Royal College of Music presents
Michael is a RCM Joint Principal scholar, learning violin with Daniel Rowland and piano with Julian Jacobson. After one year’s study, he was awarded the Knights of the Round Table Award. He won the Tabor Award for Promising Talent at BBC Young Musician of the Year 2008.
Michael first performed as violin soloist with orchestra aged 8 in Edinburgh Festival Theatre. Since then, he has made concerto appearances with the Ayrshire, Hertford and Westbourne Symphony Orchestras, Azalea Ensemble, Junior Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Orchestra and Dorset Youth Orchestra. Leader of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for 2009, he has worked with Semyon Bychkov, Paul Daniel and Vasily Petrenko in the major UK concert halls (including the Royal Albert Hall for a BBC Prom). More recent projects include performing solo for Youth Music in the Houses of Parliament, leading Bernstein’s ‘Mass’ under Marin Alsop in Royal Festival Hall and shadowing the leader of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He was appointed leader of Amadeus Orchestra in 2011 and regularly receives invitations to lead ensembles including Charities Philharmonia, Les Voix Nouvelles and Camerata Scotland. As a chamber musician, recent performance venues include Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Turner Gallery.
Since becoming a Keyboard Category finalist in BBC Young Musician of the Year 2008, Michael has also performed as pianist for Leeds International Concert Series, the International Federation of Festivals Showcase, ‘Schumann 200’ Festival at King’s Place and RCM’s ‘Poles Apart’, ‘Lisztomania’ and ‘Chamber Spotlight’ series. He receives solo and chamber music masterclasses on both instruments from performers including Gergely Bohnyani, Wolfgang Boettcher, Ian Fountain, the Graffin Trio, Lewis Kaplan, Steven Osborne, Susan Tomes, Pavel Vernikov and David Wilde.
Michael recently returned from an Erasmus exchange at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (Vienna), where he studied violin with Michael Frischenschlager and piano with Barbara Moser, performing in the Russisches Kulturinstitut and the Ehrbar Saal. He plays on a Joseph Rocca violin (1848) on kind loan from the RCM.
Indonesian born pianist, Maria has recently awarded her Masters of Music degree at the Royal College of Music with a distinction. During her studies she was a Gordon Calway Stone Scholar with an Evelyn Tarrant award. Prior coming to the UK she received her Bachelors degree from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Singapore with first class honours, where she studied with Assoc. Prof. Albert Tiu.
Besides enjoy performing as a soloist or chamber musician, she also actively explores different ways of music making to reach more people with her music, within or beyond the stage. Highlights of past performing experiences included venues such as St. Martin-in-the-fields, Steinway Hall, the National Gallery, as well as invitation to perform in RCM Prize Winner Concert and Chamber Music Spotlight. She was also awarded RCM Beethoven 2nd Prize 2011, High Commendation at Hastings International Concerto Competition, and Runner-ups at the Eastbourne Young Soloist Competition 2012. She is a member of clarinet – violin – piano trio, Pacific Trio, where they actively promote the works for this unusual instrumentation. She is currently commencing on her doctoral project with the RCM Keyboard Faculty and Centre of Performance Science, researching about the application of mental skills in piano playing for expert pianists, and is studying with Prof. Nigel Clayton. She is grateful for the support from Indonesian Beasiswa Unggulan, the Seary Charitable Trust, the Leche Trust, and the Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust for her current studies.