Music at Bray March 06


COMPOSER	TITLE


Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)	Piano Quintet First movement Allegro brilliante

Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903)	Italian Serenade for string quartet

Nickolai Kapustin (1937 -)	Piano Quintet (1998) III. Lento IV. Allegro non troppo


PROFILES


VILENSKY STRING QUARTET formed in September 2002 at the Royal Academy of Music in London where its members were studying as post-graduate students. During their time there they received much encouragement and coaching from eminent musicians, including the Alberini and Maggini Quartets. They were also highly commended in the 2004 Sir Edward Cooper String Quartet Competition for their performance of Brahms' Quartet in A minor and shortlisted in the RAM Leverhulme Junior Fellowship Competition. The Vilensky Quartet performs regularly in London and around the South-East and has given recitals at London's Regent Hall, the Duke's Hall at the Royal Academy, Madingley Hall, Cambridge, St. Albans Maltings Arts Theatre and Houghton Hall in Norfolk. Currently they are collaborating with the talented Ukranian pianist, Tatiana Ursova for a series of piano quintet concerts. With Tanya they share a particular interest in contemporary Eastern European music and will be perfoming a new work, written for them by the young, critically acclaimed Russian composer, Artem Vassiliev, later this month. Forthcoming engagements include concerts in Wesley's Chapel, London, the Vera Fletcher Hall, Thames Ditton and The Centre for Russian Music, Goldsmith's College. (More details can be found at www.vilenskystringquartet.co.uk)

ANTONIA BEATTIE (violin) studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Eric Gruenburg, graduating with a distinction in the Postgraduate Diploma, DipRAM and Beare Prize. She works regularly with the City of London Sinfonia and will soon be on trial with the BBC Concert Orchestra. She has twice given solo performances for HRH Duke of Edinburgh.

SARAH COLMAN (violin) studied with Howard Davis at the Royal Academy of Music and gained her Masters with Distinction in 2004. Sarah was a member of Southbank Sinfonia last year and now freelances in London, playing with various orchestras including the City of London Sinfonia. She also gives regular performances as a soloist and chamber musician. Performances with the Southbank Sinfonia in 2005 included a chamber concert at the Wigmore Hall and a performance of Mozart's fifth violin concerto with the orchestra in Italy.

ANNA SMITH (Viola) graduated from the Royal Academy of Music's Postgraduate Diploma Course with Distinction in 2003, winning the Maurice Loban Prize for the best viola recital as well as the Hilda Wynne Memorial Prize. Whilst still at the Academy she studied with Matthew Souter and won several other awards including a Jerwood Foundation Scholarship to the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove. Following graduation she was selected as co-principal viola in the Southbank Sinfonia.

ANNA DAVIES (Cello) completed her postgraduate studies in 2003 at the Royal Academy of Music where she studied with Lional Handy. She has played in many masterclasses including those given by Robert Cohen, Emma Ferrand and Thomas Carroll. Anna is enjoying her work as a freelance player and appears regularly with orchestras including the London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and the Brittan Pears Orchestra.

TANYA URSOVA (Piano) recieved her initial musical training at the Donetsk Prokofiev Conservatoire in the Ukraine. She was a prize-winner of international piano competitions in Paris in 1997 and in Athens in 1998. In 2000 Tanya was awarded a scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music to pursue postgraduate piano studies. Whilst studying at the RAM with Colin Stone and Paul Lewis, Tanya won several prizes, including the prestigious RAM Club Prize for best piano accompanist and a solo piano award in the Postgraduate Piano Recital Contest. Following her graduation from the RAM with a Master's degree in 2002, she was invited to join the research team at the Academy, where she is currently a member of staff. She is pursuing a PhD in Performance Studies at Goldsmiths College under the supervision of Professor Alexander Ivashkin. In recent years Tanya has performed in Ukraine, Sweden, Italy, France, Greece, Australia, New Zealand and throughout the UK at such venues as St.James' Picadilly, the Ukrainian Embassy in London, the Pump Room in Bath, Holywell Music Room in Oxford, Windsor Parish church, the Guilford Music Festival 2003 and the Duke's Hall of the Royal Academy of Music.


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