its members are composers; Nick Shardlow, and Gregor Riddell. This is combined with educational work; the quartet has coached players at the Benslow Music Centre. Next year will also see the Solstice Quartet start a series of six concerts of collaborations with other musicians at the Aldeburgh Parish Church.