YOUNG PERFORMER'S PLATFORM

An initiative to support and promote the best young talent in and around Birmingham, Young Performer's Platform is a ten-minute slot after the main interval.

Sat 27th October 2007

Callum Hodges from Perryfields High School, Sandwell played Elegy by Carl Davis and Tarentella by W. H. Squire, accompanied by his teacher Andrew Crabtree.

At 14 years of age Callum is the youngest Young Performer to have been featured so far in this slot, starting off the season in style!

 Sat 17th November 2007

Di Xiang

  

“A pianist of awesome gifts.”

Birmingham Post

“A stunning concert. Di Xiao’s playing combined power and delicacy, her exceptional talent received long applause from the audience at Symphony Hall Birmingham.”

UK Chinese Times

 The Chinese pianist Di Xiao was born in 1980. She began her musical studies at the age of four and two years later won a major prize in the Pearl River Children’s Piano Competition. She began her studies at the Guangzhou Conservatoire’s associated secondary music school under the eminent Professors A. M. Bougaevski and G. V. Popova. She continued her education at the Odessa Conservatoire in the Ukraine and later at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Di Xiao emerged as the Conservatory’s top student of in both academic and piano studies and, on a full scholarship, stayed on for her Master’s Degree in Piano Performance under the renowned Professor Qi Fang Li. Graduating with one of the highest marks in the history of the Conservatory for her final recital, she was awarded another full scholarship. This enabled her to study for the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma at UCE Birmingham Conservatoire under Professors Mark Racz and Malcolm Wilson. She graduated with distinction in 2006.

 

While at Birmingham Conservatoire she won the prestigious Symphony Hall Prize, the Birmingham Conservatoire Piano Prize in 2006 and the Ludlow Philharmonic Concert Prize in 2005. Whilst in the UK, she has performed as a soloist at prestigious venues including Symphony Hall Birmingham, Warwick Arts Centre, the CBSO Centre and Adrian Boult Hall. In June 2006, she had the opportunity of a personal master-class with Alfred Brendel on Beethoven’s E major Sonata Op. 109, during which he commented on her “very clear mind and excellent fingers!” In July 2007 she took first prize at the Brant International Piano Competition，and was subsequently awarded the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. In August 2007 it was announced that she had been selected by the European Concert Halls Organisation (ECHO) to participate in the prestigious Rising Stars Series in the season 2008/9. This will take her to play in concert halls including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Cité-de-la musique Paris, Philharmonie Cologne, Palais-des-Beaux-Arts Brussels, Symphony Hall Birmingham and other halls in Athens, London and Vienna.

 

Saturday January 12th 2008

Suzanne Clare

Suzanne Clare is in her fourth and final year at the Conservatoire studying clarinet under Michael Harris and Timothy Lines and has participated in all the major conservatoire ensembles including the Conservatoire Wind Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra and Opera. From 2004-2007 she was a member of the CBSO Youth Orchestra and also gained a place last year on the CBSO training scheme. She plays with the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra on regular occasions and next year she will be furthering her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Stravinsky’s 3 Pieces for Solo Clarinet

 

 

Lucy Atkinson - cello

 Lucy will be playing unaccompanied Bach and Lefanu

 

Saturday 5^th April 2008

 Alessandro Ruisi – violin Rachel Shakespeare – cello Jinah Shim – piano

 John Ireland Phantasie Piano Trio                          

 Jinah Shim is currently in her GCSE year and is studying piano at the Birmingham Conservatoire with Professor Malcolm Wilson. Two years ago, she performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3 with the Junior Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra and last year, she performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 with the Academy Chamber Orchestra. Jinah wishes to continue her music studies in the future.

 In July 2005 Alessandro Ruisi won the Birmingham Junior Conservatoire concerto prize and since then has performed as a soloist with various orchestras including the British Police Symphony Orchestra with whom he performed the Bruch Violin Concerto at Birmingham and Lichfield Cathedrals. He recently attended a soloist course in the Basque region of Spain run by prominent musicians and was asked to play in the culminating public concert at the end. Alessandro has just returned from a tour with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. As a principal with the NCO he has toured the country playing in a range of venues from the Sage in Gateshead to the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. In July Alessandro will perform the Mozart Violin Concerto in A Major with the Academy Chamber Orchestra at the Adrian Boult Hall. For the past two years he has been leader of the CBSO Youth Orchestra and in september will take up a place to study at the Royal College of Music.

Rachel Shakespeare is in her final year as a music scholar at Rugby School. She has been a student at the Birmingham Conservatoire Junior department since the age of nine, and currently has ‘cello lessons there with Edward Smith. She has played with the CBSO Youth Orchestra for the past four years and is principal cellist with the National Youth Chamber Orchestra. From this September will be continuing her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

 Rachel Shakespeare - cello