Guest Artists

We are delighted to welcome our 2026 guest artists, who are invited to perform in the Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival by Festival Co-directors, Anthony Marwood and Richard Lester, collaborating in different ensembles across the long weekend of concerts.

2026 Guest Artists

Edgar Francis – viola

Welsh violist Edgar Francis is a dynamic musician, taking pride in influences that span a broad spectrum of genres and eras. A 1st Prize at the 2021 Cecil Aronowitz International Competition kickstarted a rapidly growing career, and soon his debut album will be released on Champs Hill.

Chamber music has always been a passion of Edgar’s, taking him to festivals such as IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, Lockenhaus, Ernen Chamber Music Plus, YellowBarn, Festivalta, Mendelssohn on Mull and Lewes Chamber Music Festival, sharing the stage with the Doric String Quartet, Anthony Marwood, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Torleif Thedéen, Sitkovetsky Trio, Alasdair Beatson and many more wonderful musicians.

Not liking to stay boxed in, Edgar also acts as principal viola of Sinfonia of London, a handpicked orchestra conducted by John Wilson. Edgar studied at RAM with Juan-Miguel Hernandez and Hélène Clement, and now studies in Basel with Silvia Simionescu.

Kate Gould – cello

Kate Gould is a highly versatile cellist, best known for her extensive career in the world of chamber music, principal cello orchestral work and her longstanding membership of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

She formed the Leopold String Trio at the Royal Academy of Music in 1991. They recorded extensively for Hyperion Records, including discs of Schubert, Mozart and Brahms in partnership with pianists Marc Andre Hamelin and Paul Lewis. They were inaugural BBC New Generation Artists and collected many prestigious accolades including a Borletti‐Buitoni Trust Award and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Award for Chamber Music.

The final line-up with Lawrence Power and Isabelle van Keulen gave their last performance in 2012 at the Barbican, playing Tippett’s Triple Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, live on Radio 3. After this time Kate turned her focus to piano trios with the London Bridge Trio, recording piano chamber music by Frank Bridge, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Faure.

Kate is Artistic Director and cellist of the flourishing Winchester Chamber Music Festival in her hometown, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2027. She is co-artistic director of the Ironstone Chamber Music Festival and often invited to other festivals, playing regularly in Penarth, Corbridge and Peasmarsh as well as the Festival de los Siete Lagos, Argentina.

Her work frequent guest principal cello engagements have recently included London Mozart Players, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.

Kate often gives classes and adjudicates prizes and exams at the London music colleges. She has coached on many chamber music and national youth orchestra courses and will be teaching at the Virtuoso International Music Academy in August 2026, held at Winchester College.

Oliver Heath – violin

c Kaupo Kikkas

Oliver Heath is a violinist, chamber musician and educator. He quickly gained a reputation as one of the most dynamic chamber musicians on the international music scene as first violinist of the Heath Quartet, whom he formed and led from 2001-2021. They performed at the world’s most important cultural centres, and their recordings won several awards including a Gramophone award and Limelight Magazine Recording of the Year award. He has performed widely as a soloist, and is increasingly in demand as a pedagogue, giving regular masterclasses in both violin and chamber music, and as an adjudicator.

He studied at The Purcell School, Royal Northern College of Music and Reina Sofia (Madrid), as well as being part of European Chamber Music Academy for several years and a regular attendee of IMS Prussia Cove. His most important teachers included Hatto Beyerle, Ferenc Rados, Erich Hobarth, Andras Schiff, Gabor Takacs-Nagy and Gerhard Schultz. The Heath Quartet took home all the prizes at the Tromp International String Quartet Competition, and won the major prizes at The Haydn International Chamber Music Competition. Oliver has also been awarded by Royal Philharmonic Society, Borletti Buitoni Trust and Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern.

Oliver has a close relationship with many concert halls around the world including The Wigmore Hall, Boulez Saal (Berlin), Carnegie Hall and UKARIA Cultural Centre (Adelaide). Whilst in The Heath Quartet, he completed cycles of the most important string quartet composers including Beethoven, Bartok and Mozart at venues and festivals around Europe and the US, and their recording of Michael Tippett’s complete quartets (recorded live at Wigmore Hall) won the chamber recording of the year prize at the Gramophone Awards. The quartet also recorded Bartok’s complete string quartets and Tchaikovsky Quartets 1 and 3 for Harmonia Mundi.

Contemporary music is especially important to Oliver, and he has worked with leading figures such as Sofia Gubaidalina, Hans Abrahamsen, Brett Dean, Steve Mackey and Helen Grime. Other musical collaborations include Ian Bostridge, Stephen Hough, Tokyo String Quartet, Igor Levitt, Anna Caterina Antonacci and Carolyn Sampson.

Oliver teaches both violin and chamber music at Guildhall School of Music and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He has given masterclasses throughout UK, US and Europe, including Musica Mundi (Belgium), ConChorda (Ireland), Middlebury College (US) and Conservatorio Nacional Superior de Musica (Argentina), and has taught at Dartington Summer School for many years. He has adjudicated for Royal Philharmonic Society, Young Classical Artists Trust, Worshipful Company of Musicians and Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. He believes passionately in giving performances and tuition to those who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to experience a traditional concert hall or music conservatoire, and works closely with many organisations to bring this to life.

Valentin Magyar – piano

Valentin Magyar started playing the piano at the age of five in his native town of Balassagyarmat in Northern Hungary. His talent manifested itself very early and at the age of 14 he was admitted to the class of special talents at the prestigious Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest. At present he is doing his masters at the world famous institution with Gábor Farkas and Dénes Várjon, and simultaneously in Berlin at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy with Kirill Gerstein.

In 2020 he was winner of the Yamaha Instrumental Competition and of the HCC Competition of New York, in 2021 he was third prize winner of the 10th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition Weimar/Bayreuth, one of the top showcases for the world’s best pianists (no first prize was awarded). In the same year he received in his native Hungary the Junior Prima Award, the most prestigious recognition for young musicians. In 2022 he won the Zoltán Kocsis Award both in the solo and chamber music categories and received the Concorde Award as most talented student of the Franz Liszt Music Academy. In 2023 he won gold medal at the Vienna International Music Competition and received the György Cziffra Talent Award. Recently he has received the scholarship of the Clavarte Foundation in Berlin. Valentin has been part of the MMA art scholarship program since 2025.

In spite of his young age Valentin is already a regular performer in Hungarian and international concert series and festivals. His first CD (“Sentimental Moments”) featuring Rachmaninov works was released by the Hungaroton label in April 2024. He is also active as a chamber musician having performed with Kristóf Baráti, Boris Berman, Jacques Rouvier, Christoph Poppen and Claudio Martinez-Mehner, to mention just a few.

Marianna Shirinyan – piano

Marianna Shirinyan is one of the most creative and in sought after pianists in Europe today. Her vibrant and virtuoso musicianship puts her in demand, both as soloist and as chamber musician. Marianna plays with great sensitivity, understanding, technical brilliance and beauty of tone, which allows her to offer a wide range of repertoire. Her love for the music and her joy in sharing it with a larger audience are apparent in her performances.

She has received Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s prestigious P2 award for her contribution to Danish music life, the critics’ prize from the Association of Danish critics and just recently the Honorary Carl Nielsen award. Marianna is a frequent guest at a string of international music festivals, among them the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Schwetzinger Festspiele, MDR Summer Music Festival and the Festspillene in Bergen.

Marianna has garnered a reputation as a leading pianist of her generation through solo appearances with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo, Helsinki and Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestras, Potsdammer Kammerakademie, Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, among others. She enjoyed collaborations with conductors such as Lawrence Foster, Zoltan Kocsis, Antonello Manacorda, Jun Märkl, Daniel Raiskin, Lan Shui, Thomas Søndergård, Krysztof Urbanski and Joshua Weilerstein.

Marianna Shirinyan has a bright discography. One of her later releases, the Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra by Louis Glass which she recorded together with the Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz under the baton of Maestro Daniel Raiskin was awarded the P2 prize of the Danish radio.Marianna’s latest release Rachmaninov Suits for two pianos together with her former student Dominik Wizjan, released on Orchid classics has been highly praised by the reviewers and listeners alike.

Marianna is a professor of piano at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and guest professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, in addition to curating several chamber music festivals across Europe.

Marianna is Artist in Residence with Aarhus Symphony Orchestra during the season 2025-2026.

Jennifer Stumm – viola

Violist and director Jennifer Stumm blazes a courageous creative path with diverse projects mixing sheer musical enthusiasm with boundary-breaking artistic direction and committed advocacy for social equity. Known for the “opal-like beauty” (Washington Post) of her sound, Jennifer appears on the world’s great stages like Carnegie Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, Kennedy Center, and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. She is winner of the William Primrose, Geneva and Concert Artist Guild competitions (and the first violist ever to win first prize.) The 2022-23 season brings appearances at festivals around the world, Jennifer’s debut in the large hall of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, solo tours of Ireland and the UK and a new album with São Paulo Chamber Soloists. She also makes her Lucerne Festival debut, as both director and violist in a new staged program from Ilumina called “The Nature of Light.”

Jennifer is founder and director of Ilumina, the São Paulo-based artist collective and social equity initiative, which has ascended rapidly to prominence as a modern model for 21st century creativity and the advancement of diverse talent. Ilumina unites leading international soloists with the best rising talent from Latin America, working and performing side-by-side at the Ilumina festival and on tour around the world, with the goal that worthy talent receives an equal chance to shine. Ilumina young artists regularly study at leading international universities and have entered the highest echelons of the field. Jennifer’s flair for curation and stage direction has received much attention, and Ilumina concerts invite listeners to be immersed in dynamic musical worlds, steadfastly committed to interpretation, powered by the freshness and energy of cultural exchange.

Jennifer is in much demand as a speaker about diversity, talent development and the future. She regularly interacts with the innovation and technology sector about how artistic thinking can impact progress, productivity and the world of ideas. She was invited to speak at NASA’s Cross Industry Innovation Summit in Houston and is a member of the Ecosystems 2030 collective, working with global thinkers on what the future will look like. Her viral TEDx talk about the viola and the blessings of being different, “The Imperfect Instrument,” was named an editor’s pick of all TED talks and led to a solo debut at the Berlin Philharmonie.

Jennifer has released two celebrated solo albums. Her debut recording for Naxos’ Laureate Series featured works by Italian composer/violist Alessandro Rolla, hailed as “an absolutely phenomenal display of virtuoso viola playing” (The New Recordings.) She next released her album of Berlioz’s Harold In Italy and performed the work in her unique staging and characterization almost fifty times. A recipient of the prestigious BBC New Generation artist and Borletti Buitoni Trust awards for her work in chamber music, she appears at major festivals such as Verbier, Marlboro, Stavanger, Spoleto, Aldeburgh, Delft and IMS Prussia Cove and regularly appears with Spectrum Concerts Berlin and as a trio with cellist Jens-Peter Maintz and Kolja Blacher.

Jennifer Stumm is Professor of Viola at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, International Chair of Viola Studies at the Royal College of Music, London and gives masterclasses around the world. Since her school days teaching strings in the Atlanta inner city, she has devoted considerable time to supporting young musicians from culturally and economically diverse backgrounds, both in person and online.

Born in Atlanta, Jennifer first heard the viola when she was eight and, enchanted by its sound, began playing in her school’s orchestra. She studied with Karen Tuttle at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, with Nobuko Imai in Amsterdam as well as with Steven Isserlis at IMS Prussia Cove, and also pursued interests in politics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jennifer plays a Gasparo da Salò viola, 1589, generously on loan from a private trust.

Astatine Trio

Maja Horvat, violin
Riya Hamie, cello

Since its formation in 2021, the award-winning Astatine Trio has emerged as one of the UK’s most exciting young ensembles, most recently being named BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists for 2025-27. They were awarded second prize and the special prize for best performance of the prizewinning work of the composition competition at the 2025 Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition in Graz, becoming the first UK-based ensemble to win a main prize in the competition’s history, and their other accolades include first prizes at the Birmingham International Piano Chamber Music Competition, Virtuoso&Belcanto International Chamber Competition (Lucca, Italy) and Senior Intercollegiate Piano Trio Competition in 2022. The trio have performed extensively across the UK and abroad, including at Wigmore Hall, The Glasshouse (as part of the BBC Proms), St George’s Bristol, Aldeburgh’s Jubilee Hall and the Harrogate Sunday Series, and as Britten Pears Young Artists for the 2023/24 season they made their debut appearance on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’ in February 2024. They are current Hans Keller Chamber Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and are a resident ensemble at ProQuartet – Centre Européen de Musique de Chambre (Paris) for the 2025-2027 seasons. The trio have also been selected as Kirckman Concert Society artists for 2025/26.

From 2022-25 the trio benefited from the mentorship of legendary pianist Alfred Brendel, at his personal invitation. They have undertaken residencies at Snape Maltings and at the University of Cambridge, as part of ChamberStudio’s inaugural Hans Keller Forum, and attended the 2025 IMS Prussia Cove masterclasses in the class of Thomas Adès. Currently, they are ChamberStudio Fellows for 2025-26, though which they are being mentored by Anthony Marwood, and are a member ensemble of the European Chamber Academy.

They are also grateful for the guidance of Richard Ireland, John Myerscough, Prach Boondiskulchok, Michał Kaznowski, Luc-Marie Aguera and Riccardo Cecchetti and have worked with Alasdair Beatson, Alina Ibragimova, David Waterman, Thomas Hoppe, Yovan Markovitch, Patrick Jüdt, Minna Pensola, Indre Baikstytė, Tim Horton, Donald Grant, Adrian Brendel, Peter Nagy, Krysia Osostowicz, Christoph Richter, Bruno Giuranna, Robin Ireland, the Gould Trio and the Busch Trio, among others.

Passionate advocates for new music, the trio received the SEAM Prize for contemporary music at the 2023 Lyon International Chamber Competition, in which they were the youngest finalists. They also gave the premiere of a new piano trio by Timothy Salter in June 2025, written especially for the group.

The trio is thankful to ChamberStudio, the Piano Trio Society, Maggie Grimsdell (Music at Longhill Road), Philip Carne and the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust for their generous support.

Britten Sinfonia

Britten Sinfonia creates impactful and inspirational musical experiences through its adventurous programming and innovative formats – such as its immersive Surround Sound Playlist – and through its projects created especially for school pupils, hospital patients and local communities.

Rooted in the East of England, where it is the only professional orchestra working throughout the region, Britten Sinfonia also has a national and international reputation as one of today’s finest ensembles. “Innovative as always” (Guardian, 2025), it is equally renowned for the remarkable breadth of its collaborations – from Steve Reich, Mahan Esfahani and Sarah Connolly to Anoushka Shankar, Jacob Collier and Pagrav Dance Company – and for its nurturing of new compositional voices: over three decades, Britten Sinfonia has premiered more than 250 new works.

Britten Sinfonia’s main concert activity is in London, Saffron Walden, Cambridge and Norwich, and it also performs out east in Bury St Edmunds, Ely, Peterborough and Chelmsford. The orchestra often performs at London’s Wigmore Hall and appears at UK
festivals including Aldeburgh, Brighton, Norfolk & Norwich and the BBC Proms. Its prolific discography features many award-winning recordings on labels such as Harmonia Mundi, Chandos, Warner and Hyperion.

Website: www.brittensinfonia.com