Silvestrs Kalnins began to play the cello at the age of five and currently studies at the Royal College of Music in London under Professor Melissa Phelps as an ABRSM Scholar supported by Michael Elliott.
He was awarded 1st prize in 2014 in the Karl Davidov International Cello Competition in Kuldiga. In 2016 he won 1st prize in the competition for young performers organized by the Inese Galante Foundation and in 2018 he was awarded a scholarship by Raphael Sommer Trust.
He has participated in masterclasses with Frans Helmerson, Torleif Thedeen, Marko Ylonen, Sennu Laine, Denis Severin, Zuill Bailey amongst others.
As a chamber and orchestral musician, Silvestrs has performed at venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Amsterdam Concertgebouw and has performed with various artists including Nobuko Imai, Thomas Carroll, Marta Gulyas, Hansjorg Schellenberger, Cecilia Zilliacus, Avri Levitan and currently is a member of prize winning Artha String Quartet. Since 2018, he has been a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra where he has worked with the conductors such as Manfred Honeck, Stéphane Denève, Gianandrea Noseda and Vasily Petrenko. Silvestrs plays on a cello made by Matteo Goffriller kindly loaned by the RCM.
Since 2015, Thomas Kelly has been studying with Andrew Ball, initially at the Purcell school of Music and now at Royal College of Music where he is in third-year undergraduate.
Thomas has won first prizes including Pianale International Piano Competition 2017, Kharkiv Assemblies 2018, at Lucca Virtuoso e Bel Canto festival 2018, as well as latterly winning the RCM Joan Chissell Schumann and Kendall Taylor Beethoven prizes in 2019. He also attended the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition this year, reaching the second round. In addition, he has performed in a variety of venues, including the Wigmore Hall, the Cadogan Hall, St Martin in the Fields, St Mary's Perivale, St Paul's Bedford, the Poole Lighthouse Arts Centre, the Stoller Hall, at Paris Conservatoire, the StreingreaberHaus in Bayreuth, the Teatro Del Sale in Florence, and in Vilnius and Palanga. He has benefited greatly from lessons and masterclasses with distinguished professors including Paul Lewis, Mikhail Voskrosensky, Valentina Berman, Justas Dvarionas, Riccardo Cecchetti, Vanessa Latarche and Ian Jones. In December, Thomas will be playing the Eroica Variations Op.35 in the London intercollegiate Beethoven competition. Thomas's studies at RCM are generously supported by Ms Daunt and Ms Stevenson, Pat Kendall Taylor and C Bechstein pianos.
Free recital with retiring collection.