London-based New Zealand cellist Lucy Gijsbers graduated in July 2018 with an Artist Diploma from the Royal College of Music, London. As an RCM Scholar, she graduated top of her class under the tutelage of Thomas Carroll. She completed her Bachelor of Music in cello and piano performance with first-class Honors in 2014, and in 2015 completed her Master of Musical Arts at the New Zealand School of Music. There, Lucy studied cello with Inbal Megiddo, and has previously studied with David Chickering and Christopher Salmon, and piano with Jian Liu, Catherine McKay, Judith Clark and Diedre Irons.
Lucy has recently been a contract player with the NZSO and was a member of their 2017 Fellowship Programme. She was a member of the NZSO National Youth Orchestra for six years, and for the 2012-13 season was selected principal cellist of the orchestra. Lucy has been concerto soloist with the Wellington Youth Orchestra playing Elgar's cello concerto, and has also performed as soloist with the Michael Monaghan Young Musician's Foundation Orchestra and the Tawa Orchestra. This year, she was a prizewinner at the RCM Cello Competition.
She has performed in venues throughout the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Lucy performed in the 2018 Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival, and also the Swansea International Festival, Windsor Festival, Adelaide International Cello Festival and the Canberra International Music Festival. In September 2015 she was invited to attend the Melbourne Cello Festival, where she performed Ligeti’s Solo Cello Sonata in the Rising Stars Concert.
A keen chamber musician, Lucy was a member of Duo Cecilia with pianist Andrew Atkins. In November 2014 the Duo was in the finals of the Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Competition in New Zealand. The duo has been invited to perform in various venues around the North Island and performed Weinberg’s Cello and Piano Sonata No. 2 at the Recovering Forbidden Voices Conference in 2014. Duo Cecilia won first prize in the New Zealand School of Music duo competition in 2015.
She has participated in masterclasses with Lynn Harrell, Wolfgang Schmidt, Philippe Muller, Richard Aaron, Marko Ylonen, Alisa Weilerstein, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Georg Pedersen, Leonard Elschenbroich, Alvin Wong, Rowena Calvert, John Myerscough, Andrew Joyce, Shmuel Magen, Michael Klinghoffer, Susan Blake, Euan Murdoch, James Tennant, Michael Haber, the NZ String Quartet, the NZ Trio, the Cavaleri Quartet, Michael Houston, Peter Nagy, Sofya Gulyak and John Chen, amongst others.
Whilst still in high school, she gained DipABRSM cello performance, and DipABRSM and LTCL in piano performance, both with distinction. She received the Hedy King Robinson award twice for excellence in music theory exams, and was been awarded many scholarships whilst being at the NZSM, the most recent including the Victoria Graduate Award, Freemasons Lankhuyzen/Whetu-Kairangi Music Award, Barbara Finlayson and Bal-na-Shee scholarships.
Lucy regularly collaborates with both young composers and those more established, such as Jeroen Speak, performing and recording their new works.
Romanian pianist Ana Manastireanu is currently a Scholar of the Royal College of Music in London, where she is studying towards a Masters of Performance with Kathron Sturrock and Niel Immelman.
In 2018, Ana was a fellow of the Toronto Chamber Music Institute. Her recent collaborations include performances with Jonathan Crow, Scott St. John, Andrew Wan and Ani Aznavoorian.
Festival appearances include the Toronto Summer Music Festival, Orford Music Festival, British Isles Music Festival, Vienna International Pianists Festival and the George Enescu International Festival.
Ana has participated in masterclasses with Yoheved Kaplinsky, André Laplante, Kathryn Stott, Ian Brown, Leslie Howard, Lilya Zilberstein, Pedja Mužijevic, Pavel Gililov and Edna Golandsky, amongst others.
Ana’s international competition successes include top prizes at the “Rosario Marciano” International Piano Competition in Austria and the “Carl Filtsch” International Piano Competition in Romania, as well as being a semi-finalist of the Orford Award in Canada. She was also selected to perform as a soloist with the Transylvania Philharmonic Orchestra.
Free recital (retiring collection)