Prokofiev Violin Sonata No 1

Join us for Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No 1 featuring Artistic Director Christopher White and pianist Melanie Reinhard. 

Programme:

Prokofiev Violin Sonata No 1 in F minor, Op 80:

I. Andante assai

II. Allegro brusco

III.Andante

IV. Allegrissimo - Andante assai, come prima

Christopher White, violin 

Melanie Reinhard, piano

Biographies:

Melanie Reinhard is a Canadian pianist, who has many prizes and awards to her credit. Having performed extensively on both sides of the Atlantic, she has been recognised as a versatile and artistic musician who is sought after by noted instrumentalists and singers. Melanie received her ARCT (Performance) and LPRCM (Concert Diploma) from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, studying with James Anagnoson and Leon Fleisher. In master classes, she has worked with John Perry, Richard Goode, Marek Jablonski and Monika Leonhard.

Having lived and worked in Germany and Switzerland for a decade, performing in many places including Frankfurt, Munich, Konstanz, Zürich and the Gewandhaus Leipzig, where her concert was broadcast on Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Melanie moved to the UK in 2004 and is active here as a teacher and performer. As the pianist of the Opus 3 piano trio, she has performed in venues such as St. James’ Picadilly, Charterhouse, St. George in the East and for the Beethoven Society of Europe to critical acclaim.

Melanie has held the post as Head of Keyboard and Chamber Music at Loughborough Schools Foundation since 2011, being instrumental in the Music Department becoming an All Steinway School in 2015. A passionate performer and teacher, she continues to combine her teaching role with regular performing as well as masterclasses in the UK and beyond. Her recordings of the complete Beethoven Violin and Piano Sonatas with violinist Christopher White, will be released by Willowhayne Records later in 2020 to mark the anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

“delicately and subtly Melanie Reinhard accompanied on the piano, so salient were the creative impulses she chose when she took over the lead melody onto the piano” (Badische Zeitung)

Christopher White is a London born violinist who studied at the Royal College of Music, London, where he won many prizes and left with one of the most coveted awards, the Dove Prize. Further awards enabled him to continue his studies at the Banff Centre in Canada and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto.

He has studied with many distinguished violinists both in North America and England, including Josef Gingold, Jaime Laredo, Thomas Brandis, Rodney Friend and Erich Gruenberg.

Christopher has been concertmaster with a number of orchestras both in England and Europe, alongside a varied performing career as soloist and chamber musician. His solo CD was released in 1999, featuring solo violin works by Bach, Bartok and Ysaye, as well as a CD of the complete Brahms Violin Sonatas with pianist Melanie Reinhard. Further recordings were made with Die Taschenphilharmonie where Christopher was the first violin in Mahler Symphony No. 4 and “Lieder lines fahrenden Gesellen” (chamber version) and Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals, recently distributed widely in Germany by Die Zeit.

Since returning to the UK in 2003, Christopher has held posts as Resident Violinist at Rugby School and Head of Strings at Uppingham School. He now enjoys a varied career of teaching and performing, as well as being a well-respected piano technician. Since its formation in 1998, his piano Trio Opus 3, has received critical acclaim in Germany, Switzerland and the UK and has performed in venues such as the Tonhalle Zurich, St. James’ Piccadilly, St. Martin in the Fields and Charterhouse. Christopher is also the Artistic Director of the Great Bowden Music Fest founded in 2014. His recent recordings of the complete Beethoven Violin and Piano Sonatas with pianist Melanie Reinhard, will be released by Willowhayne Records later in 2020 to mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

Christopher plays on a Giuseppe Guarneri violin, dated 1707.

“White’s tone was superbly rich on the lower strings in Chausson’s glorious Poeme” (The Strad)