London Cello Orchestra 2017

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Michaël Bialobroda

Appointed Cello Soloist of the National Orchestra of Lorraine in 2015, Michaël graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieure de Musique in Paris with the highest distinction. He subsequently participated in the Seiji Ozawa Academy where he performed chamber music under the direction of Ozawa at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Victoria Hall and the Louis Vuitton Foundation. As the winner of the Concours international du Festival musical d’automne de jeunes interprètes, Michaël was invited to perform cello concertos with a number of Parisian

orchestras. He has also played with the New Europe Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de l’Oise. Michaël’s chamber music partners include David Kadouch, Ray Chen, Sergey Ostrovsky and the Rosamonde Quartet.

Arthur Boutillier

A graduate of the Royal College of Music and Guildhall School of Music in London, Arthur started cello in his native Paris at age five. As a chamber musician, Arthur has performed at festivals around the UK and Europe. He has performed Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time at London’s Cadogan Hall and Barbican Hall, in Sweden for the Aurora Festival and more recently in Switzerland for Avigdor Classics. During 2015, he played with the London Symphony Orchestra as part of their development programme, and also with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. As a concerto soloist he has performed the Schumann Cello Concerto and

Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Croydon Symphony Orchestra, the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Guildford Symphony Orchestra and the Dvořák Cello Concerto with the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra. Arthur is a member of teaching staff at the Oxford Cello School.

Eun Cho

Eun has appeared as concerto soloist with the Serbian Radio and TV Orchestra, Prime Philharmonic Orchestra, GMMFs Orchestra, Suwon Philharmonic, Daegu Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, Seoul Symphony and the Royal College of Music Symphony. She is a prize-winner at the Paul Harris International Music Competition, Tunbridge Wells International Competition and Great Mountain Music Festival Concerto Competition, and was a finalist at the Jeunesses Musicales International Competition in Serbia. Born in South Korea, Eun earned a Masters in Performance with distinction at the Royal College of Music in 2013, and completed her Artist

Diploma there in 2014. Alongside her studies in London, Eun worked under Natalia Gutman at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Italy and at the Konservatorium Wien in Austria. Eun teaches at Royal College of Music as a deputy of Professor Alexander Boyarsky, and is co-director of Cello Project Korea, formed in 2015.

Pedro da Silva

Pedro was born in Portugual and started playing the cello at the Madeira Conservatory. He is now based in London. As an orchestral cellist he has worked with such conductors as Maxim Vengerov, Trevor Pinnock, Marin Alsop and Mark Elder, performing across the United Kingdom. Chamber music engagements have included a masterclass with Andras Keller at Wigmore Hall and a performance of the Mendelssohn Octet alongside the Doric String Quartet. Future projects include chamber music at the Marvão International Music Festival, and a performance of the complete Vivaldi Cello Sonatas in his hometown of Funchal. Pedro is completing his

postgraduate degree at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Guy Johnston. He has won the Academy’s Bach Prize for Cello and the Countess of Munster and Help Musicians UK awards.

Karen French

After graduating from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, Karen undertook a Masters Degree in Music Performance at the Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen, Germany. She also studied with Alisdair Tait, David Waterman, Krysia Osostowicz, Richard Ireland, Simon Rowland-Jones and Jackie Shave. Karen is now based in London as an orchestral and chamber musician. As a member of the Southbank Sinfonia she has performed with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the BBC Concert Orchestra and at the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House. As cellist of the Alke Quartet, Karen has appeared at Wigmore Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St

James’s Piccadilly, Bath Pump Rooms and the Barbican. The Alke Quartet has been a finalist in the St Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Music Competition and the Royal Overseas League Competition.

Alice Gott

Born in Dunedin, New Zealand, Alice began the cello at age five. She was accepted into the class of Euan Murdoch as part of the “Young Musicians Programme” at the New Zealand School of Music and completed her undergraduate studies at age nineteen at the University of Canterbury under Edith Salzmann. She went on to study at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold under Xenia Jankovic. As cellist of the Lazarus String Quartet, Alice has won international prizes and scholarships, and has been accepted into the prestigious Masters Programme in Hanover with Oliver Wille. The Quartet, now based in Berlin, appears at such festivals as Heidelberger

Frühling, Musikwoche Hitzacker and the Edinburgh Fringe. Aside from her quartet life, Alice resides in Amsterdam, where she is involved in other chamber music projects and plays with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta.

Sonia Hammond

As a scholarship student at the Birmingham School of Music (now the Birmingham Conservatoire), Sonia gained a First Class Honours BA in Music together with several performance diplomas, all with distinction. Postgraduate studies followed at the Royal College of Music in London. While in Birmingham, Sonia was invited to play for the Eurythmy School in Botton Village, North Yorkshire. Thus began an enduring association with Camphill Communities. Later, living in London, she recorded and toured with Barb Jungr, Ennui and Philip Kane. She played for Garden Opera in Europe and Kenya and with such orchestras as London Virtuosi, Moscow

Ballet and English String Orchestra. Since moving to the Welsh Borders in 2006, Sonia has given concerts in the area as a member of the Castalia and Peregrine String Quartets and Principal Cellist of the Brecknock and St Woolos Sinfonias. She also plays with the Radnor Improvisers. Sonia recorded her first solo CD, Bach’s Suite No.1 for Solo Cello, in 2014. With Charlie Beresford she has recorded three albums of improvisations, and toured to Budapest and Vienna.

Sibylle Hentschel

Sibylle works with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared as Guest Principal Cello of Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera and the Ulster Orchestra, and as Guest Co-principal of English Touring Opera. On the European Continent she has worked with the Hamburg Philharmonic, Hamburg State Opera, Copenhagen Philharmonic and Basel Chamber Orchestra. Sibylle recently performed the Dvořák Concerto and Haydn D major Concerto with St Paul’s Sinfonia in London, and during her student

years at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama was selected by the Swiss Foundation Habisreutinger as Principal Cello of a string sextet showcasing the foundation’s six Stradivarius instruments in festivals, chamber music series and radio broadcasts throughout Europe.

Alma Hernan

Alma was born in Spain and was eight years old when she discovered the cello and became entranced by it. She began her studies at the Centro Integrado de Música Padre Antonio Soler, from which she graduated with Honours and the Extraordinary Prize for Cello given by the Community of Madrid. Alma then moved to London to study with Louise Hopkins at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she gained her Bachelors Degree with Distinction. She also studied baroque cello with Joseph Crouch and worked with such conductors as Gianandrea Noseda, Kurt Masur and

Bernard Haitink. Alma has played in concert halls around Europe, including a tour as a soloist in Austria. She is passionate about chamber music and also multimedia arts, having been awarded a Collaborative Barbican prize to direct a music theatre performance staged at London’s Milton Court. Alma is now completing her Masters Degree in Basel, with Professor Rafael Rosenfeld.

Will Hughes

The youngest member of the London Cello Orchestra, appearing under the mentorship of the Arts Global Foundation, Will is studying cello performance at the University of North Texas. Formerly Principal Cellist of the Dallas Millennial Choir and Orchestra, he is the founder of the North Texas String Group, which provides musical services for the Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex. His teachers to date include Janet Lattanzi, Nikola Ruzevic, Dobrila Berkovic-Magdalenic, Deborah Brooks, Elizabeth Morrow, Mark Motycka, Geoffrey Simon and Eugene Osadchy.

Stanislas Kim

Born in France, Stanislas received his first cello lessons from Marguerite Hauchecorne at the Conservatory in Courbevoie and later pursued solo studies with Dominique de Williencourt, Raphaël Pidoux and Philippe Müller. In 2010 he received his Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures and entered the class of Tilmann Wick at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover. Stanislas has also studied under David Geringas, Frans Helmerson, Natalia Gutman, Arto Noras, Jérôme Pernoo, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Jens Peter Maintz and Leonid Gorokhov. He has performed at the Grieg Festival in Bergen, the Schleswig-Holstein

Musik Festival and the Bachtage Würzburg, and has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in several European and Asian countries. Stanislas has been a prizewinner at the International Brahms Competition in Austria and the International Hindemith Competition in Berlin. He has won the Maggini Foundation Award and Special Prize for his interpretation of Bach’s Cello Suites. With pianist Marie Rosa Günter he was a winner of the 8th Swedish International Competition and the 12e Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Lyon. He holds scholarships from the Gundlach Foundation, the Peter Fuld Foundation and the Ottilie-Selbach-Redslob Stiftung. Stanislas plays a cello of the Vuillaume school, on loan from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.

Rebecca Knight

Rebecca was awarded a scholarship to attend the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music, where she won the Department’s cello prize and her first concerto opportunity. She went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music with Louise Hopkins, where she was awarded the Gregory Salzman Award for postgraduate study and gained a place on the London Symphony Orchestra’s String Scheme. Rebecca has represented the Guildhall School at the Paxos International Festival, the Manchester Quartetfest and Wigmore Hall. As cellist of the Lawson Trio, Rebecca has performed at Wigmore Hall and in live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and

Classic FM Australia. She performs with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the London Chamber Orchestra and regularly appears as Principal Cello with the City of London Sinfonia. Rebecca has toured with Rohan de Saram and plays with the Endymion Ensemble.

Hugh McGregor

Born in England, Hugh began playing the cello at the age of six with Ben Davies. He completed his Bachelor of Music degree at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold with Prof. Alexander Gebert and is currently completing his Masters at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with Prof. Leonid Gorokhov. A passionate chamber musician, Hugh has played in prize-winning ensembles such as the Brecht Trio and Alinde Quartet, and currently works with orchestras such as the NDR Radio Philharmonic and the “musica assoluta” chamber ensemble.

Noé Natorp

Noé is Principal Cellist of the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie. At an early age he studied with Lluis Claret and Jérôme Pernoo, and at sixteen entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris under Philippe Müller. He has appeared on the Génération Jeunes Interprètes radio program of France Musique, and given solo recitals at such festivals as Les Pianissimes, Gerardmer, Les Lisztomanias. He has performed with chamber groups at the 1001 Notes Festival, the Rencontres Internationales de Graves with Zacharia Zorin and Igor Volochin, and the Annecy Classic Festival, playing Le Carnaval des Animaux along with the sisters Lidija and

Sanja Bizjak. Noé was a winner of the Maurice Gendron Competition at age 15 and has had the privilege performing numerous concertos with orchestra. With pianist Jean-Baptiste Doulcet he has been invited as a resident duo at the next La Roque d’Anthéron Festival. Noé plays a cello by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume loaned to him by his grandfather, a student of Pierre Fournier.

Tim Posner

London-born, Tim made his debut concerto performance at age 14 at the Fairfield Halls and, in 2011, gave the world première of Via Crucis by William McVicker. He has performed concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Mozart Players. As a chamber musician, Tim has performed at such festivals as Wye Valley, Lewes, Peasmarsh, Frinton, Musikdorf Ernen, Roman River, Joroisten Musiikkipäivät, Musique-au-Marsac, Buxtehude and Cheltenham. He is cellist of the Celan Quartet, who recorded their debut CD of Berg’s String Quartet Op.3 at the Menuhin Hall. He has collaborated with Tamsin Waley-Cohen, Matthew Hunt, Esther

Hoppe, Christoph Richter, the London Haydn Quartet and the Kungsbacka, Florestan and Barbican Trios. Tim is currently completing a Masters Degree at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover, under Leonid Gorokhov.

Steffan Rees

Steffan is Principal Cellist of the Arensky Chamber Orchestra, based in London. He read music at Christ Church, Oxford University, as a scholar and music exhibitioner. He studied cello at the Royal College of Music with Melissa Phelps, where he achieved Distinction in his postgraduate diplomas in Performance and Advanced Performance. He is now in demand as a cello soloist, chamber musician and orchestral freelancer, and has performed at most of the major UK venues as well as throughout Europe. As a chamber musician, Steffan has worked with the Chilingirian Quartet, Raphael Wallfisch, Martin Frøst, Kathy Stott, Melvyn Tan and Colin Lawson,

and appeared at the Lake District Summer Music Festival, the Harmos Festival in Porto, the Greenwich String Quartet Festival, the Trondheim International Chamber Music Festival and the Con Brio Festival in Mumbai.

Max Ruisi

British cellist Max Ruisi has built his career around chamber music. As cellist of the Ruisi Quartet and Artistic Director of The 12 ensemble, he has performed in concert halls and festivals throughout Europe, most recently including the Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Paris Philharmonie and Kings Place. In 2015 Max was a YCAT Finalist and won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Award for British String Players with the Ruisi Quartet. As a soloist, Max has performed with the “12 ensemble” and with the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra. He also plays with the London Chamber Orchestra and the John

Wilson Orchestra. Max has coached chamber music at the Royal College of Music and for Pro Corda courses, and has been on the jury of the National Schools Chamber Music Festival. After completing his undergraduate degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Max studied with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) at the Basel Hochschule für Musik and recently completed an Artist Diploma in Chamber Music at the Royal College of Music. He has participated in masterclasses as a soloist and chamber musician, including working with Alfred Brendel and Eberhard Feltz, and was a student of Ferenc Rados at IMS Prussia Cove 2015.

Sergio Serra

Sergio completed his BMus at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Richard Lester and his Masters at the Royal College of Music with Helene Dautry. He has attended masterclasses at ISM Prussia Cove and performed at the Guildhall Artists Barbican Concerts, the City of London Festival, Richmond Concert Society, Ryedale Festival and the LSO Soundhub Showcase concert series. His current projects include the 12 ensemble with whom he has recently recorded and embarked on ventures taking him to Italy and Iceland, amongst other places. 12 ensemble was recently featured on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune programme and has completed an

Aldeburgh Artists’ Residence. Sergio enjoys a varied performing platform including recording sessions (LCO, Orchestrate) and outreach workshops in addition to concert appearances. Collaborations within different art disciplines and new music have been integral to his projects with the Guastalla Quartet and the Phaedra Ensemble.

Joel Siepmann

Joel was born in Tübingen, Germany, where he started cello at age six. He went on to complete his Bachelors Degree with Distinction at the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen, studying with Christoph Richter. In 2016 he commenced a Masters Degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London, under Guy Johnston. He has worked with Peter Eötvös, Isabelle van Keulen and Joseph Kalichstein at the “Villa Musica” Foundation in Rheinland-Pfalz, and is a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship holder. Joel has been member of the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra and “Spira Mirabilis”—an orchestra based in

Formigine, Italy, designated as a Cultural Ambassador of Europe. He plays with the Sainsbury Royal Academy Soloists, and as Principal Cello of the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra he has performed with Semyon Bychkov and Sir Mark Elder at Wigmore Hall and the Royal Festival Hall. Joel plays on an instrument by Giulio Ettore Degani, 1906, generously loaned to him by the Royal Academy of Music.

Iain Ward

Iain completed his Masters in Performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Louise Hopkins. He enjoys a successful freelance career, working with the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra (Principal), Aurora Orchestra (Co-principal), Arensky Chamber Orchestra (Co-principal), English Touring Opera (Co-principal) and the Southbank Sinfonia. Broadcast work includes performances with the London Symphony for British Airways, sessions at Abbey Road and performances at the Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic,

recordings with the Arensky Chamber Orchestra for Classic FM, appearances with Cellophony on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune programme and recordings for Radio 3 of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Introitus and the world premiere of Alexander Goehr’s opera Promised End.