Australian mezzo soprano Lotte Betts-Dean is a versatile and dynamic concert artist, whose performance experience encompasses opera, oratorio, contemporary music, art song recital/chamber music, early music and non-classical collaborations. She has been based in London since 2014 and works internationally, most often in the UK and Australia. Lotte is Associate Artist with Southbank Sinfonia, and is a member of London-based contemporary music group Ensemble x.y. She is also a City Music Foundation Artist for 2017-2019, recently won the 2019 Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform, and was selected as a 2020 Samling Young Artist. Lotte is a regular collaborator with guitarist Andrey Lebedev with whom she won the inaugural 2018 New Elizabethan Award. Lotte is one 2018 bursars with the Imogen Cooper Music Trust and in 2019 became a Yeoman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians.
Described by The Strad as presenting “a masterclass in unanimity of musical purpose, in which severity could melt seamlessly into charm, and drama into geniality”, the award-winning Carducci Quartet is internationally acclaimed as one of the most accomplished and versatile ensembles of today. Not only mastering the core repertoire, the quartet presents a selection of new works each season and diversifies further with programmes of film music, pop and rock.
Founded in 1997, the ensemble has won numerous international competitions, including the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, and First Prize at Finland’s Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition. In 2016, they took home a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for their project, Shostakovich15, an immense cycle of Shostakovich’s Quartets performed across the UK, North, and South America with a marathon one-day cycle hosted by Shakespeare’s Globe, London.
Described as ‘versatile, full of charisma, characterized by extraordinary care for sound quality’, the accordionist Bartosz Glowacki certainly shows the qualities of a rising star. Winner of numerous competitions, he was awarded the Polish Young Musician of the Year in 2009 and represented Poland at the Eurovision for Young Musician Competition in Vienna.
He has performed as a soloist in prestigious concert halls including the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican, the Royal Albert Hall, La Salle Cortot and the Witold Lutoslawski Concert Studio of Polish Radio. Bartosz is recognized as an active chamber musician. Founder of the Deco Ensemble, he has worked with renowned artists from various musical worlds, such as Nigel Kennedy, Trevor Pinnock, Atom String Quartet, Tanita Tikaram, Manchester Collective, Lizzie Ball and Gabriella Swallow.
Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career as a pianist with those of composer, writer and painter. He was the first classical performer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year’s Honours 2014.
Concerto engagements in the 20/21 season include London Philharmonic and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, St Louis, Cincinnati and Atlanta symphony orchestras, and the National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan. Highlights of 2019/20 included performances with the Toronto, Singapore and Iceland symphony orchestras, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; other recent appearances include the Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras, Finnish Radio, City of Birmingham and Tokyo symphony orchestras, London Philharmonic and China Philharmonic orchestras, and the Wiener Symphoniker.
Born into a family of musicians in Novosibirsk, Russia, Natalia Lomeiko has established herself internationally as a versatile performing artist.
Since her debut with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of seven, Natalia 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 State Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, St.Petersburg Radio Symphony, Nice Philharmonic, Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra among many others.
Australian-Russian guitarist Andrey Lebedev is on a mission to redefine the relationship of the guitar to the classical mainstream. His creative collaborations and track record of performing new works have garnered him attention from critics and audiences across Europe, South America, USA, and Australia. He was mentored by guitar giants Julian Bream and John Williams and was the first young guitarist invited by Bream to perform for the Julian Bream Trust. He is a Prize Winner of the renowned ARD music competition and Guitar Foundation of America Competition, First Prize winner of the Gisborne International Music Competition and Adelaide International Guitar Competition, and still the only guitarist in the 85-year history of the Sydney Eisteddfod to win the esteemed “NSW Doctors Orchestra Instrumental Scholarship”.
Oliver Wass holds a First Class Masters Degree from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he studied with Imogen Barford. He graduated from the University of York with a First Class Honours degree in Chemistry.
He recently won the Suoni d’Arpa International Competition in Italy, the Jury Prize at the International Harp Competition in Szeged, and Second Prize at the Bromsgrove International Competition. He is the only harpist to win the Guildhall Gold Medal – the London conservatoire’s most prestigious prize. Previous winners of the competition include Jacqueline du Pré, Bryn Terfel and Tasmin Little.
Described by The Strad as a "virtuoso with a truly Romantic temperament", a violinist and violist Yuri Zhislin enjoys an active and illustrious career as soloist and chamber musician. His performances have taken him to nearly 60 countries around the globe.
A major prize-winner in the 1991 Sarasate International Violin Competition in Spain, Yuri entered the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with his father and later Dr Andrievsky. In 1993, Yuri became the BBC Radio 2 Young Musician of the Year.
Commonwealth Musician of the Year, First Prize and Gold Medal winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition, Huw Wiggin is one of the most popular saxophonists of his generation.
He has performed in venues as far afield as the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing – where he gave recitals and a concerto performance of Eric Coates’s Saxo Rhapsody – as well as those closer to home such as London’s Wigmore Hall. Other past highlights include appearances at Brighton, Newbury, Henley, Ripon and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. His performance of Milton Babbitt’s Accompanied Recitative was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on ‘Hear and Now’ to celebrate the composer’s centenary.
British tenor James Cobb studies at the Royal College of Music London, under the tutelage of Dinah Harris, where he is a Scholar. Before taking a Gap Year working at St Paul’s Cathedral, James studied at the Royal College of Music’s Junior Department between 2015-17. Here he began working with Veronica Veysey-Campbell with whom he studied very successfully with for 5 years, and attributes much of his success to.
Born in 1999, Yuki Hammyo is a Japanese pianist living in London performing in countries including Japan, Holland, Italy, Spain, and England. She won the silver prize in the 1st European International Piano Concours in Japan, and third prize in the 1st Windsor International Piano Competition. She was also selected as the finalist for the 12th Osaka International Music Competition, 9th Beten Music Competition, and 10th Beten Music Competition.
Imaan Kashim is fifteen, a home-schooled student of the Royal College of Music Junior Department (RCM JD) where she studies violin with Professor Viktoria Grigoreva, alongside classical guitar, composition and conducting.
In recent years, Imaan has been invited to perform at the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie by the American Festival of Fine Arts, in addition to being selected as finalist for Woking Young Musician, Silk Street Sinfonia’s Senior Concerto Competition, the RCM JD Marjorie Humby Competition and the Haslemere String Competition.
Hannah Dienes-Williams is an 18 year old soprano, studying with Gary Coward. She was a Chorister in Guildford Cathedral Choir from the age of 9, serving as its Head Chorister from 2017-18. In the choir, she featured regularly as a soloist in services and concerts as well as on two live broadcasts. She was selected as a finalist for the BBC Radio 2 Chorister of the Year competition in 2016 and 2017, and features as a soprano soloist on Rebecca Dale’s Decca album, Materna Requiem. Hannah is a frequent recitalist, soloist with local choral societies, and a member of the Rodolfus Choir.
Jamaal Kashim is 13 years old, a harpist at the Royal College of Music Junior Department (RCM JD), studying with Professor Daphne Boden. He has won numerous prizes at music festivals and other competitions. This includes both the audience and judges prize at the Silk Street Sinfonia Young Soloist Competition, Junior Musician of the Year at Woking Music Festival twice, Chamber Musician of the Year with his sister Imaan at Woking Music Festival twice, the RCM JD Gordon Turner Harp Prize twice and runner up at the RCM Concerto Competition in 2019. Jamaal was also awarded the inaugural Junior Musician prize, again with sister Imaan by the Lord Mayor of the City of London in 2019.
Laura MacDonald is a final year scholar at the Royal Academy of Music studying with Felix Schmidt. She previously studied at the Royal College of Music Junior Department with Michal Kaznowski. A former member of the National Youth Orchestra (NYO), the National Children’s Orchestras, she has played at many of the UK’s major concert halls. More recently she performed as part of the BBC Proms Youth Ensemble at the Last Night of the Proms 2016. Laura is also a passionate chamber musician having attended Pro Corda chamber music school from a young age which included performances at the Wigmore Hall. More recently she has formed a piano trio, the Torridon Trio, with fellow Academy students.
The UK based Japanese violinist Coco Tomita is a winner of the BBC Young Musician 2020 Strings Category. Previously, Coco won various other prizes at international competitions and festivals including Golden Medals at the Vienna International Music Competition 2019 and Berliner International Music Competition 2019, Carl Flesch Prize at the Carl Flesch Academy 2019, 3rd Prize in the Junior section of the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition (Italy) and 1st prize at the Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition 2017.
Yume Tomita was born in the UK in 2008 and began to play the violin when she was five years old. She was invited to give her first recital at the age of seven in Italy, and in the following year she was awarded a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School where she studied with Natasha Boyarsky, Diana Galvydyte and is currently studying with Ning Kam.
Within the last two years, Yume has won 1st prize at the Ilona Feher International Violin Competition in Hungary (2019), 2nd prize at the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition in Italy (2019) and 3rd prize at the Grumiaux International Violin Competition in Belgium (2018).