Francis Rayner was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1960, and started piano lessons at the age of six. Three years later, he won first prize in the Under-14 National Piano Competition. He then entered Chetham's School of Music, and studied piano with Fanny Waterman and Ryszard Bakst. Whilst there, he gave many solo recitals and performed a number of concertos, including Beethoven's 3rd with the Hallé Orchestra. In 1982, he won major prizes in the Alessandro Casagrande competition in Terni and in the Claude Debussy competition in Paris. He has continued to perform widely both in the U.K and abroad, visiting Switzerland, Spain, Sweden and the U.S.A. He has also broadcast on Italian television, French radio and the BBC.

Neil Crossland studied at the Royal College of Music, where he won major prizes in both piano and composition. Since then, he has performed extensively at home and abroad. Neil has played at many major London venues including the Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Albert Hall, St John’s Smith Square and St Martin in the Fields, and has made frequent appearances at Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room as well as performing all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas in a concert series at St James’s Piccadilly.

Violinist Nicola Loud first came to prominence when she won the high-profile television competition 'BBC Young Musician of the Year. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Juilliard School of Music in New York. A regular on the concert platform, she has appeared numerous times as soloist with many major orchestras in the UK. Abroad, her career highlights include critically acclaimed tours of both the USA and Mexico with the BBC Concert and Royal Philharmonic. Nicola is also a BBC presenter and has broadcast on both television and radio.

At the age of 24 British cellist Nicola Tait Baxter gave her first solo broadcast for Radio 3 and joined The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, whilst also touring regularly with the Philharmonia, CLS and the LSO. In demand as a soloist and chamber musician, her repertoire includes most of the major ‘cello concertos. As well as performances with her duo partner, pianist Mina Miletic, Nicola is also a founder member of the dynamic ensemble AMABILE (clarinet trio) and with the Bochmann String Trio, collaborating with hugely inspiring artists such as Michael Campbell.

Since winning First Prize at the Maria Canals Piano Competition in Barcelona, British pianist Viv McLean has performed in all the major venues in the UK as well as throughout Europe, Japan, Australia and the USA. He has collaborated with musicians such as Natalie Clein, Marianne Thorsen and Daniel Hope and has performed at numerous festivals including the Cheltenham International Festival, Buxton Festival and the International Beethoven Festival Viv made his BBC Radio 3 recital debut through the BBC Radio 3 Young Artists Forum scheme and has also recorded for Classic FM, WDR Radio in Germany, Radio France, ABC Radio in Australia, NRK Radio in Norway and for the Sky Arts television channel.

Christopher Weston is a concert pianist, composer and educator. A graduate of Clare College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music, he performs regularly throughout the UK and on BBC Radio.

Count Kayserling, formerly Russian Ambassador at the Court of the Elector of Saxony, who frequently resided in Leipzig, requested that Bach compose some clavier pieces for his court harpsichordist ‘Goldberg’. Count Kayserling asked that these be of such a soft and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered by them in his sleepless nights, and on the title page of the original publication in 1742, Bach wrote that the these Variation were ‘composed for music lovers, to refresh their spirits’. This mastepiece is the final instalment of his Clavier-Übung series of keyboard works and is a monumental exploration of the variation form. Sadly, the work was lagely neglected until Glenn Gould single-handedly restored the Goldberg Variations to their rightful place in the standard repertoire and since 1955 there have been more than 600 recordings made of the variations, including versions for organ, for string trio and for saxophone quartet.

Simon studied at the Purcell School of Music with Patsy Toh and the Royal College of Music with Yonty Solomon, where he won a range of prizes and awards, including the Hopkinson Silver Medal, the Marmaduke Barton Piano Prize and the Peter Wallfisch Prize. In recent years he has performed in China, Canada, the USA, Sweden and Italy as well as extensively in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Simon will preceed his performance with a short talk about this substantial work, and we expect the full recital to extend to about one hour.

Music by Mozart

Ciara and Alice began studying at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2024 and regularly play in performance classes, chamber ensembles and orchestras. Formerly, they both attended local schools and gained diplomas in the course of their instrumental studies. They also played together in the Hertfordshire County Youth Orchestra and the East Herts Youth Orchestra.

A recital of organ music for Passiontide: Crucifixion (from Symphonie Passion) Dupre, Maestoso from Organ Sonata in E flat Bairstow, (the Fugue subject based on Lenten psalm) BWV669, 670, 671 (from Clavierubung Part III) J.S. Bach, Master Tallis' Testament Howells, Fugue (from Sonata on the 94th Psalm) Reubke

Tingshuo Yang is a pianist, organist, and composer. Born in China in 2004, he showed an early passion for music. He studied piano in the UK from 2012 to 2016 at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and at the Conservatoire Luxembourg from 2017 to 2021. Since 2023, he has been the Junior Organ Scholar at the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, pursuing a BA in music. He accompanies the choir for its daily services under Director of Music, Christopher Gray.

Haydn Trio in Eb major, Hob.XV:29 and Schumann Trio in F major, Op 80.

A firmly established ensemble, the English Piano Trio has performed regularly on London and European concert platforms. The players are well known exponents of the classical repertoire, and have presented complete Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven programmes at London’s South Bank.

The Trio enjoys performing works from the 20th and 21st centuries, and has been involved with the commissioning and recording of this repertoire. Their CD (Naxos) of music by Sir Malcolm Arnold was part of a Gramophone Award winning series. In the spring of 2023, the English Piano Trio released a CD of works by the English composer Rutland Boughton.

The Cygnus Trio was formed in 2012 by three students at the Royal Academy of Music. Having played together as a duo in Spain, violinist Javier Montañana and pianist César Saura met cellist Hannah Lewis, with whom they discovered a like-minded approach and a shared love of chamber music.

Over the last ten years the trio has studied with internationally renowned performers, competed successfully in various competitions and performed widely in Europe and the UK.