This concert marks the continuation of the highly successful collaborative project between two of Europe’s most prestigious music colleges: the Mozarteum Salzburg and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London. The project was established by violinist Wolfgang Redik and cellist Alasdair Tait in 2011. As every year, this is a chance to hear upcoming young musicians in a special concert.

Elegia Trio

The Elegia piano trio unites three musicians from three nations who create music with a lot of joy and passion. The young ensemble was founded in 2015 in Salzburg, when the three musicians met during their studies at the renowned Mozarteum University.

In the relatively short amount of time that they have been playing together, they have had the chance to visit Vienna, Paris, La Rochelle and Tours to give concerts, and in Salzburg they have already performed in the Wiener Saal, and in the Solitär as part of the Salzburg Chamber Music Festival 2015.

All three members are laureates of numerous national and international competitions (Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Argentina, USA amongst others), in the catgeories solo as well as chamber music. The trio enjoys regular tuition from accomplished musicians such as Wolfgang Redik (Founding member of the Wiener Klaviertrio), Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartett), Vincent Coq (Trio Wanderer) and were also coached by Ulf Schneider (Trio Jean Paul), Esther Hoppe (Trio Teccler), Tünde Kuruzc, Denis Pascal, Giovanni Gnocchi, Zlata Chochieva, amongst others. Sofía Roldán Cativa (Violin) was previously studying under Priya Mitchell and is currently working on her Master degree with Esther Hoppe. Marilies Guschlbauer (Cello) started her Bachelor studies at Mozarteum Salzburg under Giovanni Gnocchi and is currently a student of Clemens Hagen. Pauline Chenais (Piano) is studying in Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Denis Pascal and just accomplished one year of her Master studies with the Erasmus programme in Jacques Rouvier’s class.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Klaviertrio in c-Moll, op. 66

The Barbican String Quartet

The Barbican string quartet was formed at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2014 under the guidance of Alasdair Tait. Originally from Holland, Germany, Bulgaria and Moldova, the four young musicians have previously learnt with Vera Beths, Thomas Riebl, Galina Buinovschi and Denis Brott and are currently students of David Takeno and Louise Hopkins at the Guildhall School.

The young quartet has recently won the St-James Quartet Prize and was successful at the 2015 Park Lane Group auditions. They were selected to represent the Guildhall School at the 2015 edition of the Harmos Festival in Porto where they performed in several venues notably in Casa de Musica. After a week of intensive coaching as a part of the chamber music exchange between the Guildhall School and the Mozarteum in March, the group returned to London where they did their debut concert in the Barbican Hall performing works by Shostakovich.

Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 9 in E-flat major, op. 117