Keyboard

Alexander has made notable radio recordings for BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. His extensive discography consists of 20 different CD albums. Among them is a remarkable recording of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson.

Alexander has given recitals at the Bösendorfer Hall in Vienna, Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields and St John’s Smith Square in London; Carnegie Hall in New York; Gasteig and Carl-Orff-Saal in Munich; Benaroya Hall in Seattle; and Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.

He frequently gives masterclasses in the UK and abroad.

Listen to Alexander Ardakov’s recordings on his YouTube channel

Photo: Alexander Dymnikov

Can is currently working on an 11 album survey of Schubert’s complete major works in combination with other pieces inspired by Schubert for BIS Records which will be released between 2023 and the 200th anniversary of Schubert’s death, 2028. Praising the Vol. 1 of the series, Bryce Morrison (International Piano) wrote “Truly great recordings of Schubert’s piano sonatas are rare (Schnabel, Kempff, Brendel and, more recently, Volodos come to mind), but I know of few to match Can Çakmur’s supple and penetrating confirmation of Schubert’s genius.”

Can has performed in a variety of concert halls worldwide, including Wigmore Hall in London, Glasgow Concert Hall, Eindhoven Muziekgebouw, Tokyo Opera City, Suntory Hall, Fondation Louis Vuitton as well as the most prestigious concert venues in his homeland, Turkey. He has appeared in the most important classical music festivals in the country including the Istanbul Music Festival, where he headlined the opening concert in 2015 with Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra under Sascha Goetzel. Recent highlights include the Japanese premiere of Thomas Adés’ In Seven Days at the Suntory Hall with Yomiuri

Nippon Symphony Orchestra conducted by Masato Suzuki, the closing concert of Festa Musica MUZA Kawasaki with Tokyo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tadaaki Otaka and an excellently received recital debut at Fondation Louis Vuitton. Can’s recitals and concerts have been recorded and broadcast by BBC 3, Radio Musique France, Arte, NHK, Turkish National Radio and Television, Deutschlandfunk and Classic FM.

Among Can’s regular chamber music partners are Veriko Tchumburidze and Dorukhan Doruk (as Vecando Trio formed in 2021), cellist Alexandre Castro-Balbi and double-bassist Dominik Wagner. Alexandre and Can are currently working on a recording of Beethoven’s complete works for Passavant, to be released in 2024.
Can was appointed to a piano professorship at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance in 2022, at the age of 24, becoming one of the youngest professors to date at the institute.

His first musical impulses came with Emre Şen, Jun Kanno and Marcella Crudeli. He has later studied with Diane Andersen privately and with Grigory Gruzman at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar. His studies were made possible by generous guidance and support by G & S Pekinel Young Musicians on World Stages.

As an accomplished soloist, she pursues an international performing career. She has performed with the Japan Philharmonic, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Slovak Chamber Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, the Presidential Orchestra of Ankara, and with several other orchestras in Turkey, the Philippines, Spain and USA. She has played many solo recitals at Salle Gaveau in Paris, Tonhalle in Zurich, Wigmore Hall and St John’s Smith Square in London, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and in major cities in France, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Israel, Turkey and the Netherlands. She has regular series at St John’s Smith Square in London where she performed three programmes of Mozart during 2016/17 and will perform several piano trios during the next season.

Deniz Gelenbe founded and directed the summer academies and chamber music festivals Semaines Musicales de Rouen and Semaines Musicales d’Orsay in France for eleven years. She has performed in Europe and USA with the Haydn, Enesco, Alexander, Borromeo, Talich and Ciompi Quartets and performed in piano duo concerts with Charles Webb.

In 1994, she founded the Arman Ensemble and the Arman Trio which performs regularly in Europe and the United States in chamber music series, festivals and prestigious venues including Carnegie Weill Hall and Wigmore Hall. She founded and directed for five years the Chamber Arts Series and the Schubertiad Series in Orlando, USA.

The Arman Ensemble premiered the recordings of chamber music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco for the Albany label. Works by Turkish composers Erkin and Kodalli were released on the Hungaroton label. CDs with the Haydn Quartet were released by Arcobaleno, and with the Arman Trio by Musician’s Showcase label and Akmuzik/EMI.

She has adjudicated the International Chamber Music Competition in Paris, several competitions in UK including the BBC Young Artist Competition, Hastings International Piano Competition and Windsor International Piano Competition. She was also twice an adjudicator at the Chopin Competition in Marianske Lazne in the Czech Republic, judged the International Piano Competition at Gnessin Academy in Moscow, Dallas International Piano Competition in Dallas, Texas, Santa Cecilia Competition in Porto, and competitions in Tunisia and China among others.

She is regularly invited to give masterclasses in China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, USA, Russia, Italy, France, UK, and the Netherlands. She teaches at the prestigious Académie internationale de Nice, and at the Chetham’s International Piano Summer School at Airas Nunes Aula de Camera in Santiago de Compostela.

A native of Turkey, Deniz Arman Gelenbe holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Science degrees from the Juilliard School. Her teachers included Rudolf Ganz, Cecile Genhart, Adele Marcus and Gyorgy Sandor.

Formerly Artist-in-Residence and Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Deniz Gelenbe joined Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2003, where she held the position of Head of Piano and Keyboard Instruments Department from 2007 to 2015. She is currently Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at Trinity Laban in London and Professor of Piano at Schola Cantorum in Paris.

Elena has commissioned, edited, published, performed and recorded over 40 new works giving countless world premieres including Sir John Tavener’s “Ypakoe”, written especially for her. Elena’s efforts on behalf of new music and as a keen educationalist led to the publication by Boosey & Hawkes of Salsa Nueva in 2006 – now on its second run and in 2009 Elena Riu’s R’n’B Collection and Out of the Blues CD. “My disc of 2000 is without hesitation Elena Riu’s extraordinary CD of 20th century piano music” (Gramophone) Elena has toured extensively and has performed in all major concert halls in the UK and abroad. An eclectic artist, Elena has pioneered collaborative work. She was the brain behind the sell-out multicultural Spanish Plus Series at the SBC and re-launched their Childrens and Families series. Her most recent collaboration: The Adventures of Tom Thumb was awarded a coveted Fringe First Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Riu studied at Trinity College of Music in London with Joseph Weingarten where she won many prizes ands competitions. She was also a student of Neil Immelman, Maria Curcio and Roger Vignoles. Later, Elena won a scholarship from to travel to Paris for advanced tuition from Vlado Perlemuter in Paris.

Elena has led numerous master classes and courses  throughout the world including several residencies at Dartington International Summer School, Jackdaws Music Trust, CALARTS in LA, Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity College of Music Junior Department, Royal College of Music, EPTA, Simon Bolivar University in Caracas and Anglia Ruskin University among many.

She holds positions at Trinity Laban and Highgate School and has published two books with Boosey and Hawkes focusing on newly commissioned solo piano music.

He has done much recording work for the BBC, most recently including several broadcasts for Radio 3’s Voices programme with Sophie Daneman, Sarah Connolly, Christine Rice, Stephan Loges and Rebecca Evans. Other engagements have included recitals with Dame Felicity Lott, Alison Buchanan, Sophie Daneman, Rebecca Evans, Susan Gritton, Stephan Loges and James Rutherford, including live broadcasts from Wigmore Hall, the Waterfront Hall in Belfast,  Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and at New York’s Weill Recital Hall and Lincoln Center.

Eugene Asti studied at the Mannes College of Music, New York with Jeannette Haien where he earned his BMus and MA.

A passionate advocate for live classical improvisation, Baldocci’s eclectic personality made him develop innovative events where he tastefully breaks boundaries of genres and styles. Among his successful recordings, a live recital in duo with Martha Argerich, Nino Rota’s complete works for piano and violin and piano and viola with Marco Fornaciari, Chopin’s Complete Ballades and Impromptus. His latest recording, Sheer Piano Attack, rapidly became a best-seller after being promoted by the rock band Queen on all their media outlets. His performances are regularly broadcasted on TV and radios internationally and he was featured in a very successful documentary produced by Sky Classica.

A child prodigy of the piano, he started giving public concerts at the age of nine, and he maintained a successful career since then, winning prizes in numerous piano competitions such as the The Alessandro Casagrande International Piano Competition in Italy and the Martha Argerich Competition in Buenos Aires. After his studies at Imola with Franco Scala, he studied at the prestigious International Lake Como Piano Academy with William Grant Naboré, Lèon Fleisher, Alicia De Larrocha, Dmitri Bashkirov, Fou Ts’Ong, Charles Rosen, Andreas Staier and Claude Frank. He completed his studies at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome with Sergio Perticaroli.

A very active educator, he is a professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and of The Purcell School. He is also the founder of the London Piano Centre and of the Milton Keynes Music Academy and he is often invited to give masterclasses at some of the most important universities and academies worldwide.

Helen leads a varied career as a performer and teacher. Her appearances as soloist, and chamber music pianist have taken her to distinguished venues worldwide; such as festivals in Salzburg, Tanglewood, Edinburgh, Buxton and Bayreuth, and to many leading concert hall venues in Oslo, Seoul, Amsterdam, Washington D.C. New York, Paris, Prague, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Brussels, performing a broad and varied repertoire. She has collaborated with several foremost artists, such as Gerald Finley, Sally Burgess, Hilary Hahn, Raphael Wallfisch, Tom Randle, Hans-Peter Blochwitz and Cornelius Hauptmann.

Helen has recorded with the BBC London and Scotland, as well as with the Tanglewood Festival. Her solo concert programmes are created around an innovative, conversational idea, originating from her training as a professional speaker. In these concerts, she re-creates the story of composer’s lives through journals and contemporary accounts, alongside playing performances of their solo compositions. Helen has taken this programme to Japan, the U.SA and to venues around the U.K, including Fairfield Halls, London.

Helen has held teaching positions at the Julliard School, NY, Westminster Choir College, Princeton, the Manhattan School, NY and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow. In addition she has led numerous master classes throughout the United States, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, and Australia, and directed her own course of coaching for singers and pianist called “The Energy and Dynamics of Performance”.

Helen is a recipient of the ARAM, a diploma awarded by the Royal Academy of Music for the achievemnt of distinction in the music profession.

Hilary gained a scholarship, aged 16, to the Royal Academy of Music, from which she graduated with the Recital Diploma – the RAM’s top examinable award. She then continued her studies with Ilona Kabos and Maria Curcio.

Hilary has given masterclasses in recent years at conservatoires in Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Australia, as well as in various venues in the UK for the Yamaha Music Foundation.

As a recitalist he has performed throughout Europe as well as Israel, Colombia, Ecuador and the United States.
As a principal keyboard player for the Gabrieli Consort and Players for 17 years, he took part in some 22 landmark recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. As a member of the chamber ensemble Florilegium for 10 years he performed throughout Europe and North and South America (and was the first European to record on an 18th century organ built by the indigenous Indians in Santa Ana, Bolivia). He recorded eight solo discs of works by Blow, Gibbons, E Pasquini, Cornet, Elizabethan Virginalists and a Bach recital (on the Waalse Kerk organ, Amsterdam). He is currently principal keyboardist with Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir.

In 2016 he undertook a series of critically acclaimed Bach recordings for Metronome Recordings: Clavierübung Part III, Fantasias and Fugues, the 18 Chorales and Canonic Variations. The complete organ works of François Couperin and d’Anglebert was released in 2020. Current new releases include Bach’s Art of Fugue on harpsichord, the six violin and obbligato harpsichord sonatas with Rodolfo Richter and Volume 4 of the Bach series (Bader organ, Zutphen).

James also teaches early keyboards at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Royal Academy of Music London.

A prize winning graduate of The University of Sheffield, Jonathan joined Trinity Laban and the ORNC having spent four years as Sub-Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Bradford Cathedral. During his time there, he recorded numerous CDs, played for a number of high profile services, radio and television broadcasts, and gained ever increasing popularity as a liturgical and silent film improviser. His community outreach work saw engagement with over 1,000 school children in his popular ‘Peter and the Wolf’ series.

As a theatre organist, Jonathan is resident silent film artist for the Cinema Organ Society Northern District, based at the Victoria Hall, Saltaire. He features regularly at theatre venues throughout the UK as a concert and silent film artist.

As a choral director he became well-known through his work with the Bradford Cathedral Girls’ Choir, and was Master of the Choristers at Willington Prep School. Jonathan continues to work as a freelance choral conductor nationally.

At the age of sixteen, Martino won the Liszt Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with the highest honours, after which he completed his studies in Vienna. He later worked closely with Gordon Green, whom he regarded as his greatest mentor.

He has also played and directed many cycles of the five Beethoven Concertos with the Dresdner Philharmonie in Germany and at the Royal Festival Hall in London. He has often appeared with this orchestra, both as soloist and conductor. His repertoire is enormous, including 70 concertos and most of the major works of the great composers, and he has become a champion of the Tippett Concerto, which he performed several times with the composer conducting. Tirimo is particularly renowned for his Schubert interpretations, and in 1975 became the first pianist to perform a truly complete cycle of the 21 sonatas in public, with his own completions to the unfinished movements, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The eight CDs were released throughout 1997 and in the same season he presented six concerts at Wigmore Hall devoted to all of Schubert’s major piano works.

At the age of sixteen Martino won the Liszt Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with the highest honours, after which he completed his studies in Vienna. He later worked closely with Gordon Green, whom he regarded as his greatest mentor.

In the United Kingdom, he has given numerous recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, the Southbank Centre, and has made many live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3. He regularly performs at the Brighton Festival and the Newbury Spring Festival. Other projects include a performance and recording of Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues (The Well Tempered Klavier) at St George’s, Bristol. He played with the European Chamber Orchestra and made his return concert tours to Denmark and Russia, where he performed Mozart Concertos No. 20 and No. 25 with the Philharmonic Orchestras.

Mikhail Kazakevich studied at the Gorky State Conservatoire, opened as a division of Moscow Conservatoire, from 1980-86, with the well-known pianist and teacher Isaak Katz, who was a pupil of the legendary professor Alexander Goldenweiser. After graduating with highest honours, he taught as a Professor at the conservatoire until 1992.

Mikhail has combined his intensive concert activity with teaching, which he enjoyed doing since after his graduation when he was appointed Professor at the Gorky State Conservatoire. In the UK, he taught at the Welsh College of Music and Drama (Cardiff) from 1994-96.

Currently, he is a Professor of Piano at Trinity Laban. He frequently gives Master Classes and adjudicates at the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music and the Atlantic College of Wales. His Master Classes at St George’s Brandon Hill (Bristol) is an annual event. He also gave Masterclasses in Jordan National Conservatoire, University of Aberdeen, Art Centre in Newport, where he was a member of a jury panel at the Newport International Piano Competition.

As a soloist with orchestra, he has performed with Musikkollegium Winterthur, the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra and with the Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra among others.

He has worked with leading conductors including Christopher Warren-Green, Pascal Rophé, Nikoloz Rachveli and Gianluca Marcianó.

In July 2010 Mikhail won the Bronze Medal at the prestigious Vianna da Motta International Piano Competition in Lisbon.

Mikhail lives in London and plays mostly in the UK and Europe. He has been taking part in numerous festivals across Europe including Zaubersee festival in Lucerne and Suoni dal Golfo in La Spezia, Italy.

Among his chamber music partners are Boris Brovtsyn, Anastasia Kobekina and Natalie Clein. He is interested in historical performance practice and gives recitals on fortepianos.

Mikhail is also known for his collaboration with singers including Anna Gorbacheva, Nardus Williams, Yuri Yurchuk, Tuuli Takkala and Anush Hovhannisyan.

Mikhail’s repertoire stretches from early Baroque to contemporary music with its focus on J. S. Bach, Viennese classics, German romantics and Chopin.

He has recently released two critically acclaimed CDs on Toccata Classics and Stone Records. His new record made on historical Bechstein has been released by Willowhayne Records.

Mr. Rogé has performed in almost every major concert hall in the world and with every major orchestra across the globe and has collaborated with the most distinguished conductors in history, including Lorin Maazel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Mariss Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, Edo de Waart, Alan Gilbert, David Zinman, Marek Janowski, Sir Andrew Davis, Raymond Leppard and others.

One of the world’s most distinguished recording artists, Pascal Rogé has won many prestigious awards, including two Gramophone Awards, a Grand Prix du Disque and an Edison Award for his interpretations of the Ravel and Saint-Saëns concertos, along with the complete piano works of Ravel, Poulenc and Satie.

Several years ago, Mr. Rogé began a new and ambitious recording project for Onyx called the Rogé Edition. With the Vienna Radio Symphony under Bertrand de Billy, he has recently recorded two CDs of both of the Ravel Piano Concertos and the Gershwin Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue.

Recently, he has enjoyed playing recitals for four-hands/two-pianos with his partner in life and in music Ami Rogé. Together, they have travelled the world appearing at prestigious festivals and concert halls and recorded several CDs dedicated to the French 2 piano and 4 hands repertoire. In 2011 they gave the premiere of a newly commissioned Concerto for Two Pianos by the composer Matthew Hindson with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Recently chairman of the Geneva Piano competition, Pascal Rogé is also dedicated to teaching and gives regular masterclasses in France, Japan, United States and United Kingdom.

Penelope Roskell combines an international performing career with posts as Professor of Piano at Trinity Laban, and as visiting artist at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She is also the author of the award-winning book The Complete Pianist: from healthy technique to natural artistry, published by Peters Edition. She has performed as soloist at major concert halls throughout Britain, including the Barbican Concert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room. She has also travelled widely throughout the world, playing in over thirty countries in Western and Eastern Europe, the United States, Africa, Asia, and the Middle and Far East. She plays and teaches a very wide range of repertoire. Her first prize at the British Contemporary Piano Competition resulted in numerous invitations to festivals of contemporary music, including eight recitals in Hans Werner Henze’s festivals in Montepulciano and Munich. Her performances of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Shostakovich have been particularly acclaimed. She has played Mozart Concertos with numerous orchestras, including the London Mozart Players at the Barbican Concert Hall and on tour with Sir Simon Rattle. She has also played both Shostakovich Concertos in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the Docklands Sinfonietta. She is also a committed chamber musician and has performed with many distinguished artists. Over the last twelve fifteen years she has played piano quintets regularly with the Fitzwilliam String Quartet, and plays in the Roskell Piano Trio with the violinist and cellist from the quartet. At Trinity she founded Meridian, a piano and wind ensemble with Trinity professors. Her work with dance companies has included a season of solo performances with Twyla Tharp Dance Company at Sadlers Wells.

In May 2020, concurrent with the completion of a new film of the Goldberg Variations (recorded in the Long Room Library of Trinity College Dublin) he was named Founding Fellow of the Glenn Gould Bach Fellowship awarded by the City of Weimar. As the joint creator of the Fellowship, he was appointed Founding Fellow in order to establish the Fellowship parameters, and through direct experience, to set its project milestones. He has since completed a series of innovative recordings and films exploring different perspectives on the late works of Johann Sebastian Bach – with the complete collection presented in September 2021 at a special exhibition featured in the Kessler Rooms of the State Museum of Weimar. He was afterwards named Custodian of the Fellowship in 2021.

As a concerto soloist, he has worked with many renowned conductors from Andrei Boreyko to Courtney Lewis, from Colman Pearce to Gerhard Markson – with classical concerti forming a key part of his repertoire. At the same time, as a devoted chamber musician, he has collaborated with numerous artists, from Hakan Hardenberger to the Vanbrugh String Quartet, from Pekka Kuusisto to singers such as Robin Tritschler and Claudia Boyle. He was one of the regular artists that attended the International Piano Week in Montepulciano, Tuscany, and continues to engage in innovative projects that explore the repertoire in unique and path-breaking ways. Notable amongst these, is his recent project around the Art of Fugue, scheduled for completion in 2024, which involves multiple kinds of technical innovation.

With the Canadian composer and pianist Douglas Finch, he co-founded the New Lights Festival in London in 2018 – a major festival devoted to contemporary currents in music. The festival explores ideas of newness – from unique collaborations to new compositions, from innovative performance approaches to improvisatory works. The festival has continually expanded since its inception; and for this season (2024), in addition to those performances taking place at the historic King Charles Court at the Old Royal Naval College, performances will also take place at both the Cutty Sark in Greenwich and at the Albany Theatre in Deptford.

In 2023, he also started the New Lights Forum – which involves in-depth interviews with artists and intellectuals and for which he serves as principal curator. Arising from his engagement with documentary form, he released Fugal Travels in 2020 – a contrapuntal radio documentary work which weaves together the voices of six eminent experts speaking about the music of JS Bach. The structure of the work was inspired by the six-part ricercare from the Musical Offering, using some of textures as an model for its construction.

In 2020 he became a Loubser Fellow – joining a small number of internationally acclaimed artists. While in 2022, he was appointed Lead Curator of the new digital exhibition space, PLF Projects & Artefacts. The design-faze for this new initiative has just been recently completed and is set to be unveiled in the spring of 2024. The projects and artefacts on the site are presented in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional formats; with the latter presented as a digital gallery space, where people can explore the projects in a more interactive way.

Educated at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Oxford and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, he subsequently went on to become Head of the Keyboard Faculty of the Royal Irish Academy of Music – one of the youngest such appointments in its 175-year history. Between 2015 and 2018, he was Head of Piano and Keyboard Instruments at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London and while continuing to serve on the faculty of both these institutions, was appointed Full Titled Professor of the RIAM in June 2021.

He has given master classes around the world – from the United Kingdom to China, from Italy to Japan, from the United States to South Korea, and many other countries besides. Whilst, since 2016, he has served on numerous occasions, as External Specialist for the Royal College of Music in London and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.

From his longstanding interest in literature, he produced his first poetry collection which was highly commended in the 2015 Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Awards. In more recent years, he has developed new hybrid works, featuring poetic declamation and drama accompanied by ancient instruments. The first of these was completed in 2023 and is scheduled for its premiere in London on June 22nd, 2024.

In his fifth appearance at the BBC Proms in 2002, he premiered a new concerto by David Sawer with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. Recently he has also performed concertos by Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen, Roger Smalley and Lou Harrison, and worked with high-calibre conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, Andrew Davis, Markus Stenz, Oliver Knussen and Franz Welser-Möst. He has been chosen to give a recital as part of Southbank Centre’s Xenakis Weekend and was requested by Elliot Carter to play at the BBC Barbican Weekend with a programme of the composer’s choice. In 2010’s landmark performance of Lachenmann’s Ausklang at the Festival Hall with the London Sinfonietta, the composer asked specifically for Rolf to be the pianist.

Rolf played a leading role in the BBC’s Adams Festival at the Barbican in 2002, as soloist in Phrygian Gates and Grand Pianola Music conducted by the composer; the latter was reprised in 2003 at Alice Tully Hall, New York. As a result, John Adams asked him to play on his disc, Road Movies, released by Nonesuch. Rolf has also recorded for Factory Classics, Virgin, Teldec, Bridge, DaCapo and NMC records, including repertoire from Messiaen as well as works written especially for him. He also recorded the complete solo piano works of Peter Maxwell Davies for the composer’s own internet record label, MaxOpus.

Further afield, he has toured Korea, Taiwan and Cuba and made recital and concerto appearances at the Festivals of Perth (Australia) and Wellington (New Zealand). Rolf has also worked with some of the world’s greatest dancers and choreographers, including Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker at Rosas, Richard Alston and the London Contemporary Dance Theatre. In 2012 he worked with the leading Portuguese choreographer/director Rui Horta on Danza Preparata in which he plays the Sonatas and Interludes of John Cage in a “danced concert”.

In the last few years, he has developed a growing reputation as a composer. Keith Potter of The Independent called him “One of the rare examples of a performer who can make a successful career as a composer”. His piano pieces and a chamber work, The Horse Sacrifice, have been broadcast by the BBC. He wrote a score for Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, broadcast on German radio, and was commissioned by the 2003 Huddersfield Festival for Das Unenthullte, as premiered with his regular duo partner, David Alberman. Recent commissions include Eye of Fire, which he played with The Duke Quartet, and Sunnata for five pianos and one honky-tonk, as well as a piano concerto, Maya-Sesha, for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Maya Sesha, and a solo piano piece “a single hair, a jasmine petal, seven mattresses, a pea..” were both shortlisted for a British Composers Award.

In 2012, Maya-Sesha was played by the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Sir James MacMillan, and Rolf’s largest orchestral score, The Tiniest House of Time, a concerto for accordion (James Crabb) will be premiered in the Barbican by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in November. Future plans include a work for two pianos and ensemble, and a music-theatre piece.

Rolf is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, teaching piano and composition and coaching chamber music. He has also taught at the Royal Academy of Music and regularly gives masterclasses at Dartington Summer School and throughout Britain and Europe.

In recognition of his high standing within British music, Rolf was Artistic Director of the Society for the Promotion of New Music for two years. He planned a nationwide concert series for 2005-6 on their behalf; he was also for several years the Chairman of International Society for Contemporary Musicians (ISCM) Britain. He planned a large-scale day of music for multiple pianists at London’s Roundhouse, Many Hands, in 2010’s Reverb festival.

Born in Florence, Italy, Sergio De Simone is laureate of numerous international piano and chamber music competitions, including the V. Bellini International Piano Competition, the Premio Trio di Trieste International Chamber Music Competition and the Beethoven International Piano Sonata Competition (Memphis, Tennessee). Sergio has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician in Italy, Spain, France, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the USA for prestigious concert societies. Examples include La Società dei Concerti in Milan, Amici della Musica in Florence, Sagra Musicale Umbra, Verdi Theater in Pisa, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Biennale Musica of Venice, Harris Auditorium in Memphis, Tennessee (USA), International Music Festival in Torroella de Montgrì-Barcelona, Mills College Hall in Oakland, California (USA), Settimana Musicale Chigiana, Valli Theatre in Reggio Emilia, Bellini Theatre in Catania, Winter Festival in Sarajevo, Tartini Atelier in Ljubljana and the National Theatre in Sarajevo.

He has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Romanian State Orchestra, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Meadows Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Strumentale-Città di Prato, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana and Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Solisti di Città Lirica Orchestra of Pisa and Intersezioni Festival Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Webb, Anton Nanut, Paul Philips, Alessandro Pinzauti, Augusto Vismara, Giuseppe Camerlingo and Daniele Giorgi, amongst others. His chamber music repertoire is vast and ranges from duo to quintet. He dedicates part of his activity to contemporary music both as solo and ensemble performer. Since 2000, he has been ‘pianist in residence’ at the Chigiana Academy in Siena for the Composition Summer Course given by Azio Corghi and Giorgio Battistelli and the Film Music Course given by Academy Award winner Luis Bacalov.

Sergio De Simone graduated from the A. Boito Conservatory of Music in Parma with full marks, summa cum laude and honourable mention. His musical development was deeply influenced by  the cellist of the Quartetto Italiano, Franco Rossi (with whom he studied chamber music) and by Joaquin Achucarro with whom he studied at the Chigiana Academy in Siena, (where he was awarded the Diploma of Merit as well the Guido Agosti, SIAE, and the E. Contestabile scholarships) and at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas (USA) as a recipient of the Joel Estes Tate Scholarship and where he was winner of the the Von Mickwitz Prize for Piano Performance. He also has attended masterclasses with Murray Perahia, Aldo Ciccolini, Philippe Cassard, Bruno Canino, Pier Narciso Masi and Christopher Elton.

English conductor and historical keyboard specialist Steven Devine studied at Chetham’s School of Music and the University of Oxford.

He is Associate Musical Director of Opera Restor’d, Professor of Fortepiano at Trinity Laban and a member of the staff at Dartington International Summer School.

He has recorded four solo discs and has played on over 30 recordings with other artists. Steven is a regular continuo player with several major UK period instrument orchestras, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Academy of Ancient Music and the New London Consort. Steven has performed as conductor and soloist throughout the world; recent highlights including being pianist and director in a Mozart Concerto in London, Dublin and Manchester, as well as conducting and acting as Master of Ceremonies for Raymond Gubbay Productions at the Royal Albert Hall, Symphony Hall (Birmingham), Bridgewater Hall (Manchester) and across the rest of UK.

Yekaterina has launched an initiative of performances that have combined music with images, dance, poetry, and film, both as solo piano or chamber music. Examples include:

• a sell-out recital in the Southbank Centre, where she used colour and light to enhance Scriabin’s music;
• a programme for the International Herald Tribune London Arts season with Rambert Dance Company performing an original choreography, contemporary music and discussions on the interplay of Soviet culture, music and politics;
• a series of concerts for piano and cello or piano and flute with a black and white film of Paris and Buenos Aires in the 1930s;
• a concert for piano and violin with live poetry;
• a series of concerts for piano, flamenco dance, and original paintings projection, with voice and flute (London, Cairo Opera House, Istanbul, Germany); and
• a concert that speaks in more ways than one: “(Im)mortality and weather changes for beginners” – classical piano music and film about change of seasons with sounds of Nature (UK).

Yekaterina Lebedeva made her performance debut in an extensive national concert series in her native Russia. In 1988 she entered the Kiev State Conservatoire in the Ukraine. There, she became in constant demand as a recitalist, performing solo and chamber concerts, and appearing at major festivals in both the Ukraine and Russia. She graduated from the Conservatoire with Distinction in 1993.

Yekaterina moved to London to establish a European base from which to develop her solo career further. In March 1998, she made a debut in the Purcell Room, invited to play as part of the SBC Young Musician’s Platform ‘FRESH’. Since then, she has appeared regularly at the Southbank Centre and abroad.

Highlights of past seasons included Schnittke’s Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra (Cairo Symphony Orchestra), sell-out return performances in the Purcell Room (Southbank Centre), and Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Winds at the Athens Megaron (Orchestra of Colours, Athens). Her performing career has also taken her to France, Austria, Russia, Greece, Sicily, Turkey, Dubai and Jordan where she performed under the Patronage of HRH Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein. Most recently, she took part in the International Forum on music performance and pedagogy in India, resulting in the recital at the most prestigious hall of New Delhi – Teen Murti Bhavan in the former residence of ex-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Yekaterina was invited to create the musical programme of the ‘Breathless’ London art season, sponsored by the International Herald Tribune. In three “stunning” concerts, she performed major classical works (with Rambert Ballet dancers and original choreography), confirmed her versatility with further concerts of contemporary global music and uncovered hidden gems of Soviet music, while discussing the relationship between music and society with the IHT European editor.

Yekaterina has launched an initiative of performances aimed at making classical music accessible and appealing to all audiences, while exploring ways of linking music with other art forms such as dance, poetry and visual arts. Most recently she has given a sold-out recital in the Southbank Centre where she used colour and light to enhance music of Scriabin according to the instructions he had left himself.

Yekaterina is teaching piano at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the Royal College of Music, as well as at the City Lit Institute in London. Her students have won many international prizes including first prize in the Concours International de Piano Lalla Meryem in Morocco, second prize in the Young Pianist of the North International piano competition in UK, first prize in the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe piano competition, second prize in the Scriabin International piano competition in Paris, second prize in Piano Talents International piano Competition in Milan, second prize in Valletta International Competition and others. Her students regularly perform at Wigmore Hall and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. A special relationship has been developing between her students and Lang Lang. Two of her students were Lang Lang Award winners and have played in the Royal Festival Hall at the ‘Lang Lang Inspires’ concert and follow-up concerts in the Purcell Room and the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Two of them have had masterclasses with him in London and at the Stowe School.

Yekaterina has been an Artistic Director of Young Virtuosi Festival in France for five years. She is a Founder and an Artistic Director of the Musical Odyssey Masterclasses in Nafplio, Greece.