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CASTALIAN STRING QUARTET
Sini Simonen, violin
Daniel Roberts, violin
Natalie Loughran, viola
Steffan Morris, cello
The Castalian String Quartet is taking the international chamber music scene by storm. Gaining renown for interpretations “full of poetry, joy and sorrow, realised to such perfection” (The Observer), they have recently been announced as the first Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence at the University of Oxford.
Formed in 2011, the quartet studied with Oliver Wille at the Hochschule für Musik, Hannover, before being selected by the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2016. They were awarded First Prize at the 2015 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition and in 2018 were recipients of the inaugural Merito String Quartet Award and Valentin Erben Prize, and a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. The ensemble was named Young Artist of the Year at the 2019 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards.
Recent debuts include New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Paris Philharmonie and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The Castalian String Quartet performs frequently at the Wigmore Hall in its home city of London. In 2018 they recorded Haydn’s Op.76 quartets for the Wigmore Live label and were joined by pianists Stephen Hough and Cédric Tiberghien, violist Isabel Charisius and clarinetist Michaels Collins for a Brahms and Schumann series in the 2019-20 season. Their next Wigmore Hall cycle will feature all three quartets by Benjamin Britten. The quartet often appears at festivals such as Spoleto USA, Aldeburgh, North Norfolk, Cheltenham, East Neuk, Lockenhaus and Heidelberger Frühling. Recent and upcoming premieres include works by Charlotte Bray, Edmund Finnis, Mark Simpson, Simon Rowland-Jones and Sir Mark-Anthony Turnage.
The Castalian String Quartet’s 2022 release Between Two Words (Delphian Records), presenting music by Orlando di Lasso, Thomas Adès, Ludwig van Beethoven and John Dowland, was given a double five-star review as BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Album of the Month’: “this outstanding disc offers listeners a true philosophical journey…a series of intricately connected works, each performed with rare beauty and originality by a quartet at the height of its powers…[the Heiliger Dankgesang from Beethoven Op.132] is nothing short of a revelation in its lucidity of line and sheer beauty of sound.”
The quartet’s name is derived from the Castalian Spring in the ancient city of Delphi. According to Greek mythology, the nymph Castalia transformed herself into a fountain to evade Apollo’s pursuit, thus creating a source of poetic inspiration for all who drink from her waters. Committed to inspiring a diverse audience for classical music, the Castalians have performed everywhere from the great concert halls to maximum security prisons and even the Colombian rainforest. When not on stage, Finnish first violinist Sini Simonen bags Munros, American violist Natalie Loughran makes a mean cocktail and the Welshmen, second violinist Daniel Roberts and cellist Steffan Morris, get overly emotional about rugby.
ELIAS STRING QUARTET
The Elias String Quartet is celebrated for its deep musical understanding and bold performances, which have earned the ensemble an international following and frequent tours across Europe and the US. Their ability to convey profound musical meaning, especially across entire quartet cycles, has made them a fixture in the world’s most prestigious concert halls and festivals.
Since their rise to prominence as BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists in 2009, the quartet has made Wigmore Hall a second home, having completed cycles there of Beethoven, Schumann, and Mendelssohn. Their innovative Beethoven Project, in which they shared their research and insights on the composer’s complete string quartets online, demonstrated their commitment to both musical excellence and audience engagement, with performances at eleven different venues across the UK, including Wigmore Hall.
They are regular visitors to prestigious festivals around the world, with recent visits to Schubertiade, Rheingau Musik Festival and Bal y Gay Festival, and they perform in the world’s great chamber venues, including Carnegie Hall, Library of Congress, Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin Konzerthaus and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. They recently toured the US and Canada with a complete Beethoven quartet cycle, before taking it to Suntory Hall, Tokyo. This season’s highlights include a Mendelssohn programme at the Oslo Quartet Series and visits to Norwich Chamber Music and Turner Sims.
The players are keen advocates of contemporary music. Last season they gave the world premiere of Judith Bingham’s Clarinet Quintet at the Three Choirs Festival and have commissioned many works from composers such as Emily Howard, Sally Beamish, Colin Matthews and Timo Andres. They also enjoy collaborations with chamber music partners such as Leon Fleisher, Robert Plane, Michael Collins, Joan Rogers and Mark Padmore, and the, Jerusalem and Vertavo quartets.
As articulate representatives for classical music, the players are often invited to perform and discuss music on radio and have appeared on BBC TV’s Newsnight programme. They are committed to coaching the next generation of chamber musicians, teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music, where they themselves met and formed in 1998. They also studied at the Hochschule in Cologne with the Alban Berg Quartet. Other mentors included Peter Cropper, Hugh Maguire, György Kurtág, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Henri Dutilleux and Rainer Schmidt.
The Elias String Quartet’s discography includes Schumann and Dvořák piano quintets with Jonathan Biss (Onyx), French harp music with Sandrine Chatron (Ambroisie), Alexander Goehr’s Piano Quintet with Daniel Becker (Meridian), Britten quartets (Sonimage), Mendelssohn (ASV Gold) and the complete Beethoven quartets (Wigmore Hall Live).
JOSEPH MIDDLETON, PIANO
Joseph Middleton is Director of Leeds Lieder, Musician-in-Residence at Pembroke College Cambridge and a Professor and Fellow at his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music.
The 24/25 season sees Joseph partner artists including Veronique Gens, Sir Simon Keenlyside, Ian Bostridge, Dame Sarah Connolly, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Huw Montague Rendall, Roderick Williams, Florian Boesch, Christoph Prégardien, Carolyn Sampson and James Newby in recital. With Louise Alder and Mauro Peter he performs Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch in Wigmore Hall, Frankfurt Oper, Vienna Musikverein, Barcelona, Leeds and Cambridge. To celebrate the launch of Fatma Said’s new Lied Album for Warner records he accompanies her in a tour across Europe that includes the Wigmore Hall, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Paris Louvre, Linz, Oslo, Munich, Aix-en-Provence and Hanover. Joseph also returns to the Berlin BoulezSaal and Schubertiade Schwarzenberg with Sophie Rennert and his recording projects include an ongoing 5-album set of Mahler Lieder for Signum Records and Wolf Lieder for BIS Records
In recent seasons, Joseph has appeared at London’s Wigmore Hall, Royal Opera House and Royal Festival Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Köln Philharmonie, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Lille and Gothenburg Opera houses, Berlin Boulez Saal, Paris Musée d’Orsay, Zürich Tonhalle, deSingel Antwerp, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Bozar Brussels, Tokyo’s Oji Hall and New York’s Alice Tully Hall. He regularly appears at festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and Hohenems, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Ravinia, Japan, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver as well as the BBC Proms.
Joseph enjoys partnerships with many internationally-established singers. In 2023/24 he returned to the Life Victoria Festival Barcelona – where he was the 22/23 Artist-in-Residence – with Miah Persson and Dame Sarah Connolly. Further appearances with Dame Sarah included performances in Seville, Amsterdam, and at the Wigmore Hall. He joined Sir Simon Keenlyside in Cambridge; Louise Alder in Vienna and London; Fatma Said in Vienna, Dortmund, Amsterdam, and at London’s Barbican Centre; Carolyn Sampson in Amsterdam, Zeist and London; and Katharina Konradi at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, Vilabertran and at the Wigmore Hall where he also partners Iestyn Davies, Nicky Spence, Mary Bevan, James Newby, Ashley Riches, and Ruby Hughes.
His fast-growing discography on Harmonia Mundi, BIS, Chandos and Signum Records have won him a Diapason D’or, Edison Award, Prix Caecilia as well as numerous Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine Award nominations.
JAMES NEWBY, BARITONE
James Newby is a former BBC New Generation Artist and Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. As well as a 2022 BBT Award winner, he was an ECHO Rising Star (2022/23) with appearances at major concert halls throughout Europe.
A recipient of the Richard Tauber Prize for best interpretation of a Schubert Lied at the 2015 Wigmore Hall/Kohn International Song Competition, James has since enjoyed a close relationship with the Hall. Appearances there include Mahler Rückert-Lieder in 2023 with Mitsuko Uchida as part of BBT’s 20th anniversary celebrations, Die schöne Müllerin with Simon Lepper and a mixed programme of Dowland, Schubert, Wolf and Liszt with Joseph
Middleton.
A member of the Ensemble of the Staatsoper Hannover from 2019 to 2022 he garnered particular praise for his debut as Eddy in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek. Other important role debuts in Hannover included Guglielmo Così fan tutte and the title role in Eugene Onegin. James has since appeared at Opéra national du Rhin; Theater an der Wien; made his Garsington Opera debut in 2024 as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and returned to Hannover, as a guest, for Eugene Onegin. This season James will appear as Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Opera North and at Opéra de Lausanne in a Laurent Pelly production, as well as Guglielmo for Norwegian National Opera, making his house debut in all three venues. The 2024/25 season also includes an important new commission for baritone by Michael Zev Gordon with the Britten Sinfonia; The Poet in Otto Ketting’s Ithaka Symphony for solo baritone with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; and recitals at the Oxford Song Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the National Concert Hall, Dublin. Past concert performances include Haydn The Creation with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bart Van Reyn; Handel’s Messiah with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen; Berlioz with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Mozart with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also performed baroque repertoire with conductors David Bates, Jonathan Cohen and John Butt and toured in Europe with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.
Recordings remain an important part of his schedule and his 2020 debut solo album I Wonder as I Wander (BIS) with pianist Joseph Middleton met with worldwide acclaim and was awarded the Diapason d’Or Découverte.
James studies with Robert Dean.
SERGIO PIRES, CLARINET
Sérgio Fernandes Pires is widely recognized as one of the most dynamic and accomplished clarinetists of his generation, regularly captivating audiences worldwide as a Soloist, Chamber Musician, and Orchestral Player.
Since 2016, Sérgio has served as the Solo Clarinetist with the Winterthur MusikKollegium in Switzerland and, as of 2023, holds the esteemed position of Principal Clarinetist with the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra.
Renowned for his solo performances, Sérgio Pires has performed as a soloist with distinguished orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic (Germany), Berliner Symphoniker, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Basel (Switzerland), Sinfonieorchester Wupperthal, Musikkollegium Winterthur, among others, in concert halls such as Berliner Philharmonie, Tonhalle Zürich and Konzerthaus Berlin. His repertoire spans from the classics of Mozart and Weber to more modern works by Nielsen, Veress and Penderecki Notably, he has garnered numerous accolades, winning over a dozen prizes in esteemed international competitions such as the Cluj International Clarinet Competition (First Prize, 2017) and the Concorso Internazionale Marco Fiorindo (First Prize, 2012).
Sérgio’s artistry is further showcased through his extensive discography, featuring collaborations with renowned artists and labels including BIS, MDG, Genuin, and Avi. His recordings have received widespread acclaim from music critics globally.
A sought-after chamber musician, Sérgio Pires has performed alongside luminaries such as Heinz Holliger, Emmanuel Pahud, Emmanuel Ceysson, Krzysztof Chorzelski and Radovan Vlatkovic.
Additionally, he has made significant contributions to music education, having taught (2019-2023) at the Universidade do Minho, Portugal, and currently serving as an Assistant Teacher at the Hochschule für Musik der Stadt Basel, François Benda’s clarinet class. Sérgio’s pedagogical outreach extends internationally through masterclasses and educational videos that have more than 30.000 views, reaching a diverse global audience.
With a rich orchestral background, Sérgio Pires has been an active participant in esteemed orchestras from a young age, including the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. He has collaborated with renowned ensembles worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Tonkünstler Orchestra.
Born in 1995, Sérgio began his musical journey at the age of 8 and pursued his education at the Academia de Música Valentim Moreira de Sá in Guimarães, with Vitor Matos, before completing his Master’s degree in Performance-Soloist with distinction at the Hochschule für Musik der Stadt Basel under François Benda’s tutelage.
An esteemed artist endorsed by Henry Selmer and Silverstein Works, Sérgio Pires is also a scholar of the Mozartgesellschaft Dortmund, Germany.
DIYANG MEI, VIOLA
It was thanks to his grandfather’s love of music that Diyang Mei started playing the violin when he was five. At the age of ten, he switched to the viola at the suggestion of Shaowu Wang, with whom he studied at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, and immediately fell in love with the instrument’s dark and mysterious sound. It was also at this time that he saw a television documentary about Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker. From that moment on, he dreamed of becoming part of this orchestra. In 2014, the musician continued his training in Germany – first at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich under Hariolf Schlichtig, and later under Nobuko Imai at the Kronberg Academy. In addition to several other competitions, the violist won first prize at the ARD International Music Competition in 2018. The following year, Diyang Mei was offered the position of principal violist with the Munich Philharmonic. In 2022 he joined the Berliner Philharmoniker in the same position.
Diyang Mei also performs as a soloist with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, among others. His chamber music partners include András Schiff, Ana Chumachenco, Sabine Meyer and Christoph Prégardien. The musician’s favourite pastimes include cooking, reading, cycling and watching films.
His instrument by Antonio Mariani from 1646 is made available to him from a private collection.
ANDREW MANZE, CONDUCTOR
Andrew Manze is widely celebrated as one of the most stimulating and inspirational conductors of his generation. His extensive and scholarly knowledge of the repertoire, together with his boundless energy and warmth, mark him out. He held the position of Chief Conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover from 2014 until 2023. Since 2018, he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In April, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, starting from September 2024.
Manze’s time as Chief Conductor in Hannover saw him lead the orchestra in highly successful tours to China in 2016 and 2019, as well as a return to Japan in 2022. Manze and the orchestra made a major series of award-winning recordings for Pentatone, focused on the works of Mendelssohn and Mozart. The first recording in the Mendelssohn series won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik. Manze has also recorded a cycle of the complete Vaughan Williams symphonies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for Onyx Classics to critical acclaim.
In great demand as a guest conductor across the globe, Manze has long-standing relationships with many leading orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouworkest, the Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphoniker, Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, RSB Berlin, and the Dresden Philharmonic among others. In the 24/25 season, Manze will also make debuts with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and return to the Hallé Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Salzburg Festival.
In North America, Manze has been a regular guest at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City, and in recent seasons has conducted the Boston Symphony, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics. The 22/23 season saw Manze makes his operatic debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, conducting performances of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” alongside Schoenberg’s “Erwartung”. Other highlights of recent seasons include debuts with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and Swedish Radio Orchestras.
From 2006 to 2014, Manze was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. During this time he made a number of recordings with them including Beethoven Eroica (Harmonia Mundi) and a cycle of Brahms symphonies (CPO). He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2011, and held the title of Associate Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for four seasons.
After reading Classics at Cambridge University, Manze studied the violin and rapidly became a leading specialist in the world of historical performance practice. He became Associate Director of the Academy of Ancient Music in 1996, and then Artistic Director of the English Concert from 2003 to 2007. As a violinist, Manze released an astonishing variety of recordings, many of them award-winning.
Manze is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, Visiting Professor at the Oslo Academy, and has contributed to new editions of sonatas and concerti by Bach and Mozart, published by Bärenreiter, Breitkopf and Härtel. He also teaches, writes about, and edits music, as well as broadcasting regularly on radio and television. In November 2011 Andrew Manze received the prestigious ‘Rolf Schock Prize’ in Stockholm.
SEAN SHIBE, GUITAR
Sean Shibe continues to prove himself a truly original mind at the frontier of contemporary classical music.
2024/25 season highlights include a residency at Wigmore Hall with four concerts across the season, including a special programme dedicated to Pierre Boulez’s centenary performing the chamber cantata Le Marteau sans maître. He tours the UK with folk fiddler Aidan O’Rourke; across the UK and Europe with mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, exploring the many iterations of the Orlando myth through electronics, melodica, protest song and recitation; and with Karim Sulayman for a US tour of their breathtaking duo programme Broken Branches. Other notable engagements include debuts in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and a debut tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra performing Cassandra Miller’s new guitar concerto Chanter in thirteen performances across the country. Shibe also premieres an electric guitar concerto by Mark Simpson at the BBC Proms and a solo work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tyshawn Sorey.
Recent engagements include solo performances at venues including, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie de Paris, Konzerthaus Wien, Southbank Centre, Konzerthaus Dortmund, and Alte Oper Frankfurt. Shibe has also appeared at 92NY, Musashino City Hall, Herbst Theatre, The Phillips Collection, and regularly at Wigmore Hall. He has played at numerous festivals such as the La Jolla SummerFest, Aldeburgh Festival, BBC Proms, Heidelberger Frühling, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Mozartfest Würzburg and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.
Ever keen to explore new cooperative dynamics, Shibe regularly collaborates with soloists and ensembles alike. In recent years, he has worked with the Hallé, Britten Sinfonia, BBC Singers, Manchester Collective, Dunedin Consort, Quatuor Van Kujik, Danish String Quartet, LUDWIG, and conductors Thomas Adès, Krzysztof Urbański, Christoph Eschenbach, Taavi Oramo, Catherine Larsen-Maguire, flautist Adam Walker, singers Allan Clayton, Ben Johnson, Robert Murray and Robin Tritschler, and performance artist Marina Abramović.
SCOTTISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) is one of Scotland’s five National Performing Companies and has been a galvanizing force in Scotland’s music scene since its inception in 1974. The SCO believes that access to world-class music is not a luxury but something that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in, helping individuals and communities everywhere to thrive. Funded by the Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council and a community of philanthropic supporters, the SCO has an international reputation for exceptional, idiomatic performances: from mainstream classical music to newly commissioned works, each year its wide-ranging programme of work is presented across the length and breadth of Scotland, overseas and increasingly online.
Equally at home on and off the concert stage, each one of the SCO’s highly talented and creative musicians and staff is passionate about transforming and enhancing lives through the power of music. The SCO’s Creative Learning programme engages people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse range of projects, concerts, participatory workshops and resources. The SCO’s current five-year Residency in Edinburgh’s Craigmillar builds on the area’s extraordinary history of Community Arts, connecting the local community with a national cultural resource.
An exciting new chapter for the SCO began in September 2019 with the arrival of dynamic young conductor Maxim Emelyanychev as the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor. His tenure has recently been extended until 2028. The SCO and Emelyanychev released their first album together (Linn Records) in November 2019 to widespread critical acclaim. Their second recording together, of Mendelssohn symphonies, was released in November 2023. Their latest recording, of Schubert Symphonies Nos 5 and 8, was released on 1 November.
The SCO also has long-standing associations with many eminent guest conductors and directors including Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Manze, Pekka Kuusisto, François Leleux, Nicola Benedetti, Isabelle van Keulen, Anthony Marwood, Richard Egarr, Mark Wigglesworth, Lorenza Borrani and Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen.
The Orchestra’s current Associate Composer is Jay Capperauld. The SCO enjoys close relationships with numerous leading composers and has commissioned around 200 new works, including pieces by Sir James MacMillan, Anna Clyne, Sally Beamish, Martin Suckling, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Karin Rehnqvist, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Nico Muhly and the late Peter Maxwell Davies.
