Alex Aldren studied medicine at the University of Birmingham, and worked as a doctor at the Royal London Hospital, before joining the Royal Academy of Music Opera School in 2016. After graduating in 2019 Alex immediately went on to cover Vašek in The Bartered Bride for Garsington and D’Esparaudieu in Gerald Barry’s The Intelligence Park for The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He then performed the role of Alfonso in Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella (Opera de Baugé) and Alfredo in La Traviata (Hampstead Garden Opera). That year he also reached the finals of both Maureen Lehane and Emmy Destin competitions, as well as the semi-final of the international Clermont-Ferrand competition. During the Covid pandemic, Alex went back to work as a doctor in A&E departments around London. While working a shift, he sang Nessun Dorma for some colleagues, a video of which went viral on Twitter, receiving 100,000 views in just a few hours.  .....
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Katya Apekisheva is one of Europe's most renowned pianists, in demand internationally as both a soloist and as a chamber musician. Since becoming a prize-winner in the Leeds International and Scottish Piano Competitions and collecting awards such as the London Philharmonic 'Soloist of the Year' and the Terence Judd Award, she has been marked out as a pianist of exceptional gifts, performing with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the Halle Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, working with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, David Shallon, Jan Latham-Koenig and Alexander Lazarev.
As a recording artist, Katya has received widespread critical acclaim for her interpretations. Her recording of Grieg solo piano works in .....
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Kyra Humphreys is an accomplished orchestral and chamber musician. She has performed with most of the major UK symphony and chamber orchestras and appeared as guest leader or director with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Orchestra of Opera North. She has appeared as a soloist in the BBC Proms and performed in music festivals around the world. Her world premiere of John Casken’s ‘Après un Silence’ (violin and orchestra version) was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and described as “authoritatively dramatic” by The Times. As the violinist/violist of the Zanfonia Trio Kyra was a finalist in the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and the trio performed frequently throughout the UK as award winners in both the Munster and John Tunnell Trust concert scheme competitions. .....
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Swedish violist Ami-Louise Johnsson has been lauded for her insightful musicianship and the warmth of her captivating sound. With a growing career as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist, she is steadily establishing herself as a prominent voice in the classical music world. Ami-Louise has been selected as the Swedish Radio Classical Artist of the Season 2026/27, featuring performances with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Choir, as well as the premiere of a newly commissioned work written especially for her. In 2025, she was a prizewinner at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, performing Walton's Viola Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia under Thomas Zehetmair at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music. She was also awarded 2nd prize and the Dvořák Society Award at the Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition in Prague, and received the Junior Award from the Hattori Foundation in London.
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Alex is a Reading based Baritone who divides his time between education, consort singing, solo work and operatic roles. He has been involved with some of the country’s top vocal training programmes including The National Children’s Choir, The Rodolfus Choral courses (Formerly the Eton Choral Courses) and the Junior department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His consort work has seen him perform with the Tallis Scholars, Britten Sinfonia and the Armonico consort, the last of whom he has performed internationally with as a soloist. As a soloist he has worked all over the country and in Europe, especially in Western England having performed with Bristol, Leominster and Gloucester choral societies on many occasions as well as having performed in the Three Choirs Festival in 2024 singing Elgar’s The Kingdom and again in 2026 in Mozart’s Requiem. In March of 2027 he will be performing the premier of Susie Self’s “Song of the Golden Flower” firstly in Norwich and then at the Cadogan Hall in London. Operatically he has mainly worked in a comedic vein, including Dr. Dulcamara for Wild arts, the title role in Don Pasquale for Longhope Opera and Leporello with the CoOpera Company.
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Yoshie Kawamura was born in Japan, Nagoya and moved to the UK when she was 11. She was awarded a scholarship to study at Wells Cathedral School with Sanae Nakajima, before receiving Bachelor and Master of Music at Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Joan Havill. A year later she auditioned to study with Prof. Gilead Mishory at Musikhochschule Freiburg in Germany. Yoshie has performed worldwide as a soloist and chamber musician in England, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Japan. She was invited to join the Berlin Philharmonic Quartet in performing Schumann’s Piano Quintet on their tour of Japan; subsequently she received an invitation from the Poznan Philharmonia to perform as a soloist in a series of concerts in Poland. In 2013 Yoshie moved to Newcastle to study Cultural Management at Northumbria University where she received her second Master’s degree. This lead in co-founding Brundibár Arts Festival with Alexandra Raikhlina in 2016. Yoshie is one of the festival’s administrator as well as a performer. Since 2016, she has been actively involved each year in the festival’s organisation, management of the artists and audience, venue coordinator and as a performer. More

Born in Philadelphia, Bartholomew LaFollette has lived in Britain since the age of 13. He trained at the Yehudi Menuhin School, and later the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, from which he received two first class degrees. At the age of twenty-six he was appointed Professor of Cello at the Yehudi Menuhin School.   Bartholomew is Artistic Director of the Marryat Players Chamber Music Festival, now in its sixth year, which takes place in Wimbledon Village and welcomes internationally renowned artists.   As a YCAT artist (Young Classical Artists Trust) Bartholomew gave numerous performances at the Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Royal Festival Hall, and Bridgewater halls. He went on to win first prize at The Arts Club's and Decca Records’ inaugural Classical Music Award. Bartholomew was also the first recipient of the Irish Chamber Orchestra's prestigious Ardán Award. Bartholomew's highlights with orchestra include performances of Dvořák's Cello Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Walton and Elgar Cello Concertos in the Barbican Hall More

British/German violinist, director and festival director Jack Liebeck possesses “flawless technical mastery” and a “beguiling silvery tone” (BBC Music Magazine). Jack is the Royal Academy of Music’s first Émile Sauret Professor of Violin and Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, “A diverse and interesting program, giving voice to many of the festival artists, this was a terrific offering for this year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music.” (Limelight Magazine). Jack’s playing embraces the worlds of elegant chamber-chic Mozart through to the impassioned mastery required to frame Brett Dean The Lost Art of Letter Writing and he has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and chamber musicians. Jack’s fascination with all things scientific has led to two new concertos being written for him and regular collaborator Professor Brian Cox - Dario Marianelli’s Voyager Violin Concerto and Paul Dean’s A Brief History of Time commissioned by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in commemoration of Professor Stephen Hawking. Upcoming engagements include Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, Salieca Piano Trio at Wigmore Hall, a return to Savannah Chamber Music Festival More

Maria Nemtsova is an Amsterdam based concert pianist of Russian-Jewish origin. She began her career after winning numerous International competitions including the Gold Medal at the Isabelle Bond Showcase in London, Fort Worth Concerto competition (USA), “Rosario Marciano International Piano competition” (Vienna, Austria). In addition to her solo achievements Maria got the first prize at the International Chamber Music competition «Marco Fiorindo» in Italy with her «VitaDuo» ensemble. Her recent engagements include performances at major world venues including Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in New York, where she gave her solo recital; Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and Steinway Hall in London, Bösendorfer Hall and Ehrbar-Saal in Vienna, National Center of Performing Arts in Beijing and Shanghai Oriental Arts Center in China, and others. She also appeared at the International Festivals in Italy, UK, USA, Poland and other countries. Maria collaborated with Boris Brovtsyn (violin, UK), Pavel Nersesyan (piano, Russia/USA), Arno Bornkamp (saxophone, Netherlands), Jean-Denis Michat (saxophone, France),  .....
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Alexandra Raikhlina is a Moscow born young and exciting violinist with a passion for chamber music. After moving to Belgium in 1990 she was Laureate of the “Charles de Beriot” competition in Belgium before being awarded a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School. Later she received a full scholarship to complete her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Alexandra has performed extensively as a soloist and a chamber musician in Belgium, England, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, Greece, Germany, Portugal, Hong-Kong and Australia. She has appeared as a soloist and a chamber musician in Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Fairfield Halls, the Sage Gateshead, Centro Cultural De Belem and Helbphilharmonie. Amongst the numerous prices and awards she received are: Craxton Foundation, the Martin Scholarship Foundation and was awarded the LSO String Scheme Experience. She was a prize winner at the Richmond upon Thames Performing Arts festival and a finalist and special prize winner (for best performance of a sonata) at the International Koningin Sophie Charlotte competition.  .....
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Dutch violinist Frederieke Saeijs leads an active life as a soloist, chamber musician and pedagogue. Her playing drew international attention when she won the First Grand Prize at the Long-Thibaud International Violin Competition in Paris, together with four special distinctions. As a soloist she has appeared with leading orchestras, among them the Orchestre National de France, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and Residentie Orkest The Hague, working with conductors such as Neeme Järvi, Christoph Poppen, Vladimir Spivakov and Jaap van Zweden. Chamber music lies at the heart of her musical life. Since 2009 Frederieke has performed in a piano trio with pianist Nino Gvetadze and cellist Maja Bogdanović, in venues including the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Tonhalle Düsseldorf. Furthermore she is regularly invited to chamber music festivals: this season she will join the Delft Chamber Music Festival, the ADAR Festival (Asturias) and the Brundibár Arts Festival (Newcastle). More

Liubov Ulybysheva was born in Moscow and started playing the cello at the age of five. Having studied at the Gnessin Special Music School and the Russian Music Academy, she came to London in 2003 to continue her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Oleg Kogan and the Royal Academy of Music with Felix Schmidt, winning the Mir Carnegie Prize for cello upon graduating. Liubov became the only cellist to win a prestigious scholarship from the Paganini International Competition in Moscow, funded by the Investment Programme Foundation. She was also featured in Reader’s Digest magazine as one of the young stars of the Russian Hope feature. In 2006 she won the First Prize at the Tunbridge Wells International Young Concert Artist Competition, followed by winning the MBF Music Education Award, the Muriel Taylor Young gifted Cellist Award, the Hattori Foundation, the Jellinek and the Kenneth Loveland awards. Liubov was also a recipient of the Meyer Foundation Award and the English Speaking Union Scholarship. More

Gabriel comes from Chichester in West Sussex. After being convinced he was going to be a concert pianist and then a sound engineer, Gabriel realised that Cello was the way forward and travelled north to Manchester where he studied with Eduardo Vassallo. At the RNCM Gabriel was a prize winning chamber musician in the Yeomans Quartet and with performances of The Quartet for the End of Time. Gabriel turned down a position with the Coldstream Guards in order to travel further north and work as a district musician in Mo I Rana, Norway. Here Gabriel performed regularly with guitarist Arne Brattland. After a few years working as a freelance musician in Glasgow, Gabriel joined the Royal Northern Sinfonia where he was joined by his wife Jane Nossek a year later. They live in Gateshead with their two daughters
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Mikhail Zemtsov is an internationally acclaimed and versatile musician, being a prominent soloist, teacher, educator, chamber musician and conductor. Mikhail Zemtsov first took violin lessons from his mother Loudmila Levinson at the age of 5, later studying viola and composition at the conservatories of Moscow, Hamburg and Maastricht with G. Odinets, B. Dinerstein, M. Nichetianu, M. Kugel. Mikhail has studied Masters in Orchestral Conducting at the Lithuanian National Music Academy with Juozas Domarkas; he also took conducting lessons and masterclasses with Lev Markiz, Neeme Jarvi, Paavo Jarvi, Gianandrea Noseda. Zemtsov's solo appearances include performances with the Moscow Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestras of Mexico, Estonia and Lithuania; Luxembourg Philharmonic, Wiener Volksoper, Hamburger Symphoniker, Stavanger Symphony (Norway), The Hague Philharmonic (Netherlands) with the conductors as Neeme Jarvi, Jaap van Zweden, Leif Segerstam, Dmitri Kitajenko. Mikhail is member of the Utrecht String Quartet and the Duo Macondo (with the guitarist Enno Voorhorst). Mikhail also founded a unique ensemble - Zemtsov Viola Quartet.
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