Romantic Classics

This year's opening concert features Schubert's Fantasie for piano four hands and Rachmaninoff's piano trio no 1 'Trio élégiaque'. 

Programme:

Schubert: Fantasie in F minor, D. 940

Petra Milarová and Melanie Reinhard, piano 

Rachmaninoff: Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor

Vanessa White, violin

Lizzie Elliott, cello

Imy Luc, 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)

Czech pianist Petra Milarová moved to the UK shortly after finishing her Master’s degree at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She is in strong demand as a soloist and a collaborative musician. Petra successfully combines her playing career with tutoring at the junior department of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the LSF Music School in Loughborough. In her private practice Milar Music & Well-being Petra also focuses on well-being; she combines techniques of Body Mapping (based on the Alexander Technique), Dru Yoga and Mindfulness to help performers who suffer from repetitive strain or anxiety. A prize-winner of international piano competitions in Italy, France and Czech Republic, Petra has appeared in concerts throughout many venues world-wide, including National Theatre in Prague and Wigmore Hall in London. She has been featured in the British Isles Music Festival, California Summer Music, Afyon Music Festival in Turkey and Ambassadors Concert Series in Prague.

The Alegría Piano Trio was formed at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2015. Since then they have performed in many recitals across the country and were also finalists of the prestigious RNCM Hirsch Competition. They have performed a variety of works ranging from Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert to Piazzolla and Rachmaninoff.

Originally from Chichester, Imy Luc is currently based in Manchester. She is a Masters student at the Royal Northern College of Music, studying under Dina Parakhina, for which she has been awarded an entrance scholarship. Whilst at the RNCM she has had the opportunity to have masterclasses and lessons from pianists including Boris Berman, Jean Efflam Bavouzet, Katherine Stott, Piers Lane, Philippe Cassard and Martin Roscoe. She has also been awarded several prizes including the Shirley Cattarall Prize and the RNCM Chopin Prize for the best playing of Chopin.

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Imy is an experienced performer and has given many recitals around the UK. She has performed in major venues such as St.George’s Hall in Bristol, Wigmore Hall, Wales Millennium Centre and the Bridgewater Hall. She made her concerto debut at the age of 17 with the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra.

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She is also in high demand as a chamber musician, collaborating with a variety of instrumentalists and singers for recitals around the UK. In March 2019 she won the prize for best accompaniment in the RNCM Bessie Cronshaw and Frost Brownson Song Cycle Competition and the RNCM Chris Petty English Song Competition. She was also selected to be part of the RNCM ‘Songster’s’ Scheme and most recently performed with them at the Day of Song held at Chetham’s School of Music in March 2020. During her time at the RNCM she formed the 'Alegria' Piano Trio who perform together regularly and, in November 2017, were finalists in the RNCM Beethoven Chamber Music competition. In June 2019, she took part in the Lasham Music Festival where she performed major chamber music works including Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time and Elgar's Piano Quintet.

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Outside of performing, Imy runs a successful private teaching practice and regularly organises concerts with her sister Maria. Imy is also the assistant director of Festival Fresco.

Lizzie Elliott is a British cellist from Merseyside, currently studying for a master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London, under the tutelage of Felix Schmidt. She holds a first-class honors degree from the Royal Northern College of Music, where she studied with Gillian Thoday, graduating in 2018. As a keen chamber musician, she plays with the string trio The Wondering Fiddlers with colleagues and friends Dr Alberto Sanna and Marino Capulli. The trio have travelled around the world together from Nairobi, Kenya to Bayamo and Havana in Cuba. They perform 18th century music, coach early music ensembles and share their musical ideas and discoveries. Lizzie has performed in the Quartet of the Italian Orchestra ‘I Solisti Aquilani’ and in Chamber Music Festivals in the UK such the Great Bowden Music Fest and Festival Fresco. She has performed in the solo quartet for Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro and had the opportunity to perform with the Elias Quartet whilst at the RNCM. She is a member of the  Alegria Piano Trio, who have received coaching from the Elias Quartet, Sitovetsky Piano Trio, Manchester Piano Trio, Petr Prause and the late Peter Cropper. Lizzie has performed with the Italian Chamber orchestra, ‘I Solisti Aquilani’ as well as the Royal Academy Symphony and Opera Orchestras. She has performed regularly with the RNCM Symphony and Chamber orchestras both as principal and in the tutti. Through the Royal Academy she has had the opportunity to work alongside The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. In 2015 Lizzie made her concerto debut playing Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Easter Orchestral Society and since then has played Granville Bantock’s rarely played ‘Sapphic Poem’ and Gustav Holst’s ‘Invocation’ with the Port Sunlight Orchestra. Lizzie is honoured to have received tuition from esteemed cellists: Giovanni Sollima, Colin Carr, Mario Brunello, Miklos Perenyi, Hannah Roberts, Alice Neary, Rebecca Gilliver and Karine Georgian. As a teacher, Lizzie works with the charity Early Music as Education, providing the highest level of string coaching in the works of the 18th century as well as teaching primary school aged children in an innovative musicianship and string playing programme. She has given chamber music tuition, private lessons and masterclasses in Kenya and in Cuba as well as her regular teaching both in London and Liverpool.

Vanessa White began playing the violin at the age of seven. She quickly decided that she would like to follow in her parents’ footsteps and become a musician.

Vanessa was taught by her father, Christopher White while attending Oakham School and later Loughborough High School in the sixth form. She held music scholarships at both institutions. Vanessa was a member of the National Youth Music Theatre and National Youth String Orchestra where she was able to perform in venues such as the Sage, Gateshead and Kings Place, London.

Vanessa recently completed her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Czech violinist, Pavel Fischer. In her time there she has enjoyed the opportunity to perform in masterclasses given by violinists such as Levon Chilingirian, Yair Kless and Mauricio Fuks. She has performed as part of the RNCM Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Opera Orchestra, Session Orchestra.

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Vanessa is passionate about performing chamber music. She plays with the Alegría Piano Trio which formed at the RNCM in 2015, since then she has enjoyed regular lessons with the Elias Quartet, Trio Gaspard, Leonard Elschenbroich, Emma Ferrand and Jeremy Young and her trio was a finalists in the RNCM Hirsch Competition. Vanessa has also had the privilege to perform movements from the Mendelssohn Octet with the Elias Quartet.

Vanessa has helped run the Great Bowden Music Fest since its beginning in 2014 performing a variety of chamber works with musicians from the Tonhalle Orchestra, Zürich, Philharmonia Orchestra and other orchestras around Europe.

Vanessa has recently been accepted to the Berlin Opera Academy, where she has also been awarded the Lily Niblock memorial scholarship.