Jonathan Lemalu, a New Zealand born Samoan, is already at the very forefront of today’s young generation of singers. He graduated from a Postgraduate Diploma Course in Advanced Performance on the London Royal Schools Opera Course at the Royal College of Music and was awarded the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal. He is a joint winner of the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier award and the recipient of the 2002 Royal Philharmonic Society’s Award for Young Artist of the Year.

Jonathan’s debut recital disc was awarded the Gramophone Magazine Debut Artist of the Year award. He subsequently released his first solo recording, with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and then a recital disc with Malcolm Martineau, featuring the Belcea Quartet.

He has performed at the Tanglewood Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s ‘Requiem’) and at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven’s Symphony No 9) under Conlon. At the Edinburgh Festival he has appeared in ‘Les Troyens’ under Runnicles, and ‘Maria Stuarda’ and ‘Jeptha’ under Mackerras. At the BBC Proms he has sung a programme of operatic arias with the Hallé Orchestra and Mahler’s ‘Das Knaben Wunderhorn’ with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Other concert engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, ‘Elijah’ with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, ‘The Flowering Tree’ with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, ‘The Damnation of Faust’ with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Dutoit, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis and with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Dutoit, Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’ with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozart arias with the Salzburg Camerata, Handel’s ‘Messiah’ with the New York Philharmonic, ‘Peter Grimes’ with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis in London and New York, the world premiere of Harbison’s ‘Requiem’ with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink in Boston and New York, ‘Orlando Paladino’ with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the ‘St Matthew Passion’ with the Orquesta Nacional de Espana, Rachmaninov’s ‘The Bells’ with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and performances of ‘Messiah’ in Brisbane and Melbourne.

Equally at home on the recital platform, he has given recitals throughout Europe and North America, taking him to Cologne, Athens, Birmingham, Amsterdam, Salzburg, Brussels, Baden-Baden, Vienna, Montreal, Vancouver, Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington, New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Munich and Edinburgh Festivals.

His operatic engagements in the UK have included Figaro (‘Le Nozze di Figaro’) and Don Basilio (‘The Barber of Seville’) for English National Opera, Papageno (‘The Magic Flute’) for the Glyndebourne Festival and Zoroastro (‘Orlando’) and Colline (‘La Boheme’) at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In Europe, he has sung the title roles in ‘Saul’ and ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’, Argante (‘Rinaldo’) and Leporello (‘Don Giovanni’) for the Bayerische Staatsoper, Leporello for Hamburg Opera, Rodomonte (‘Orlando Palladino’) and Papageno for the Theater an der Wien, Bottom for the Opera de Lyon and in Bari and Rocco (‘Fidelio’) under Gergiev at the Gergiev Festival in Rotterdam. He also recently sang his first Porgy for the Styriarte Festival with Harnoncourt. For Opera Australia he has sung Leporello (‘Don Giovanni’) and Mozart’s Figaro. In the United States, he made his debuts for the Metropolitan Opera Company as Masetto (‘Don Giovanni’), for the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Papageno, the title role in ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ for the Cincinnati Opera and Queegueg in Jake Heggie’s world premiere based on ‘Moby Dick’ for Dallas Opera.

His future operatic engagements include Collatinus in ‘The Rape of Lucretia’ for the Theater an der Wien, Gobrias in Handel’s ‘Belshazzar’ for the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, John Adams’ ‘El Nino’ and revivals of Heggie’s ‘Moby-Dick’ for South Australia Opera, San Diego Opera and San Francisco Opera.

Marc holds an M.Mus degree from Indiana University School of Music and an M.Mus Degree in accompaniment from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where he studied with Graham Johnson. He is currently studying towards his doctorate and working as a coach at the Guildhall School. Marc is the joint artistic director of the Chelsea Schubert Festival.

He received awards from The Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust Award for 2004 and the Accompanist prize at the 2004 Patricia Routledge English Song Competition. In May 2006 he won the Titanic award for accompanists at the English Song Competition at the Guildhall School, the accompanist’s prize from the Kathleen Ferrier society bursaries 2007 and recently the accompanist prize at the Great Elm competition 2008 which took place at the Wigmore Hall.

He has participated in festivals in Israel, Belgium, Spain, Holland, France, USA, Canada and the UK including the Britten-Pears School, Ravinia Festival in Chicago (Steans Institute); he was an official accompanist at the Queen Elisabeth competition for singers in Brussels 2004 and was a repetiteur at the Aix en Provence Festival 2007.

Marc performs regularly in the UK and abroad, including concerts at the Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, St. John's Smith Square, Sheffield University, Canterbury Festival, Aldeburgh, Birmingham University, the Oxford Lieder Festival, the Chelsea Schubert festival and St Martin in the Fields.

He has performed song recitals which were broadcast live on the radio in Jerusalem, Brussels and in Amsterdam and he works with up and coming young singers such as Kate Royal, Claire Booth, Benedict Nelson, David Stout, Katherine Broderick and Elena Xanthoudakis as well as internationally renowned singers such as Nelly Miricoiu, Yvonne Kenny and Sarah Walker. His first CD with Soprano Ilona Domnich, featuring songs by Strauss, Rachmaninoff and Fauré was released on Quarts label in December 2009.

Aleksei was born in Belarus in 1985 and began his music studies at the Republican Music College five years later with Vladimir Perlin. He represented his country in a ‘Young Belarus’ event in Moscow and performed for the Philharmonic Society, the Opera and Ballet House, Chamber Hall and won the International Competition "Music of Hope". Further engagements in Germany, Holland, France and England were received with much public acclaim despite his young age. He progressed shortly afterwards to being soloist at the State Chamber Orchestra and of the Symphony Orchestra in Belarus even receiving a special fund from the President of the Republic.

In 1997 Aleksei was a prizewinner at the Tchaikovsky International Youth Competition in St Petersburg, became "Belarus Pupil of the Year" and was funded by the "Vladimir Spivakov Fund", still aged only twelve. His appearances at the Franco-Byelorussian Musical Spring were a huge success in Minsk in 1998 and then later in Paris at venues like Cortot Hall and Trianone Theatre. A period of study in Hannover, Germany with Tilman Wick was followed by a successful audition at the Royal College of Music in London under prof. Jerome Pernoo, where he was granted a four year Associated Board Scholarship.

In September 2003, Aleksei received a special prize for "Best interpretation of a British composer" at the Haverhill Sinfonia Soloist Competition and took part in several concerts at the International Cellofestival in Zutphen, Netherlands. A successful debut at St. John's Smith Square in London was followed by a recital at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with further concerts in UK and important appearances at the Aix En Provence Festival. Aleksei was invited to perform in several international music festivals: Musica Mundi Festival, Les Vacance Des Monsieur Haydn, Cello Masterclasses and Concerts in Kronberg, Beauvais Cello Festival, Aix En Provence Festival, Yuri Bashmet International Music Festival. In 2009, Musica Mundi Festival invited Aleksei to give lessons and masterclasses as a young faculty member.

In March 2008 Aleksei directed the opening of his annual International Music Festival “Melodrama” in London and Minsk. He appears regularly as a Soloist with the Orpheus Sinfonia of Midweek Music in Mayfair. Aleksei currently studies with Raphael Wallfisch as part of his Artist Diploma course at the Royal College of Music, which is supported by The Richard Carne Trust, The Orpheus Foundation and The RCM. In October 2009 Aleksei has been selected as the holder of the Constant and Kit Lambert Fellowship supported by The Worshipful Company of Musicians for 2009/2010 at the RCM. He uses a bow lent by the Felicity Belfield Music Trust. Aleksei took several masterclasses with such musicians as Bernard Greenhouse, Anner Byilsma, Frans Helmerson, Philippe Muller, Peter Wispelway, Gavriel Lipkind, Julian Rachlin, Paul Badura-Skoda, Itamar Golan and Pavel Gelilov.

The pianist and conductor Igor Kamenz was born in 1968 in Khabarovsk, Siberia. He is a long time student of Vitaly Margulis and Sergiu Celibidache. He won 18 first prizes at international piano competitions, including the 1985 "Claude Kahn (France), 1987 Zaragoza" Pilar Bayona (Spain), 1988 Cincinnati "AMSA" (USA), 1989 Valencia "José Iturbi" (Spain), 1989 Vercelli "Viotti" (Italy), 1991 Bonn " German Music Council. In recent years, Kamenz focused almost exclusively on the piano. He has given recitals at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Munich, Herkules Saal and Gasteig, at the Hamburg Music Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, in the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Margrave Opera House in Bayreuth, the Tonhalle in Zurich, in the bell Bremen, in the Berlin Konzerthaus, the songs were in Halle Stuttgart, in Bonn's Beethoven Hall, in Frankfurt's Old Opera triumphs. In 2000, Kamenz made his debut at the Birmingham Symphony Hall and at the Salzburg Mozarteum.

Kamenz has made numerous radio and television recordings since 2001, SWR Stuttgart, WDR Cologne, BR Munich, Freiburg SWR, SR Saarbrücken, NDR Hamburg. In 2000 he made his debut CD with works by Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Tausig (musici Ars 1263-2).

His last solo CD of four sonatas by Beethoven, including the "Moonlight Sonata" and "Appassionata", was released in spring 2007 to critical acclaim: Attila Csampai raved in FonoForumvom "unshakable moral foundation ... he discovered en passant quite incredible things "; Axel Brueggemann wrote in crescendo:" A must! If there is such thing as spaces are incurred in the music, then Igor Kamenz an architect of this world.

Gareth studied with Alicja Fiderkiewicz at Chetham’s School of Music and then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London under Joan Havill, where he was awarded the Premier Prix in 2000. He has also studied at the Academie International de Musique de Maurice Ravel in France and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada.

Gareth’s early performing career included recitals and concertos at the Wigmore Hall in London and major venues throughout Europe and North America. Touring with orchestras throughout Europe, Gareth received particular acclaim for his performance of Mozart’s Concerto in F K.415 with the Czech Chamber Orchestra. Recorded by Canal+Espana for national broadcast at the world-renowned Mozart Auditorium in Zaragoza, Spain, the press noted; “…Owen played the concerto with calm and phrasing of great beauty”*.

Gareth was awarded the Leszek Dessent Prize for a recital of Chopin and was the sole recipient of the Grace Williams Memorial Prize in 2001.

Since performing at the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2004, Gareth has continued to work extensively as a soloist and chamber musician. His programme of recitals has included venues in the Caribbean, Scandinavia, Switzerland and throughout the United Kingdom.

The past three years have seen Gareth developing as a performer of Mozart and Schubert. He appeared at both the Buxted Festival and St. James’s Piccadilly in London performing Mozart’s Concerto in A K.488 and E Flat K.482. Gareth appears regularly at London’s Chelsea Schubert Festival and for the second year running will also lead a masterclass.

Further engagements in recent years have included performances at St. John's Smith Square, London; Queen’s University, Belfast; Anatolia College, Thessaloniki and Eyagalieres, France. Gareth has also appeared at numerous venues throughout the United Kingdom with The Caledonian Quintet, Ensemble Cymru and as a soloist.

Later this year, Gareth will be performing at the Sani Festival in Greece. His schedule for 2010 also includes recitals at both the Chelsea Schubert Festival and the Little Venice Festival in London.

Marcus Farnsworth was awarded first prize in the 2009 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. He is currently studying with Glenville Hargreaves and Audrey Hyland on the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music. Roles include Adonis Venus and Adonis, Aeneas Dido and Aeneas, Guglielmo Cosi fan Tutte, the Narrator Paul Bunyan, Oreste Il Giasone and Sid Albert Herring, and he has performed excerpts including Il Conte Le nozze di Figaro, Fritz Die Tote Stadt, Frédéric Lakmé, Le Baron Chérubin, Ford Falstaff and the title role Owen Wingrave.

Current and future plans include, Dandini La Cenerentola for Clonter Opera, Guglielmo Cosi fan Tutte for RAO, and recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, Holywell Music Room, Aldeburgh Festival, at the National Portrait Gallery with Simon Lepper, and at Temple Church as part of Julius Drake’s Schumann week. Concerts include Britten Canticles at the Wigmore Hall with Mark Padmore and Julius Drake, Bach St John Passion (arias) with the Academy of Ancient Music and Bach St Matthew Passion (arias) with Ex Cathedra in Birmingham Symphony Hall.

He has appeared in recital at St John’s Smith Square as part of Graham Johnson’s Young Songmakers Almanac; a joint recital with Sarah Connolly at the Oxford Lieder Festival; as a soloist with Matthew Halls and The King’s Consort at the Wigmore Hall, and Messiah in the Royal Albert Hall with Sir David Willcocks. Other concert repertoire includes Bach Christmas Oratorio, Magnificat, Mass in B Minor and St John Passion, Handel Saul, Fauré and Mozart Requiems; Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, Finzi In Terra Pax, and Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem and Five Mystical Songs.

Other awards include first prize in the Chelsea Schubert Competition 2009, the Sir Thomas Armstrong Prize, the Elena Gerhardt Lieder Prize, and the Major van Someren-Godferey Prize for English Song. Marcus is generously supported by the Josephine Baker Trust, and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.

Elizabeth Burgess is an accompanist and chamber musician based in London and active throughout the UK. She has recently appeared in recital at the Wigmore Hall, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Lake District Summer Music Festival, St John’s Smith Square and King’s Place, and is an alumnus of both Young Songmakers’ Almanac and the Britten-Pears Young Artist Scheme.

Born in Sussex, Elizabeth became Organ Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, where she read for a music degree, before taking up a postgraduate scholarship in piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music. Here she performed with the Academy’s prestigious Song Circle, won numerous accompaniment prizes, and was awarded the coveted DipRAM for a particularly high distinction mark in her final recital.

Elizabeth was Musical Director for this summer’s opera productions at the Ryedale Festival, presenting a double-bill of Britten’s The Prodigal Son and Mendelssohn’s newly-revived The Homecoming, receiving excellent national press. Elizabeth is currently a Samling Scholar, and has recently been awarded the Lucille Graham Opera Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music.

For further details see www.elizabethburgess.com

Andrew O'Brien was born in South Wales. He has just completed the MMP Young Artists Programme at the Guildhall School of music and Drama studying with Rudolf Piernay. He is the Director of Music at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square and Heath Mount School. He is also the founding Artistic Director of the Chelsea Schubert Festival, at which he is a regular performer.

Prior to this, he studied music at Kings College, London and the University of East Anglia where he held major scholarships for piano, organ and singing. He was also the holder of two national choral conducting scholarships and studied with Sharon Choa while at UEA and subsequently with Gregory Rose and Ordaline de Martinez.

Prior to this, he studied music at Kings College, London and the University of East Anglia where he held major scholarships for piano, organ and singing. He was also the holder of two national choral conducting scholarships and studied with Sharon Choa while at UEA and subsequently with Gregory Rose and Ordaline de Martinez.

A late starter to singing, he began studies with Gareth Williams and subsequently with Stuart Burrows before moving to London and continuing studies with Anthony Rolf-Johnson and Ian Partridge. He was a principle in the Welsh National Youth Opera and the New Opera, performing lead roles in Weber's Der Freischutz and Rameau's Hyppolytus and Aricie. He has also attended a large variety of music courses, including the Ardingly Summer School, Stuttgart Bach Akademie and the Britten/Pears School where he studied and performed in master-classes with Yvonne Kenny, Andreas Scholl and Philip Langridge.

Recent engagements have included Britten’s Winterwords at the Wigmore Hall, the premier of Rick Peats I’m the king of the Castle, Britten’s Curlew River, UK tour of the Magic Flute, Bach’s St.Matthew Passion as both evangelist and tenor soloist in London, Scotland and Stuttgart (with the Bach Akademie and Helmut Rilling), Stravinsky's Les Noces and Part's St.John's Passion with the BSO Contemporary Music Group, Handel's Messiah in London, Wales, Cambridge, Yorkshire, Handel’s Israel in Egypt in the Vitterbo Baroque Festival, Rachmaninov’s Vespers in Wales, London and Orvietto Cathedral and Sienna as well as tours with Rene Jacobs and English Voices and regular recitals across the UK. He has also broadcast regularly on Radio 3, 4 & Classic FM and performed in many of UK’s major music festivals.

Future engagements include performances of Britten's Canticles and Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, RVW's On Wenlock Edge, Handel's Acis and Galatea and Messiah, the Evangelist in Bach's St.Matthew Passion and St.John Passion, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Britten’s Holy Sonnets of John Donne and Quatre Chanson, Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Faure’s La bonne Chanson and Cinq Melodie de Venise as well as performances in the USA, Germany, France and Italy.

Simon Lepper has established himself as one of the UK’s leading piano accompanists performing regularly on BBC Radio 3 as well as at venues and festivals including the Wigmore Hall, Auditorium du Louvre, Cologne Philharmonie, Concertgebouw, Mozarteum, Verbier Festival and BBC Proms.

Simon has given recitals with many of Britain’s leading singers including Karen Cargill, Allan Clayton, Lucy Crowe, Andrew Kennedy, Sally Matthews, Mark Padmore, Felicity Palmer, Christopher Purves, Joan Rodgers, Kate Royal, James Rutherford, Mark Stone, Elizabeth Watts and Roderick Williams. He has also performed with Cora Burggraaf, Nicole Cabell, Gillian Keith, Angelika Kirchschlager, Jonathan Lemalu, Stephan Loges, Robin Tritschler and Ailish Tynan.

Simon has given recitals with many of Britain’s leading singers including Karen Cargill, Allan Clayton, Lucy Crowe, Andrew Kennedy, Sally Matthews, Mark Padmore, Felicity Palmer, Christopher Purves, Joan Rodgers, Kate Royal, James Rutherford, Mark Stone, Elizabeth Watts and Roderick Williams. He has also performed with Cora Burggraaf, Nicole Cabell, Gillian Keith, Angelika Kirchschlager, Jonathan Lemalu, Stephan Loges, Robin Tritschler and Ailish Tynan.

Recordings include Debussy songs with Gillian Keith (Deux-Elles) and Warlock songs with Andrew Kennedy (Landor Records). His CD with violinist Carolin Widmann of works by Feldman, Zimmerman, Xenakis and Schoenberg was released last year by ECM to much critical acclaim including a Diapason d’Or .

Simon is an official accompanist for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize.

He was born in Kent, read music at King’s College Cambridge and studied piano accompaniment with Michael Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music. Whilst a student he won every major award for piano accompaniment including the Gerald Moore Award and the accompanist prizes in the Kathleen Ferrier, Royal Overseas League and Richard Tauber competitions. He is an Associate of the Royal Academy and currently a professor of piano accompaniment at the Royal College of Music, London.

Future plans include his own series “Spring Voices” at the National Portrait Gallery, London and recitals in venues including the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, La Monnaie, Musee D’Orsay, Opera de Lille and at the Verbier Festival and the Winter Nights Festival, Moscow with singers and instrumentalists including the Belcea Quartet, Karen Cargill, Lucy Crowe Malin Christensson, Angelika Kirchschlager, Sally Matthews, Mark Padmore, Felcity Palmer and Stephan Genz.

First Prize Winners in the 2010 Royal Over Seas League Competition, the Finzi Quartet was formed under the guidance of Dr Christopher Rowland at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Having been selected by the Tillett Trust and the Park Lane Group, 2009/2010 saw the Quartet’s debut at both the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room to critical acclaim.

Winner of 2nd Prize in the 5th Trondheim International String Quartet Competition in Norway last Autumn, the Quartet is also a recipient of the 2008/2009 Tunnell Trust Award and as a result undertook a concert tour of Scotland in November last year. Following visits to the Britten-Pears International Academy of String Quartets the Quartet has been invited back for its second Aldeburgh Residency in 2011. The Quartet recently appeared on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’ with Petroc Trelawney.

The Quartet was awarded a full scholarship from the Albeniz Foundation enabling them to spend two years in the chamber music class of Gunter Pichler at the Instituto Internacional de Musica de Camera de Madrid. It has also benefited from tuition at IMS Pruissa Cove with Andras Keller, the London String Quartet Foundation with Christoph Richter and Andrew Watkinson, and masterclasses with Gabor Takacs, Thomas Riebl, Thomas Kemp, Alasdair Tait, Isabel Charisius, Valentin Erben and Heime Muller.

The Quartet is passionate about outreach work and has recently begun working with Live Music Now and the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust giving concerts around the UK and in London.

Following their appointment as Bulldog Junior Fellows at Trinity College of Music for 2009/2010, the Quartet has been awarded a Junior Fellowship at the Royal Northern College of Music for 2010-2012.

Future projects include a recording of Sir John Tavener’s ‘Towards Slience’, a Residency at Lake District Summer Music as New Generation Artists, numerous festival engagements including the Brighton, Cambridge and Oundle Festivals and two further recitals at Wigmore Hall.

Having a strong desire to promote the music of British composers, the Quartet feels extremely honoured that the Finzi Trust supports their use of Gerald Finzi’s name.

James Sherlock is a versatile musician, working regularly as pianist, conductor and organist. A winner of 2007's BBC Fame Academy: The Next Generation, and Gold Medallist of the Marcello Galanti International Organ Competition in 2005, he is in increasing demand as a performer and communicator.

As a pianist he gives recitals around the UK, regularly performs series on cruise ships, and gives concerts and leads workshops as a member of the Live Music Now scheme, the largest outreach group of its kind in the UK. He was also the Keyboard Section Winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition 2010. He works extensively as an accompanist, and has a large solo and concerto repertoire. His recent CD of David Earl's Cello Sonata was awarded runner-up in best new disc of 2007 by International Piano Magazine. He also plays the lighter side, and has performed in venues including the Ivy, the Belvedere, the Grosvenor hotel and for numerous private functions.

As a conductor, he has directed the Lea Singers since April 2009. He was Musical Director of Figaro 2006, a project in Cambridgeshire that oversaw 50 workshops amongst schools in Cambridgeshire, culminating in an acclaimed production of Le Nozze di Figaro. He has directed a number of other ensembles, including the Cambridge University Musical Society, Baroque and Symphony Orchestras, the Royal Academy Players and the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge.

As an organist, James has given solo recitals in the festivals of Ravenna, Rimini, Windsor, Olomouc, La Verna, and at the Cathedrals of Westminster and St Albans. He was formerly organ scholar of Winchester Cathedral and Trinity College Cambridge, and is now assistant organist of St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, London.

James studied at Chetham's School of Music, Eton College, Trinity College, Cambridge and continues to study the piano privately with Joan Havill.

Jamie Campbell - First Violin

Helena Nicholls - Second Violin

Meghan Cassidy - Viola

Gregor Riddell - Cello

First prize winners in the 2009 Royal Over-seas League Competition, the Solstice String Quartet is quickly gaining a reputation as one of the finest young quartets in the UK. Selected by both the Tillett Trust and Park Lane Group in 2008 the quartet made their debuts at the Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room in 2009. Established whilst studying at the Cambridge University in 2003, they held a Junior Fellowship at the IIMC in Madrid in 2008-9 where they studied with Prof. Günter Pichler of the Alban Berg Quartet. They currently study with the ProQuartet Foundation in Paris and held the Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music from 2009-10.

The quartet has performed throughout the UK and internationally, performing at major music festivals such as Dartington, Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Canterbury 'Sounds New' Festival and Aberystwyth, and has performed live on BBC Radio 3. Highlights of the last year have included collaborations with Steven Isserlis, Tom Poster, Philip Dukes and David Campbell, Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall and Bridgewater Hall debuts and the premiere of Giles Swayne’s fourth quartet in the Cambridge Music Festival. The quartet also took part in a series of Peter Maxwell Davies' Quartets at London's Southbank. During the 2009-10 season the quartet return to the Wigmore Hall four times. Other forthcoming engagements include performances at LSO St. Luke’s, a debut at the Cheltenham Festival, the release of the film ‘An Education’ in which the quartet can be seen performing Ravel’s ‘Introduction and Allegro’, a performance in the Janáček Festival in Luhacovice, and their debut at Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Alongside a passion for the classical quartet cannon, interest in new music is a motivating factor for the quartet; it has given premieres of major works by Joseph Phibbs, Graham Ross, John Metcalf, Richard Blackford and Giles Swayne. This is combined with educational work; the quartet has coached players at the Benslow Music Centre, at Wells Cathedral School and on the 'Da Capo' Course at ProCorda. They currently coach chamber music at King’s College, London and in August 2010 the will be the quartet in residence at the Dartington International Summer School.

The Solstice String Quartet has been fortunate to have enjoyed coaching from many eminent musicians; and have been particularly fortunate to have worked with members of the Alban Berg Quartet, Rainer Schmitt, Thomas Brandis, David Waterman, Walter Levin, Heime Müller and Hugh Maguire. They have a close association with the Britten-Pears Young Artists' Programme where they were quartet in residence in January 2010. They also recently attended the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar in New York, where they studied with the Juilliard String Quartet. The quartet are grateful to the Hattori Foundation for their support.

Jamie plays a Stradivari violin of 1728 on generous loan from the Royal Academy of Music, Helena plays a violin by Edward I’Anson made in 1857, Meghan plays a viola by G.B. Ceruti, also on loan from the Royal Academy of Music, and Gregor plays a cello by Thomas Dodd made in 1799.

www.solsticestringquartet.com

Born in Liverpool, Nicholas read Modern Languages at Clare College Cambridge and then studied at the RAM.

Recent appearances include Septimius in Handel Theodora with Trevor Pinnock, Evangelist in Bach Weihnachts-Oratorium in London with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Premiere Parque in Rameau Hippolyte et Aricie with Emmanuelle Haïm at the Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse, le Récitant in Berlioz L’Enfance du Christ with Sir Colin Davis, as well as several appearances at the BBC Proms (Monteverdi Vespers 1610, Campra Requiem and Bach Johannes-Passion), with the Staatskapelle Dresden (Bach B Minor Mass and Haydn Harmonie-Messe), Matthäus-Passion (Evangelist and arias) with Laurence Cummings at the London Handel Festival.

On stage, Nicholas made his Glyndebourne debut under Jurowski in Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, has sung Mozart’s Ferrando, Don Ottavio, Belmonte and Belfiore in La Finta Giardiniera, and Tenor Actor in Judith Weir’s Night at the Chinese Opera.

A committed recitalist, highlights include Janáček’s Diary of one who Vanished with the Prince Consort in the Oxford Lieder Festival, Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge in Edinburgh and with the Badke Quartet, Gavin Bryars Eight Irish Madrigals with Mr McFall’s Chamber (also a forthcoming CD), and, with regular collaborator John Reid, Die Schöne Müllerin, Schumann Op 24 and Op 39, and Tippett’s The Heart’s Assurance.

Recordings include a Gramophone Award-winning Messiah and Acis in Acis and Galatea (John Butt/Dunedin Consort/Linn), Monteverdi Vespers 1610 (King/King’s Consort/Hyperion), a disc of Michael Finissy (Weeks/Exaudi/NMC), a series of Monteverdi (I Fagiolini/Chandos), as well as a critically acclaimed Evangelist in Matthäus-Passion (also Linn).

Future plans include a recital of Britten Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo and Fauré La Bonne Chanson at the Lichfield Festival, a recording of Monteverdi Vespers 1610 with Edward Higginbottom and Charivari Agréable, Elijah in this year’s Three Choirs Festival, Dardanus with Emmanuelle Haïm in Lille, Caen and Dijon, Messiah with the ECO, and a tour of Bach Johannes-Passion (arias) with Marc Minkowski.

John Reid studied at Clare College, Cambridge and at the Royal Academy of Music with Michael Dussek. He has also taken lessons in song interpretation with Malcolm Martineau and Rudolf Jansen.

A regular visitor to festivals and music clubs across the UK, in recent seasons he has given recitals at Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, King's Place, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and the Middle East with artists including Joan Rodgers, Alexander Baillie, Alison Balsom, Jennifer Pike, Sarah Williamson, the Barbirolli Quartet and William Bennett, as well as with regular duo partners tenor Nicholas Mulroy, violinist Thomas Gould and flautist Adam Walker. He has worked with contemporary music groups Radius and the Ossian Ensemble, and is a principal of the Aurora Orchestra. Recent releases on disc include premiere recordings of music by York Bowen (works for two pianos, with Michael Dussek for Dutton Epoch), Rhian Samuel and Charles Camillieri.

He is an Associate of the RAM, and an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, and his many awards have included the 2004 Gerald Moore Award, as well as the 2003 Kathleen Ferrier and Maggie Teyte Accompaniment Prizes.