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 Guildhall School of Music in London, Hochschule für Künste in 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.

Nicola Benedetti was named BBC’s Young Musician of the Year in 2004. Her debut album with Daniel Harding and the London Symphony Orchestra received critical acclaim and she has recently recorded her second disc with Deutsche Grammophon. This season she will perform her BBC Prom debut in London and concerts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia. Born in Scotland of Italian heritage, Nicola began violin lessons at the age of five. In 1997 she entered the Yehudi Menuhin School where she studied with Natasha Boyarsky. Since the end of 2002 when Nicola left the Menuhin School she has been studying privately with Maciej Rakowski. She plays a Petrus Guarnerius of Venice made in 1751.

Alina Ibragimova was born in Russia in 1985 and studied first in Moscow and then at the Yehudi Menuhin School where she was a pupil of Natasha Boyarsky. She currently studies with Gordan Nikolitch and Adrian Butterfield (baroque violin) at the Royal College of Music and with Christian Tetzlaff. Concerts this year include her debuts with the Philharmonia and BBC Symphony orchestras and at the Wigmore Hall with a new solo work written for her by Huw Watkins. Performing with what The Times described as ‘a mixture of total abandonment and total control that was in no way contradictory’ Alina’s recent engagements have included concerts with the BBC Scottish Symphony, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Alina performs on a 1738 Pietro Guarneri violin kindly provided by Georg von Opel.

London-based Australian pianist Piers Lane has a flourishing international career which has taken him to more than forty counties. In the past few years his engagements have included concerto performances at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center; a three-recital series called Metamorphoses at London’s Wigmore Hall; the Opening recital of the Sydney International Piano Competition; concerto appearances with the London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham and Halle orchestras among others and festival appearances in the USA, Norway, Italy, Germany, France and Mallorca. Highlights in the 08-09 season include his debut with the Warsaw Philharmonic and a recital for Wigmore Hall’s London Pianoforte Series. In 2007 Piers Lane was appointed Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. He tours annually in Australia and New Zealand. Five times soloist at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Piers Lane’s concerto repertoire exceeds 80 works. He is also in great demand as a chamber music player and continues his longstanding partnership with British violinist Tasmin Little. Piers Lane has recorded extensively on the Hyperion and other labels and has written and presented over 100 programmes for BBC Radio 3. In 1994 he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music where he has been a Professor since 1989.

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.

Coming from a classical background, Max’s interest in other music and dance forms began early on, and inspired a series of unique collaboration projects. His first brought together classical music and the Brazilian martial dance form capoeira, with follow-ups last year at both the City of London Festival and the BBC Proms with leading capoeira master Ponciano and the Aurora Orchestra, in which Max plays principal viola. Just six years old, Aurora recently won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award and released its first disc, works by American composer Nico Muhly, for Decca Classics.

Max is a member of ZRI, which faithfully re-imagines Brahms' Clarinet Quintet in the form of a tavern ensemble of its time. Re-scored with a santouri and accordion for the rich folk band sounds that inspired the original piece, ZRI weaves in klezmer music blurring the lines between Brahms and gypsy, folk and classical. The group launched in June with two highly-successful London concerts.

A dedicated teacher, Max founded his own summer chamber music course Es Muss Sein! which he will run in its seventh consecutive year this August. He is proud to have worked with the Marryat Players as coach, leader and director since its inception over ten years ago. He graduated in 2004 from Christ’s College, Cambridge with a class I Political Science degree and is based in London. For more information, videos and recordings, or to join his mailing list for occasional e-letter news, please visit www.maxbaillie.com.

Omri Epstein was born in Israel in 1986. Showing great promise from an early age, he commenced his piano studies at the age of 7 with Sarah Tal at the Israeli Conservatory in Tel Aviv and has been performing regularly since, both solo and chamber music. Omri won the Israeli Conservatory junior and senior piano competitions and was a recipient of the prestigious America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship. Subsequently he has given concerts in France, Germany, Switzerland, Israel, UK and the USA. In September 2002 he moved with his family to the U.K. and was accepted to study at the Purcell School with Ronald Smith.

In the UK he went on to win further prizes in competitions. Having won the Purcell School concerto competition, Omri performed Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.3 conducted by Damian Iorio at the Royal College of Music. He also played with the Israeli Symphony Orchestra and broadcast on Israeli radio. His concerts took place in such halls as the Marlowe Theatre (Canterbury), Chateau de Versailles (France), Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall among others.

As well as participating in international solo and chamber music courses in Belgium, USA and IMS Prussia Cove, Omri has also attended master classes given by distinguished artists such as Alexander Satz, Cecile Ousset, Murray Perahia and Itzhak Perlman.

Having won a full scholarship, Omri studied and graduated from the Royal College of Music and also completed an exchange programme with the Universität der Künste in Berlin. His teachers included Ruth Nye, Rainer Becker and Gordon Fergus-Thompson.

In addition to his solo concerts, Omri holds a busy schedule of performances with his family trio, giving concerts around the UK. Most recently he has won the 2nd Prize at the Tunbridge Wells International Young Concert Artists Competition.

In 2010, Omri was accepted at the Royal Academy of Music on the postgraduate course. He is currently working with Sulamita Aronovsky.

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.