Friday 12 to Sunday 14 May, Pavilion Rm
Hughes Hall Music is proud to present a mini-festival, over the weekend of 12-14 May. Three inspirational concerts will feature the talents of young musicians who have been the recipients of important international prizes.
Tickets
Tickets will include complimentary drinks. To purchase tickets (via Eventbrite), please click here.
All ticket proceeds will go directly to the musicians to support their burgeoning careers.
Please consider becoming a friend of the festival. Friends receive a festival pass and reserved seating for all three concerts. Your support would be much appreciated!
Programme
Friday 12th of May, 7 pm to 9 pm – Stephanie Tang (Piano)
- Missy Mazzoli: A Map of Laughter
- Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6
- Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit
- Shostakovich/Toyomura: Symphony No. 5, mvmt 4 transcribed for piano
Saturday 13th of May, 7 pm to 9 pm – Gabrielė Kupšytė (Mezzo-soprano), Nigel Yandell (Piano) THIS CONCERT HAS SADLY BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS
- Henri Duparc: Four Songs
Phydile
Extase
L’invitation au voyage
Chanson Triste - Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Abschiedslieder
- Francesco Santoliquido: I canti della sera
- Saverio Mercadante: La Stella
- Balys Dvarionas: Žvaigždutė
Sunday 14th of May, 2 pm to 4 pm – Miclen LaiPang (Violin), Naoki Toyomura (Piano)
- C. Schumann: Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22
- R. Schumann: Violin Sonata No.1, Op.105
- Beach: Romance for Violin and Piano, op. 23
- Franck: Violin Sonata
About the Performers
- BBC Magazine Rising Star Stephanie Tang is a Chinese-American pianist establishing an active career in solo and chamber performance in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Europe. Her early career highlights include her solo debut in Carnegie Hall at age 12 and at sixteen, her orchestral solo debut with the West Covina Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared in major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Shenzhen Concert Hall, Himalayan Concert Hall (Shanghai), Sendai Concert Hall, throughout the Netherlands, Place Flagey (Brussels), Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre (London), Banff Centre, and Koerner Hall (Toronto).Last year, Stephanie was the winner of the Guildhall Gold Medal, the school’s most prestigious music prize previously won by artists such as Jacqueline du Pre, Tasmin Little & Bryn Terfel. She has also won 1st prize at the Young Pianists’ Beethoven Competition, 2nd prize at the Louisiana International Piano Competition and the Jury’s Discretionary Prize at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Bronislaw Kaper Awards. In 2021, she was a semi-finalist in the Montreal International Piano Competition and performed at Place Flagey in Brussels at the Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition.Stephanie has spent her summers at the Banff Centre, Holland Music Sessions, Music Academy of the West, Sarasota Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music and Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival. In masterclass, she has worked with exceptional artists such as Dang Thai Son, Richard Goode, Robert Levin, Jonathan Biss, Robert McDonald, Matti Raekallio, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Menahem Pressler, and Leon Fleisher. Click here for excerpt.
- Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Gabrielė Kupšytė is a member of the Jette Parker Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Her work in London has involved working with conductors such as Nicola Luisotti, Maxim Emelyanychev, Semyon Bychkov and Sir Antonio Pappano; and she has also made her debut in the National Opera House of her native country as Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), having been invited by the chief conductor, Sesto Quatrini.
Gabrielė is a recent graduate of the Mascarade Opera Studio in Florence and holds an Advanced Diploma in Opera from the Royal Academy of Music, London. She previously graduated with honours in Vocal Studies from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. During her time at RAM, she was a recipient of the Carr-Gregor Trust Scholarship and the Isabel Jay Memorial Prize for Singing. She twice attended the George Solti Accademia, where she worked with Roberto Frontali, Barbara Frittoli, Grace Bumbry and Richard Bonynge.
In the 2022/23 Season, Gabrielė’s Royal Opera House roles include Second Lady (The Magic Flute), Second Nymph (Rusalka), Flora Bervoix (Traviata), Ines (Il Trovatore), the title role in Arminio (Handel) in the Linbury Theatre and cover the role of Charlotte (Werther). She will also appear as a recitalist in the Crush Room of the Royal Opera House, singing a programme of Korngold,Santoliquido and Duparc. Roles outside of the Royal Opera House have included Romeo in ‘I Capuleti e i Montecchi’ (Lithuanian National Opera House), the title role in ‘La Cenerentola’ (New Generation Festival), Véronique in ‘Le docteur Miracle’ (L’Orchestre de Chambre de Genève), the title role of ‘Chérubin’ (Royal Academy Opera), Prince Athamas in ‘Semele’ (RAO), The Dog in ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’ (RAO), and La chatte/L’écureuil in ‘L’enfant et les sortilèges’ (RAO). Click here for excerpt. - Violinist Miclen LaiPang is quickly establishing himself as one of the most exciting and versatile artists of his generation and has earned global recognition as a soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster. Acclaimed by the German newspaper Die Welt as “a musician of daring virtuosity with gripping access and noble elegance”, Miclen has performed in over 50 countries and has won multiple awards, including the Stradivarius International Violin Competition, Schoenfeld International String Competition, Grand Prize of the American Fine Arts National Competition, 1st Prize King’s Peak International Competition, 1st Prize of the American Music Talent Competition, and 1st and Special Prize at the International Moscow Music Competition, and the Bruno-Frey-Musikpreis.Miclen has recorded numerous CDs, including two with the LGT Young Soloists – the first issued by Sony Music in 2019 and a further one on the Naxos label featuring him as soloist in Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata arranged for violin and chamber orchestra. In April 2020, Miclen won the Woordfees Festival Award for “Best Classical Instrumental Performance” when he gave the African premiere of the Kreutzer Sonata in Stellenbosch.
His primary mentors include Ida Bieler, Charles Castleman, Ruggiero Ricci, and Alice Schoenfeld. His previous institutions include the Colburn School, Eastman School of Music, and University of Miami. Currently, Miclen resides in Cologne, Germany and Vienna, Austria and was the teaching assistant of renowned violinist Ida Bieler whom he completed his Konzertexamen degree with at the Robert Schumann Hochschule. He is currently studying with Boris Kuschnir at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz. He is the artistic director of the Miesbach Kammermusikfestival. Click here for excerpt. - Nigel Yandell, festival co-director, has lectured in the UK and internationally and is an experienced solo pianist, accompanist, teacher and examiner. He teaches across a variety of practical/musicianship and keyboard-related skills in the Faculty of Music where he is an Affiliated Lecturer. He has been a Director of the London Sinfonietta, the William Alwyn Foundation and Procorda. Currently he is a Trustee of the Cambridge University Music Society, the Cambridge Union Society and the Stradivari Trust. He is currently the Director of Music and Director of Studies in Music at Hughes Hall.
- Naoki Toyomura, festival founder and co-director, is a pianist and educator from New Zealand. His current research interests include symphonic transcriptions for piano and piano education for young children, especially prodigies. As a pianist, he has won a string of first prizes from various competitions around New Zealand as well as internationally such as the WPTA Indonesia International Piano Competition and Forte International Music Competition held at Carnegie Hall, New York. He has also been involved in music outreach, most notably in Zimbabwe and South Africa. As well as co-director of this festival, Naoki is an Alumnus of Hughes Hall, and a newly appointed by-fellow.
