2013

Sunday 24 November 2013

BPSE Senior Intercollegiate Competition

Pianists from all the Music Colleges in the UK compete before a distinguished Jury comprising Stephen Kovacevich, Alan Walker and James Brawn.

Each pianist performs a Beethoven Sonata of their choice and a compulsory Bagatelle.

BPSE Senior Intercollegiate Competition

Monday 18 November 2013

BPSE Prizewinner Lunchtime Recital

Benjamin Baker, violin
Ji Liu, piano

Benjamin Baker was the winner of the 2013 BPSE Chamber Music Competition, who received the Gwyneth George Award, in May 2013.

Beethoven: Sonata for Piano and Violin No.3 in E-flat major, op.12 No.3

I. Allegro con Spirito
II. Adagio con molta espressione
III. Rondo: Allegro Molto

Debussy: Sonata No.3 for piano and violin

I. Allegro vivo
II. Intermède. Fantastique et léger
III. Finale. Très animé

Szymanowski: Nocturne and Tarantella, op.28

BPSE Prizewinner Lunchtime Recital

BENJAMIN BAKER violin
Born in 1990 in New Zealand, Benjamin Baker studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and, since 2009 at the Royal College of Music with Natasha Boyarsky. This autumn he commences his Masters with Felix Andrievsky. In 2013 Benjamin won 1st Prize and the Audience Prize in the Windsor Festival International Competition. Other awards include 1st Prize in the string section of the 2012 Royal Over-Seas League Competition and 2nd Prize at the 2011 Postacchini International Competition in Italy. As a soloist Benjamin has appeared with the Wellington Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Joven Orquesta de Salamanca and New English Concert Orchestra at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, the Bath and Gstaad Festivals. Engagements this season include recitals at Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and the North Norfolk Music Festival and his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra. In 2005 his first solo CD Arcadian Strings won the Classic FM Next Big Thing Competition.

JI LIU, PIANO
Born in 1990, Ji Liu studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 2005 and 2006 he took part in the Verbier Festival & Academy where he received the Tabor Piano Award and CUBS Prize. He went on to study at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia with Dmitri Bashkirov and the Royal Academy of Music with Christopher Elton, graduating in 2013. Ji has appeared as soloist at major venues and festivals internationally. Engagements during 2013/14 include his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra, a performance of Liszt’s Totentanz at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. His first CD recorded for Classic FM is due for release in 2014.

Tuesday 15 October 2013

BEETHOVEN MARATHON ALL DAY RECITAL

Julian Jacobson, piano

MARATHON BEETHOVEN CONCERT

All 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas in Chronological Sequence
except for a
1pm lunchtime recital of Sonata in B flat Op 106, “Hammerklavier”

BEETHOVEN MARATHON ALL DAY RECITAL

10th Anniversary of his
Beethoven-32-Sonatas-in-a-Day Marathon
in aid of Water Aid and Crisis

Friday 20 September 2013

BPSE Lunchtime Recital

Eros Jaca, cello
Francisco Fierro, piano

Beethoven: Sonate No.4 in C Major Op.102 No.1
Stravinsky: Suite Italienne
Castelnuovo Tedesco: Variations on Rossini’s The Barber of Sevilla

BPSE Lunchtime Recital

Tuesday 13 August 2013

BPSE Prizewinner Lunchtime Recital

Min Jung Baek, piano
1st Prize Winner of the 2012 Senior Intercollegiate Beethoven Piano Competition

Schumann: Abegg Variations Op.1
Chopin: Ballade No.1 in g minor, Op.23
L.V.Beethoven: Sonata No.32 in c minor, Op.111
Liszt Sonata in B minor

The concert is accompanied by the Presentation of the Worshipful Company of Musicians Medal

BPSE Prizewinner Lunchtime Recital

The Winner of 2012 Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Competition, Korean pianist MinJung Baek began studying the piano at the age of four, entered her first competition at five and by eleven she had won fifty Korean national competitions. Later, she won top prizes at international piano competitions including 2005 Skokie Valley Young Artist Competition in USA(led her debut as a soloist in Chicago), 2009 Giuliano Pecar, 2012 Ernesto Falla, 2012 Concorso Nuovi Orizzonti, 2012 Jacque Samuel Piano Competition Recital award and 2006 Rachmaninoff Piano Competition, which provided her concerts playing Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.1,No.2 & Paganini Rhapsody in one concert in Ukraine and in Italy in April, 2007 broadcast by Ukraine TV. Aged 10, she made her orchestral debut with Busan PO in Beethoven’s Concerto No 1. Since then, she has performed extensively in USA, Europe, Russia and the Far East, including major London venues. MinJung has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2010-2013 Guildhall Artist Trust and 2007 Earl Wild’s Teaching Fellowship by Ivory Classic. She has played at numerous music festivals including the 2005 TCU/Cliburn Piano institute in Fort worth, where she was filmed for a documentary about the pianist Menahem Pressler, and many appearances across Europe and the UK.
MinJung completed her Master of Performance with distinction under Ronan O’Hora and Martin Roscoe at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she won 2011 Beethoven Prize and is currently studying Artist Diploma programme as a Full scholarship student. She also completed the Artist Diploma at the famous Accademia Pianistica Internazionale, Italy with Leonid Margarius, a pupil of Regina Horowitz.
http://www.minjungbaek.com

Friday 9 August 2013

BPSE Regent Hall Summer Festival 2013

Vidas Vaitkevicius, piano

Mozart: Variations Ah vous dirai-je, maman, K. 265

Beethoven: Andante Favori

Ciurlionis: Little Sonata
I. Allegro. Prelude
II. Andante
III. Scherzo (Canon)
IV. Finale (Fugue)

Scriabin: 4 Etudes
1. No.11 B flat minor
2. No.4 B major
3. No.6 A major
4. No.1 C sharp minor

Liszt: Consolation no. 3 in D flat major

Liszt/Gounod: Valse de l’Opera Faust

BPSE Regent Hall Summer Festival 2013

Vidas Vaitkevicius, born in Lithuania in 1994, moved to England with his parents in 1997 and studied piano at the Royal College of Music Junior Department from 2004 with Neil Roxburgh, receiving a Grade 8 Distinction.

Vidas has performed as soloist and chamber music player, and has participated in the Pro Corda International Chamber Music Academy. In 2010, Vidas took part in the Jacques Samuel Junior Department Piano Festival and was selected as one of the winners to perform at the Wigmore Hall in London. Having also won the Teresa Carreno Memorial Piano Competition, he was invited to perform a recital in February 2012 at the Bolivar Hall (London). His recitals at the Regent Hall (London) for the Beethoven Society of Europe Festival and in Lithuania last summer were received enthusiastically. Since 2011 Vidas has been studying piano with Sulamita Aronovsky, at the Purcell School and will soon continue his studies with Professor Aronovsky at the Royal Academy of Music.

Wednesday 7 August 2013

BPSE Regent Hall Summer Festival 2013

James Brawn, piano

All Beethoven programme

BPSE Regent Hall Summer Festival 2013

Born in England in 1971, James Brawn studied piano in New Zealand from the age of seven and played Bartok on New Zealand TV. He continued studies in Melbourne, Australia with Margaret Schofield, Ronald Farren-Price, and Rita Reichman, gaining prizes at the Melbourne Eisteddfods and receiving from Yehudi Menuhin the Hephzibah Menuhin Memorial Scholarship. In 1987, he was a finalist in the ABC Young Performers Awards.

In 1988, he received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Frank Wibaut and Christopher Elton, and winning the Beethoven and 20th century prizes. He performed in master classes with Andras Schiff, Tamas Vasary, Stephen Kovacevich, Fou Tsong, Menahem Pressler, and members of the Amadeus and Chilingirian Quartets.

Aged 19, Brawn won the Keyboard Final of the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition resulting in many recitals across the UK including the QEH. From 1993-2001, he taught at the Kings College and St. Johns College choir schools in Cambridge, giving recitals with his wife, soprano Susan Brawn, and sister, oboist Victoria Brawn including the Cambridge Elgar Festival and the Purcell Room in London. In 2001, he moved to Melbourne, Australia to teach at Scotch College, appearing at the Melba Festival, and music societies throughout Victoria. Brawn recorded for RTHK Radio 4 in Hong Kong, ABC Classic FM, and 3MBS radio in Melbourne. He also co-founded the biennial Scotch College Piano Festival. Since 2010, Brawn has been based in the UK, living in the Cotswolds. He performs regular across the UK and in 2011-12 Brawn began to record the complete Beethoven piano sonatas at Potton Hall in East Anglia with the eminent producer Jeremy Hayes in April 2012. He signed with the American record label, MSR Classics, in September 2012. ‘A Beethoven Odyssey’ volume 1 is now available.

Monday 5 August 2013

BPSE Regent Hall Summer Festival 2013

FRANCISCO FIERRO, Piano

Beethoven: Sonata Op.81a ‘Les Adieux’

Fierro: Homage to Beethoven

Rachmaninov: Variations on a Theme by Corelli

BPSE Regent Hall Summer Festival 2013

Nominated for the Prince of Girona Prize for the Arts 2013, one of the most important Awards for a young musician in Spain, sponsored by the Botín Foundation (Banco de Santander), the 22 years old Spanish pianist Francisco Fierro is considered one of the great promises of the piano in Spain. Despite his age, he has already performed in several European countries and also in the United States. Soon he will be touring Latin America and will make a return visit to the United States. Francisco is also well known and respected as a great improviser, often improvising at concerts. A live CD of his improvisations, representing different periods in music history, will be recorded in the near future.

Friday 2 August 2013

BPSE Regent Hall Beethoven Summer Festival 2013

Alberto Portugheis, piano

Beethoven: Sonata Op.27/2 in C sharp minor “Moonlight”
Ginastera: Milonga Op.3
Malambo Op.7
Rondo on Argentine Children Folk Tunes, Op.19
Three Argentine Dances, Op.2: Danza del viejo boyero; Danza de la moza donosa; Danza del Gaucho matrero
Chopin: Nocturne in F, Op.15 No.1; Polonaise in A flat, Op.53

The distinguished pianist and pedagogue Alberto Portugheis has been associated with the music of Beethoven throughout his career and especially since co-founding the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe, President Alfred Brendel, of which he is Vice-Chairman.
Born in La Plata, Argentina, to parents of Russian and Rumanian descent, Portugheis won First Prize at the 1964 Geneva ‘Concours de Virtuosite’, since when he embarked upon an international career, visiting nearly 50 countries. Apart from performing in recitals and chamber-music concerts, Portugheis appears as soloist with many major orchestras, the world over. Alberto Portugheis’s acclaimed recordings include music by Chopin, Alfred Nieman, Ginastera, Khachaturian – with the LSO – Rachmaninov, Shostakovitch and Rossini, see a new release in 2013: a double CD with the Complete Piano Works by Spanish composer Elena Romero.
Portugheis’s annual Masterclasses at Steinway Hall are now legendary and attract a wealth of talent from all over the world.
Like his colleague and compatriot DANIEL BARENBOIM, Portugheis is a very active Peace Campaigner, activity that has earned him a nomination to the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize, as a result of which he has written a very successful book, Dear Ahed, The Game of War and a Path to Peace.

Wednesday 31 July 2013

BPSE Regent Hall Summer Festival 2013

John Paul Ekins, piano

Mozart: Fantasy in C Minor, K. 475

F. Liszt Cantique D’amour, S. 173/10

Beethoven: Sonata in C Major, Op. 53 ‘Waldstein’

F. Morel: Deuxieme Etude de Sonorite

BPSE Regent Hall Summer Festival 2013

In great demand as a recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician, John Paul Ekins has given performances throughout the UK, and overseas, and has broadcast on the BBC, and on Romanian and Polish TV. In 2009 he graduated from the Royal College of Music with First Class Honours, and in the same year he was awarded the James Anthony Horne Scholarship by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama to study with Charles Owen, where he graduated with Master of Performance (Distinction) in 2011. He received a Music Education Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund, and generous support from Making Music, The Concordia Foundation, The Razumovsky Trust and The Keyboard Charitable Trust.

He has participated in masterclasses with many renowned musicians and ensembles, such as Salvatore Accardo, the Brodsky String Quartet, Levon Chilingirian and the Chilingirian String Quartet, Peter Donohoe, Bernard Greenhouse, Leslie Howard, Joan Enric Lluna and Martino Tirimo. He is a past prize-winner in the Anglo-Czechoslovak Trust Chamber Music Competition, and recently formed The Cremona Piano Trio, with Michal Cwizewicz and Liubov Ulybysheva, and in early 2012 they won the Audience Prize in the final of the St. Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Music Competition.

As well as private teaching John Paul has also given workshops and masterclass-recitals with great success in the UK. He has taught at St. Paul’s School, Barnes since 2013.

John Paul was particularly honoured to be presented to Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip at a Reception for Young Performers at Buckingham Palace in 2011.

More information on John Paul at http://www.jpekinspianist.com or Twitter @jpekinspianist.

Monday 29 July 2013

BPSE Regent Hall Summer Festival 2013

Laura Moinian, cello & Camilla Li, piano

Beethoven: Sonata Op 5/2 in G minor
Grieg: cello sonata, op 36
Julian Jacobson: ‘Valse mélancholique’ for cello and piano
Faure: ‘Papillon’ op. 77

BPSE Regent Hall Summer Festival 2013

Laura Moinian, from Hamburg, studied cello from the age of 9 in Schwerin, and in 2007 at the University of Arts, Berlin with Matias Oliveira da Pinto, then with Ulf Tischbirek in Lubeck. Since 2011 she has studied at the RCM with Melissa Phelps. She was won many awards and has played in the Deutsche Streicher Philharmonie conducted by Michael Sanderling and as a soloist in the Kabalevsky cello concerto, conducted by Mathias Foremny. In 2012 she performed with Naoka Aoki in the Wigmore Hall. From October 2013 Laura will study at the Hannover Musikhochschule with Leonid Gorokhov.

Camilla Li Ching Hang received her Bachelor of Music from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2011, under the tutorship of Professor Eleanor Wong Yee Lun. She started playing the piano at the age of five and joined the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts as a junior student at the age of nine, majored in piano under the tutelage of Ms. Katherine Huang.

Currently a Postgraduate student at Royal College of Music studying with Professor Julian Jacobson, Camilla is an RCM scholar supported by a Croucher Foundation Hong Kong Award. Prizes include the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival, in the Piano Concerto Competition and the Composer of the Year Award. She was a winner in the Asia Youth Piano Competition in 2008. In the same year, Camilla was given full scholarship to participate in the Dartington International Summer School, studying with Julian Jacobson and Stephen Kovacevich. In 2010, Camilla was selected for the Mozarteum Summer Academy with Sergio Perticaroli. In the following year, Camilla was awarded the Tom Lee Music Scholarship and the Parsons Music Scholarship in the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Friday 26 July 2013

BPSE Regent Hall Summer Festival 2013

Julian Jacobson and Mariko Brown – piano four hands

Bach-Kurtag: Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit

Beethoven: Variations on a Theme of Count Waldstein, WoO 67

Debussy: Six Epigraphes Antiques

Beethoven: Grosse Fuge, op 134

Julian Jacobson and Mariko Brown’s musical association dates back to the late 1990s, though it was only in 2010 that they decided to team together to explore the rich and varied repertoire for piano duet. Both composers as well as pianists, they have already enhanced this repertoire: Mariko’s piece ‘Travels Through a Mist of Chinese Mountains’ (2012) has already received three performances, to great acclaim, and Julian’s ‘Tango Albertito’ has been performed in France and England . They made their debut at the festival ‘Rencontres Musicales en Eygalieres’ in France in 2010, returning there in 2011 and 2012. In the UK , they have given concerts at Burgh House, Regent Hall at the 2011 Beethoven Society Summer Festival and at various London churches. Concerts in 2013 include Blackheath Hall, London and Fairfield Halls, Croydon, a Debussy project including the neglected ballet masterpiece ‘Khamma’ and ‘Epigraphes Antiques’ with live dance, further concerts in France and the premieres of Gary Carpenter’s ‘After Braque’ and Julian’s ‘Palm Court Waltz’ – a tribute to the late Sir Richard Rodney Bennett – in May. Their first recording, for the British Music Society’s CD label, will be released later this year.

‘Rhythmic steel and incisiveness which had us on the edge of our seats’ (Music and Vision Daily)

‘Debussy’s delicate Epigraphes Antiques [were] played with a pellucid touch and perfect sound quality on Blackheath’s Steinway’ (Musical Pointers).

Tuesday 16 July 2013

BPSE Lunchtime Recital

Julian Jacobson

Beethoven

Sonata in E flat op.7
Sonata in E op 109

BPSE Lunchtime Recital

One of Britain’s most creative pianists, Julian Jacobson is acclaimed for the vitality and insight he brings to his enormous repertoire ranging across all styles.
Born in Scotland, his father Maurice Jacobson had studied piano with Busoni while his mother, pianist and composer Margaret Lyell, had studied in Berlin with Else Krause, daughter of Liszt’s pupil Martin Krause. Julian studied in London with Lamar Crowson (piano) and Arthur Benjamin (composition), publishing four songs by the age of nine. After studies at the Royal College of Music with John Barstow and Humphrey Searle he read Music at Queen’s College, Oxford.
After further studies with Louis Kentner he gave his London debut at the Purcell Room in 1974 followed by his Wigmore Hall debut. During the 1980s he established himself as a fine duo and ensemble pianist. In 1992 he became Head of Keyboard Studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and in 1994 he embarked on his first cycle of the 32 Beethoven sonatas which he has now presented eight times, the last two in a single day (only the second pianist to attempt this), in aid of charity. He will repeat the Beethoven marathon at St Martin-in-the-Fields on October 15 2013, from 9:15 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Julian Jacobson has performed as soloist with leading international orchestras and conductors, in more than forty countries on five continents. He gave the UK premiere of Ligeti’s Etudes Book One, subsequently broadcast for BBC Radio 3 (praised by the composer). Composers who have written for him include Robert Saxton, Simon Bainbridge, Benedict Mason, Philip Cashian, Daryl Runswick, Keith Tippett, Charles Camilleri and Robert Keeley. He has a large discography and compsitional oeuvre.
Julian Jacobson is currently Professor of piano and chamber music at the Royal College of Music. He was Artistic Director of the Paxos International Festival, Greece, from 1988 to 2004, is Artistic Director of ‘Rencontres Musicales en Eygalieres’.

Friday 28 June 2013

BPSE Lunchtime Recital

Malcolm Troup, piano

Ernest Bloch: ‘Clowns’ (World Premiere)
Beethoven: Sonata Op.109,
Benjamin Britten: Holiday Diary op 5 (to mark Britten Centenary)

BPSE Lunchtime Recital

The concert is given in conjunction with the International Ernest Bloch Society (IEBS)

Wednesday 15 May 2013

BPSE Lunchtime Recital

Noelle Gruebler, violin
Bernadette Bartos, piano

W.A. Mozart: Sonata for Piano and Violin in E Minor K.304
I Allegro
II Tempo di minuetto

L.v. Beethoven: Sonata for Violin and Piano in E-Flat op.12 No.3
I Allegro con spirito
II Adagio con molto espressione
III Rondo (Allegro molto)

E. Grieg: Sonata for Violin and Piano C Minor op.45
I Allegro molto Ed Appassionato
II Allegretto Espressivo Alla Romanza
III Allegro Animato

BPSE Lunchtime Recital

Tuesday 14 May 2013

BPSE Lunchtime Recital

Julieta Iglesias, piano

Beethoven: Sonata No.21 in C Op.53 ‘Waldstein’

Debussy: Reflets dans l’eau

Liszt: Spanish Rhapsody

BPSE Lunchtime Recital

Julieta Iglesias was born in 1985 in Buenos Aires. She started her piano studies in 1995 at the ‘Alberto Williams’ Conservatoire. In 2001 she received the ‘Lia Cimaglia Espinosa’ scholarship and the Santa Cecilia Medal. Since then, she has been performing in important halls in Argentina. Julieta graduated from the ‘Carlos Lopez Buchardo’ Conservatoire (IUNA) where she studied under the guidance of Professor Aldo Antognazzi. She also taught Piano for two years at the same institution.

Julieta Iglesias has attended courses and masterclasses with Maestros such as Mario Videla, Nelson Goerner, Haydee Schvartz, Jack Winnerock, Elmma Miranda, Michele Campanella, Diane Andersen, among others. In 2005, Julieta won a Mention at the Piano Competition of the Northlands Institute and in 2009 she was invited to participate in the ‘1st National Festival of Pianists’ in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Julieta performed at the famous Colon Theatre of Buenos Aires. As a teacher, Julieta has given piano and chamber music masterclasses at the ‘Luis Gianneo’ Conservatoire.

In 2010, Julieta gave the Première of the piano works by Argentine composer Mauro de María and also released Volume 1 of de María’s music, to critical acclaim. Vol. II is in preparation.

29 April 2013 – 1 May 2013

BPSE Chamber Music Masterclass and Competition

Professor Oliver Lewis

Violin & Piano Duos
Cello & Piano Duos

Chamber works by Beethoven for violin and piano and cello and piano.

BPSE Chamber Music Masterclass and Competition

April 29th: daytime masterclass 10:30am-3:30pm
April 30th: daytime masterclass 10:30am-3:30pm

Masterclass observers: Non-Members: £10 per day £15 for two days
BPSE/EPTA/ESTA Members: £8 per day £12 for two days

May 1st: evening concert/competition 6:30pm (free entrance)

Duos should send a biography, name of the work by Beethoven they wish to present and a cheque (payable to EPTA West London) to:
BPSE Masterclass and Competition, 14a Lakeside Road, London W14 0DU.

Further information is available from:
secretary AT bpse.org

Sunday 17 March 2013

2013 BPSE Junior Intercollegiate Competition

Jury:
Anda Anastacescu, Angela Brownridge, Melvyn Cooper

Compulsory work ~ Beethoven Bagatelle Op. 119 No.11 in B flat major

Gurpreet Sandhu (Birmingham Conservatoire)
Beethoven Sonata Op. 13 in C minor ‘Pathetique’

Martin Bartlett (Royal College of Music)
Beethoven Sonata Op. 10/3 in D major

Hayley Parkes (Chethams School of Music)
Beethoven Sonata Op. 26 in A flat major

Alistair Backhouse (Royal Northern College of Music)
Beethoven Sonata Op. 27/2 in C sharp minor ‘Moonlight’

Daniel Silcott (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland)
Beethoven Sonata Op. 78 in F sharp Major

Jury Announcement and Presentation of Prizes

2013 BPSE Junior Intercollegiate Competition

The BPSE wishes to express their sincere thanks to the Austrian Cultural Forum for their Generous Hospitality

Monday 7 January 2013

Arta Arnicane, piano

Programme to include Beethoven