Elin Rees

                                                 Elin began playing the piano at the age of five and started playing in public soon after, both as soloist and accompanist in local concerts, winning various competitions in South Wales. She has taken part in masterclasses with Marios Papadopoulus and Jack Gibbons at the Oxford Philomusica International Piano Festival and subsequently studied with Daniel Martyn Lewis for two years before securing a scholarship to the Purcell School of Music, where her teacher was James Gibb. During her time at the Purcell, she performed recitals at St Mary’s Church, Perivale, and in the Leighton Buzzard Music Club Recital Series, also performing in the Purcell Orchestra and in a masterclass with Mark Ray.

Erin is now in her third year at the Royal Northern College of Music, studying with Carole Presland. In 2008, Elin and her piano duo partner, Natalie Kong, were invited to participate in a masterclass with Helen Krizos at the RNCM Mozart Chamber Music Festival and were finalists in the 2009 RNCM Duo Prize with a programme of Rachmaninoff and Milhaud. At the RNCM, Elin is currently working with a composition student in developing a new piece for solo piano, to be performed in a masterclass with Rolf Hind later this month, and has previously had a masterclass with Stefano Fiuzzi and a lesson with visiting tutor Philippe Cassard. Elin is also the Pilling Trust Organ Scholar at St Ann’s Parish Church in Manchester, regularly playing in the lunchtime recitals, and has studied the organ with Kevin Bowyer at the RNCM, Ann Elise Smoot of the St. Giles International Organ School, and initially at Llandaff Cathedral, with David Geoffrey Thomas.

Erin appears by kind permission of the Royal Northern College of Music.

Olga Paliy
 

Olga Paliy was born in the Ukraine and began her piano studies at the Music College in Chernigov. She later studies at the Kiev National Academy of Music where she was selected for a Presidential Scholarship. Whilst there, she gained an Honours Degree in Piano Performance and a Masters Degree in Music Art.

In 2007 she gained an award for postgraduate study with Norma Fisher at the Royal Northern College of Music.

She has won numerous top international prizes - in Italy, the Ragusa-Ibla International Piano Competition (1996) and the Art of the 20th Century Piano Competition, Vincenza. (1997) In Prague, the International Competition for Young Pianists (1999) and in Belarus, the Minsk - 2000 International Piano Competition.

While Olga was studying at the Kiev Academy she performed in many parts of the Ukraine as recitalist and concerto soloist with various programmes such as Prokofiev’s Concerto No 2 Op 16, Brahms’ Concerto No 2 Op 83, Beethoven’s Concerto No 3 Op 37 and Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand in D Minor.

During her time studying at the RNCM Olga has participated in masterclasses with Anton Voight, Charles Rosen and Stephen Hough.

In March 2008 Olga was offered a place at the RNCM on the Postgraduate Diploma Course in Piano Performance, Extension Course.

Joanne Camilleri

Joanne comes from Malta and started studying the piano at the age of five. She subsequently won several national piano competitions, participated in master classes and performed in numerous concerts, including at the National Manoel Theatre alongside Ann Rachlin and Vladimir Ovchinikov. In 2000 Joanne was awarded a four year International Scholarship from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music to study at the RNCM with Carole Presland. At the end of her first year Joanne gained an LRSM in Performance with Grade A. In June 2004 she graduated with a First Class Honours degree and was awarded the Ruth Hewitt Scholarship and the Alfred Clay Scholarship for Piano from the RNCM as well as a Scholarship from the Janatha Stubbs Trust to return to study for a Masters degree.

Whilst at college, Joanne has performed as both soloist and chamber musician in her native Malta, Tunisia and at venues in the UK such as St Ann’s Church in Manchester, Emmanuel Church in Didsbury, Altrincham, Salford, Cartmel, Grasmere, Ambleside and the Isle of Man. Joanne is a member of a Piano Trio and Piano/violin Duo and her Piano Duo have twice been Finalists in the Silverstone-Blank Piano Duo Competition, performing in the RNCM Schubert Fest in 2002. She performed Brahms’ Neue Liebeslieder Walzer with the Hallé Youth Choir in the RNCM Brahms & Schumann Fest 2005. In November 2004, Joanne performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the RNCM Repertoire Orchestra under Lancelot Fuhry.

Joanne has participated in masterclasses with Sergei Dorensky, Nelson Goerner, Daniel Hoexter, Stephen Hough (working with him on one of his own compositions), Alexander Melnikov, Steven Osborne, Stephen Savage and Akica Wakabayashi, as well as with Arnaldo Cohen, Renna Kellaway and Barry Snyder at the Lake District Summer Music Festival. She has studied Chamber Music repertoire in master classes with lan Brown, Yair Kless, Christopher Rowland and members of the Chilingirian and Sorrell String Quartets and Trio Ondine.

Joanne appears by kind permission of the Principal, Royal Northern College of Music

Malcolm Forbes-Peckham

Malcolm is 23 years of age and is currently studying for a Postgraduate Diploma in piano at the Royal Northern College of Music, under the tutelage of Helen Krizos. He was awarded a full scholarship from the Oglesby fund for study this year. Since being at the RNCM he has a vast performance experience as a soloist, duo partner, accompanist and chamber musician.

Malcolm has performed at major London venues such as St. Martin-In-The-Fields, St. John’s Smith Square, St. James’s Piccadilly and the Purcell Room. Particular highlights in his concert history have included a performance at the Wales Millennium Centre, (Cardiff) a gala concert at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel, (Lausanne, Switzerland) and more recently a memorable charity recital at Lambeth Palace with The Tanera Piano Trio, an ensemble formed at the RNCM in 2004.

Concerto appearances have included Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Ravel’s Concerto in G Major with two orchestras in his home county of Gloucestershire, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the North Cheshire Concert Band.

During his time at the RNCM, Malcolm has developed a wide diversity of musical experience which has led to much success. As a soloist he has consistently achieved first class results in final recitals, and in 2005 he won first prize in the prestigious RNCM Piano Recital Prize, thus being awarded the Gordon Greene Memorial Award for piano. In November 2005 he was selected to represent the RNCM in the Jaques Samuel Intercollegiate Piano Competition, and he has participated in masterclasses with distinguished pianists such as Stephen Hough, Barry Douglas, Nelson Goerner and Stephen Savage.

As a chamber musician, Malcolm has had great success with his piano trio, winning both the RNCM Hirsch and Weil prizes, and performing at the Lake District Summer Music Festival. With his piano duo, he has been finalist in the RNCM Piano Duo prize and winner of Prix Scarbo, along with taking recitals and masterclasses at Ampleforth College. He has taken part in chamber masterclasses with Dr Cristopher Rowland, Ian Brown, The Gould Piano Trio and The Endellion String Quartet.

Malcolm is also heavily involved with community outreach work, having led workshops at the RNCM and in schools and colleges in the Greater Manchester area.

Malcolm Forbes-Peckham appears by kind permission of the Royal Northern College of Music.

Eduard Kunz

Eduard Kunz made his debut with the Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra when he was aged 10 years old. In 1994 he entered the Moscow Gnessen Special Music School in the class of Professor Michail Khokhlov and from 1998 he studied under Andrey Diev at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, graduating in 2003. He then gained an award for postgraduate study at the Royal Northern College of Music with Norma Fisher.

Eduard is a laureate of the Spivakov and Rostropovitch Foundations, and has performed with orchestras and in recital throughout Russian, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Macedonia and the US. In January 2004 he made his acclaimed UK debut with the Welsh National Orchestra performing the Tchaikovsky concerto with Tugan Sokhiev in Swansea and and at St. David’s Hall in Cardiff.

During his time at the RNCM, Eduard achieved the Diploma in Professional Performance with distinction, won the RNCM Piano Prize and won the RNCM Gold Medal for performance.

He has been a major prize-winner in a succession of international piano competitions, including first prizes in the Sabitov Competition in 2000, the Bitola-Interfest Competition, the Netherlands International Piano Competition, the Grand Konzerteum International Competition, all in 2002 and the Dudley International Piano Competition in 2005. In 2004 he was awarded a prestigious Dame Myra Hess Award in London, a Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians and has been supported by the Hattori Foundation and Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe.

Eduard’s recent engagements include the Schumann concerto with the Welsh National Orchestra under Lothar Koenigs in Cardiff, the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and with Gerrard Schwarz and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In June, he made his London concerto debut with London Musici performing the Shostakovich First Concerto at Cadogan Hall and his Bridgewater Hall debut performing the Tchaikovsky concerto with the RNCM Symphony Orchestra.

In the forthcoming season Eduard will make his Paris debut in the acclaimed series at the Auditorium du Louvre. He will also feature in the prestigious Deutschland Radio ‘Debut’ series in January 2007, performing the Rachmaninov Paganini Variations with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, in the famous Philharmonie. He has recently been invited to join the BBC New Generation Artist scheme and will perform at the Wigmore Hall in London and record with the BBC Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras. 

Eduard appears by kind permission of the Principal, Royal Northern College of Music

Yan Lim

Yan Lim is currently studying in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music. Originally from Singapore, he started playing the piano 16 years ago, and came to Manchester in September 1993 to study at Chetham's School of Music, where he was taught by David Hartigan and Ronan O'Hora, his current tutor. In 1994 Yan reached the Grand Finals of the Audi Junior Musician competition and also won two prizes in the 1998 Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition. He performed Liszt's 1st Piano Concerto in Eb major whilst at Chetham's and also played with the Hallé Orchestra in the Bridgewater Hall.

Yan began his higher education in September 1998 and is in the final year of the Joint Course run by both the University of Manchester and the RNCM. He has won numerous prizes for solo piano at the RNCM, including the Arthur Bliss Prize, the Piano Recital Prize, Bach-Spielen, the Ryszard Bakst Memorial Prize and the Emmanuel Prize.

In the Glories of the Keyboard festival at the RNCM in November 1999, Yan was featured in a late night concert - "Chopin in Manchester" - performing Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor with the RNCM Chamber Orchestra. He played in the Piano 2000 Festival at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester in January and was a finalist in the Dudley Millennium Piano Competition which took place in March 2000. In June 2000 Yan performed Liszt's Piano Concerto No 2 in A with the RNCM Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky (principal guest conductor of the BBC Philharmonic). He performed Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major with Vägus in Sweden under the baton of Simon Phipps in November 2000 and came second in the Sheffield Piano Competition 2001. He won the Karic International Piano Competition held in London in April this year, and was also a joint winner of the Christopher Duke Memorial Award in the Watford Festival. Other engagements include a lunchtime recital for Peterborough Festival in June 2001 and a recital for the Isle of Man Arts Council in their piano series in March 2002.

He has appeared in numerous master classes with such distinguished pianists as Arnaldo Cohen, Stephen Hough, Pascal Rogé and Krystian Zimerman.

Yan is an enthusiastic chamber musician and is in great demand as a duo partner and chamber musician. He has several duo partners whom he has accompanied in major events such as the Yehudi Menuhin violin competition, the Lipinski-Wieniawski International Competition for young violinists and the Pierre Fournier Award for cello at the Wigmore Hall in London. He came joint second in the RNCM's Malcolm Arnold Award for Chamber Music in 1998, and two years later won the Arthur Bliss Prize for Chamber Music. With duo partner Jia Zhang he was winner of the Helen Porthouse Award for violin.

Yan Lim appears by kind permission of the Principal, Royal Northern College of Music

Yoon Chung

Born in Seoul, Korea, in 1977, Yoon Chung moved to London at the age of fourteen and was awarded a scholarship to attend the Purcell School of Music. He has recently completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Bristol. While at Bristol, he gave numerous concerts, including concertos with the University Symphony Orchestra and the University Chamber Orchestra and was awarded a Pacific Rim Scholarship.

Yoon has performed at various venues such as the Purcell Room, St. John's, Smith Square, Victoria Rooms and Waterfront Hall. He has taken part in Master Classes with, among others, Gyorgy Sebok, Stephen Kovacevich, Jean-Francois Heisser and Renna Kellaway.

Yoon is currently undertaking his post-graduate studies with Benjamin Frith at the Royal Northern College of Music where he was awarded the Sir Charles Hallé Scholarship and an ABRSM Post-graduate scholarship.

Yoon Chung appears by kind permission of the Principal, Royal Northern College of Music.

Leo Nicholson

Leo Nicholson is seventeen years old and lives in Sheffield, where he holds the Sixth Form Music Scholarship at Birkdale School. He entered the Junior RNCM in January 2003 and studies piano with Jonathan Middleton. He has enjoyed considerable success in competitions and festivals throughout Yorkshire Cheshire, Staffordshire and in London, and played in the Regional Finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year two years ago. Leo is also a composer: he was one of the first winners of the BBC Young Composers’ Competition when he was ten years old. He also won an award in July 2003 for the best original soundtrack for a film, made as a school project, with funding from the National Film Council as part of the Showcomotion Festival at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield.