The Belgian-Israeli violist Nathan Braude has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious concert venues including the Wigmore Hall in London, Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

Nathan Braude has also appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the Brussels Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Limburgs Symfonie Orkest and Solistes Européens Luxembourg. In September 2016 Nathan became the new principal violist at the Gurzenich Orchester, Koln.

Festival appearances include Progretto Martha Argerich in Lugano, Ravinia Festival in Chicago and Festival de Radio France in Montpellier. Since 2010 Nathan regularly performs in duo recitals together with his wife Polina Leschenko.

His début recording for the Fuga Libera label with the complete works for viola, by the Belgian composer Joseph Jongen, has been released to great critical acclaim. Other recordings include the Dvorak piano quartet op.87 released on EMI Classics as part of the Martha Argerich and Friends: Live from the Lugano Festival 2012” series and Brahms horn trio (viola version) for the Warner Classic label.
Nathan Braude plays a viola by Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza (Milano, 1772).

After being a junior student with Grigorij Gruzman at the “Akademie für Tonkunst” Darmstadt he studied at the “Musikhochschule Karlsruhe” with André Boanain,at the “Musikhochschule Frankfurt” with Lev Natochenny and at the “Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique Paris” with George Pludermacher. 1st prize at the competition of the “Musikhochschule Karlsruhe” with piano solo in 1996, in 1997 1st prize as a Duo with violin, 3rd prize at the “Newport International Piano Competition” (Great Britain).

In 1998 1st prize at the “International Music Competition Torino” (Italy), 2nd prize at the “Kuhmo International Duo Competition” (Finnland). Radio- and TV productions; performed as a soloist for example with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the “Stuttgarter Kammerorchester”). Lecturer for piano at the “Musikhochschule Karlsruhe”.

Violist Meghan Cassidy graduated in 2010 from London’s Royal Academy of Music, where she had studied with Garfield Jackson. In 2007 Meghan joined the award-winning Solstice Quartet, with whom she has performed at the Wigmore Hall and on BBC Radio 3.

She continued her studies as a pupil of Tatjana Masurenko in Leipzig, Nabuko Imai in Hamburg and Hartmut Rohde in a masterclass given in Cornwall.

Meghan has played chamber music at several European festivals and has performed with the London Conchord Ensemble, Ensemble MidtVest and the Monte and Fidelio Piano Trios. She has been guest principal viola with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Opera North, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the London Mozart Players. This year’s highlights include performances of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante in which she will be principal viola.

Meghan also directs the Marylebone Music Festival in London, which she founded.

The Italian cellist Claude Frochaux began playing the cello at the age of six at Suzuki Talent Center, then at the Conservatory of Turin. Studies followed in Frankfurt with Michael Sanderling, where he completed his Diploma and his concert examination with the highest rating in the soloist class, as well as postgraduate studies in Essen and Madrid. He received further artistic impulses from Eberhard Feltz, Menahem Pressler, Ralf Gothoni. Claude was supported by the foundations De Sono, Live Music Now and Anna Ruths.

As a sought-after and passionate chamber musician, he is a guest at festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Mozartfest Würzburg, Beethovenfest Bonn, Heidelberger Frühling, and in other European countries and North and South America. He played at Wigmore Hall, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Laeiszhalle Hamburg, and was broadcast repeatedly on the radio (BR, WDR, SWR, Deutschlandfunk and Radio Classic). Upcoming Engagements bring him among others to the Konzerthaus Berlin, Musikverein Wien, King’s Place and Wigmore Hall in London, as well as Enescu Festival Bucharest.

In addition to prizes of national competitions in Italy, he won the 1st prizes of the competition of the Polytechnic Society and the DAAD Frankfurt. In 2008, he founded Monte Piano Trio with which he won numerous international prizes (Maria Canals Barcelona, Brahms Austria, Schumann Frankfurt, Folkwang Prize) and regularly gives concerts. He also works in other groups such as O/Modernt Stockholm, Ensemble Midwest Denmark, Amici Ensemble Frankfurt, Ensemble Ruhr, and has appeared in numerous orchestras such as Bamberger Symphoniker, Spira Mirabilis and Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino.

Claude is the founder and artistic director of the Sylt Chamber Music Festival and the concert series Musica+ in Frankfurt, Germany.

Timothy Ridout, a BBC New Generation Artist and Borletti-Buitoni Trust fellow, is one of the most sought-after violists of his generation. This season he appears as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Odense, San Jose symphony orchestras and Netherlands Chamber Orchestra amongst others. In 2020, Ridout won Hamburger Symphoniker’s inaugural Sir Jeffrey Tate Prize and joined the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center in 2021.

Other highlights this season include recitals and chamber concerts at Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Philharmonie Köln. Further afield, Ridout embarks on a South American tour with the Chamber Society of the Lincoln Centre, returns to Taipei for a series of concerts, and tours Australia with Musica Viva.

In recent seasons, Ridout has made his debut with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Hamburger Symphoniker, Orchestre National de Lille, Camerata Salzburg, Graz Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Hallé, BBC Symphony, Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestra, and performed the Walton Concerto at the BBC Proms/Sakari Oramo and with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/ David Zinman. He has also worked with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Lionel Bringuier, Gabor Takács-Nagy, Sylvain Cambreling, Nicholas Collon and Sir Andras Schiff.

Sought after as a chamber musician, Ridout has taken part in numerous festivals across Europe, including Rheingau, Bergen, Rosendal, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sion and Lockenhaus, and regularly collaborates with leading international artists including Janine Jansen, Steven Isserlis, Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Kian Soltani, Benjamin Grosvenor, Nicolas Altstaedt and Christian Tetzlaff, among many others.

Ridout records for the Harmonia Mundi label. His latest album – ‘A Poet’s Love’ – was recorded with pianist Frank Dupree and features selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and their own transcription of Schumann’s Dichterliebe. New releases include amongst others, Berlioz Harold en Italie with Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg/John Nelson on Warner/Erato, and Bloch Suite for Viola and Orchestra and Elgar Concerto with BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Martyn Brabbins.

Born in London in 1995, Ridout studied at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence. He completed his Masters at the Kronberg Academy with Nobuko Imai in 2019 and, in 2018, took part in Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World.

He plays on a viola by Peregrino di Zanetto c.1565–75 on loan from a generous patron of Beare’s International Violin Society.

Born in Vancouver, Canada, Corey Cerovsek began playing the violin at the age of five. After early studies with Charmian Gadd and Richard Goldner he graduated at age 12 from the University of Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music with a gold medal for the highest marks in strings. That same year, he was accepted as a student by Josef Gingold and enrolled at Indiana University, where he received bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and music at age 15, master’s degrees in both at 16, and completed his doctoral course work in mathematics and music at age 18. Concurrently he studied piano with Enrica Cavallo, frequently appearing in concert performing on both instruments.

Working with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, Michael Tilson Thomas, Neeme Järvi, Andrew Litton, Yoel Levi, and Jesús López-Cobos, Cerovsek has performed in North America with the orchestras of Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Atlanta, Baltimore, Montréal, Vancouver, and Toronto, among many others, and internationally with such groups as the Israel Philharmonic, Prague Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest of the Hague, Berlin Symphony, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide Symphonies, Bournemouth Symphony, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Poitou-Charentes and the Montpellier Festival Orchestra (France).

In recital, he has performed throughout the world, including frequently at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston), the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theatre and the Frick Collection (New York), the Place des Arts (Montréal), the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra “Debut Series,” Wigmore Hall (London) and the Théâtre du Châtelet and the Salle Gaveau (Paris). He is also an avid chamber musician, regularly appearing at the festivals of Kuhmo (Finland), Verbier (Switzerland), Tanglewood (USA), Divonne (France), and Stavanger (Norway), as well as the Spoleto Festivals (USA and Italy). Chamber music partners include Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Thomas Quasthoff, Joshua Bell, Julien Quentin, Jeremy Denk, Leonidas Kavakos, Eric Le Sage, Denis Pascal, Alexandre Tharaud, Paul Meyer, Truls Mørk, Tabea Zimmermann, Katia Skanavi, Isabelle Van Keulen, Leif Ove Andsnes, and the Borromeo, Ysaÿe and Diotima Quartets.

His recording of the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas, made in 2006 with pianist Paavali Jumppanen for the Claves label, received numerous awards including the 2008 MIDEM Classical Music Award for Best Chamber Music, Gramophone Recommends, and recognition from Le Monde de la Musique, Diapason, Supersonic Pizzicato, and Fono Forum Stern des Monats. It was followed in 2008 by a much-acclaimed recording of works of Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne under Hannu Lintu. His Corigliano Violin Sonata, with Andrew Russo on the Black Box label, was nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award.

Corey Cerovsek performs on the “Milanollo” Stradivarius of 1728, played among others by Viotti, Paganini, and Christian Ferras. He is also cofounder and CTO of a technology company specializing in medical education.

One of the most versatile and original cellists of his generation, Adrian Brendel has travelled the world as soloist, collaborator and teacher. His early immersion in the core classical repertoire inspired an enduring fascination that has led to encounters with many fine musicians at the world’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls. His discovery of contemporary music through the works of Kurtag, Kagel and Ligeti in his teenage years opened a new and vital avenue that he continues to explore with huge enthusiasm alongside his passion for jazz and world music. In 2014 he became a member of the Nash Ensemble of London.

Projects with contemporary composers and conductors such as Kurtag, Thomas Adès and Peter Eötvös among others inspired him to cultivate new music in his concert programmes wherever possible. A three-year project with Sir Harrison Birtwistle led to premieres of his song cycle Bogenstrich and a piano trio released on the ECM label. He also premiered York Hoeller’s cello concerto Mouvements with NDR Hamburg alongside Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Canto di Speranza.

Young Natacha first stepped into the classical music world as a student of the Lysenko Music School in Kiev, where she completed her training at the age of seventeen. After these formative years, she was part of three tours across the USA between 1996 and 2002 with the Kiev Symphony Orchestra; her very first experience as a concert musician.

She soon after integrated the Tchaïkovski National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kiev where she followed the teachings of Irina Barinova and Igor Riabov and applied for the competitive CNSM in Paris at the age of nineteen. She studied simultaneously in both these brilliant institutions and graduated with the highest distinctions and honours of the jury.

Four personalities have left their imprint on Natacha’s pianistic technique. First, Alain Planès, “my first professor, simply the representation of elegance, possessed a sheer sophisticated style”. Then came Jacques Rouvier, “very attached to the text, a rigorous and meticulous personality”. Her encounter with Ferenc Rados in Budapest, later on, was crucial: “he taught me how to read in between the notes” and, finally, Henri Barda “felt like a hurricane on my whole work and training, for there to reign only the power of music”. Rameau’s work marked a turning point in her approach of pianistic technique and she dedicated two albums to this composer: rst in 2009, in association with Luciano Berio and then in 2012, with the label 1001 Notes.

2009 was marked by competitions, her first recitals and an encounter with chamber music she will then regularly turn herself to. It was also the year Natacha Kudritskaya was invited to perform in the most prominent festivals and concert halls across France and Europe, among which gured Opéra Comique and Cité de la musique in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, Gstaad’s Festival, Davos festival, Concertgebouw in Bruges, Flagey in Bruxelles, la Grange de Meslay, Oxford Chamber Music Festival and Kuhmo’s Festival in Finland where she performed Abdel Decaux’s Clairs de Lune (which is featured on Nocturnes released by Deutsche Grammophon).

Natacha regularly goes back to Ukraine, but the events occurring in 2014 gave a particular meaning to her homecoming in February that year, sadly marked by death roaming in the streets of Kiev. A pacifist answer to military power was embodied by the piano which became a symbol of revolution. Natacha found herself playing in the streets of Maidan’s neighborhood, surrounded by a crowd marked with fear and tension. A sense of healing and mourning emerged from the music in the midst of such darks times, contributing to make this profoundly humane experience one of the most important moments of her life.

Soon thereafter, she began a tour across Ukraine, going through Lviv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Severodonetsk, Lougansk and Kiev. Since November 2014, Natacha Kudritskaya has been part of Universal Music catalogue and her first album, Nocturnes, is released by Deutsche Grammophon. (Philippe Banel)

Brian O’Kane is quickly establishing himself as one of the finest Irish musicians of his generation and is in increasing demand as both a soloist and chamber musician. He came to prominence by taking first prize at the Windsor Festival International String Competition and is also a former prizewinner of the Royal Overseas League Competition. a former winner of the Accenture Bursary Award and Camerata Ireland Young Musician Award. In 2008, Brian performed with Camerata Ireland in Dublin’s National Concert Hall under Barry Douglas and with the Philharmonia Orchestra at Highgrove before the Prince of Wales. He appeared again with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy at the 2009 Windsor Festival. Brian has recently been awarded the National Concert Hall of Ireland’s ‘Rising Star’ award.

An avid chamber musician, Brian has toured extensively throughout the Far East, Australasia and Europe. He has collaborated with a wide variety of artists such as the Vanbrugh Quartet, Michael Collins, Ian Bostridge, Pekka Kuusisto and Alison Balsom. He enjoys playing as a founding member of the Cappa Ensemble who are currently on the Young Artist roster of Ireland’s Music Network and as a member of the Navarra Quartet. Also a keen explorer of contemporary music, he has worked closely with composers such as Wilson, Kancheli, Auerbach and Widmann. Brian has appeared at many festivals and concert halls throughout the world, including the West Cork, Drumcliffe, Edinburgh, Verbier, Radio France-Montpellier and Clandeboye Festivals, Bridgewater Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, the Barbican, Bozar – Brussels, Suntory Hall – Tokyo and has been broadcast on RTE Lyric FM, BBC Radio 3, Radio New Zealand and Radio France. In 2012, Brian made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland live on radio and his Wigmore Hall debut as a Maisie Lewis Young Artist. He appeared again at the Wigmore Hall in 2013 as a Kirckman Concert Society Young Artist.

An award winning graduate of both the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Brian‘s biggest influences have come from Louise Hopkins and at the International Musicians Seminars, Prussia Cove from studies with Ralph Kirshbaum, Gabor Takacs-Nagy and Steven Isserlis. During his studies, Brian was extremely grateful for the generous support of the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund and the Worshipful Company of Musicians. Brian currently plays on a Grancino cello made in Milan in 1698, generously on loan from the Cruft – Grancino Trust which is administered by the Royal Society of Musicians.

Tetiana Lutsyk is Ukrainian violinist, born in 1994. She received her first violin lessons at the age of 6. Later Tetiana was taught by Professor Sergey Evdokimov at the specialized music boarding school in Kharkiv as well as by Professor Mariya Futorska at the “Solomiya Krushelnytska” specialized music boarding school in Lviv, Ukraine. In June 2017 she graduated from the Academy of Music in Zagreb, from class of Professor Leonid Sorokow. Recently Tetiana graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, where she was studying with Professor Priya Mitchell.

The young musician received other important artistic impulses while participating in master classes with Ana Chumachenco, Dora Schwarzberg, Rainer Honeck, Boris Kuschnir, Ingolf Turban, Boris Brovtsyn, Maxim Brilinsky, Maria Milstein, Oleh Krysa as well as with members of the Alban Berg Quartet, the «Cuarteto Casals» and of the Juilliard String Quartet.

Tetiana has won many prizes at international competitions including 1st prizes at the VI Agustín Aponte International Music Competition in Tenerife, Spain (2021), «CullerArts» International Violin Competition in Valencia, Spain (2019) and the “Martha Debelli” chamber music Competition in Graz, Austria (2018).
Tetiana Lutsyk has performed as a soloist with renowned orchestras including the Lviv Philharmonic, Lviv Chamber Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Ivano-Frankivsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra de València in Spain, Croatia, Belgium, France, Austria, Poland and Ukraine. She has worked with many conductors including Alun Francis, Isabel Rubio, Rodolfo Barráez, Yurii Bervetsky, Jon Svinghammar.

The young violinist is a scholarship holder of the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein and takes part in the intensive weeks there. From 2016 Tetiana has been a member of the Ensemble Esperanza, which consists of scholarship holders from the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein and was awarded an “OPUS KLASSIK” in 2018. In 2021 she was invited to be the concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra in Liechtenstein.
Tetiana has also received scholarships from Jeunesses Musicales Germany, Martha Debelli Foundation, Society of Friends of University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz and the International Summer Academy of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Since 2017 Tetiana has been playing in a duet with the Ukrainian pianist Anfisa Bobylova.

As a soloist and chamber musician she has performed at international music festivals including “Next Generation“ (Switzerland), “Alpenarte“ (Schwarzenberg, Austria), “Smetanova Litomyšl“ (Czech Republic) and “Khmelnytsky Kammer Fest“ (Ukraine),

We are incredibly grateful to James Malcomson for sponsoring Tetiana’s participation in this festival.