Paul Lewis - Piano

Paul Lewis is one of the foremost interpreters of the Central European piano repertoire, his performances and recordings of Beethoven and Schubert receiving universal critical acclaim. He was awarded CBE for his services to music, and the sincerity and depth of his musical approach have won him fans around the world.

This global popularity is reflected in the world-class orchestras with whom he works, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Bavarian Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras. His close relationship with Boston Symphony Orchestra led to his selection as the 2020 Koussevitzky Artist at Tanglewood.

With a natural affinity for Beethoven, he took part in the BBC’s three-part documentary Being Beethoven and performed a concerto cycle at Tanglewood in summer 2022. He has performed the cycle all over the world, and was the first pianist to play the complete cycle in a single season at the BBC Proms in 2010.

Beyond many award-winning Beethoven recordings, his discography with Harmonia Mundi also demonstrates his characteristic depth of approach in Romantic repertoire such as Schumann, Mussorgsky, Brahms and Liszt.

In chamber music, Paul Lewis works closely with tenor Mark Padmore in lied recitals around the world – they have recorded three Schubert song cycles together. Between 2022 and 2024, Paul Lewis embarked on a new Schubert Piano Sonata Series where he will present the completed sonatas from the last 12 years of Schubert’s life at venues around the world. Lewis is co-Artistic Director of Midsummer Music, an annual chamber music festival held in Buckinghamshire, UK.

Awards: Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist of the Year; two Edison awards; three Gramophone awards; Diapason d’Or de l’Annee; South Bank Show Classical Music Award; honorary degrees from Liverpool, Edge Hill and Southampton Universities; appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

www.paullewispiano.co.uk

Bjørg Lewis - Cello

Bjørg Lewis is one of Norway’s most highly esteemed cellists.  As a soloist, she played with the Oslo Philharmonic as well as many other orchestras throughout Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Baltics.

Bjørg is a founder member of the Vertavo String Quartet, an internationally-acclaimed ensemble, which has received numerous awards including Norway’s prestigious Grieg Prize. Vertavo launched their own chamber music festival, Vertavofestivalen in 2016.

A busy performance schedule takes Bjørg throughout Europe and North America. A frequent participant in many international chamber music festivals, Bjørg was also been regularly invited to join the Nash Ensemble for Wigmore Hall concerts and tours. She was Artistic Director of the Elverum Festival in Norway from 2001- 2015 and co-Artistic Director of Midsummer Music since its inception in 2009.

Since 2018, Bjørg has held the position of Associate Professor of Cello at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. In 2024 she curated athe Academy's first ever International Cello Festival. She is frequently invited to give masterclasses and be a jury member at many international chamber music competitions

Bjørg plays on a 1748 Gennaro Gagliano cello provided for her by the Dextra Musica Foundation, previously played by Martin Lovett of the Amadeus Quartet

www.vertavo.com

Wu Qian - Piano

Winner of a 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, as well as classical music’s bright young star award for 2007 by The Independent, pianist Wu Qian has performed worldwide for over two decades.

She has appeared as recitalist in many international venues including the Wigmore, Royal Festival, and Bridgewater halls in the UK, City Hall in Hong Kong, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. As a soloist she has appeared with the Konzerthaus Orchester in Berlin, the Brussels Philharmonic, the London Mozart Players, I Virtuosi Italiani, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, and the Munich Symphoniker.

She won first prize in the Trio di Trieste Duo Competition and the Kommerzbank Piano Trio competition in Frankfurt, and has received numerous other awards. Appearances this season include performances in the UK, Germany, USA, Korea, Australia, Spain, and The Netherlands and collaborations with Alexander Sitkovetsky, Leticia Moreno, Cho-Liang Lin, Clive Greensmith, and Wu Han. Her debut recording of Schumann, Liszt, and Alexander Prior was met with universal critical acclaim.

She is a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio with which, in addition to performing in major concert halls and series around the world, she has released numerous critically acclaimed and prize winning recordings recordings on the BIS label and the Wigmore Live Label.

Wu Qian is an alum of The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two) at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is the Artistic Director of the Investec International Music Festival in Surrey, which has been one of the top cultural events in the UK for over 10 years.

Mark Padmore - Tenor

Mark Padmore was born in London and studied at King’s College, Cambridge. He has established an international career in opera, concert and recital. His appearances in Bach Passions have gained particular notice, especially his renowned performances as Evangelist in the St Matthew and St John Passions with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Simon Rattle, staged by Peter Sellars.

A highlight of Mark's 2021/22 season is a residency at Wigmore Hall where he celebrates his relationship with pianists Till Fellner, Imogen Cooper, Mitsuko Uchida and Paul Lewis. He will also appear in recital in Brussels with Simon Lepper, Madrid with Kristian Bezuidenhout and in a six-concert US tour with Mitsuko Uchida.
Other appearances in this busy season include a staged Britten War Requiem at the Liceu Barcelona, Evangelist St Matthew Passion at the Bayerische Rundfunk conducted by Simon Rattle, and directing performances of St John Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment.

Mark recently appeared in a new Royal Opera House, Covent Garden production of Britten’s Death in Venice, where his performance was described as a “tour de force” and “exquisite of voice, [presenting] Aschenbach’s physical and spiritual breakdown with extraordinary detail and insight”. Other opera roles have included the leading roles in Harrison Birtwistle The Corridor and The Cure at the Aldeburgh Festival; Captain Vere in Britten Billy Budd and Evangelist in a staging of St Matthew Passion both for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the world premiere of Tansy Davies Cave with the London Sinfonietta.
In concert Mark performs with the world’s leading orchestras. He was Artist in Residence for the 2017/18 Season with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and held a similar position with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for 2016/17. His work with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment has involved projects exploring both Bach St John and St Matthew Passions and has attracted worldwide acclaim.

His extensive discography includes Beethoven Missa Solemnis and Haydn Die Schöpfung with Bernard Haitink and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on BR Klassik and Lieder by Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart with Kristian Bezuidenhout for Harmonia Mundi. Other Harmonia Mundi recordings; Schubert cycles with Paul Lewis (Winterreise won the 2010 Gramophone magazine Vocal Award); Schumann Dichterliebe with Kristian Bezuidenhout (2011 Edison Klassiek Award) and Britten Serenade, Nocturne and Finzi Dies Natalis with the Britten Sinfonia (ECHO/Klassik 2013 award).

Mark was voted 2016 Vocalist of the Year by Musical America and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Kent University in 2014. He was appointed CBE in the 2019 Queens’ Birthday Honours List. 

www.markpadmore.com

Alexander Sitkovetsky - Violin

Alexander Sitkovetsky was born into a family with an established musical tradition, and made his concerto debut at the age of eight. He went on to study with the late Yehudi Menuhin; performing together on several occasions.

Winner of the ICMA Special Achievement Award for Panufnik’s Violin Concerto with Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Alexander is a frequent guest soloist of top orchestras and embarks on nationwide tours of the UK.

1st prize winner at the Trio di Trieste Duo Competition alongside pianist Wu Qian. He is an alumnus of the prestigious ‘Bowers Program’ (formerly ‘CMS Two’) at the Lincoln Center, and in 2016 received the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. Founding member of the Sitkovetsky Duo & Trio and also a member of the Julia Fischer String Quartet.

www.alexandersitkovetsky.com

Natalie Klouda - Violin

Natalie Klouda is a Suffolk-born, British violinist and composer. Her early training was at the Yehudi Menuhin School, where she was greatly influenced by Yehudi Menuhin. A project to write compositions for his 80th Birthday engaged her passion for both chamber music performance and composition.

As a chamber musician Natalie has performed in major venues across Europe and in the USA including the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw and Carnegie Halls and has recorded for the Resonus Classics label. Natalie was a founding member of the award winning Finzi Quartet. Prizes for their performances included 1st Prize in the 2010 Royal Over-Seas League Competition and Swiss Global Artistic Foundation Awards.

Recent seasons have included performances and collaborations with the Ossian Ensemble, Solstice Quartet, Ensemble 360, the Jigsaw Players, Manchester Collective, Heath Quartet (USA/Canada tours) and the Ligeti Quartet. Natalie also recently travelled to Antigua with the Kanneh-Mason family to perform and coach young musicians as part of their Playing to Inspire collaboration with ABYSO.

During lockdown Natalie was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to write her solo piano work, ‘Nightscapes 2020’ which was Premiered by Isata Kanneh-Mason at the Wigmore Hall and broadcast as part of the celebrations for International Women’s Day in March 2021.

This year’s premieres include a Piano Quintet dedicated to violinist, Alma Rosé and commissioned by the Brunidbár Arts Festival 2022 as well as a new Piano Trio commissioned by the Investec International Music Festival, premiered by the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio in May 2022 (Strad Magazine premiere of the month).

Natalie has been Co-Artistic Director & Founder of the Highgate International Chamber Music Festival since the first edition in 2012 and the festival will celebrate its 10 year anniversary later this year.

Hélène Clément - Viola

Born in France in 1988, Hélène Clément has performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Cité de la Musique in Paris.

She is the viola player of the Doric String Quartet, and Principal Viola Player of the innovative Aurora Orchestra based in London. She teaches viola and chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music of London. She is with her String Quartet the Artistic Director of the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival.

Ms Clement is currently playing on a 1843 Italian viola owned previously by Benjamin Britten and Frank Bridge. In August 2022 she will be releasing a recording for Chandos of the viola repertoire by Bridge and Britten. 

Sascha Bota - Viola

Alexandru-Mihai (Sascha) Bota was born in Timisoara, Romania into a family of musicians. Playing both modern and baroque viola, his career as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral player has taken him all around the world. He is a member of the Navarra String Quartet.

Adrian Brendel - Cello

Creative innovation and musical versatility rank high among the list of attributes cultivated by Adrian Brendel. The cellist, raised in the great central European tradition of music making, has forged strong and lasting partnerships with many fine artists and appeared with them at the world’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls. His love for contemporary music arose during his teens when he discovered works by Kurtág, Kagel and Ligeti; it has flourished since with landmark commissions and pioneering collaborations with such diverse composers as Thomas Adès, Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Eötvös and György Kurtág. The breadth of Adrian’s musical passions also encompasses jazz and world music and influenced his decision to join the Nash Ensemble in 2014.

As a tireless champion of new music, Adrian always seeks to include contemporary work in his programmes. He recently concluded a three-year project with Birtwistle that delivered the world premieres of the song cycle Bogenstrich and Trio for violin, cello and piano, works which he has recorded for the ECM label. Other significant world premieres include York Hoeller’s Mouvements for cello and piano and Cello Concerto, the latter presented alongside Zimmermann’s Canto di speranza with the NDR Sinfonieorchester in Hamburg.

Born in London in 1976, Adrian studied cello with William Pleeth and soon shared his teacher’s profound attachment to chamber music. He later received lessons from Alexander Baillie and Frans Helmerson in London and Cologne, and participated in masterclasses with Kurtág, Ferenc Rados, members of the Alban Berg Quartet and with his father, Alfred Brendel. A critically acclaimed recording of Beethoven’s cello sonatas with his father is available on Philips.

Adrian’s presence on the international stage is closely bound to his work as a recitalist and chamber musician. His duo partners include Aleksandar Madžar, Imogen Cooper, Till Fellner, Tim Horton, Kit Armstrong and Christian Ihle Hadland, while he also performs regularly with, among others, Henning Kraggerud, Lisa Batiashvili, Lars-Anders Tomter, Andrej Bielow, Katharine Gowers and Alasdair Beatson. As a concerto soloist, he has appeared with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and many orchestras throughout Germany and Eastern Europe. His annual visit to the International Musicians’ Seminar in Prussia Cove, founded by Sándor Végh as a perfect environment for music-making, holds great personal and artistic importance.

Until 2017 Adrian was artistic director of the Plush Festival held every summer since 1995 in Dorset. Its programme is devoted to classical and contemporary chamber music, lieder recitals, modern jazz, folk and world music concerts and has featured over 100 contemporary works and 200 leading artists and emerging musicians from around the world. Artists who have performed at Plush include Radu Lupu, Mark Padmore, Paul Lewis, Louis Lortie, Miklos Perenyi, Anthony Marwood and Lawrence Power.

Ben Aldren - Clarinet

Ben Aldren currently holds the position of Principal Clarinet at the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.

He recently completed his second Masters degree at Norges Musikkhøgskole in Oslo. There he studied with Bjørn Nyman, Fredrik Fors and Leif Arne Pedersen. He has also performed in masterclasses with Yehuda Gilad, Martin Fröst and Ollie Leppäniemi. Prior to that he completed his Bachelors at the Royal Academy in London and a Masters at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

Ben was a participant in the orchestra academy programme with the Oslo Philharmonic, having performed many projects with the orchestra, with conductors including Klaus Mäkelä and Jukka Pekka Saraste.

As an orchestral musician, Ben has worked with conductors such as Simon Rattle, Herbert Blomstedt and Daniel Harding. Over the past few years he has performed as guest principal clarinet with the Liverpool Philharmonic and as second clarinet with London Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Stockholm Philharmonic, Stockholm Opera, Swedish Chamber and Oslo Philharmonic.

Michael Gurevich - Violin

Dutch violinist Michael Gurevich enjoys a varied performing career. He has appeared as leader with ensembles as far ranging as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Arcangelo, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Dunedin Consort and Benedetti Baroque, and as section principal on both violin and viola, with Philharmonia, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Concerto Copenhagen and many others. Devoted to chamber music, Michael is a member of the London Haydn Quartet and frequently plays with the Nash Ensemble. With these groups and others, Michael has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Wigmore Hall, Royal Concertgebouw, the Louvre, Melbourne Recital Centre, at the Verbier, Edinburgh, Aix-en-Provence and Aldeburgh Festivals and in numerous other venues and festivals across the world. He has also recorded extensively for the Hyperion label, including seven critically acclaimed albums in the London Haydn Quartet’s cycle of Haydn quartets and a disc of Bruch’s chamber music with the Nash Ensemble. Further recordings include a disc of Schumann piano trios for Champs Hill Records with the Rhodes Piano Trio, clarinet quintets by Weber and Krommer with the London Haydn Quartet for Glossa as well as four albums for Alpha as leader of Arcangelo. Radio broadcasts include appearances on BBC Radio 3, SWR2 in Germany, ABC Classic FM in Australia, CBC Radio in Canada, NHK in Japan and many others.