photo: Marco Borggreve

DANIEL BARD viola

Israeli-Canadian violinist/violist Daniel Bard began his studies in Haifa with Avigdor Zamir. At age 13, he moved to Toronto and worked with David Zafer, Lorand Fenyves, Peter Oundjian and David Takeno.

Daniel discovered his passion for chamber music during the six years he spent in Canada’s Metro String Quartet which collaborated with artists such as Menahem Pressler and Gilbert Kalish. Today he performs regularly as a violinist and violist in chamber music concerts in Europe, Israel and Scandinavia. In 2007, Daniel co-founded Trio Mondrian which won first prize as well as a special prize for their interpretation of Brahms at the 2007 International Chamber Music Competition in Trieste, Italy. The Trio has since performed in prestigious venues and festivals in Europe and received a Fellowship from the BBT Trust of London in 2009. Daniel is also a member of the Israel Chamber Project, a group based in both Israel and the US.

Daniel has been a principal player in Sweden’s Camerata Nordica since 2003 and is a regular guest with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, leading projects with both groups. In 2007, Daniel was invited by Tabea Zimmermann to guest lead Camerata Bern and since then has led several projects there. He has been principal violist of Amsterdam Sinfonietta since 2009 and has been also a soloist with that orchestra.

In the past few years, Daniel has enjoyed teaching. He has been invited to give masterclasses at Amsterdam Conservatoire and has also taught chamber music at Jerusalem Music Centre.

Daniel plays on a 1686 Giovanni Grancino violin generously on loan from Yehuda Zisapel.

photo: Michael Butters

KATE GOULD cello

Kate Gould has an exciting and varied international performing career. During her studies at the Royal Academy of Music she formed the Leopold String Trio, which rocketed to fame through the numerous prizes and awards it achieved, including Young Concert Artists Trust, ECHO Rising Stars, Royal Philharmonic Award, BBC New Generations Artists and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust award. They performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Barbican Centre and Wigmore Hall. Every disc they recorded on the Hyperion label was met with the deepest praise from the press, including collaborations with pianists, Paul Lewis and Marc-André Hamelin.

Kate is now thrilled to be focusing on the piano trio repertoire with her present group, the London Bridge Trio, with violinist David Adams and pianist Daniel Tong. She set up the flourishing Winchester Chamber Music Festival for the group, which celebrated its tenth year in April by commissioning a new trio by Colin Matthews. She also established the Ironstone Chamber Music Festival with her sister, violinist Lucy Gould, which takes place in September in the Ironstone villages of north Oxfordshire. She is a regular guest at the some other special festivals around the world, such as Festival de los Siete Lagos in north Patagonia, Argentina, Sunnmore Chamber Music Festival, Norway, Corbridge Chamber Music Festival, Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival and Penarth Pier Chamber Music Festival.

Kate is also a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and is frequently invited as guest principal cellist of all the UK symphony and chamber orchestras.

She is extremely fortunate to play a cello by Carlo Guiseppe Testori of Milan, 1711. The purchase was made possible by the Stradivari Trust, who set up the Kate Gould Cello Trust when a syndicate of investors bought shares in the instrument. She hopes to find a way to make the cello her own one day.

photo: Kaupa Kikkas

PABLO HERNÁN BENEDÍ violin

Pablo Hernán Benedí was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1991. He studied at the Padre Antonio Soler Conservatory in San Lorenzo de El Escorial with Fernando Rius and Polina Kotliarskaya, before coming to London in 2009 to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with David Takeno and András Keller supported by scholarships from the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, Juventudes Musicales and La Caixa.

In 2010 he becomes a member of the Chiaroscuro Quartet, formed by Alina Ibragimova, Emilie Hornlund and Claire Thirion, winning several prizes with their discography and playing in major venues across Europe and Japan. Pablo is also a founding member of the Trio Isimsiz, having performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, Barbican Hall and Royal Festival Hall. They won the 1st prize and the audience prize at the Trondheim International chamber music competition and the 2nd prize and the Haydn prize at the Haydn Vienna Competition.

As a soloist Pablo has performed with London Chamber Players, Padre Antonio Soler Symphony Orchestra and the Philarmonia. He also regularly works as leader or section leader with groups like Arcangelo, Sinfonia Cumry and Academy of Ancient Music.

Pablo plays on a J.B Vuillaume, the “Alard”, from 1851.

photo: Tom Carter

ELLEN HWANGBO piano

Ellen Hwangbo was a top-prize winner of the Music Teachers National Association’s National Young Artist Competition in 2006, and has performed across Asia, Europe, and North America. She has recently performed in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Merkin Hall, and appeared as a soloist with the Timisoara Philharmonic in Romania. Ellen performs with the Saguaro Trio, artists-in-residence at the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles. She has also performed with Soovin Kim, Colin Carr, Jennifer Frautschi, William Sharp, Paul Neubauer, Eduardo Leandro, Natasha Brofsky, and Wu Han. Ellen’s performances have been broadcast on several radio stations including VPR Classical and WRCJ Detroit. She has appeared at the Yellow Barn, Music@ Menlo, Lake Champlain, Sarasota, and Aspen music festivals, as well as Pianofest and the Banff Centre.

Ellen began her piano studies with Peter Cooper and continued with Logan Skelton at the University of Michigan, graduating summa cum laude. She received her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from SUNY Stony Brook, where she studied under Gilbert Kalish.

Ellen has served as Executive Coordinator, Piano Program Coordinator, and Webmaster for the Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival, and coordinated the Stony Brook Piano Project concert series for two years. She has also given masterclasses at Davidson College, Covenant College, Washington & Lee University, the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and the Amalfi Coast Festival. Ellen currently teaches privately at Levine School of Music.

ALEXANDER MADŽAR piano

Aleksandar Madžar was born in Belgrade in 1968. He started playing the piano under the guidance of Gordana Malinovic and later studied with Arbo Valdma, Elisso Virsaladze and Daniel Blumenthal in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Moscow and Brussels.

He won prizes in Geneva, Leeds, the ‘Busoni’ and ‘Umberto Micheli’ competitions and gave his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Ivan Fischer in 1990. He has since then been performing regularly all over Europe, enjoying a rich and varied career in recital, concertos and chamber music, occasionally also touring North and South America, South Africa and the Far East.

Aleksandar Madžar teaches at the Royal Flemish Conservatoire in Brussels.

ENNO SENFT double bass

Enno Senft is principal double bass and a founder member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He has performed and recorded with many of the greatest conductors and soloists including Bernard Haitink, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Sir András Schiff, and as soloist under Sir Roger Norrington and the late Claudio Abbado and Nikolaus Harnomcourt.

He has played with the Berlin Philharmonic and appears as guest principal with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the LSO. Contemporary music plays a significant part in his musical life, particularly as principal double bass of London Sinfonietta. Projects include working with Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Steve Reich, Thomas Ades, Georg Friedrich Haas, Peter Eötvös and György Kurtag.

Enno Senft worked at IRCAM in Paris for the realization of Michael Jarrel’s bass concerto “Droben schmettert ein greller Stein” which he premiered with the Ensemble Modern in Basel, and performed across Europe. He premiered Dai Fujikura, new double bass concerto with the London Sinfonietta at the QEH in London in 2011.

He has participated in many distinguished festivals, including the Berliner Festwochen, Wien Modern, the Huddersfield, Cheltenham and Aldeburgh Festivals, Venice Biennale, and the Sydney Festival. Enno teaches at the Royal College of Music in London.

WALTER VAN DYK narrator

TV and Film include: Harley and the Davidsons (Discovery Channel), The Carrier (Megatopia Films), The Eagle (Focus Features/Belmont Prods.), The Professionals (Rebel Scum Productions), Love Hurts (BBC), Framed (ITV), Can’t Stop Me Dreaming (BBC Screenplay on Two), Birds of a Feather (BBC), The Detectives (BBC), London’s Burning (ITV), Incognito (Warner Bros.), Abbot’s Approach (Long Island Bridie Films), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (PBS. WGBH-TV, Boston).

Recent theatre includes: Arms and the Man (Watford Palace Theatre), A Flea In Her Ear (Old Vic), Enter the Guardsman (Donmar Warehouse), Krapp’s Last Tape and This Thing called Love (Frontier Theatre Productions),Two Gentlemen of Verona, High Society, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park), O Moon of Alabama: A Kurt Weill Cabaret (Young Vic/U.S. Tour), Insufficiency (Riverside Studios), Equally Divided (Watford Palace), The Importance Of Being Earnest (Rose Theatre, Kingston/Hong Kong Festival), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (National Concert Hall, Dublin), As You Like it (Orange Tree Theatre), The Boatswain’s Mate (Finborough Theatre), The Threepenny Opera (Richmond Theatre), Measure for Measure, Macbeth (UK Tour), Sweeney Todd (Theatr Clywd), What Now Little Man? (Greenwich Theatre), Deathtrap (Frankfurt), A Doll’s House (Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam) Oliver Twist (TNT World Tour). Eight Songs for a Mad King (Yellow Barn Music Festival), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Hay Fever (American Repertory Theatre).

photo: Harry Rankin

BRITTEN SINFONIA

Britten Sinfonia is acclaimed for its virtuoso musicianship, and inspired programming. Britten Sinfonia breaks the mould by not having a principal conductor, instead collaborating with the finest guest artists.

Britten Sinfonia is an Associate Ensemble at the Barbican in London with residencies in Norwich, Cambridge and Saffron Walden, and performs chamber music at Wigmore Hall. Britten Sinfonia also appears at major UK festivals including the Aldeburgh Festival and BBC Proms. The orchestra has toured extensively and made its debut in China in May 2016.

Founded in 1992, and inspired by Benjamin Britten’s ethos, Britten Sinfonia offers world-class performances, programmes where old meets new, and a commitment to bringing outstanding music to concert halls and local communities alike. Central to this ethos are creative learning projects including the youth ensemble Britten Sinfonia Academy, and competitions for unpublished composers. Britten Sinfonia is a BBC Radio 3 broadcast partner and records for Harmonia Mundi and Hyperion.

In 2017–18, Britten Sinfonia collaborates with: Thomas Adès, Sir Mark Elder, Jeremy Denk, Elizabeth Kulman, Nicolas Hodges and Ailish Tynan, with premieres from composers including Emma-Ruth Richards, Leo Chadburn and Nik Barsch. Britten Sinfonia was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Ensemble Award in 2013. Britten Sinfonia recordings have received a BBC Music Magazine Award, Gramophone Award, and an ECHO/Klassik Recording Award. In 2014 Britten Sinfonia with the Richard Alston Dance Company was nominated for an Olivier Award.

JACQUELINE SHAVE director

Jacqueline Shave trained at the Royal Academy of Music, but drew particular inspiration and love of chamber music from her time at the Britten-Pears School in Snape. On leaving the Academy she became leader of English Touring Opera, but soon made the decision to dedicate herself to chamber music, leading the Schubert Ensemble and then co-founding and leading the Brindisi Quartet for fifteen years.

She is in demand as a guest leader with many of the UKs leading orchestras and ensembles including the Nash Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras. She was appointed leader of Britten Sinfonia in 2005. She is the violinist in the Britten Oboe Quartet with Nicholas Daniel.

In 2011 she took a year away to explore other musical pathways, which resulted in Postcards from Home, a world music/jazz CD in collaboration with Kuljit Bhamra (tabla) and John Parricelli (guitar). She also presented a complete Beethoven string quartet cycle on the Hebridean island of Harris, and gave a free improvisation concert in a cave on Hestur, in the North Atlantic Faroe Islands. Jacqueline recently had a piece premiered in London by Britten Sinfonia and tenor Nicholas Mulroy entitled Three Landscapes for oboe quartet and voice set to poems of Laurie Lee, Clifford Dyment and WB Yeats.

Jacqueline plays on a Nicola Amati violin, from 1672.

photo: George Garnier

DORIC STRING QUARTET

“This is a superb ensemble, intelligent, technically brilliant, wonderfully balanced.” THE TIMES, 24 July 2016

The Doric String Quartet has firmly established itself as the leading British string quartet of its generation, receiving enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics across the globe. Selected for representation by YCAT in 2006, the Quartet went on to win several prizes including 1st prize at the 2008 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan, 2nd prize at the Premio Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition in Italy and the Ensemble Prize at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany.

The Quartet performs in leading concert halls throughout Europe including Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Konzerthaus, Frankfurt Alte Oper, and De Singel, and is a regular visitor to the Wigmore Hall. Another recent highlight has seen the Quartet take on John Adams’ “Absolute Jest” for String Quartet and Orchestra. The Doric have now performed the piece with the Vienna Symphony at the Vienna Konzerthaus with John Adams conducting, with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw and with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

The 2016/17 season sees the Quartet make its debut appearance at Carnegie Hall, giving the US premiere of Donnacha Dennehey’s piece The Weather of it, which was co-commissioned for the Doric by Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall. In Europe highlights include performances at the Berlin Konzerthaus, Heidelberg String Quartet Festival and the Mecklenburg Vorpommen Festival.

Since 2010 the Quartet has recorded exclusively for Chandos Records. Their recording of the Walton String Quartets which was nominated for a 2011 Gramophone Award and their most recent releases of Haydn Op. 76 Quartets and Schubert Quartets have been widely praised.

BENEDICT LIM violin

A scholar of Pettman National Junior Academy, Benedict Lim has been studying violin with university violin lecturer Stephen Larsen since the age of 7. A prizewinner in international violin competitions in New York, Czech Republic and Italy, the 14-year-old was awarded both the First Prize in his age group and the overall Jury prize at the Concerto Auckland Young String Players Competition in March 2016. Benedict has also participated in masterclasses with world-class violinists and pedagogues such as Natasha Boyarsky, Charles Castleman, Anthony Marwood, and had lessons and played with Professor Elizabeth Kufferath from Germany and Clio Gould and Jonathan Morton from the UK.

Locally, Benedict has appeared as a soloist with Manukau Symphony Orchestra and Nelson Symphony Orchestra, and was featured in numerous solo and chamber performances at the annual International Akaroa Music Festival. He has received stellar public reviews for his full public recitals at the Chamber Gallery and performances at the Outstanding Young Musicians Lunchtime Concert Series at St Augustine’s in Christchurch.

Besides music, Benedict enjoys chess, nature walks and is very devoted to his family’s small flock of farm animals in North Canterbury.