Alexander Baillie has appeared with many British orchestras and has worked with Sir Simon Rattle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and has appeared regularly as cello soloist in concertos, recitals and festivals throughout the world. He has given notable first performances of works by Penderecki, Hans Werner Henze, Takemitsu, Colin Matthews and H.K.Gruber. Recordings include the Tippett Triple Concerto with the composer conducting and the Shostakovich First Concerto with Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic. His version of the Britten Cello Suites achieved the highest acclaim in the New York press. He features in the film "Dvorak...who?" about the motivation of young people falling in love with classical music.

He is Professor of Cello at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen, and Guest Visiting Professor at the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne.

Performer, conductor and teacher, Tim Boulton lives in West Cornwall. He was the viola player of the Vellinger String Quartet from 1998 to 2002 and previously he was a member of the award winning piano quartet Domus and violist with the Raphael Ensemble, specialising in string quintets and sextets. He has performed and broadcast throughout Europe, in North and South America, Israel, Malaysia, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Several of his many recordings have been rated as amongst the best chamber music CDs produced, with awards including the Gramophone Chamber Music Award and Deutche Schallplattenpries. Orchestral experience includes extensive work with the English Chamber Orchesta, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-fields and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, as well as a number of period instrument orchestras.

He has been Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London for 17 years. A Consultant to Cornwall Music Services, he is Principal Conductor of the South West Sinfonietta and Cornwall Youth Orchestra, and runs several local ventures in Cornwall for young musicians. He is also closely involved with the South West Music School, the regional centre for exceptionally talented young musicians, based at Dartington.

Robert’s career as a solo cellist has taken him all over the world. As cellist of the Barbican Piano Trio for eighteen years he has made many recordings and performed live on the BBC World Service and Radio 3 and on television and radio in Europe and the USA. Robert was Musical Director of Pro Corda, the National School for Young Chamber Music Players, from 1998 to 2000 and now coaches chamber music at MusicWorks. He is also Principal Cellist of the London Chamber Orchestra.

Max Baillie represents a new generation of artists at the cutting edge of modern performance: multi-skilled, innovative and cross-cultural. Beginning with the violin aged 6, he went on to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School under Russian pedagogue Natasha Boyarskaya, and is now building a career which spans solo, chamber and orchestral performance as well as conducting, teaching, and collaborations with dance and music from across the world.

In the last two years alone, traditional performances as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player in classical music have taken him to more than 16 countries worldwide, from across Europe to as far afield as Mali and Malaysia. He composes and arranges for the dynamic new group Kamben, in which he duets with Senegalese kora (harp/lute) player Mamadou Cissoko in an uplifting mix of Baroque dance music and traditional songs from West Africa.

He is an experienced and dedicated teacher, having worked regularly with the Marryat Players chamber orchestra for young musicians since its foundation, and as director on a number of occasions. In 2005 he founded the chamber music course Es Muss Sein! which he will run this summer on its third consecutive year.

He graduated in 2004 from Christ’s College, Cambridge, with a 1st in Political Science, and is now based in London and Berlin.

Jamie Walton was born in 1974 and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and with the late William Pleeth. He has given numerous recitals to critical acclaim throughout the UK and the Continent, establishing him as one of the rising international
soloists of his generation. He regularly performs at many of the major Festivals such as Cheltenham, Brighton, Three Choirs and Harrogate, as well as at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Bridgewater Hall and Symphony Hall, Birmingham.
Last year his debut CD of the Chopin and Rachmaninov cello sonatas with pianist Charles Owen received the highest critical acclaim, and his second CD with duo partner Daniel Grimwood will be launched later this month.
Jamie plays on a 1765 Guadagnini cello acquired by a syndicate of supporters headed by the
Co-operative Bank.

Sulki Yu was born in 1985 and began to play the violin at the age of five. She studied at the Conservatoire de Lausanne in Switzerland, Seoul Yewon&Yego School of music in Korea, and then the Purcell School in England. In 2003, Sulki received a full scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Professor David Takeno.
Laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin competition (2006) and the Szigeti-Hubay International Violin competition (2007), Sulki has received numerous awards from the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, the Hattori Foundation, and the Musicians Benevolent Fund. She also has been nominated for an award by the Royal Philharmonic Society both in 2008 and in 2009. She played in USA, in Europe, in Asia, in prestigious venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Barbican, UNESCO Centre in Paris, New York Carnegie Hall and the Seoul Arts Centre in Korea.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen has been described by Ruggiero Ricci as the “most exceptionally gifted young violinist I have ever encountered”. She has performed in London at the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, and in venues across England, Scotland, France, Italy, Israel and USA. Tamsin has won numerous national and international awards and competitions, as well as appearing on national television and radio.
Born in 1986, she has been a Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music since 2004. In 2005 she won their concerto competition, was their String Player of the Year, and won numerous other RCM awards including the Ian Stoutzker prize.
Tamsin won the Royal Overseas League Strings prize in 2005, and during 2003-2006 has won an MBF educational award, been a strings finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year, and a prize winner at the International Violin Competitions in Kloster Schontal (Germany) and Sion (Switzerland).
Tamsin is now playing the 1720-21 Stradivarius violin which used to belong to maestro Lorand Fenyves.

Johanna has taken part in Masterclasses with Will Crutchfield, Lia Montoya, Evelyn Tub and Anthony Rooley, Kathleen Wilson and Aulikki Eerola. She has won several competitions and has been awarded scholarships in Colombia and Germany. Johanna Vargas Iregui has appeared as soloist in the role of the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, has performed the Bachianas Brasileiras by Heitor Villa-Lobos, appeared as Miss Jessel in Britten’s Turn of the Screw and played the role of Gretel in the opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck.

Born in 1980, Mengla Huang has performed throughout Asia, Europe and North America. Last year saw his New York debut at the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Centre and his Boston debut at the Jordan Hall. He won first prize in the Paganini International Violin Competition in Italy in 2002 and is under contract as a recording artist for Universal Music. His first CD was released under the Deutsche Grammophon label in 2005. He is currently continuing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Professor Gyorgy Pauk. He plays on a Giovanni Paolo Maggini violin.

Foo’s early training in her home country of Malaysia enabled her to perform extensively throughout Asia. At the age of thirteen she won her first international piano competition in the Czech Republic. Since her arrival in the UK in 1996, Mei Yi has captivated audiences at the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Wallace Collection and Steinway Hall. Recent engagements have included recitals in Hamburg, Munich, Hong Kong, Santander, Vienna and Kuala Lumpur.

Mei Yi is currently studying with Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music and is grateful for the support from the MBF Trust, Philharmonia/Martin Musical Scholarship Fund, Hattori Foundation, Munster Trust, Tillet Trust, Ricci Foundation and the Yamaha-Kemble Foundation.

ROSENNA EAST currently lives in Edinburgh where she holds the position of Co-Principal Second Violin with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She performs regularly in chamber music concerts in Scotland, is Playing Director on the Board of the SCO, works for the Friends of Edinburgh Prison and enjoys playing Big Band Jazz and Scottish folk music. Rosenna also works as Guest Principal with the Halle in Manchester and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow. Before moving to Scotland, Rosenna lived in London where she began her life as a violinist learning the Suzuki Method from Helen Brunner. Subsequently she studied with Rodney Friend while at Putney High School, throughout her Modern History degree at Brasenose College, Oxford, and in the following three years as a Postgraduate and Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music, London.

RACHEL CALAMINUS read music at Cambridge University before continuing her studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Lydia Mordkovitch and John White. She enjoys a full and varied career, which encompasses solo, chamber and orchestral playing as well as teaching. Rachel works regularly with numerous orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Opera North and Northern Sinfonia. Rachel has performed in concert series and festivals throughout the UK, both as a soloist and as a member of the Trelawn Quartet. In her educational work she enjoys teaching the viola and violin, coaching chamber music, and is the viola tutor for the Marryat Players.

Having graduated from Durham with a first class degree in music, Daniel continued his studies first privately, then as a Scholar at the Royal College of Music with Alexander Boyarsky. Since graduating from the Royal College in July 2002, Daniel has been much in demand both as a chamber and orchestral musician. As a Member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra he combines a busy touring schedule with freelance orchestral and chamber work in and around London.