Ariana Kashefi, cello
Petr Limonov, piano

British-Persian cellist, Ariana Kashefi is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician and section principal. As a soloist she has performed extensively throughout Europe, including at the Wigmore Hall, Pierre-Boulez Saal, and Berlin philharmonie. She is the winner of the Luigi Nono chamber music competition in Turin with her duo partner, Maksim Stsura and is a City Music Foundation Artist.

She is also a top prize winner of the Rubinstein cello competition and a recipient of the Villa musica scholarship where she was awarded the use of a fine Gagliano cello. Ariana is also a previous Making Music ‘AYCA’ artist  and Park Lane group artist where she premiered a new piece for solo cello dedicated to her by Deborah Pritchard at the Southbank Centre and also performed the work live on BBC radio 3’s In Tune. 

Ariana completed her masters degree at the Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ in Berlin with the highest possible mark and is very grateful for the support of the Royal Philharmonic society for awarding her the Julius Isserlis scholarship which enabled her to study abroad. She then went on to study at the Barenboim-Said academy in Berlin for an artist diploma with Professor Frans Helmerson, completing it in 2019.

She is also regularly invited as guest principal cellist with the London Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Camarata, Britten Sinfonia and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under maestro Daniel Barenboim. 

Winner of Nikolai Rubinstein Piano Competition, pupil of Maria João Pires and Dmitri Alexeev, award-winning British pianist Petr Limonov is increasingly sought-after both as a soloist worldwide. His notable solo and concerto appearances include La Roque d’Antheron festival (broadcast by radio France Musique), Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Kolarac Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, a solo recital in The Duke’s Hall given for His Majesty King Charles III, iTunes Festival, Lerici Music Festival, TV appearances for BBC Proms Extra, Podium Witteman and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. 

His arrangement of the Auld Lang Syne (from Nicola Benedetti’s “Homecoming” album, Decca) was performed in the Albert Hall at the BBC Proms. On the 6th of March 2022, Petr conducted an open-air orchestral concert in Trafalgar Square, London, in protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Petr has recorded albums for Decca, Onyx Classics, Chandos and Champs Hill labels; the “1948” album, recorded with Laura van der Heijden, received the “Edison Klassiek” and the BBC “Newcomer of the Year” awards. Over the years, his shared the stage with Maria João Pires, Nicola Benedetti, Gabriel Feltz, Michael Seal, Adrian Brendel, Laura van der Heijden, Jennifer Pike, Mathilde Milwidsky, and Leonard Elschenbroich, among others.

Born in Moscow, Petr started playing the piano at the age of 5. A year later he entered the prestigious Moscow Central Music School, where he studied under the guidance of Siavush Gadjiev, Valery Piasetsky and, later, Andrei Pisarev. After winning First Prize at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Paris he started giving concerts throughout Europe and Russia, supported by the Vladimir Spivakov International Foundation. He went on to study with Hamish Milne and Alexander Satz at the Royal Academy of Music (London) on a full scholarship, followed by a year spent at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot, where his teachers were Ramzi Yassa and Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy. In 2010 Petr returned to London to commence his postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music with Dmitri Alexeev on a full scholarship, obtaining his Masters degree in 2012. During his studies Petr took part in masterclasses given by Ferenc Rados, Alfred Brendel, Stephen Hough, Vitaly Margulis and Stephen Kovacevich; whilst in RCM he also studied conducting under Peter Stark. In November 2013 Petr made his conducting début at Cadogan Hall with London International Chamber Orchestra, directing works by Glazunov and Rachmaninov.

Information

• Tickets are £28 each; seats are guaranteed but not reserved
• Snacks and drinks (included in ticket price) will be served during the interval
• Prices broadly cover the cost of musicians; your voluntary donation will help us to continue to run these recitals
• Recitals take place at Breinton, Heath House Road, Woking GU22 0RD - get directions
• Car parking is available from 7:00 pm
• Doors will open at 7:15 pm
• Performance is at 7:30 pm
• Tickets must be reserved in advance from this website
• Unpaid reservations will be automatically cancelled after seven days.

Booking Terms

• All ticket sales are final and non-refundable. This means that we cannot return your payment if you are unable to attend an event. Your payment will be refunded in full if we have to cancel a recital.  Donations are non-refundable.
• Tickets may be transferred to others. This means that you may give away or sell your tickets to someone else. Tickets are not transferable to another recital or another date.
• If you are unable to attend a recital that you have booked and paid for, we may be able to help you transfer your tickets to another member. If we successfully transfer your ticket to another member, an administrative charge equal to 30% of the ticket price will be payable.  This should be done no less than three days before the recital.
• Attendees may be captured in recital audio, still, or video recordings; please let us know if you do not consent or wish to be excluded from any marketing materials.