Markson Pianos - Concerts and Recitals

Concerts

markson pianos are delighted to present our forthcoming BOSENDORFER CONCERT SERIES at St Mary Magdalene Church, NW1

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Markson Music and Wine Evening		Wednesday April 24th 2013 at 7:00 pm - Grace Francis , preceded by Barry Goldensohn's Poems Tickets £6.00 on the door or pre-booked ; £3.00 Concessions Programme: Franz Liszt -Dante Sonata (Apres une Lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata) Carl Vine - Five Bagatelles (1994) Sergei Rachmaninov Moments Musicaux No3 in B minor, Op16 Sergei Rachmaninov Sonata No.2 in B flat minor (in the revised version) Grace Francis was born in London and attended the Yehudi Menuhin School before studying with Irina Zaritskaya at the Royal College of Music. There she won the Chappell Gold Medal, the highest award for a pianist. She continued her studies with a Wingate Scholarship, also receiving the Hattori Foundation Award and winning in international competition the Negrada Piano House Award at Zagreb Grace has given many concerts in the UK: Barbican; Reform Club, Pall Mall; Purcell Room; Wigmore Hall (for the Kirckman Society); St John’s, Smith Square; Rosehill Theatre, Cumbria; Warwick University; the City Music Society (where she performed Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’). In April this year she played Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives, and Liszt’s Vallee d’Obermann, Sposalizio and Mephisto Waltz as part of the Carnegie Hall’s Distinctive Debuts series at the Weill Hall New York. On hearing her first cd of works by Brahms and Liszt the renowned conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy asked Grace to perform Grieg’s Piano Concerto in the opening concert of the Lugano International Festival 2010 playing with The European Youth Orchestra under his direction. Broadcasts include Liszt’s ‘Hungarian Rhapsody’ with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and a BBC Radio 3 programme of works by Chopin, John Field and Viteslav Novak. Grace’s repertoire is wide-ranging: from Haydn to Chopin, Brahms, Liszt and Bartok. Leading performers including Mitsuko Uchida and Stephen Hough have praised Grace’s outstanding talent and the leading critic, David Cairns, revealed her to the world in the Sunday Times as a ‘phenomenon… of uncommon fire and energy’. Grace’s new CD, Brahms & Liszt, released by Quartz, features Brahms’ Variations on a theme of Paganini, Book II, Brahms Sonata No 1, Liszt Funerailles, Ave Maria, Sonetto del Petrarca 104 and Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli. This recording is now available at HMV and online through Discovery Records. Barry Goldensohns Poems -Will be reading from his latest book of poems. They couple words and music as surely as Schubert or Gershwin. But Goldensohn’s poems aren’t song lyrics; rather, they are intense reflections on music as experienced, by ear and by mind. The essence of listening is his key topic. For the Bach cello suites, it’s the inviting conundrum of one voice being several. For Schumann’s Dichterliebe it’s the clarity and purity of the piano in contest with the “groping,” “searching,” “laboring,” “huffing” voice. Broader issues matter, too: Don Giovanni’s “comic murderous lust” and its absurd end, he and his “phallus errant cursing through the trap door and stage flames.” The people making the music enrich the experience: “The first violinist, all of him, follows his arm… The cellist grinds his teeth, clenches his face in spasms of control.” Blues and jazz are there with the classics: we hear Bessie Smith, “with the whole world’s sorrow in her voice” and see Thelonius Monk “doing a march time heavy footed non-dance dance.” Eros is often up front: “the girls forget themselves, skirts / above their breasts as they flash their white unsunned asses and the house is all meat, / shrieks and hair.” Mainly, we are led to open our ears wider and to abandon the filters that steer our hearing by custom. Immediacy is Goldensohn’s great gift in this brilliant collection. ––Lewis Spratlan, Pulitzer Prize winning composer

Markson Music and Wine Evening		Wednesday 29th May 2013 at 7:00 pm - Julian Jacobson and Mariko Brown Tickets £6.00 on the door or pre-booked ; £3.00 Concessions Programme: Schubert - Variations on an Original Theme, D.813 Gary Carpenter - "After Braque" Ravel - Suite "Mother Goose" Julian Jacobson - Palm Court Waltz Julian Jacobson and Mariko Brown’s musical association dates back to the late 1990s, though it was only in 2010 that they decided to team together to explore the rich and varied repertoire for piano duet. Both composers as well as pianists, they have already enhanced this repertoire: Mariko’s piece “Travels Through a Mist of Chinese Mountains” (2012) has already received three performances, to great acclaim, and Julian’s “Tango Albertito” has been performed in France and England. They made their debut at the festival “Rencontres Musicales en Eygalières” in France in 2010, returning there in 2011 and 2012. In the UK, they have given concerts at Burgh House, Regent Hall at the 2011 Beethoven Society Summer Festival and at various London churches. Plans for 2013 include concerts at Blackheath Hall, London and Fairfield Halls, Croydon, a Debussy project including the neglected ballet masterpiece “Khamma” and "Epigraphes Antiques" with live dance, further concerts in France and the premiere of Gary Carpenter's, "After Braque", in May. They will also make their CD recording debut for the British Music Society. Julian Jacobson studied piano and composition from the age of seven with Lamar Crowson and Arthur Benjamin, subsequently studying at the Royal College of Music, Queen's College Oxford and privately with Louis Kentner. He enjoys an international career as soloist, chamber musician with many prominent artists, and teacher, appearing in over 40 countries and making annual visits in recent years to Australia and the Far East. He has been soloist with several of the principal British orchestras under conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Jane Glover and Tamás Vásáry, as well as appearing in most of the leading UK festivals. He has been particularly acclaimed for his performances of the Beethoven Sonatas, of which he has given eight complete cycles, most recently at The Forge, Camden Town (2011-12). In 2003 he performed the entire cycle in a single day in aid of the charity WaterAid, an event which attracted worldwide media coverage and which he is due to repeat in October 2013 in St Martin-in-the-Fields. He has recorded for Meridian, Hyperion, Chandos, Decca Argo, Continuum and other labels, and has just recorded an album of his father Maurice Jacobson's music for the British Music Society, with guest artists including Mariko Brown and Raphael Wallfisch. Anglo-Japanese Mariko Brown began her piano studies at the age of six with Martyn Dyke, with whom she performed regularly including at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon, as well as for many outreach community projects. She made her first concerto appearance age nine under Dr.Ruth Gipps, subsequently going on to study at the Guildhall School Junior Department with Joan Havill where she won the prestigious Lutine Prize. This led to concerto appearances at the Barbican Hall and St.Giles Cripplegate as part of the City of London Festival. During this time she also took up composition with Gary Carpenter, receiving a prize for her Oboe Sonata. She was awarded the Principal's prize on graduation from the Junior department and went on to continue her studies at the Senior Department, graduating in 2000. Her Piano Sonata, commissioned and performed by Helen Reid, was premiered at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. She has also been Musical Director for productions at the Arcola Theatre, London and Eye Theatre in Suffolk. Mariko teaches at the Junior department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, at the Yehudi Menuhin School and privately.

Markson Music and Wine Evening		Wednesday June 26th 2013 at 7:00 pm - Emilie Capulet Tickets £6.00 on the door or pre-booked ; £3.00 Concessions Programme: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ‘June – Barcarolle’ (The Seasons) Maurice Ravel Jeux d’Eau Claude Debussy ‘... La Cathédrale Engloutie’ (Préludes, Book I) Maurice Ohana ‘Quintes’ (Etudes d’Interprétation) Frédéric Chopin Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38 Claude Debussy ‘Jardins sous la Pluie’ (Estampes) In this programme of music inspired by water, you will be soothed by the gentle lilt of Tchaikovsky’s Barcarolle before the storm breaks in Chopin’s second Ballade. You will witness the majestic rising of a sunken cathedral out of the depths of the ocean in Debussy’s evocative prelude and feel the spray from the iridescent fountains of Ravel’s Jeux d’Eau. You will plunge into the mysterious star-lit reflections and fluid sonorities of Maurice Ohana’s ‘Quintes’ and dance with the pattering raindrops in Debussy’s ‘Gardens in the Rain’. Franco-British pianist, Emilie Capulet, is recognized as one of the most captivating and gifted pianists of her generation, enthralling audiences with her profound and imaginative interpretations, astounding virtuosity and compelling personality. She has given many concerts worldwide, including solo and chamber music recitals in international music festivals and renowned concert halls in France, Britain, Germany, Holland, Canada, the USA, and Latin America. Emilie Capulet was born in Aix-en-Provence, France. She studied the piano at the Conservatoire there and in Marseille where she was awarded several prizes, making her solo recital debut at the age of 14 in the Rising Stars series of the Aix-en-Provence Summer Music Festival. She subsequently spent a year at the Conservatorium in Sydney, Australia, under the guidance of concert pianist William Corbett-Jones, visiting professor from the University of San Francisco. In 2000, she gained a place at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, in Advanced Instrumental Studies, studying with professor Paul Roberts. She was awarded a Master of Music degree in 2001 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Music Performance in 2002. In addition to her successful solo career, Emilie has built a strong reputation as a lecture-recitalist, giving illustrated talks on the relations between music, literature and painting in international literary and music conferences. Her interest in the arts as a whole has earned her an MA on Shakespeare as well as a PhD on the musicality of Modernist literature. Her work proved to be particularly innovative and ground-breaking and her thesis was rewarded with the highest French doctoral distinction, ‘Mention Très Honorable avec les Félicitations du Jury à l’Unanimité’. She has published a book on Virginia Woolf and Music with Bloomsbury Heritage and has also written many articles on Impressionist music, Modernism, the musicalization of fiction, and multimedia performance practices. Emilie Capulet currently lectures in the Music Department of the University of Surrey. Emilie has just released a CD of works by Beethoven and Chopin with BMP and is currently preparing her next CD of music by French Impressionist composers. While touring Latin America, Emilie received the ‘ExpressArte’ award for her exceptional contribution to Nicaraguan culture and art.

Markson Music and Wine Evening		Wednesday July 31st 2013 at 7:00 pm - Graham Fitch and Cathy Riley Tickets £6.00 on the door or pre-booked ; £3.00 Concessions Programme : Faure: Dolly Suite Op 56 Ravel: Ma Mere L'Oye Schumann: Polonaises (a selection) Brahms: Hungarian Dances (a selection) Debussy: Petite Suite Graham Fitch maintains an international career as a pianist, teacher, adjudicator and writer. He teaches privately in London, and counts among his students Daniel Grimwood and James Baillieu, with many others active in the profession. In addition to teaching talented youngsters and tertiary level piano students, he is very interested in working with amateur pianists. Graham has just returned from a concert and teaching tour of Singapore and Australia, with masterclasses at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, Griffith University, and Melbourne’s Team of Pianists. He has been adjudicating the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival, and will soon adjudicate the Beckenham and Abingdon Festivals. Graham is a regular writer for Pianist Magazine, and has several video demonstrations on YouTube. He has recently published an ebook based on his popular blog, www.practisingthepiano.com. First Prizewinner in the Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Competition, he graduated with honours from the Royal College of Music in London where he won the Hopkinson Gold Medal for piano playing. A Fulbright Scholarship then took him to the United States, where he completed his studies with Nina Svetlanova, as well as classes with Leon Fleisher. During much of the 1990s, Graham Fitch's career straddled the Atlantic with solo and chamber performances in England (where he taught piano at the Purcell School) and in Europe and North America. The New York Times spoke of his playing as "an unalloyed pleasure". In the UK he was recitalist at the Bournemouth Festival, and appeared in repeated engagements with the London Chamber Soloists on the South Bank. US activities included concerts with the Trio dell'Arte, and a performance of the Goldberg Variations in Merkin Hall during the 250th Bach anniversary. From 1997 to 2008, Graham Fitch was Head of Keyboard at the University of Cape Town, from where he travelled extensively to perform and teach. Graham was active as a recitalist and keynote presenter at four successive Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conferences from 1999, and has been in residence at London's Royal Academy of Music. Catherine Riley graduated from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, with an M.Mus degree in Performance, with first class honours. Following successes with the two major New Zealand concerto competitions, she recorded for Radio New Zealand and undertook several professional piano concerto engagements. A grant from the NZ Arts council enabled her to continue with post graduate studies at the Royal College of Music with Kendall Taylor and Peter Wallfisch. Several awards led to concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room and Fairfield Halls. She has also given performances in the Barbican Centre as well as St. John’s, Smith Square and St. Martin-in-the-Fields. She has performed as both soloist and chamber musician and given numerous recitals and chamber music concerts in the UK and in Europe and has recorded the complete works for violin and piano by Grieg with American violinist, Christopher Collins Lee. In 2007 she formed the Johannes Piano Quartet with colleagues who are fellow tutors at the Centre for Young Musicians, in London. Catherine is also very active in the field of music education and is Head of Piano at the Centre for Young Musicians as well as being a principal tutor for the EPTA Piano Teaching Course. About the Duo: Catherine and Graham are long time friends who first met as students at the Royal College of Music in the early 1980’s where they both studied with the pianist, Peter Wallfisch. However it was not until 2011 after a spontaneous and very enjoyable duet session that they decided to form a piano duo. They have since given a number of concerts, which have all been very well received.

Markson Music and Wine Evening		Thursday August 1st 2013 at 1:00 pm - LUNCHTIME CONCERT - Feargus Hetherington (violin) and Olga Gorelik (piano) Tickets £6.00 on the door or pre-booked ; £3.00 Concessions will be performing Sonata No.2 in F minor - John Blackwood McEwen (1868 – 1948) Violin Sonata No.1 in G Major - Granville Bantock (1868 - 1946) La Caprieuse - Edward Elgar (1857 – 1934) Feargus Hetherington has developed a wide ranging and varied career as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral performer. He studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Cleveland Institute of Music, USA, and has worked with some of today's great violinists. Feargus has performed throughout the UK and Europe and made his New York recital debut in June 2010. He has been guest leader of orchestras and chamber ensembles in Scotland and the USA and has played in leading orchestras including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. His solo collaborations include concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Bruch, Brahms, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Schnittke and most recently, Elgar with The New Edinburgh Orchestra. Frequent unaccompanied recitals feature works by J.S. Bach, Eugène Ysaÿe, Eddie McGuire, Ronald Stevenson and Iain Matheson. He is currently violist with The Roxburgh Quartet and leads The Auriga Strings whose CD of Brahms String Sextet No. 1 and Strauss’s Capriccio was released in the autumn. Feargus is currently associate teacher in violin and chamber music at the University of St Andrews. Belarusian-born pianist Olga Gorelik maintains an active international career as a solo and chamber musician, while serving as a devoted pedagogue for the Cleveland community. Olga holds Bachelor and Master degrees in Music, as well as an Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Ohio. In May 2005, Olga was invited to perform at the Las Galas Concert Series in Piedras Negras, Mexico. Two years later, as a member of Klimt Trio, she took a Silver medal at the 2007 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition as well as the Alice Coleman/Coleman Barstow Prize at the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition. The following year she performed Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto with orchestra as a winner of the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition and was later awarded a Sadie Zellen Piano Prize by the Institute. Performance highlights include an appearance at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., collaborative recitals throughout Scotland, UK, Naples, FL, and Chicago, IL, as well as a series of solo outreach concerts in the Greater Cleveland Area.

Markson Music and Wine Evening		Wednesday September 25th 2013 at 7:00 pm - Roland Perrin and Rachel Sutton Tickets £6.00 on the door or pre-booked ; £3.00 Concessions will be performing a variety of material including songs from The Great American Songbook, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Janis Ian, Billy Joel and Michael Jackson. They will also be presenting songs they have written together. Expect new twists on classics and jazz slants on more unusual repertoire. Rachel Sutton has worked as both an actress and singer. She trained at The Welsh College of Music and Drama. She has performed in a variety of Shakespeare's plays throughout the UK, Germany and The Netherlands and works with experimental theatre companies in the UK and Ireland. In 2009, she appeared in the award winning, outrageous rock musical, 'The Inconsiderate Aberrations of Billy the Kid', at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Rachel started her career in music as a backing vocalist for a number of bands whose genres include Motown, Soul, Pop and Alternative. She has now emerged as a solo performer. Her rich tone and unerring sense of swing has led her to specialise in Jazz. Her background in the theatre adds an extra dimension to her interpretation of both classic jazz repertoire and her own songs. Rachel not only sings the music, she lives the lyric. Born in New York City, Roland Perrin spent his childhood roaming the world with his itinerant family, eventually settling in London and establishing himself as one of the capital’s more versatile jazz pianists and composers. He has gained a reputation for being a fine accompanist, having toured and recorded with a wide variety of singers including Aster Aweke (Ethiopia), Louise Rutkowski (Scotland), Wendy Nieper (ex Swingle Singers), Najma Aktar (India) and Osvaldo Chacon (Cuba). Roland’s sensitivity to the nuances of the classic jazz standard combine wonderfully with his ability to make the music swing.

Markson Music and Wine Evening		Wednesday October 16th at 7:00 pm - Ivo Varbanov and Fiammetta Tarli Tickets £6.00 on the door or pre-booked ; £3.00 Concessions French and Italian Impressions of the Early Twentieth Century Programme : Ottorino Respighi, Sei piccoli pezzi per pianoforte a quattro mani (Six Small Pieces for Piano Four Hands) (1926): I. Romanza (Romance) II. Canto di caccia siciliano (Sicilian Hunters Song) III. Canzone armena (Armenian Song) IV. Natale, Natale! (Christmas, Christmas!) V. Cantilena scozzese (Scottish) VI. Piccoli Highlanders (Young Highlanders) Alfredo Casella, Pagine di guerra. Quattro 'films' musicali per pianoforte a quattro mani (War Pages. Four Musical Films for Piano Four Hands) (1915): I. Nel Belgio: sfilata di artiglieria pesante tedesca (In Belgium: Parade of Heavy German Artillery) II. In Francia: davanti alle rovine della cattedrale di Reims (In France: in front of the Ruins of Reims Cathedral) III. In Russia: carica di cavalleria cosacca (In Russia: Charge of Cosack Cavallery) IV. In Alsazia: croci di legno (In Alsace: Wooden Crosses) Alfredo Casella, Pupazzetti. Cinque pezzi facili per pianoforte a quattro mani (Puppets. Five Little Pieces for Piano Four Hands) (1915): I. Marcetta (Little March) II. Berceuse III. Serenata (Serenade) IV. Notturnino (Little Nocturne) V. Polca (Polka) Claude Debussy, Six épigraphes antiques (Six Antique Epigraphs for Piano Four Hands) (1914): I. Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d'été (To invoke Pan, god of the summer wind) II. Pour un tombeau sans nom (For a nameless tomb) III. Pour que la nuit soit propice (That night may be propitious) IV. Pour la danseuse aux crotales (For the dancing girl with castanets) V. Pour l'égyptienne (For the Egyptian girl) VI. Pour remercier la pluie au matin (To thank the morning rain) Ivo Varbanov:I was born into a family of musicians (my mum is a cellist, my aunt is a pianist and my grandfather was an excellent amateur pianist), I moved with my mum to Italy at an early age. I studied in Milan with the renown Hungarian pianist Ylonka Deckers from 1988 to 1993. After my graduation I decided to move to to England to work with Sulamita Aronowsky and later on with Frank Wibaut at the Royal Academy of Music, completing my postgraduate studies in 1998 (on a Rotary Foundation Scholarship). I also studied with Dennis Lee. Together with the Finnish cellist Seeli Toivio we won a 1st Prize and a Special Prize at the XXV International Chamber Music Competition in Finale Ligure (Italy) in 1998. My first CD of piano works by Mussorgsky (Gega New) had excellent reviews in BBC Music Magazine, Suono, HFN&RR, In Tune, and Kultura. My second CD with Seeli (Gega New) was a world première of works for cello & piano by Ildebrando Pizzetti and it was released in 2004. In 2001 with Michal Drewnowski (piano), Christo Yotzov and Eti Kukudov (percussion), we created the Voland Quartet, a two pianos and percussion ensemble dedicated to contemporary music. Their first CD, with works by Béla Bartók, Aleksandr Arutiunian, Gheorghi Arnaoudov, Ari Ben-Shabetai, Christo Yotzov and Jerzy Bauer was released in December 2006 (Gega New). My performances and interviews have been broadcast on Bulgarian National Radio, BBC Radio, RAI3, Classic FM+, Bulgarian National TV, BTV, and TV Bulgaria. I played concertos, recitals and chamber music in Bulgaria, Italy, the UK, France, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Holland, Poland, Russia, and the USA, with career highlights including the South Bank Centre and Wigmore Hall (London), Carnegie Recital Hall (New York), Bulgaria Hall (Sofia), Philharmonic Hall (St Petersburg). My fourth CD with piano works by Johannes Brahms was released in May 2007 by Gega New. I am a recipient of the Ivan Vazov Award for the popularisation of Bulgarian Culture Abroad. I am also the Artistic Director of Bulgarian Creative Arts and we have been promoting and supporting Bulgarian Art and Culture in the UK since 2003. We have organised five editions of the Bulgarian Film Festival In London, a number of concerts, exhibitions, theatre performances, and culinary events. Fiammetta Tarlistarted studying piano at the age of five and gave her first concert at nine. Later she continued her studies with Maria Tipo (one of Italy’s leading pianists) and at the Florence Conservatoire, where she took her diploma in Piano Performance and Music Studies (10/10 cum Laude and Special Award). She participated in several master-classes with Alexander Lonquich and specialised with Ilonka Deckers in Milan. She completed her degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Pisa (110/110 cum Laudae) and subsequently her Master of Musicology (MMUS, passed with Distinction) and PhD (with an AHRC scholarship) at King’s College London, while continuing her performing and teaching activity. She specialised in vocal and instrumental chamber music with Iain Ledingham at Royal Academy of Music, and in solo repertoire with Dennis Lee. She plays regularly in Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the UK both as a soloist and in different chamber music groups, including Iain Ledingham and her husband Ivo Varbanov. In September 2010 she made her debut at Cadogan Hall, London. She recorded her first CD of piano works by Schumann for Gega New in 2007-2008. Her second CD will appear in 2012

Markson Music and Wine Evening		Wednesday October 30th 2013 at 7:00 pm - Ismena Tickets £6.00 on the door or pre-booked ; £3.00 Concessions An evening celebrating Nadia Boulanger's Life, Art, and Teaching. Soprano, Cello, and Piano. Ismena Collective are Sara Cluderay - soprano, Mayda Narvey - cello, and Naomi Edemariam - piano. An evening of music composed by the illustrious students of the great 20th century Parisian teacher of composition, including Barber, Berkeley and Bernstein, readings and reflections on Boulanger’s life, art and teaching Mayda Narvey - Cello Mayda Narvey was born in Canada where she was taught by Peggy Sampson, a student of both Pablo Casals and Nadia Boulanger. Narvey went on to gain a Master of Music degree, assisted by scholarships from the Canadian government, studying with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Janos Starker. She was teaching assistant to Bernard Greenhouse of the Beaux Arts Trio at the University of New York. A finalist in the CBC Talent Festival and Washington International Competition, Mayda played for some years with the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, performing often in a solo and chamber capacity for the CBC (national radio). In London she performs in Ismena's regular cabaret in the West End. She is the cellist on Coloured Clutter (Alaska Records) by young British band, The Savage Nomads, who have been called the “saviours of contemporary music” and for the EP Felicity by Lychee (Fin Records). With Naomi Edemariam, Mayda has performed recitals for the Music by the Commons series, the Hackney Music Society at Sutton House, the City of London Bach Festival and at Kings Place. Mayda has a particular interest in the association of words and music, lecturing at the City Lit on the cross-influence between composers and writers, and composing and performing music to accompany spoken word in her series, On Reflection. Naomi Edemariam – Piano Naomi Edemariam studied the piano at Chethams School of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and read music at Cambridge and McGill Universities. She has attended the Banff Centre for the Arts and the International Musician's Seminar in Prussia Cove, and participated in masterclasses with Gilbert Kalish, Anton Kuerti,Graham Johnson, Ferenc Rados and others. She has performed widely as a soloist and worked as chamber musician with a wide range of ensembles, and has premiered works by many composers. She has appeared with Mayda Narvey at London's Kings Place, at the Music by the Commons series, Sutton House, and at the City of London Bach Festival. Sara Cluderay – Soprano Sara Cluderay studied singing at Trinity College of Music, London before beginning a varied career across many musical genres. She sang operatic backing vocals with rock band The Clint Boon Experience, touring the UK with Travis and Echo & the Bunnymen, appearing at major rock venues and festivals, and broadcasting for BBC Radio 1 and Channel 4 television. Opera includes La Traviata with Dartington Festival Opera and Cirque d'Hoffmann with Arkadia Opera Zirkus (UK tour). Sara has also appeared on the classical concert platform at venues including Barbican, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Serbian Embassy and the Actors' Church, Covent Garden. Choral work has included the Maida Vale Singers, York Minster, Westminster Abbey (St. Margaret's Chapel), West London Synagogue and Gray's Inn, London, as well as St. Thomas 5th Avenue, Holy Trinity Wall Street and the Cathedral of St. John-the-Divine in New York City. Cabaret includes Battersea Barge, Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Canal Cafe Theatre, Cafe Koha (West End) and Don't Tell Mama (NYC). Upcoming plans include classical concerts and cabaret appearances in Australia.