West Wight Arts Association
Visiting Artists 2026/27 Season

Their rapidly expanding international career has been shaped by major competition successes in recent years, including Second Prize at the ARD International Music Competition 2023 and the Grand Prize at the German Music Competition 2024. For the 2026/27 season, the Amelio Trio has been selected as ECHO Rising Star by the European Concert Hall Organisation, following nominations from the Kölner Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Barbican Centre London, and the Philharmonie du Luxembourg. This distinction includes an extensive tour through many of Europe’s most prestigious concert halls. Additional honours include the First Prize at the International Schumann Chamber Music Competition 2022, the Kammermusikpreis Hasselburg 2024, and the Hans Gál Ensemble-Preis 2025, awarded by Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz in cooperation with the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz.

The trio’s story began in 2012, when violinist Johanna Schubert, cellist Merle Geißler and pianist Philipp Kirchner – then just 13 years old – first played together for the German youth competition Jugend musiziert. More than a decade later, having spent over half their lives as an ensemble, their bond on stage is unmistakable, captivating audiences with seamless interplay, stylistic versatility, and a distinctive musical energy – born of a deep artistic connection developed over many years.

The Amelio Trio performs regularly throughout Germany and across Europe at venues including Wigmore Hall London, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Prinzregententheater Munich, the Elbphilharmonie, and the Laeiszhalle Hamburg. The 2026/27 season will include debut appearances at the Musikverein Vienna and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, among many others. Alongside the Classical and Romantic repertoire, the trio is deeply committed to contemporary music. By frequently commissioning new works and giving world premieres by composers such as Helena Winkelman, Johannes X. Schachtner, Birke Bertelsmeier, and Tsotne Zedginidze, they actively contribute to the ongoing expansion of the piano trio repertoire, while at the same time exploring new expressive possibilities and refining their own personal artistic language.

The trio’s debut album Time in Flux was released in September 2025 on GENUIN classics in collaboration with Deutschlandfunk Kultur, featuring works by Ives, Beethoven, Mamlok, Brahms and Bertelsmeier. A second album will follow in autumn 2026 on Hänssler Classic in collaboration with SWR Kultur.

The members of the Amelio Trio receive generous support through scholarships from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, the Deutsche Orchesterstiftung, and the Cusanuswerk. Johanna and Merle perform on historic Italian instruments kindly made available to them on loan: Johanna plays a violin by Lorenzo Storioni (Cremona, 1779) from the Deutsche Musikinstrumentenfonds, while Merle performs on a fine Italian cello from a private owner.

Hailed as “...a wonderful musician with a compelling sense of storytelling…” (Le Soir, 2022), Petar Pejčić is quickly establishing himself as one of the most promising talents on the classical scene.

A winner at the 2025 YCAT International Auditions at Wigmore Hall, Petar has been named as one of the ECHO Rising Stars for 2026-27, which will see him perform on some of Europe’s most prestigious stages, such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana.

The 2024/25 season included several major concert appearances for Petar, including his UK debut with BBC Symphony Orchestra and his South Korean debut with the Korean Chamber Orchestra at the Seoul Arts Center. Past performances as a soloist include concerts with leading orchestras, such as Helsinki Philharmonic, Kremerata Baltica, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Graz Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, among many others.

Born into a musical family, Petar began playing the cello at the age of four in his native Belgrade. His life as a professional musician began when he moved to Leipzig at fifteen to continue his studies with renowned pedagogue Prof. Peter Bruns. Since then, Petar has earned recognition as a laureate of many prestigious international competitions: most notably, he was selected as the youngest finalist and 5th prize winner of the 2022 Queen Elisabeth Competition. The following year, he won 2nd prize at the 2023 Paulo Cello Competition.

A dedicated and collaborative chamber musician, Petar regularly performs alongside esteemed artists such as James Baillieu, Janine Jansen, Amihai Grosz, Friedemann Eichhorn, Pauline Sachse, Martin Helmchen and Florian Uhlig. Committed to expanding the reach of classical music, he also engages in volunteer initiatives and explores interdisciplinary projects. Most notably, his unique collaboration with choreographer Jacopo Godani and the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, which reimagines the connection between music and movement.

Petar is grateful to have received scholarships through the generous support of the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein, the Freunde Junger Musiker Foundation, the Dr. Hübner Foundation, and the Peter Klöckner Foundation (Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben). Additionally, he is the inaugural recipient of the J & A Beare Bursary (2023/24) and was selected for Switzerland’s Career Advancement Programme in 2024.

Petar is currently pursuing advanced studies at the prestigious Kronberg Academy under the guidance of the legendary Prof. Frans Helmerson. He performs on a beautiful 1694 cello by Giuseppe Guarneri ‘filius Andreae’, generously on loan from the Beare’s International Violin Society, as well as a Stephan von Baehr cello (Paris 2012) on loan from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

Nour Ayadi, Moroccan pianist, begins her musical training at the age of six in her native country before pursuing higher studies in France at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, where she is awarded the Diplôme d’Artiste Interprète. She further develops her pedagogical training by obtaining the Diplôme d’État in Paris. From 2021 to 2023, she studies under the guidance of Nelson Goerner at the Haute école de musique de Genève.

Awarded distinctions such as the prestigious Prix Cortot and nominated for the Victoires de la Musique Classique 2024, Nour stands out through a diverse musical career. She is also a laureate of several international competitions, including the S.A.R. Lalla Meryem International Piano Competition, and is notably recognised at Piano Campus and the Étoiles du Piano. She regularly performs at leading festivals such as La Roque d’Anthéron, La Folle Journée de Nantes, the Pianissimes Festival, the Biarritz Piano Festival and the Verbier Festival, strengthening her presence on the international stage.

Alongside her musical career, Nour earns a Master’s degree in Public Affairs at Sciences Po Paris, reflecting both her intellectual and artistic commitment, as well as her curiosity about the world and its challenges. She also takes part in the annual inter-university conference on women’s health in Singapore, demonstrating her interest in major societal issues.

Nour collaborates with internationally renowned conductors such as Petri Sakari, Augustin Dumay and Mikko Franck, as well as with prestigious orchestras including the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse, the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie and the Wiener Kammerorchester. She also performs alongside leading artists such as Gautier Capuçon, Jian Wang, Bertrand Chamayou and the Quatuor Ébène.

She is notably invited to perform at the Philharmonie de Paris and the Victoria Hall in Geneva, where she performs Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. She also steps in at short notice to replace Adam Laloum at the Stadtcasino Basel, performing a Mozart concerto under the direction of Christophe Koncz. She further appears in prestigious venues such as the Musikverein, Kolarac and Schloss Elmau.

Her second album with Scala Music, dedicated to Schumann and Poulenc, receives critical acclaim, including 5 stars from Classica and 3T from Télérama. She records a first album in 2020, dedicated to Schumann and Stravinsky. In 2024, Nour is selected from over 500 candidates to take part in the Verbier Festival and the Maria João Pires Academy. She also participates in masterclasses with András Schiff and Stephen Kovacevich. Nour joins the Classeek programme in Switzerland.

During her time as Artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, Nour benefited from the support of a scholarship offered by Mr and Mrs Régnier Haegelsteen.

She is now a Queen Elisabeth Associate Artist.

Max Pemberton is the 2023 prize winner of the Musicians’ Company Carnwath Scholarship. As a soloist, he has competed both nationally and internationally, reaching the finals of the 7th international Alkan Prize for Piano Virtuosity in Milan, the keyboard semi-finals in the Royal Overseas League competition and was one of a select few invited to partake in the prestigious Musician’s Company Prince’s Prize. 

He first took up the piano at the age of 8, upon hearing a local performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto. Since then he has performed  both in the UK and internationally, such as in Austria and in Poland where he appeared on local TV. In April 2019, Max would make his concerto debut with a performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto in Guildford Cathedral, realizing his early ambition. He has since performed in Duke’s Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall, Leighton House, Hindhead Music Centre, Alyth Synagogue and a handful of churches in London, such as St Brides, St Olaves and St Stephen Walbrook. He has given performances of the Rachmaninov 3rd piano concerto and Ravel Left Hand piano concerto in Guildford.

Max has enjoyed the opportunity to play for many distinguished pianists and pedagogues, including Pascal Nemirovsky, Norma Fischer, Peter Frankl, Joan Havill, Eugene Indjic, Noriko Ogawa, Murray McLaughlan and Paul Roberts to name a few. He now studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with professors Ronan O’Hora and Katya Apekisheva. where he was a finalist in the Guildhall Romantic prize 2 years in a row.

Aside from solo playing, Max has enjoyed many fruitful collaborations at the Guildhall, such as being part of an all-Bartok concert in December 2019 and one of the Guildhall’s annual large-scale song projects (this one themed around an Ouroboros). He has recently developed a keen interest in working with contemporary composers and has been a part of large ensemble projects performing works by Matthew King and Lawrence Crane.

Max studies at the Guildhall under a scholarship generously donated by the Ironmongers’ Company.

Jamie Smith cornet / flugelhorn
Jonathan Bates tenor horn
Michael Cavanagh baritone horn
Chris Robertson euphonium

A4 Brass Quartet comprises principal players from some of the UK’s top brass bands, including Grimethorpe Colliery, Brighouse & Rastrick and Foden’s. With “technical virtuosity in abundance” (Brass Band World), these four astonishing musicians come together to perform both lyrical and high-octane works, forming a distinctive and new take on chamber music.

The Quartet has a unique blend of instruments, with a cornet, tenor horn, baritone and euphonium creating an exclusive sound that stands out from the standard brass quartet. With this unusual instrumentation, A4 Brass has actively developed their repertoire, commissioning new music, composing and arranging music themselves.

Formed in 2013 at the Royal Northern College of Music, in their first year the Quartet won the coveted Philip Jones Brass Ensemble of the Year prize. They went on to represent the brass department in the College’s overall chamber music prize, winning the Christopher Rowland Ensemble of the Year Award and claiming both the jury and the audience’s votes. In June 2018 the Quartet completed the prestigious International Artist Diploma in Chamber Music course at the RNCM as John Fewkes scholars.

The Quartet has performed widely throughout the UK appearing at major venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Cadogan Hall, Purcell Room, St. Margaret’s Church Westminster Abbey (for Park Lane Group), Lake District Summer Music and King’s Lynn Festivals. More recently they have completed engagements which included a residency at the Lieksa Brass Week in Finland, a concert in the Ceresio Estate Festival in Switzerland and a re-invitation to the Trakai Fanfare Week in Lithuania.

The Quartet has featured on national television and radio, appearing three times on ITV’s Christmas Carol Concerts and on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In-Tune’ twice with Sean Rafferty and Katie Derham. In 2016 they released their debut CD at the RNCM Brass Band Festival featuring new, original music composed for them, including works by Martin Ellerby, Edward Gregson, Oliver Waespi and Nigel Clarke.

A4 Brass have won numerous prizes and awards including the 2018 Royal Over-Seas League Chamber Music Competition, a Tunnell Trust Award, the Tillett Trust Young Artists’ Platform series and the Musicians’ Company Concert Series. In September 2018 they were selected to become City Music Foundation Artists and the following month won the Royal Philharmonic Society Henderson Chamber Ensemble Award. They regularly work with Live Music Now and Music in Hospitals & Care scheme and are committed to expanding and diversifying their work.

www.a4brassquartet.co.uk

Mebrakh Haughton-Johnson is a British clarinettist celebrated for his stylistic versatility, magnetic stage presence, and deeply expressive artistry. With a fast-growing international profile, he is passionately committed to widening access in classical music and championing the work of living composers and artists from the global majority.

As a soloist and chamber musician, Mebrakh has made appearances at leading global venues and festivals, including Wigmore Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Verbier Festival, Adelaide Festival and Edinburgh International Festival. He made his U.S. concerto debut in 2024 with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, performing David Baker’s Jazz Suite for Clarinet and Orchestra.

In addition to his solo appearances, he has performed and recorded with Chineke! Orchestra as principal clarinet and appeared as their principal saxophonist for BBC Proms, served as guest principal E-flat clarinet with Britten Sinfonia, and made his Carnegie Hall debut as principal clarinet of the Juilliard Orchestra.

A dedicated interpreter of historical performance, Mebrakh performs on 5–10 key boxwood clarinets and was the first clarinettist at The Juilliard School to minor in historically informed performance. As a multi-instrumentalist, he made his televised Proms debut in 2019 on saxophone and clarinet in Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts with Nu Civilisation Orchestra, and later appeared at the Berlin JazzFest and London Jazz Festival with Jason Moran and the Bandwagon, performing on clarinet, flute and piccolo in a programme celebrating James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters.

Highlights of Mebrakh’s 2025/26 season include recitals at the Barber Lunchtime Concert Series (University of Birmingham), St George’s Bristol, the Athenaeum, and Harrogate International Festival. These projects reflect his ongoing commitment to presenting diverse programmes, commissioning new works and collaborating across art forms.

Mebrakh’s artistic reach extends beyond the concert hall. In 2022, he collaborated with Gustavo Dudamel and Tyler, the Creator in Virgil Abloh’s final Louis Vuitton Men’s Fashion Show in Paris with Chineke!, and was later featured in Louis Vuitton: The Book #15. That same year, he made his film debut in Downton Abbey: A New Era.

An advocate for equity and inclusion in music, Mebrakh led a major overhaul of the undergraduate and postgraduate performance syllabi at the Royal College of Music to include works by Black, Asian and female composers, and created a weekly newsletter highlighting their stories. In 2020, he helped produce the College’s first Black History Month concert and later inspired the creation of FestivALL, a student-led summer festival showcasing underrepresented composers, now featured in the Great Exhibition Road Festival in partnership with Imperial College London. At Juilliard, he served as Chair of the Student Congress and was a Clarinet Fellow with the Music Advancement Program, where he authored inclusive teaching resources and policy proposals. Through his Morse Fellowship, he brought music education to underserved communities across New York City.

Mebrakh began taking clarinet lessons at 14. He holds a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours from the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Richard Hosford and Peter Sparks, and a Master of Music from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Anthony McGill as a Jerome L. Greene Fellow, supported by the Julius Isserlis Scholarship, The Munster Trust, and generous family and friends.

Beyond music, Mebrakh has volunteered in hospitals and pharmacies, observed open-heart surgeries and published zoological research through The Nuffield Foundation. He is an avid traveller, linguist and lover of global cuisine.

Praised for a “superbly voiced instrumental partnership of his singer” (Sussex Express) and “spectacular, sensitive and vivid accompaniment” (The Latest), 30-year-old British Pianist George Ireland enjoys a thriving career, in demand both as a recital partner with some of the finest singers of his generation, and as a repetiteur in Opera and Choral music. From a working-class, non-musical home, he began to play the piano from scratch, self-taught at the age of 14, and at 25 graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music where he studied collaborative piano under Simon Lepper and Roger Vignoles. He also studied conducting, continuo and vocal coaching, and was the holder of the Kendall Taylor Award for outstanding British Pianists.

A Samling Artist, George is the winner of the 2024 New Voices Competition at the Northern Aldborough Festival with mezzo-soprano Judith Lebreuilly, adjudicated by Sir John Tomlinson, Edward Gardner, and Sholto Kynoch. With mezzo-soprano Rebecca Leggett, he won the 2022 London Song Festival Masterclass and British Art Song Competition with Sir Thomas Allen. He also accompanied soprano Oksana Lepska’s winning recitals at the 2022 National Mozart Competition in London and the Kathleen Ferrier Award-winning recitals of countertenor Hugh Cutting and soprano Jessica Cale in 2021 and 2020.

In 2025, he greatly looks forward to making his debuts at the Edinburgh International Festival and Wiener Konzerthaus with Hugh Cutting, as well as recording two English song discs with soprano Caroline Taylor and tenor Guy Cutting.

As a young artist of the 2022-24 Oxford Lieder season, George joined Sopranos Jessica Cale, Caroline Taylor and Emily Christina Loftus at the 2021, 2022 and 2023 festivals. With Hugh Cutting he has enjoyed live performances on Radio 3’s In Tune, recording at BBC’s Maida Vale Studios, a greatly-acclaimed recital at the Brighton Festival and a recital on the Harpsichord at the Theatre Grévin in Paris.

2024 saw his Italian debut at the Tuscan Crete Senesi festival alongside Guy Cutting in collaboration with Collegium Vocale Gent, preceded by two recitals at New College, Oxford, and at Acland Burghley School in London for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He also returned to the Brighton Festival with Hugh Cutting and Rebecca Leggett for their acclaimed ‘South Country’ Sussex-themed programme. For St Paul’s Opera he has appeared in a Gala Recital alongside Tenor David Butt Philip, Baritone David Stout and Sopranos Alison Langer and Rainelle Krause.

In late 2024 he joined Baritone Theo Perry for his second Winterreise in Lewes, having given his first performance of the work with Soprano Daniela Bechley in Bielefeld in 2019. He also appeared with Tenor and fellow IVC Semifinalist Michael Bell for a recital of English Song at the Lichfield Festival.

He enjoys a fruitful partnership with Opera Prelude, appearing in recitals alongside their artists Dan D’Souza, Catherine Hooper, Stephen Whitford, Sam Young and Alexandra Meier, and earlier this year accompanied Dame Felicity Lott’s Masterclass with Sopranos Georgie Malcolm, Natasha Agarwal, Eyra Norman and Phoebe Smith.

Prior to, during, and since his studies at the RCM, George has taken coaching and masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, Roderick Williams, Dame Sarah Connolly, Felicity Palmer, Ann Murray, Helmut Deutsch, Errolyn Wallen and Amanda Roocroft.

Known for her heart-rending voice and impressive stage presence, British/German soprano Belinda Williams captivated French audiences this summer as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Opéra de Baugé).

“beautifully controlled, full of emotion”, “nobility and ardour combining to create a remarkable performance” 
(Yvan Beauvard, Forum Opera)

Belinda recently debuted the role of Suor Angelica under the baton of James Longford, and her future roles include Pamina in London and Switzerland.

Already a Bayreuth Scholar, in 2024 Belinda was named a Mastersingers UK young Wagnerian, and she appeared as Gerhilde conducted by Lionel Friend alongside Sir John Tomlinson.  In 2024,Belinda wrote and starred in an award-winning Fringe show Show:Girls at the Edinburgh Festival, which has transferred to the West End for 2025/2026. 

Known for her excellent stage work and Complicité training, in recent seasons Belinda has appeared as Gertrud in Hänsel und Gretel in Wuppertal, conducted by musical director Julia Jones and directed by Denis Krief; as Theseus’ Mother in the German premiere  of Jonathan Dove’s Das Labyrinth (Wuppertal);  at Staatstheater Kassel, Belinda was Offenbach’s eponymous Die Großherzogin von Gerolstein; and sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford.

Belinda began her career at the Staatstheater Kassel, shortly after graduating from the Royal Academy Opera Course, winning the Nachwuchsförderpreis for best young talent on the German stage.  She was also Women's Radio Classic Future Woman of the Year 2021.

Belinda made her Wigmore Hall debut recital whilst still a young student after winning the Tillett Trust Young Artists’ Competition. As an award-winning recitalist, Belinda has performed at St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Hollywell Music Rooms, Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Cheltenham Pump Rooms, Cheltenham Town Hall, and Handel House, and records with Prof. David Owen Norris with whom she has a CD Songs and Sonnets from the Reign of Queen Victoria.

Belinda is a passionate exponent of new music, having premiered many new works: the role of Li in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Kommilitonen!, directed by David Pountney (RAO); on BBC Radio 4 Belinda sang ‘Mary, Mother of God’ on Good Friday in Sasha Johnson Manning’s Daughters of Jerusalem with words by Carol-Ann Duffy; Belinda made her Italian debut singing the title role in Efraín Amaya’s new opera La Bisbetica at the Bergamo Festival; she performed the Estonian premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (cond. Olari Elts, Tallinn National Concert Hall); The Evil Queen in the German premiere of Wolfgang Mitterer's Schneewittchen (Staatstheater Kassel); and Lovely Lady in Purcell: His Ground by David Knotts (Royal Opera House).

James Longford’s sensitive and scintillating musicality at the piano has endeared him to audiences all over the world, in such venues as Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican, St David's Hall, Snape Maltings, Queen’s Hall Edinburgh, London Palladium, Brighton Pavilion, Latitude, Cologne Schauspiel, Oslo Opera House, Weimar Hochschule für Musik, Venice Biennale, Milan Fondazione Cariplo, at festivals in Anghiari, Avignon and Tel Aviv, and on many an ocean as a featured classical artist for Cunard. He has worked with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Martyn Brabbins, Nicholas Collon, Gerry Cornelius, Laurence Cummings, Paul Daniel, Sian Edwards, Edward Gardener, Paul McCreesh, Andreas Scholl and Simone Young.

Music staff for: Royal Opera House & Royal Ballet, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, BBC Singers, English Touring Opera, BBC Symphony Chorus, Opera North, Kokoro, Synergy Vocals, Polyphony, Gabrieli Consort, Grange Festival, Royal Marines School of Music, London Concert Choir, Birmingham Opera Company, Garsington Opera, Bampton Classical Opera, Bregenzer Festspiele and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Closer to home, he is a passionate educator and works with many local community choirs and musicians on the Isle of Wight.

James is part of the Galos Piano Trio – an award from the Ambache Trust supported our recent recording of works by Clara Schumann and her contemporaries.

James won the Tagore Gold Medal during his studies at the Royal College of Music. He also trained at the Britten-Pears School, St.Martin-in-the-Fields and Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, and was selected as a Steinway Artist in 2014.

Based between London and Switzerland, Matteo Cimatti has appeared alongside several European orchestras and at numerous festivals, and is also an accomplished and enthusiastic chamber player. In May 2025, he was selected as one of the winners at the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International Final Auditions. 

Upcoming highlights include his debut at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Internationales Musikfestival Heidelberger Fruhling, a return to Wigmore Hall and the Brahms concerto with the London Firebird Orchestra.

In 2024, Matteo graduated from the Haute École Musique de Lausanne in Switzerland, where he most recently studied with Janine Jansen and Tomo Keller. He has appeared as a soloist alongside several orchestras, including the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, and has performed in numerous festivals and concert seasons such as the Sion Festival, Amici della Musica di Firenze, Festival dei Due Mondi, Musikdorf Ernen and the Ticino Music Festival among others. 

Matteo has received awards from the Rahn Kulturfonds and the Concours d’Interprétation Musicale de Lausanne, and has been a prize winner in leading competitions including the Concours Feast of Duos International, Premio Postacchini International Violin, and Premio Crescendo.

A chamber music enthusiast from a very young age, Matteo enjoys a rich and varied concert activity as a chamber player. He is a founding member of the Wendel Quartet, a piano quartet based in Basel. 

Matteo plays a 1769 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin kindly loaned to him through the Beare’s International Violin Society by a generous sponsor. 

At his debut with the La Fenice Orchestra in Venice, the Milanese pianist Francesco Granata was praised for his “brilliant touch, appropriate sober accent, and simultaneously and most significantly, technical mastery that is always subservient to expression.”

Francesco Granata graduated from the Conservatorio di Milano in 2016 with the highest evaluation and a special mention. In 2019, he completed a Master Course diploma at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he studied with Benedetto Lupo. Most recently, he achieved an artist diploma with Roberto Plano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where Francesco Granata was also engaged as an assistant instructor. He is currently studying for a master’s degree in music performance with Claudio Martínez Mehner at Musik-Akademie Basel, with jazz music as a minor subject.

Francesco Granata has taken part in numerous masterclasses with the big names of the classical music world. He was also selected for the first “Partitura Project” in the USA in collaboration with the Irving S. Gilmore Piano Festival in Michigan, a workshop created by Maria João Pires to promote exchange and dialogue between musicians of different generations.

The young pianist has taken part in numerous piano competitions. He won the first prize at the Premio Venezia Competition 2017. In 2021, he was a prize winner at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition, a finalist at the Concours Musical International de Montréal and first prize winner at the MTNA Competitions in Indiana. In 2022, he was one of the 30 pianists selected for the final round of the prestigious piano competition The Cliburn in Fort Worth, Texas, and in January 2024, he won the second prize at the Rahn Musikpreis 2024 competition for piano in Zurich.

Francesco Granata perfomed solo recitals in Italy, India and Europe and gave concerts with the Orchestra La Fenice, the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali, the Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dokul Eyul University Symphony Orchestra, the OSCOM Orchestra and the UNIMI Orchestra, among others. He has played under conductors such as Jonathan Webb, Arthur Fagen, Amedeo Monetti, Cosimo Bombardieri, Stefano Ligoratti and Michele Spotti. His chamber music partners include Marcello Miramonti and Enrico Graziani, with whom he founded the “Da Vinci Ensemble” project, as well as Jan Vogler, Carlo Maria Parazzoli, Roberto Tarenzi and Andrea Cellacchi. In 2024 he joined the “Trio Eclipse” with Sebastian Braun and Lionel Andrey.

In 2018, the CD “Francesco Granata” was published by the Italian magazine Suonare News. A CD recording with the Da Vinci Ensemble about the two Martucci trios was released by Amadeus in November 2023.

Thomas Luke came to national attention after winning the Keyboard Category of BBC Young Musician 2020. Driven by a desire for discovery and authentic human connection, he moves freely between traditional concert repertoire, his own compositions, and expansive multi-piano arrangements. His performances have featured on national radio and television, and have taken him to stages worldwide, including London’s Wigmore Hall, Leipzig’s Weißes Haus, the Xiamen International Conference Center Concert Hall and the Van Cliburn Concert Hall in Fort Worth.

Hailed as a “trailblazer” by Steinway & Sons, Thomas made history by performing the inaugural Steinway SpirioCast between two UK institutions. He was recently awarded the Prix Monti at the 2025 Piano Campus International Competition and has been recognised by the Vienna International Music Competition for “outstanding talent, a remarkable musicality and a very accomplished technique.” In June 2024, he was selected as one of just 24 Young Artists globally to attend the PianoTexas International Festival, and has received guidance from Lang Lang, Arie Vardi and Stephen Kovacevich.

In 2024, he launched Many Pianos - a series of layered arrangements for four or more pianos, blending digital and acoustic elements. His first video, a cover of Jacob Collier’s Little Blue, was recognised by Collier himself and has since reached thousands of listeners online. Music from Thomas’ debut album of original work, See Me Now, released in January 2026, has drawn praise for its “language of mellifluous beauty and ingenious pianistic understanding.”

Born on the Isle of Wight, Thomas’ musical spark was lit in the room under his grandparents’ stairs, playing keyboard games on the organ with his grandfather. He began piano lessons with Judith Harvey aged four, continuing studies with Eleanor Hodgkinson at the Junior Royal Academy of Music. He now studies with Vanessa Latarche at the Royal College of Music, receiving further mentorship from Alim Beisembayev, as the Margaret Mount Scholar supported by the Cotes-Burgan Scholarship.

Originally formed at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the Fibonaccis are a Resident Ensemble at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid with Günter Pichler and at the Dutch String Quartet Academy in Amsterdam. Following public finals at Wigmore Hall last May, they were selected to join the Young Classical Artist Trust (YCAT) roster.

During the 2024/25 season the Quartet will perform extensively throughout Europe, including concerts in the UK, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and France. They will undertake residencies with ProQuartet in Paris and Britten Pears Arts in Aldeburgh, as well teaching and performing at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff in their position as Resident Quartet.

The Fibonacci Quartet are prolific prize winners and have received numerous awards including First Prize in the Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Competition, First Prize in the Cavatina Chamber Music Competition, The RPS Henderson Chamber Ensemble Award, First Prize in the International Triomphe de l’Art Competition in Belgium, The Kirckman Society Award, Audience Prize at the Schiermonnikoog Festival and Special Prizes of the Shostakovich Association in Paris and Peermusic in Hamburg.

Additionally, the Quartet regularly give radio and television broadcasts including on Dutch National Television, Dutch Concert Radio, BBC Radio 3 and RAI tv, Italy. They were honoured to work closely with Kaija Saariaho on a new recording of ‘Terra Memoria’ made at the Barbican as part of the BBC Total Immersion series.

The Fibonacci Quartet are generously supported by the Escuela Reina Sofía, the Hattori Foundation, the Cosman Keller Trust, The Frost Trust and Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre in Paris. 

The quartet brings its energy and intelligence to an impressive range of repertoire, ranging from Haydn to music of today. Last season they gave the world premiere of Garth Knox’s Secret Letters, written for them as a companion piece to Janáček’s Intimate Letters. Previous commissions have included Salina Fisher’s Heal, composed for them in the wake of the pandemic, and they made their Australian debut in 2023, playing a work written for them by Hannah Kendall as part of the Australian National Academy of Music’s Quartetthaus project. They are currently working on a new project with composer Samuel Adams and percussionist DOMNIQ. 

Their recording schedule for BIS also demonstrates their wide-ranging musical appetite. Their debut recording (released in January 2025) features works by Ligeti and Bartók, with future recordings including Debussy, Ravel and Takemitsu; Haydn quartets and Chausson’s Concert and Franck’s Piano Quintet with violinist Johan Dalene and pianist Can Çakmur.

The quartet has played in the UK’s most prestigious halls and festivals, including Wigmore Hall and BBC Proms, and its reputation is spreading quickly across Europe, with performances including at Berlin Philharmonie, Boulez Saal, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Stockholm Konserthuset, Palladium Malmö and Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, as well as festival appearances at Lockenhaus, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Rheingau, Heidelberg and Zeister Musiekdagen music festivals, as well as the Amsterdam, Barcelona and Gulbenkian Foundation string quartet festivals. Recent North American highlights have included performances in Calgary, Kelowna, Victoria and Capital Region Classical and the group recently completed its Peak Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence at Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, in partnership with the Banff International String Quartet Competition.

The quartet formed at the Royal College of Music in 2013, and has returned there as Quartet in Association, giving regular coaching to chamber music groups, playing in side-by-side projects, and mentoring young quartets through the RCM String Quartet Platform. They held a Guildhall School of Music String Quartet Fellowship (2018–20) and studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover with Oliver Wille, as well as in London with Simon Rowland-Jones and John Myerscough (Doric Quartet). They were mentored by the late Peter Cropper and have received support from the Musicians Company/Concordia Foundation, Hattori Foundation, Help Musicians and Royal Philharmonic Society. The Marmen Quartet is an official Pirastro Artist.