TRIO KAGURA is a young piano trio based in Manchester, UK. The name, Kagura, is taken from the Japanese word for ritual music and dance that is performed to bring joy and peace to the community.

This dynamic violin and piano duo, embarked on their collaboration earlier this year, bringing fresh energy and creativity to the classical music scene. Together, they explore a diverse repertoire that spans from classical masterpieces to contemporary compositions, offering audiences a rich and varied musical experience. Their duo is characterized by a deep musical synergy and a shared passion for pushing the boundaries of traditional chamber music.

Programme includes: Handel Sonata for Treble Recorder HWV 367a, Lalliet Terzetto Op. 22 for Oboe, Cello and Piano and ZipoliElevatione

'From South America to the shores of the Mediterranean'

Varied  music for guitar inspired by the folklore of Argentina, Brazil, France Greece and the shores of the Mediterranean  including Sir John Tavener's only solo guitar work in celebration of his 80th birthday. 

Described by USA Review as doing for the Greek soul what flamenco does for the Spanish, Eleftheria Kotzia has toured regularly in Europe, Canada, the United States, South America, North Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Far East. She has performed both as a soloist and with orchestras at many of the great International Guitar and Music Festivals, including the 10th Anniversary Series of the D' Addario Foundation in the USA, the Festival Estival in Paris, the Tavener Festival in Athens, the Segovia Celebrations in Spain, the Guitar Foundation of America in the USA (three times), the 10th Anniversary Series of the Festival ‘Guitarras Del Mundo’ in Argentina, the City of London Festival and various other festivals around the world.

Born in northern Greece, in Alexandroupolis , Eleftheria Kotzia studied guitar at the National Conservatory in Athens, the Conservatoire National Supérieure in Paris, and finally at the Guildhall School of Music in London. Among her teachers have been Julian Bream, Alexandre Lagoya, Dimitri Fampas, David Russell and Timothy Walker. She was the winner of the first prize in the 6th International Guitar Competition in Milan.

(Programme to be announced)

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. Christopher is collaborative-pianist with The BBC Singers, Triptych and The Soloists of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Music by Vivaldi, Telemann, Gjeilo, Howard Goodall & Eric Whitacre

The A10 Strings began over 20 years and has evolved into an ensemble with a mix of experienced players which performs a wide repertoire of classics.

Choir18 brings together singers from several choirs in the Hertford area to perform a wide repertoire in some of Europe’s most amazing buildings, including, Great St Mary’s, Michaelhouse and the Round Church in Cambridge, St Edmundsbury, Ely, Norwich, Peterborough and Southwark Cathedrals, St Albans Abbey, Waltham Abbey Church and the University Church in Oxford.

Schumann Etudes for pedal piano Op. 56 and J.S.Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor BWV 582

Thomas studied at The Queen’s College, Oxford and Toulouse Conservatoire, completing organ scholarships at both H.M. Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace and Truro Cathedral.

Upon graduating, Thomas won an award from the Eric Thompson Charitable Trust to pursue a year of specialist study in organ and harpsichord in France, performing at major venues including St Sernin Basilica, Toulouse and Le Musée des Augustins as well as The Royal Chapel, Versailles in collaboration with La Maîtrise de Toulouse.

Debussy String Quartet in G minor and Schumann Piano Quintet in E flat major

Formed in early 2023, the Seion Quartet has already enjoyed a variety of different performances and opportunities. Recently, they were honoured to perform in the Royal College of Music’s Super String Sunday, held in the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall and they enjoyed participating in a Shostakovich project alongside the Brodsky Quartet at the RCM. Members of the quartet were chosen to collaborate with the Sacconi Quartet in concert and took part in the Sacconi Festival in Folkestone earlier last year.

Archie Bonham is a British pianist based in London. He is currently the Adami Award for Collaborative Piano Fellow at the Royal College of Music in London based in the Strings Faculty. After undergraduate studies at the University of York, he completed a Masters in Solo Piano and an Artist Diploma in Collaborative Piano at the RCM, studying with Danny Driver, Simon Lepper, Kathron Sturrock, and Roger Vignoles. His studies were fully supported by the Needley Family Scholarship and the Viola Tunnard Trust.

Recent recital engagements have taken Archie to venues across London including Wigmore Hall and St John’s Smith Square, as well as the Juilliard School in New York, the Zentrum für verfolgte Künste im Kunstmuseum Solingen and the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Germany. He has won pianist prizes in the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards 2023 at Wigmore Hall, the Ashburnham English Song Awards 2024 (with an additional prize for best duo), as well as nearly all the major awards for vocal collaboration during his studies at RCM. In September 2024 he will compete with two singers in the live rounds of the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition.

Aside from his RCM work and freelance performing, Archie is a Senior Piano Tutor at Gresham’s School in Norfolk.

French composer, organist and pianist Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924), was one of the foremost composers and musicians of his generation. To mark the centenary of his death in this season of Remembrance, members of Schola Cantorum perform his glorious setting of the Requiem Mass. Fauré wrote of the work, 'Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest.'

Schubert Sonata in B flat major (D960)

Born in Florence, Italian pianist and scholar Filippo Di Bari is a graduate of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Royal Holloway University of London, and the State Conservatory of Ferrara (Italy). He regularly appears in piano recitals and chamber music concerts across Europe and has been a prize winner in many piano competitions. An eclectic and inquisitive mind, in 2022 he received a Masters in Musicology from Royal Holloway, University of London, where he worked with Prof. Julian Johnson on the late music of Franz Schubert. Whilst at Royal Holloway, he was awarded the Corky McGuinness Award.