James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most sought-after violinists on the international stage. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism and an unfaltering musicality, Ehnes is a favourite guest of many of the world’s most respected conductors including Ashkenazy, Alsop, Sir Andrew Davis, Denève, Elder, Ivan Fischer, Gardner, Paavo Järvi, Noseda, Robertson and Runnicles. Ehnes’s long list of orchestras includes, amongst others, the Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, New York, London Symphony, Philharmonia, BBC Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, DSO Berlin and the NHK Symphony orchestras.

Recent and future orchestral highlights include the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall with Noseda, London Symphony with Alsop, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Shelley, Vienna Symphony with Elder, New York Philharmonic with Mena, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with Slatkin, Chicago Symphony with Gaffigan, Orchestre National de France with Gardner, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Boston Symphony Orchestras with Denève, Frankfurt Radio Symphony with Orozco-Estrada, Pittsburgh Symphony with Honeck, Minnesota Orchestra with Vänskä, Sydney Symphony with Søndergård, Hong Kong Philharmonic with van Zweden and Oslo Philharmonic with Petrenko. In 2017, Ehnes premiered the Aaron-Jay Kernis Violin Concerto with the Toronto, Seattle and Dallas Symphony Orchestras; future performances of the piece include with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Ehnes was awarded the 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Award in the Instrumentalist category.

Alongside his concerto work, James Ehnes maintains a busy recital schedule. He performs regularly at the Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Chicago, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Ravinia, Montreux, Chaise-Dieu, the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg, Festival de Pâques in Aix, and in 2009 he made a sensational debut at the Salzburg Festival performing the Paganini Caprices. In 2016, Ehnes undertook a cross-Canada recital tour, performing in each of the country’s provinces and territories, to celebrate his 40th birthday.

As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with leading artists such as Andsnes, Lortie, Vogler and Yo-Yo Ma. In summer 2017, Ehnes makes his debut at the Verbier Festival performing with artists including Antonio Pappano, Yuja Wang, Nikolaï Lugansky, Antoine Tamestit and Mischa Maisky. In 2010, he formally established the Ehnes Quartet, with whom he has performed in Europe at venues including the Wigmore Hall, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris and Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix, amongst others. Ehnes is the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

Ehnes has an extensive discography and has won many awards for his recordings including a Gramophone Award for his live recording of the Elgar Concerto with Sir Andrew Davis and the Philharmonia Orchestra. His recording of the Korngold, Barber and Walton violin concertos won a Grammy Award for ‘Best Instrumental Soloist Performance’ and a JUNO award for ‘Best Classical Album of the Year’. His recording of the Paganini Caprices earned him universal praise, with Diapason writing of the disc, “Ehnes confirms the predictions of Erick Friedman, eminent student of Heifetz: ‘there is only one like him born every hundred years’.” Ehnes’s recent recording of the Bartók Concerti was nominated for a Gramophone Award in the Concerto category. Recent releases include sonatas by Beethoven, Debussy, Elgar and Respighi, and concertos by Britten, Shostakovich and Prokofiev, as well as the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Manze, which was released in October 2017 (Onyx Classics)

Ehnes began violin studies at the age of four, became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin aged nine, made his orchestral debut with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal aged 13 and graduated from The Juilliard School in 1997, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and in 2010 was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.

James Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.

Acclaimed for her passionate, powerful performances, beautiful sound, and compelling command of her instrument, violinist Bella Hristova is a young musician with a growing international career. The Strad has praised, “Every sound she draws is superb” and The Washington Post wrote she is “a player of impressive power and control”.

Her appearances with orchestras in recent seasons include the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s with Pinchas Zukerman at Lincoln Center, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Chautauqua, Columbus, Hawaii, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Winnipeg symphonies as well as orchestras in Asia, Europe, Latin America and New Zealand. In recital, Ms. Hristova has performed at some of the premier venues in the world, including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston, and Kennedy Center. In 2017 she toured New Zealand, performing and recording Beethoven’s 10 Sonatas with renowned pianist Michael Houstoun. A sought-after chamber musician, Ms. Hristova performs frequently with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is an alum of The Bowers Program.

Ms. Hristova’s recording Bella Unaccompanied (A.W. Tonegold Records) features works for solo violin by John Corigliano, Kevin Puts, Piazzolla, Milstein, and J. S. Bach, and her Naxos release of de Bériot solo works received impressive critical recognition. A passionate proponent of new music and composers, Ms. Hristova commissioned iconic American composer Joan Tower, to write “Second String Force” for Unaccompanied Violin, which she premiered and performed throughout the US. Her husband, acclaimed composer David Serkin Ludwig was commissioned by a consortium of eight major orchestras across the United States to write a violin concerto for her, which she continues to actively perform.

She is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including a 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, First Prize in the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, First Prize in the 2007 Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand, and was a Laureate of the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.

Born in Pleven, Bulgaria to Russian and Bulgarian parents, Ms. Hristova began violin studies at the age of six. At twelve, she participated in master classes with Ruggiero Ricci at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 2003, she entered the famed Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Ida Kavafian. She received her Artist Diploma with Jaime Laredo at Indiana University in 2010.

Ms. Hristova lives in Philadelphia with her husband and their beloved cats. She performs on a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin.

London-based Australian pianist Piers Lane has a worldwide reputation as an engaging, searching and highly versatile performer, at home equally in solo, chamber and concerto repertoire. Five times soloist at the BBC Proms, Piers Lane’s wide-ranging concerto repertoire exceeds one hundred works and has led to engagements with many of the world’s great orchestras, working recently with conductors like Sir Andrew Davis, Vassily Sinaisky, Gerard Schwartz and Brett Dean. Festival appearances have included Aldeburgh, Bard, Bath Mostly Mozart, Bergen, Cheltenham, Como Autumn Music, Prague Spring, Rockport, La Roque d’Anthéron, Ruhr Klavierfestival, Schloss vor Husum, Seattle and the Chopin festivals in Warsaw, Duszniki-Zdrój, Mallorca and Paris.

Highlights of 2022 include two Wigmore Hall solo recitals, a performance of the mighty Busoni Concerto at the Bard Festival New York, an Australian tour with the Maltese tenor Josef Calleja, appearances for series and festivals in Australia, the Czech Republic, India, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA. In 2015 Piers Lane was appointed Artistic Director of the Sydney International Piano Competition and is responsible for initiatives like the 2021 Online Piano Competition, the Piano Lovers’ Competition for amateur Australian pianists and Composing the Future, a competition to help Australian composers during covid times.

He is a popular judge at piano competitions and in 2021 judged the Menuhin International Violin Competition.
His extensive collaborations with violinist Tasmin Little, actress Dame Patricia Routledge (in the Dame Myra Hess exploration Admission: One Shilling) and the Goldner String Quartet have been of major importance. He is a member of the newly formed chamber group Amici della Musica.

In recent seasons Piers Lane performed three concerti at Carnegie Hall, and world premieres of Carl Vine’s second Piano Concerto and Double Piano Concerto (with Kathryn Stott) Implacable Gifts, both written for him.

His extensive discography for Hyperion includes much admired recordings of rare romantic piano concertos, the complete Malcolm Williamson piano concertos, the complete Preludes and Etudes by Scriabin, transcriptions of Bach and Strauss, along with complete collections of Concert Etudes by Saint-Saëns, Moscheles and Henselt, and transcriptions by Grainger.
He has also recorded eleven volumes of piano quintets with the Goldner String Quartet for Hyperion, many cds with Tasmin Little for Chandos, further solo and chamber cds for EMI, Phillips, Dutton, Unicorn Kanchana and Mozart Concertos for ABC Classics. Awaiting release is a Hyperion followup to the popular ‘Piers Goes to Town’.

Piers Lane was Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music from 2006 to 2017, and from 2006 to 2013 directed the annual Myra Hess Day at the National Gallery in London. He has written and presented over 100 programmes for BBC Radio 3, including the 54-part series The Piano.

In the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Birthday Honours he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished services to the arts. In 1994 he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, where he was a professor from 1989 to 2007. Piers holds Honorary Doctorates from two Australian Universities: Griffith and James Cook.

Born into a family of musicians in Novosibirsk, Russia, Natalia has established herself internationally as a versatile performing artist. Having won numerous prizes in Tibor Varga, Tchaikovsky, Menuhin, Stradivari International Violin competitions; in the year 2000 she received the Gold Medal and the 1st Prize in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition (Genoa, Italy) and the 1st prize in the Michael Hill International Violin Competition (Auckland, New Zealand) in 2003.

Natalia studied at the Specialist Music School in Novosibirsk with Prof. A. Gvozdev, at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England with Lord Menuhin and Prof. N. Boyarskaya, at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music with Prof. Hu Kun and currently lives in London.

Since her debut with the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra at the age of seven, Natalia performed as a soloist with many orchestras, such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Lord Menuhin, the Philharmonia, the Singapore Symphony, the New Zealand Symphony, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Christchurch Symphony, the Tokyo Royal Philharmonic, the New European Strings, the Moscow State Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, St.Petersburg Radio Symphony, the Nice Philharmonic, the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic among many others.

Natalia has collaborated with such distinguished conductors as the late Lord Menuhin, Lionel Bringuier, Werner Andreas Albert, Matthias Bamert, Arvo Volmer, Olari Elts, Sir William Southgate, Vladimir Verbitsky, Christian Knapp, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Eckehard Stier, Mikhail Gerts, Valery Poliansky, Pavel Kogan, Yuri Simonov, Vladimir Ashkenazy and many others.

In 2001 Natalia recorded the Three Grieg Violin Sonatas with pianist Olga Sitkovetsky for the DYNAMIC label to a high critical acclaim. Her recital in Cremona on Paganini’s violin was recorded live on FONE and released in 2003. Her CD of French Sonatas with pianist Olga Sitkovetsky has been released on Trust Records in 2004; the Strad described it “… a stunning recital”. Her CD with husband violinist/violist Yuri Zhislin was released in 2011 on NAXOS. Her CD of Prokofiev’s music on ATOLL label has been released in 2013 and met with 5 star reviews. In 2018 Natalia recorded the Mendelssohn Octet with Maxim Vengerov and soloists of the Oxford Philharmonic. June 2019 saw a release of Trios by Brahms, Bruch and Schubert with Ivan Martin and Yuri Zhislin on Orchid Classics label.

Natalia has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician in such prestigious venues as the Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room, the Kings Place, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Buckingham Palace, the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall. She has performed chamber music with such distinguished musicians as Maxim Vengerov, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, the late Boris Pergamenschikov, Tabea Zimmerman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Schlomo Mintz, Daishin Kashimoto, Natalie Clein, Nicholas Daniel, Maxim Vengerov, Vadim Repin, Claudio Bohorquez and many others. She has appeared on numerous Radio and TV broadcasts.

Natalia Lomeiko has been appointed a Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music in London in 2010 and at Eton College in 2017. Natalia appeared as Guest Concertmaster of Royal Opera House, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and currently holds Concertmaster position at Oxford Philharmonic, Orchestra in Residence at the University of Oxford

ANTHONY MARWOOD enjoys a wide-ranging international career as soloist, director and chamber musician. Recent solo engagements include performances with the Boston Symphony, St Louis Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, New World Symphony, London Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony and Sydney Symphony. He has worked with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Sir Andrew Davis, Thomas Søndergård, David Robertson, Gerard Korsten, Ilan Volkov, Jaime Martin, Douglas Boyd and Gemma New.

In summer 2021 he received great acclaim for his performance of the Ligeti Violin Concerto with Thomas Adès and the Tanglewood Music Centre Orchestra. The Boston Globe review commented “None could outshine special guest Anthony Marwood, the featured soloist in Ligeti’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. Ending as it does with an extended and totally exposed cadenza — Marwood used one composed by Adès — this concerto demands Olympian-caliber endurance from its soloist, and Marwood surely would have run away with the gold. Under Adès’s baton, the orchestra created a backdrop of dramatic and organic sound; the Intermezzo saw the strings’ whispering tree-sounds morph into bright rocket flares, and the long Passacaglia slowly smoldered into a blazing inferno. Against all this, Marwood’s violin dug deep through double stops and soared high with angelic resonance — think many-eyed seraphim, not Precious Moments figurine. The orchestra’s closing gesture had scarcely dissipated before the fellows sharing my row were on their feet, cheering at full blast. They knew excellence when they heard it.”

As director and soloist Anthony has appeared with many of the leading chamber orchestras, including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, Orchestre de chambre de Paris and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

As a chamber musician he has a wide circle of regular collaborators including Steven Isserlis, Aleksandar Madžar, Inon Barnatan, Alexander Melnikov, Denes Varjon and James Crabb.

Many leading composers have written concertos for him, including Thomas Adès (Anthony also made the first recording of the work, for EMI) Steven Mackey, Sally Beamish and Samuel Carl Adams. Anthony is a prolific recording artist, and his most recent release – his 50th on the Hyperion label – is a recording of Walton’s Violin Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins. The disc received wide critical acclaim, including a 5-star review in The Guardian and a ‘Recommended Recording’ in The Strad Magazine, whilst the Sunday Times described him as “a thrilling, virtuosic soloist”.

Anthony studied with Emanuel Hurwitz and David Takeno in London. He has collaborated with numerous actors, Indian classical dancer Mayuri Boonham, Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor, sculptress Nicole Farhi and South African guitarist Derek Gripper. He was the violinist of the Florestan Trio for sixteen years and won the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist award in 2006.

Anthony, who resides in Sussex and Amsterdam, is co-Artistic Director of the Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival in East Sussex, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018. He performs annually at the Yellow Barn Festival in Vermont and enjoys a close association with the Australian National Academy of Music in Melbourne. He was appointed an MBE in the 2018 Queen’s New Year’s Honours List and was made a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music in 2013. He uses a bow by Joseph René LaFleur and plays a 1736 Carlo Bergonzi violin, kindly bought by a syndicate of purchasers, and a 2018 violin made by Christian Bayon.

Ning Feng is recognised internationally as an artist of great lyricism, innate musicality and stunning virtuosity. Blessed with an impeccable technique and a silken tone, his palette of colours ranges from intimate delicacy to a ferocious intensity. The Berlin-based Chinese violinist regularly performs across the globe with major orchestras such as Budapest Festival Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras, and conductors such as Iván Fischer, Jaap van Zweden, Marin Alsop, Yu Long and Giancarlo Guerrero. He performs recitals and chamber music concerts at venues such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Cologne Philharmonie and has appeared at major festivals including Kissinger Sommer, Heidelberg, Moritzburg, MecklenburgVorpommern, Schubertiade and La Jolla Music Society (California).

Born in Chengdu, China, Feng studied at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, the Hanns Eisler School of Music (Berlin) with Antje Weithaas and the Royal Academy of Music (London) with Hu Kun, where he was the first student ever to be awarded 100% for his final recital. Feng won the Senior 2nd Prize at the Menuhin Competition 2000 and was a member of the jury for the Menuhin Competition London 2016. He has also been the recipient of prizes at the Hanover International and Queen Elisabeth Violin Competitions, won the 1st Prize of the 2005 Michael Hill International Violin Competition (New Zealand), and the 1st Prize in the International Paganini Competition in 2006.

Feng records for Channel Classics in the Netherlands and his latest disc of the Elgar and Finzi Violin Concertos with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto was released in 2018. His previous recording of Bach’s complete solo works for violin has already been hailed by Gramophone as ‘unlike anyone else’s… it’s the illusion of a freewheeling conversation projected from within that held me captive.’ Previous discs include the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and Bruch Scottish Fantasy with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, a recording of Schubert and Dvořák Quartets with his Dragon Quartet and two CDs of violin solo repertoire.

Feng plays a 1721 Stradivari violin, known as the ‘MacMillan’, on private loan, kindly arranged by Premiere Performances of Hong Kong, and plays on strings by Thomastik-Infeld, Vienna.

Wilma Smith is Musica Viva’s Artistic Director of Competitions, Second Violinist of the Flinders Quartet, curator/violinist/violist of Wilma & Friends, Guest Concertmaster of orchestras throughout Australia and New Zealand, a regular player with the Australian World Orchestra and a committed teacher.

Born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand, Wilma studied in the US with the legendary Dorothy DeLay. She was founding first violinist of the Lydian Quartet, winners of the Naumburg Award and prizes at Evian, Banff and Portsmouth International String Quartet Competitions. She worked regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Invited by Chamber Music New Zealand to return home to establish the New Zealand String Quartet, Wilma was first violinist until her appointment as concertmaster of the NZSO and then the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Since retiring from the MSO, Wilma has prioritised her chamber music roots, enjoying old and new collaborations in the US and New Zealand as well as Australia. With her old friend, Victoria Jones, she is Co-Artistic Director of the annual Martinborough Music Festival.

Wilma plays a 1761 Guadagnini violin and occasionally a fine Chinese viola.

Listen to Wilma Smith talk about MICMC below.

https://vimeo.com/571954512

Christopher Finlayson was born and educated in Wellington. After graduating with a BA in Latin and a LLM from Victoria University, he practiced law in Wellington as a solicitor before going to the Bar in 2002. He was elected to Parliament in 2005 and became Attorney-General and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations in 2008. Mr Finlayson held those positions until October 2017. During his Ministerial career he also held a number of other portfolios. He was chair of the Privileges Committee of Parliament from 2011-2017.

Mr Finlayson retired from Parliament on 30 January 2019 to return to the Bar.

In the course of his career, Mr Finlayson has served on a number of professional bodies including:

• The New Zealand Council for Legal Education;
• The Rules Committee of the High Court;
• The New Zealand Council of Law Reporting;
• A number of New Zealand Law Society Committees.

Outside of law Mr Finlayson has had extensive involvement in arts and culture. He previously served as chair of the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand and was a trustee of a number of arts organisations before he entered Parliament. Since leaving Parliament he has become a trustee of Chamber Music New Zealand, The Archibald Baxter Memorial Trust, The School of Dance Foundation and the Adam Foundation.

Mr Finlayson is a foundation author of McGechan on Procedure, the leading text on the practice and procedure of the Senior Courts of New Zealand. In 2018 he received a grant from the New Zealand Law Foundation to complete a book on the Crown Māori relationship, and he is also in the initial stages of writing a book on the Office of the Attorney-General.

In the course of his career Mr Finlayson has appeared in all the courts of New Zealand in public and commercial law cases. Examples of commercial cases are cases involving the Commerce Act, copyright, contract interpretation and many others. Prior to entering Parliament in 2005 his last case involved acting for the Sisters of Mercy in an historic abuse case where he was successful in both the High Court and Court of Appeal.

In 2013 he represented New Zealand in the International Court of Justice in a case where Australia sued Japan seeking to stop commercial whaling in the Southern Oceans. New Zealand intervened and Mr Finlayson led the case for New Zealand.