Mariela Çingo, piano – Mar 2024
Raised in a family of a singer and a footballer, Mariela chose to play the piano formally since the age of 6 but was constantly aware of the connection between ‘healthy mind in a healthy body’.
Having won the ‘Most Gifted Competition’ in Albania, she made her orchestral debut as concert soloist at the age of 12 with Haydn’s piano concerto in D.
This became an experience she treasured and saw invitations to perform for the President and St Mother Theresa.
At 17, she was offered a full scholarship to study at various universities in Italy, Australia, UK, but she chose the London College of Music. During her time
there, she won various prizes including the ‘Concerto Prize’ which saw her performing across UK and Europe. Her performing career has seen her team up regularly with BBC Staff orchestra and stars like Ermonela Jaho and Roxana Panufnik.
In 2013 Mariela teamed up with Tomorr Kokona and established Stage Talent Academy, encouraging and nourishing the younger generations love for music. Mariela firmly believes that Talent is forged on Stage, so she leads by example and continues to perform regularly as a soloist, chamber musician as well as giving recitals. Her favourite musical joke was told by one of her students: ‘Miss, what do you get if you combine diminished and augmented chords? – Demented chords.
David Gale, violin – Nov 23
David Gale began studying the violin at the age of nine under the tutelage of Bonnie Aher. He graduated from the prestigious Manhattan School of Music with a degree in violin performance in May 2009, while studying under Professor Lucie Robert.
David has participated and won numerous violin competitions in the US and Europe such as the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra’s Fifth Annual Music Performance Competition and the Danbury Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artists Competition. In June 2008 David was declared, unanimously, the winner of the 2008 Deming Family Scholarship hosted by the Danbury Music Centre.
David has given solo performances/recitals in Lucca, Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Marcaria, and Casalmaggiore, Italy, Lublin, Poland and in the West Indies on the Caribbean Island of St.Maarten-St. Martin. He has appeared as guest soloist with the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, Cheshire Symphony Orchestra, Danbury Community Orchestra, Casalmaggiore
Festival Orchestra (Italy) and Summit Festival Orchestra. David has been featured by Culin Arts presents Classic Kids Concert Series in Bryant Park, New York City.
David has participated in music festivals in New York, Texas, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria. He has participated in masterclasses, as well as private lessons, with world famous
violinist/pedagogues Aaron Rosand and Zakhar Bron (teacher of Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin). He has also worked with cellist Raphael Wallfisch, violist Roger Chase and pianist Akira Eguchi. David was a student of the late world-famous violinist and renowned
pedagogue Maestro Aaron Rosand.
Hee-Jin Kwon, Piano – Mar 2023
Born to a pianist mother in Seoul, South Korea, Hee-Jin‘s interest in music awoke at a very young age. She started to learn the violin at the age of 5 and was further inspired after seeing a performance by Sarah Chang. Hee-Jin entered the prestigious Seoul Arts High School and later enrolled into Seoul National University with a scholarship, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in music.
She participated in several competitions such as The Music Education News Competition (grand prize), Yaejin Music Competition (1st place), Haneum Contest (1st place), The Peters Competition (2nd place), Shinye Music Competition (2nd place), United Music Competition (grand prize), Youngsan Young Artist Competition (2nd place).
Notable performances include the three violin sonatas of Brahms at the Samick Art Hall, as well as recitals at the Youngsan Art Hall in Seoul. Additional highlights include performances at the MusicAlp and Vivace Festivals in France and the USA, and with the Thames Philharmonia at the Landmark Arts Centre (June 2018) performing Sibelius’ violin concerto. Hee-Jin has participated in numerous masterclasses with Igor Ozim, Sergey Kravchenko, Mi-kyung Lee, Ye-Eun Choi, and Tong Wei-Dong. Currently she is pursuing her postgraduate degree at her Alma mater in Seoul under the tutelage of Prof. Kyung-Sun Lee.
Hee-Jin played Mendelssohn’s violin concerto with TP
Seong-Joo Kang, Piano – June 2022
“One of those rare events happened on Wednesday evening: a recital that made the reviewer set aside his analytical self and simply surrender to the beauty of what was unfolding. Seong-Joo Kang, a 27-year-old Korean-born pianist, was the creator of this magic.” – New York Concert Review
Seong-Joo Kang was born in 1994 in Seoul, South Korea, where he received his first piano lessons at the age of five. In 2012 he moved to Germany to study for his Bachelor’s degree at the Hamburg University of Music and his Master’s in Munich, where he graduated with the same highest score as in Hamburg. Seong-Joo is currently pursuing his Konzertexamen degree (Postgraduate course) at Karlsruhe University of Music with Prof. Kaya Han, Prof. Carmen Piazzini and Prof. Kalle Randalu. He has performed all over Europe and is a prize-winner of many competitions.
Seong-Joo played Grieg’s Piano Concerto with TP.
Eun-A Kim, Piano – Mar 2022
Eun-A Kim has established her reputation as a fine concert pianist with her sophisticated and refined playing and her huge repertoires. She was born in Suwon, Korea and started her piano study at the age of seven. Eun-A Kim is a prize winner of various international competitions such as the Delia Steinberg International Piano Competition (1st Prize), International Music Competition London & Paris Grand Prize Virtuoso (1st Prize) and the Golden Classical Music Awards International Competition (1st Prize). As a soloist she has performed with various orchestras, including the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg Orchestra, the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, the Korean Chamber Orchestra, and the Seoul National University Symphony Orchestra.
With TP Eun-A played Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor.
Yoon Seok Shin, Piano – Oct 2021 / Nov 2022
Following success at several major international and national competitions and awards, notably the 3rd Prize in the 2nd Manchester International Concerto Competition (2009), South Korean born British pianist Yoon Seok (John) Shin is much in demand. With over 50 performances per year, at venues across Europe, Asia and the UK, John has developed a busy international career as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. Alongside his performing career, John has also been much in demand as a highly reputed teacher and regularly gives workshops and master classes.
Yoon performed with the TP Beethoven’s 3rd and Brahms’s 1st Piano concerto to rapturous applause from our Landmark audience.
Yeseul Kim, Piano – 7 March 2020
Yeseul Kim is the winner of the Mauro Paolo Monopoli International Piano Competition (Barletta, Italy 2013) and the Maru International Concerto Competition (Busan, South Korea 2015). Other awards include prizes at the Ennio Porrino International Piano Competition (Cagliari, Italy), Delia Steinberg International Piano Competition (Madrid, Spain), Elise Meyer Piano Competition (Hamburg, Germany) and Osaka International Piano Competition (Osaka, Japan). She has also competed in the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition, the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the Geneva International Music Competition. Since 2019, she teaches the piano at Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea as adjunct professor.
Yeseul performed the Rachmaninov 2nd concerto for the first time in public with the Thames Philharmonia.
Juni Kim, piano – 30 November 2019
Thames Philharmonia was delighted to welcome the twelve-year old soloist, Juni Kim, who joined us to perform one of Mozart’s most popular piano concertos (K488).
Juni was born in 2007 and started to learn the piano with his mother at the age of five. He went on to win first prize for piano at the Kingston-upon-Thames Festival of the Performing Arts in 2014. He now attends Coombe Boys’ School in New Malden, and continues his piano studies with Eun-E Goh.
Playing with the Thames Philharmonia gave Juni his first opportunity to perform a concerto with an orchestra.
David Campbell, clarinet – 15 June 2019
David is internationally respected as a fine clarinettist and teacher. After spending eleven years in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ chamber ensemble, ‘The Fires of London’, as well as playing regularly with the London Sinfonietta, London Mozart Players and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, David has more recently forged a career centred on solo repertoire and chamber music. His playing has taken him to over forty countries, to work as a soloist with leading orchestras and to play with string quartets and larger ensembles.
David’s repertoire is wide-ranging and he champions new works, many of which have been written for him. As well as making numerous broadcasts over the past thirty years, David has recorded many CDs covering a broad repertoire, including the Clarinet Quintet by Sir Arthur Bliss (with the Maggini Quartet) and Peter Lieuwen’s ‘River of Crystal Light’. His CD entitled ‘Reflections’, comprising concertos by Gerald Finzi, Graham Fitkin and Carl Davis, is featured in the Classic FM top 300.
David is passionate about music education, and is currently Head of Woodwind at Westminster School and a visiting lecturer at City University in London; he also teaches a few students at Kings College School, Wimbledon, and coaches members of the London Schools’ Symphony Orchestra. He has tutored for courses at universities in the UK and in music schools and academies abroad.He was the UK Chair of the International Clarinet Association for twenty years, and recently retired as Chair of the Clarinet and Saxophone Society of Great Britain.
Maxim Calver and Anna Lee, soloists for 2nd March 2019
Anna Lee: Born in Seoul, South Korea in 1994, Anna started learning the violin at the age of six. In 2002, she moved over to the UK and studied with Lutsia Ibragimova for two years before being accepted into the Yehudi Menuhin School at the age of ten with a full scholarship. She has completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the Royal College of Music with First Class Honours and has furthered her musical studies with Radu Blidar from September 2016 until present, having just finished her Masters in Performance with Distinction and starting her Artist Diploma degree this September.
Anna has had masterclasses; both solo and chamber, including those with Maxim Vengerov, Igor Ozim, Zvi Zeitlin, Heinrich Schiff, Nam Yoon Kim, Alina Ibragimova, Nicola Benedetti, Peter Herresthal, Vasko Vassilev and the Wihan Quartet. Anna has actively engaged in chamber music with her piano chamber group the Adamo Quartet, having won the Albany Piano Chamber Competition in May 2014.
Anna currently plays on a violin by Joseph Rocca, 1848 and gratefully acknowledges its loan from the Royal College of Music, London. Anna is an Ian Stoutzker Prize Scholar supported by a Joan Weller Scholarship for her studies at the RCM.
Maxim Calver: British cellist Maxim Calver made his concerto debut in Symphony Hall, Birmingham as part of the Grand Final of BBC Young Musician 2018. His performance of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mark Wigglesworth was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and BBC4. Earlier in the competition he won the Strings Category Final performing works by Lutoslawski, Brahms and Stravinsky.
Maxim, from Gorleston-on-Sea, is a pupil at the Yehudi Menuhin School where he has been a student of Thomas Carroll for ten years. In September, Maxim takes up an RCM scholarship to continue his studies at the Royal College of Music with Melissa Phelps. He has participated in masterclasses with leading cellists including Steven Isserlis, Heinrich Schiff, Julian Lloyd Webber, Paul Katz and Guy Johnston.
MusicWorks, the National Children’s Orchestra and Pro Corda were critical in laying the foundations for Maxim’s musical development. With NCO, he was honoured to perform as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations as well as concerts in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cadogan Hall and Colston Hall. Maxim is very grateful to have the support of YCAT through their aftercare scheme for finalists of BBC Young Musician.
Maxim plays an Alberto Aloysius, dated 1906.
Anna Bell our soloist for December 1st 2018 playing Bloch, Two Last Poems (Maybe…)
Anna started flute lessons at the age of 12 and progressed with distinction through grade exams to successful audition for the Royal College of Music. Due to family circumstances this career had to be set aside. She gained degrees from King’s College, London and started work in the City, subsequently living for 13 years in Japan and has brought up three children. The flute was set aside during this time and only taken up again about 15 years ago ‘starting again’. Through private study and with the encouragement and advice of performer, teacher and examiner Anne Hodgson, she was awarded a licentiate diploma in performance from Trinity College London.
Anna’s first teacher was Eunice Holton (a pupil of Marcel Moyse and Geoffrey Gilbert) and more recently she has taken part in workshops and masterclasses, both as performer and observer, with Kate Grace, Janna Hüneke, William Bennett, Patricia Morris (piccolo), Lynda Coffin, Emmanuel Pahud, Vincent Cortvrint (piccolo). Anna plays bass flute, alto flute and piccolo in flute ensemble work and has for many years played with the City of London Symphonic Winds and collaborated and performed chamber music with singers and a wide variety of instrumentalists at venues across London including St. John’s Waterloo, LSO St. Luke’s, Fairfield Halls, Croydon.
Comments: “…such a gorgeous sound..” (Lynda Coffin). “…you are so easy to teach and definitely seem to have the knack!…”(Patricia Morris). “…so classy; you seem so calm and then these gorgeous colours just emerge and float all around us…” (audience).
Soojin Han (violin) – December 1st 2018 playing Beethoven’s violin concerto.
‘Soojin is a wonderful violinist with extraordinary subtlety and great expressiveness…and remarkable instrumental mastery’- Gidon Kremer
Born in Korea, Soojin moved to the UK when she was two. She began the violin at the age of eight and entered the Yehudi Menuhin School before transferring to the Purcell School under Felix Andrievsky’s tutelage. After graduating, she took lessons with Zakhar Bron and mentor Kyung-Wha Chung. She studied at Oxford University and the Royal Academy of Music in London and is also an alumni of Kronberg Academy (Further Masters) where she worked with Ana Chumachenco.
Hee-Jin Kwon played Sibelius violin concerto at TP’s 16 June 2018 concert. A graduate of Seoul National University, has won many prizes: among others The Music Education News Competition (grand prize), Yaejin Music Competition (1st), Haneum Contest (1st). Notable performances include the three violin sonatas of Brahms at the Samick Art Hall, recitals at the Youngsan Art Hall, and at the MusicAlp and Vivace Festivals. Kwon has participated in masterclasses of Igor Ozim, Sergey Kravchenko,
Mi-kyung Lee, Ye-Eun Choi, and Tong Wei-Dong. Currently she is pursuing her postgraduate degree at her Alma mater under the tutelage of Prof. Kyung-Sun Lee.
SongHa Choi was the winner of Senior 2nd prize and the Audience prize in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in 2016. She has won a number of national and international competitions including the 1st prizes at the Jeunesses Musicales International Violin, Hanguk-ilbo, Eumyeon Music and Buam Music competitions. She has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras including Yongin Philharmonie Orchestra, Thames Philharmonia, RAM Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia of Cambridge.
Emily Trubshaw started playing the violin at the age of 6 with Clare Kennington. After obtaining distinction in grade 8 at the age of 13 Emily achieved her ABRSM diploma at the age of 15. A finalist of the national Pro Corda competition in 2017 and at the age of only 16, Emily played the Bruch violin concerto with the Thames Philharmonia on the 13 May 2017.
Born in South Korea, Victoria Baek began learning violin and piano at the age of three, and at the age of eight, began to play the violin as a professional. At the age of 15 she moved to Russia to study with A.M Kazarina, professor at St.Petersburg, graduating with distinction. After finishing her studies in Russia, she studied with Jacqueline Ross at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
As a soloist, Victoria has captivated audiences and music critics alike with her dynamic and engaging performances. Victoria played the Sohal concerto and The Lark Ascending with us on the 13 March 2017.
Born in London, Lisa Izumi (violin) studied music at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and at the Tokyo University of the Arts and Music, where she earned “with Honours” degrees for solo violin performance. She went on to study with Pavel Vernikov and Julian Rachlin at the Vienna Private Conservatory. Lisa won many international prizes and more recently has been engaged as a recitalist performing in London, Vienna, Venice, Tokyo, Nagoya, Oita and Osaka. Lisa played the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with Thames Philharmonia on the 3 December 2016.
The cello playing of Christina Meißner is an encounter that dissipates rigid conceptions in favour of a refreshing experience. A celebration of music for all of life’s sounds. Letting these become audible in their quality means exploring the depths of existence. Necessary for this is courage and openness. With devoted presence, Christina Meißner creates artistic regions that in their character are distinctive. She played the Dvorák concerto at our June 2016 concert.
Tamara Ravenhill (soprano) began her vocal studies with Lyudmila Tretiak in the Ukraine and then with Dodi Protero in New York and Enid Hartle in London.
In 2005 she was awarded a Prize for Musical Achievement Golden Orpheus by the Ukrainian Art Foundation of Kiev, and the winner of the 2008 Isobel Baillie cup at the Oxford music festival.
In March 2015, Tamara sang Wagner’s Wesendonck songs with the Thames Philharmonia.
Olivia Scheepers (violin) studied at the Royal College of Music under Natalia Lomeiko. She has won prizes at the North London Festival, the Marlow Music Festival, Hatfield & District Music Festival in London and at the Mozart di Terni Festival in Italy.
Olivia played the violin in the Brahms Double concerto at our March 2014 concert.
Yuki Ito (cello) first came to international prominence when he won 1st prize at both the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria and the prestigious Windsor Festival International String Competition in the UK at age 21. He played in the Brahms Double concerto for violin and cello at our March 2014 concert.
Haim Choi studied violin at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Professor Simon Fischer and while there worked with and played for many highly regarded musicians including Zakhar Bron, Lewis Kaplan, Zvi Zeitlin, Wihan Quartet, Tasmin Little, Jeremy Menuhin. Alina Ibragimova and Heinrich Schiff. She is currently an Orpheus Scholar at the Royal College of Music studying with Professor Itzhak Rashkovsky. Haim has performed in many leading venues in London, Amsterdam and Seoul and is a Cultural ambassador of UNESCO of Korea. She played the Tchaikovsky violin concerto and Saint-Saens concerto no.3, Op.61 with us in 2013 and 2016 respectively.
Thames Philharmonia 
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