Making Music Partnership -Instrumentalists                 

Matthew Fletcher - Accompanist
Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award

London based pianist Matthew Fletcher is a promising young accompanist, with a particular interest in the song repertoire. He is currently studying for a MA in piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music, where he learns with Michael Dussek. He holds a ‘Sir Elton John Scholarship’ to the Academy and is a recipient of the Musician’s Benevolent Fund’s ‘Sir Henry Richardson Scholarship’. He is a regular member of the Academy’s Song Circle and Manson Ensemble and is a winner of the prestigious ‘Brenda Webb Award’ for piano accompaniment, the `Rex Stephens Award’ for the accompaniment of Schumann lieder and the ‘Major van Someren-Godfery award’ for the accompaniment of English Song. Alongside his study at the Academy, Matthew is Organ Scholar at the Chapel of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.

Abigail Hayward - Cello
Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award

Abby Hayward graduated from the RSAMD in 2009 with first class honours, and in 2010 with a Postgraduate Diploma with distinction. During her time there studying with Robert Irvine, she led all of the ensembles and symphony orchestras at the college, played with all the major Scottish orchestras and won the Hilda Bailley and John McInulty prizes for outstanding contribution to the string and orchestral departments. In 2010 she toured with the Scottish Ensemble, playing at all of the main venues in Scotland before a final performance at the Wigmore Hall. Last year she was accepted to the Guildhall Artists masters programme, studying under Pierre Doumange and was generously awarded scholarships from the Musicians Benevolent Fund, Countess of Munster and Leverhulme Trust to do this. Since being in London she has been incredibly lucky in being asked to participate in Chamber recitals at the Barbican, Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls, and in masterclasses with Alban Gerhardt and Susan Tomes.She continues her studies next year at the Guildhall as a recipient of the Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund.

Rebecca Herman - Cello 
Eleanor Warren Award

Cellist Rebecca Herman is currently pursuing postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Josephine Knight, generously supported by the Ian Alexander Award and the Musicians Benevolent Fund. As recipient of the Fund’s Eleanor Warren Award Rebecca is delighted to collaborate with Making Music. Rebecca started learning the cello at the age of 13 and within a year won a place at Chetham’s School of Music. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY), where she studied with Steven Doane, supported by the Howard Hanson Scholarship and Simon Rose Memorial Prize. Solo performances include recitals in the USA, Canada, Israel, Norway and the U.K. Rebecca is Principal Cellist of the Academy Symphony and Concert Orchestras, and a member of the Elite String Ensemble and the Royal Academy Soloists, led and directed by Clio Gould. Rebecca is currently on trial with the BBC Concert Orchestra and has performed with them in London and Chichester, as well as live radio broadcasts.

Toby Kearney - Percussion
Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award

Toby won the percussion section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2006 and went on to perform James Macmillan’s Veni, Veni Emmanuel with the Northern Sinfonia under Yan Pascal Tortellier. Since then Toby has performed across the UK as a solo percussionist and in collaboration with other artists. Over the last three years Toby has also performed in prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Bridgewater Hall and on tour in the Middle East and as a chamber musician has collaborated with Janine Jansen, Lawrence Power, Karine Georgian and also with Oscar winning actor John Malkovich. As an orchestral percussionist Toby plays with Opera North, the Hallé, the RLPO the Britten Sinfonia, the Northern Sinfonia and the John Wilson Orchestra. Toby is now studying for a Masters in Performance at the Royal College of Music, London. He is supported by The Musicians Benevolent Fund, The Countess of Munster Musical Trust and The Walker Trust.

 

Stepan Lavrov - Violin
Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award

Stepan was born in 1987. At the age of five he began studying violin with Professor Vera Dobrynina in Russia. At the age of sixteen Stepan received numerous scholarships to continue his studies in London with Professor Maciej Rakowski at the Purcell School and later at the Royal College of Music. Currently Stepan is undertaking a Masters Degree under Professor Jan Repko at the Royal College of Music where his studies are supported by the Derek Butler and Stanley Picker trusts. Stepan is a recipient of an Ian Fleming Award administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund. 

Adelia Myslov - Violin
Postgraduate Performance Award

Adelia was born in 1989 in St Petersburg, Russia, soon moving to England with her family where she attended the Yehudi Menuhin School and Purcell School of Music, studying violin with Natasha Boyarsky and Felix Andrievsky. She has given solo performances at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and Fairfield Halls and has made solo musical tours of Spain, Italy, Germany and France. Adelia has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including the Manoug Parikian award at the age of fourteen, and has been featured in music magazines The Strad and Muse. Her performance of Bach's Chaconne won her the 1st prize and Audience vote prize in London's international solo Bach competition in 2009. She has played violin concertos by Mendelssohn, Prokofiev and Vivaldi with many orchestras across England. She now studies with Itzhak Rashkovsky at the Royal College of Music on a full Orpheus scholarship, Musicians Benevolent Fund Postgraduate Performance Award and Countess of Munster award. She plays on violins kindly lent to her by the J&A Beares firm.

Mikhail Nemtsov - Cello
Eleanor Warren Award

Mikhail Nemtsov was born into a musical family and played the piano from the age of 4 before switching to the cello. In 1995 he became a pupil at the Lyceum Rimsky-Korsakov specialist music school in Saint Petersburg, where until the summer of 2005 his cello teacher was Galina Koroleva. In September 2011 Mikhail will be undertaking a Masters Degree in Solo Performance at the RNCM. His studies are kindly supported by Musician Benevolent Fund, Boise Foundation, Stephen Bell Foundation, Worshipful Company of Musicians and Hattori Foundation.
In 2008 Mikhail was named the recipient of the Guilhermina Suggia Gift and became a young artist grant winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 2009 he received a prestigious Muriel Taylor Scholarship as well as winning 2nd prize in the Bromsgrove International Young Artist Platform. Mikhail has been invited by Ralph Kirschbaum to participate in Los Angeles international Cello Festival in March 2012. 

Michael Petrov - Cello 
Guilhermina Suggia Gift

Michael Petrov was born in Bulgaria and began to play the cello at the age of six. When he was seven he played Vivaldi's cello concerto in A minor with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and this was followed by solo appearances with various orchestras in Bulgaria, and also concerts in Frankfurt and Munich, where he performed Haydn's C Major with the Munich Chamber Orchestra. He has won a number of competitions in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. In 2002 he was awarded a cello from the Rostropovich Foundation. In May 2007 he performed Haydn's D major Concerto with the London Mozart Players at The Menuhin Hall, and in July 2008 he was one of the soloists in a concert arranged by the School at the Wigmore Hall. In 2009 and 2010 he was the recipient of the prestigious Guillermina Suggia prize and in 2010 the Muirel Taylor cello prize. He was kindly awarded a full scholarship to continue his education at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he is under the tuition of Louise Hopkins.

Barnaby Philpott - Trombone                                         Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award 

Born in 1989, Barnaby is from Southend-on-Sea in Essex and has been playing the trombone since the age of nine. Throughout his time at school in Essex, he spent every Saturday in London at the Royal College of Music’s Junior Department and regularly went away on courses with the National Children’s Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for whom he was appointed Principal Trombone in 2006. In 2007, Barnaby began a BMus. degree as a Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music Senior Department with Lindsay Shilling, Byron Fulcher and Roger Harvey. He has worked professionally with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on various occasions, The English Chamber Orchestra, and The London Contemporary Orchestra and toured the UK, Europe and Japan extensively with pop band The Hoosiers. Barnaby has recorded for Sir Tom Jones, Robin Gibb, The Hoosiers and Newton Faulkner, featuring on number one singles, top charting albums and a recent advertising campaign for the Samsung Galaxy phone. Later this year, Barnaby will begin a MMus. degree at the RCM. To help fund his studies for the academic year, the Musicians Benevolent Fund have very generously awarded him a 2011 Postgraduate Performance Award.

Yasmin Rowe - Piano
Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award

Yasmin Rowe was born in 1989 and grew up in Yapton, a small village in West Sussex and started learning the piano with her mother at the age of four. A few years later, Yasmin began lessons with Nina Levtov and over the next six years Yasmin won many plaudits and enthusiastic media coverage for her performances in local music festivals. Yasmin is the holder of the 2009-2010 Charlotte Kennedy Memorial Award, the Peter Donohoe piano award at the RNCM and is an award winner of the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund for 2010-2011. She has been an artist of the Concordia Foundation since 2009, and in April 2011, her cello and piano duo, y ², was selected for representation by the Dorothy Green Making Music Award for Young Concert Artists. She recently was selected to give a recital at the Wigmore Hall after auditioning for the Maisie Lewis Young Artists Award. She is a recipient of the Ian Fleming award administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund for the year 2011-2012. Her studies are kindly supported by Stan and Diane O’Brien. 

Suzanne Thorn - Oboe
Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award

Suzie studied at the Royal College of Music Junior Department before taking up the offer of an Elton John Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music in 2006. Since graduating from the RAM with a 1^st Class Honours degree and the HRH Princess Alice’s Prize for exemplary studentship she has been studying for a Masters Degree at the RCM where her studies are supported by the Richard Carne Trust, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the Tillet Trust and the Colin Keer Trust. She has also been awarded an Ian Fleming Postgraduate Performing Award administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund. Suzie has been principal oboe with the National Youth Orchestra, the Britten-Pears Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra. She has also played principal oboe with the CBSO and the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera. Recent performances have included recitals for YCAT, performances of the Martinu and Strauss concertos in London and concerts in Italy with Italian Chamber Orchestra ‘Spira Mirabilis’.