Gordon Fergus Thompson

Gordon Fergus-Thompson's award winning interpretations of French Impressionist and Russian Romantic piano music have been much acclaimed throughout the European Press.

Following a sensational debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1976 he firmly established himself as a major recitalist and concerto player, appearing as soloist with the Philharmonia, English Chamber Orchestra, Gotenburg Symphony, Residente Orchestra of the Hague, CBSO, RLPO, Halle, Bournemouth and all the BBC Symphony Orchestras, with such conductors as Evgeni Svetlanov, Jacek Kaspszyk, Sir Edward Downes, Helmut Muller-Bruhl, Mosche Atzmon, David Atherton and Sir Charles Groves.

He has appeared in all the major halls in London and Paris, given over two hundred broadcast recitals on BBC Radio 3 and toured extensively in the UK, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Czech Republic, Australia and the Far East.

Gordon Fergus-Thompson won the prestigious MRA 'Best Instrumental Recording of the Year' award in successive years, namely 1991 and 1992, in the first instance for his outstanding complete works of Debussy, and in the second, for Volume 1 of the complete works of Scriabin.

Further to his UK appearances this season Gordon Fergus-Thompson will give recitals in France and Saudi Arabia, and he will give recital and concerto performances in China and Japan.

Gordon is Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music.

John Humphreys

John Humphreys was born in Liverpool and studied with Henryk Mierowski and later with Harold Rubens at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1967 he was awarded one of four scholarships by the Austrian government to study in Vienna and on his return to this country made his Wigmore Hall debut with Busoni's rarely heard 'Fantasia Contrappuntistica'.

Since then he has appeared throughout the country as soloist, accompanist and chamber musician with many appearances at The South Bank Centre, Wigmore Hall and BBC Radio 3 broadcasts as performer and commentator (programme about John Ogdon).

He has performed the cycle of Mozart piano sonatas in London and elsewhere and has given many perfomances of Bach's 'Goldberg' and Beethoven's 'Diabelli' Variations John was Assistant Head of Keyboard Studies at Birmingham Conservatoire until 2009 where he still teaches.

He is also Chairman and Artistic Advisor to the Dudley International Piano Competition. For over thirty years John has had a piano duo with Allan Schiller; in addition to recitals throughout the UK and Iceland they have made two highly acclaimed CDs of Busoni and Schubert for Naxos.

His latest recording in the Naxos/Schubert series with Robert Markham is due for release shortly. In 1998 he was awarded the ARAM from the Royal Academy of Music for 'his distinguished contribution to music'.

Mark Eynon

Mark graduated from Cambridge University in 1978 with a degree in English. His association with festivals began in 1983 with the first Henley Festival, which he successfully directed for nine seasons.

He became director of Salisbury Festival in 1987, and was artistic associate of the1992 European Arts Festival, a national celebration to mark Britain's presidency of the EC.

Mark's association with Covent Garden began in 1998 when he was appointed Assistant to the General Director of the Royal Opera House, and in 1993 he became director of the first BOC Covent Garden Festival, a new festival of opera and musical theatre, which under the patronage of Diana Princess of Wales, he ran for three seasons.

Mark founded a new festival, Healing Sounds, an international celebration of the healing powers of music, which took place in Brighton from 1997 - 2002 and was part of the national Millennium Festival.

As a consultant he has worked on two major opera galas at the Royal Opera House: in 1991, the Mozart Bi-Centenary Gala, and in 2006, the Mozart 250th Anniversary Gala, both conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Mark became Director of Newbury Spring Festival in 1999, where he continues to present an international programme of orchestral, chamber, jazz and world music alongside prize winning young musicians and a lively education programme. In 2009 he established the Sheepdrove Piano Competition, which under the patronage of Sir Roger Norrington, is open to candidates from all the major UK conservatoires.

Robert Markham

Robert Markham studied at Chetham's School of Manchester, and at the Juilliard School, New York, where he studied the piano with Oxana Yablonskaya and piano accompaniment with Samuel Sanders, graduating with a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree.

Robert earned international recognition as Finalist in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. He has also won first prizes at other international competitions in Europe and North America, and was the winner of the Piano Class of the BBC Young Musician competition.

Robert has performed extensively throughout the UK, and in continental Europe, North America and Asia. He has been the soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philomusica of London, the BBC Philharmonic, and the London Mozart Players. He has performed at international festivals in the UK, Spain, Israel and Turkey, and gave a highly acclaimed debut at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in New York.

He is a keen chamber music player, and with the Edinburgh String Quartet has made a critically acclaimed CD of the works for piano and strings of Kenneth Leighton for Meridian records.

Robert currently serves on the staff of Birmingham Conservatoire, Yorkshire Young Musicians, and Leeds University.

Mark Bebbington

The critical applaudits which have greeted Mark Bebbington's performances and recordings have singled him out as a young British pianist of the rarest refinement and maturity.

Increasingly recognised as a champion of British music, Mark has recorded extensively for SOMM "New Horizons" label to unanimous critical acclaim.

In particular, his solo CD series of John Ireland and Frank Bridge have each earned him 5***** in BBC Music Magazine, and International Piano summed up his achievement in October, 2010:- "Bebbington's revivals of British piano music are second to none; he could well be dubbed the concert pianists' Richard Hickox. Bebbington has almost single-handedly demonstrated that 20th-century British piano scores have an exciting role to play in the concert hall and recording studio."

Over recent seasons Mark has toured extensively throughout Central and Northern Europe (both as recitalist and as concerto soloist) as well as the Far East and North Africa. Within the UK, he has appeared with the London Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras, London Mozart Players and the Orchestra of the Swan, at all the major London concert halls and at Birmingham's Symphony Hall, and he has featured both as concerto soloist and recitalist on BBC Television and Radio and also on major European Television and Radio networks.

Michael Seal

Born in London in 1970, Michael Seal has begun to establish a reputation as one of the UK's most versatile conductors. Following his appointment as CBSO Assistant Conductor in 2005, his career has gone from strength to strength, conducting orchestras both across the UK and abroad.

Now in his fifth year as Assistant Conductor, Michael has conducted the CBSO in numerous highly acclaimed projects. He is also Artistic Advisor and Conductor for the CBSO Youth Orchestra Academy, a chamber orchestra formed in 2007, and conducted them in Birmingham and the Three Choirs Festival.

Michael has conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra.

Michael has been Principal Conductor of the Sinfonia of Birmingham since 2002. He has also been a regular guest conductor with the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra since they gave him his conducting debut in 1996. Michael has also conducted the Midland Concert Orchestra, Birmingham University Symphony Orchestra and Birmingham Schools Symphony Orchestra, including tours of the Czech Republic in 2008 and Barcelona in 2010.

Michael studied violin and composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire and has studied conducting with Jonathan Del Mar, Sakari Oramo and Jorma Panul.

Lucy Parham

Acknowledged as one of Britain's finest pianists, Lucy Parham first came to public attention on winning the 1984 BBC TV Young Musician of the Year Piano Class, since then she has performed extensively throughout the world. Orchestras include the Polish National Radio SO, Bergen Philharmonic, L'Orchestre National de Lille and Russian State SO.

She was the soloist with the BBC Concert Orchestra on their six-week tour of the USA and she has toured Europe and the UK with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She has appeared with most of the major British orchestras, festivals and venues.

Lucy Parham has established herself as one of the leading interpreters of Robert and Clara Schumann. Amongst her numerous recordings her unique CD of their piano concertos won the BBC Music Magazine “Critics' Choice of the Year".

Following the success of Beloved Clara, her two subsequent evenings Liszt - An Odyssey of Love, and Nocturne - The Romantic Life of Chopin also premiered at the Wigmore Hall and have been touring the UK and abroad. Actors appearing with Lucy Parham include Juliet Stevenson, Edward Fox, Harriet Walter, Charles Dance, Samuel West and Rosamund Pike.

Lucy Parham is a frequent guest presenter for BBC Radio 3. In 2006 and 2009 she was seen on BBC TV as commentator for the Leeds International Piano Competition and as a judge and broadcaster at the 2008 and 2010 BBC Young Musician of the Year Final.

John Thwaites

John studied on the Joint Course between Manchester University and the Royal Northern College of Music, at the Guildhall, in Siena, Vienna and in the United States. His teachers included Harvey Dagul, Sulamita Aronovsky, Paul Berkowitz Martino Tirimo and Christian Blackshaw.

In addition to early recitals for the Park Lane Group and Live Music Now!, John won the 1986 North West Arts Young Musicians' Platform with bassist Leon Bosch.

John has been working with cellist Alexander Baillie for thirty years. They have recorded and broadcast extensively and played in the inaugural and final Manchester International Cello festivals. He has performed with the Schidlof, Maggini, Emperor, Martinu and Brodsky Quartets, and is also a member of the Audley Horn Trio, Da Vinci Piano Trio, and the Primrose Piano Quartet, who have issued five discs for Meridian concentrating on British repertoire, including a commission from Sir Peter Waxwell Davies premiered in Cheltenham.

Recent concerto performances include Grieg at St. John's Smith Square, and Tchaikovsky at the Royal College of Music.

John has broadcast regularly for BBC Radio Three in live Lunchtime Recitals and as a guest on "In Tune". He has appeared on television and radio in Germany, Ireland and Bulgaria.

Having run the Piano Department at Christ's Hospital, and taught at the Guildhall and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, John is currently head of Keyboard Studies at Birmingham Conservatoire.

Andrew Wilde

Andrew Wilde, described by Daniel Barenboim as a major musical and pianistic talent, continues to enthrall a large and devoted audience with his music making.

He studied with Ryszard Bakst at Chetham's School of Music, Manchester and graduated with distinction from the Royal Northern College of Music.

He received top prizes at many international piano competitions including the Naumburg in New York (1987), Pozzoli in Seregno (Italy) (1988), William Kapell in Maryland (1989), Dino Ciani in Milan (1990), and World Competition in London (1991). In 1985 he won First Prize and Special Prize (for 20th Century performance) at the Dudley International Piano Competition.

He has given recitals at major venues in Great Britain and abroad, including London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Warsaw, Milan, Vienna, Dusseldorf, Santiago (Chile), Washington DC, New York City, Dallas, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Berlin and Budapest.

His concerto repertoire exceeds thirty works and he has performed these with major orchestras worldwide such as the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, Halle, National Symphony Washington DC and Dallas Symphony.

He has given cycles of the complete Beethoven and Mozart Violin Sonatas with the great Hungarian violinist Vilmos Szabadi and during the present season has given recitals to mark the 200th Anniversary of Chopin's birth and of the Bridgewater Hall recital Robert Beale (Manchester Evening News) wrote, Andrew Wilde's Concert For Chopin was one of the best solo recitals I have heard him give

Andrew Jowett

Andrew Jowett has worked in the Arts for over 30 years. On graduation from the University of Salford, he was appointed Assistant General Manager at The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. From 1979-1981 Andrew was Director of Darlington Civic Theatre and from 1982-1988 he was Director of the Arts Centre, University of Warwick. Since 1989 Andrew has been Director of Symphony Hall, Birmingham, one of the world’s greatest concert halls, and is responsible for its artistic programming, operation, and management. From February 2007, Birmingham City Council determined that Symphony Hall and Town Hall Birmingham should be managed together under the company, Performances Birmingham Limited, and Andrew is now Chief Executive of PBL as well as retaining overall directorial responsibility for Town Hall & Symphony Hall.

Andrew Jowett is Chair of the British Association of Concert Halls, Vice-Chair of Audiences Central, a Member of the Board of Directors, Association of British Orchestras, and a Member of the Theatrical Management Association, serving on the Council of Management, Finance and Marketing & Enterprises Committees. Andrew is a Trustee of the Young Musicians Trust, a Trustee of the Elgar Birthplace Foundation, and an Honorary Fellow of the University of Central England. He is a Member of the International Society for the Performing Arts, and a Member of the European Concert Hall Organisation.

In addition to early recitals for the Park Lane Group and Live Music Now!, John won the 1986 North West Arts Young Musicians' Platform with bassist Leon Bosch.