Born in Bender and raised in Chisinau (Republic of Moldova), Ionel Manciu took his first violin lessons from Tamara Caftanat and later Galina Buinovschi at the musical lyceum in Chisinau. He made his official debut at the age of 10 with the Chisinau Chamber Orchestra. From the age of 11, Ionel Manciu has won numerous prizes at international competitions.
Ionel is studying at the Guildhall school of Music and Drama under the guidance of Professor David Takeno and is generously supported by The Leverhulme Trust, The Derek Butler Trust, The Countess of Munster Musical Trust and Help Musicians UK.
Kaoru Wada started to play the piano at the age of four guided by her mother. She moved to America at the age of eleven, where she attended the Manhattan School of Music Junior School, followed by studies at the Royal College of Music Junior School in London, where she relocated with her family at the age of fourteen. She was a music scholar at City of London School for Girls.
Kaoru won a scholarship to study solo piano at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2002, where she trained with the late Mark Ray, Alexander Melnikov and Dina Parakhina. She won many prizes both in solo and chamber music during her time at the RNCM, where she was supported by the Max Mayer Scholarship, Will Pearce Scholarship and the Bemrose Bursary. Kaoru was a finalist in the Yamaha Foundation Scholarship Piano Competition in 2007 and the RNCM Gold Medal Competition.Following her studies at the RNCM, she won the prestigious DAAD Scholarship to continue her studies with the late Professor Franz Massinger at the Musik Hochschule in Munich, Germany. Having completed her studies in solo piano in 2010, Kaoru finally decided to specialise in her real passion of chamber music and song accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama