Swiss cellist Timothée Botbol is a Park Lane Group Young Artist and Yeomen of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He has given solo performances in the UK, Switzerland, Germany and Italy in venues including St John’s Smith Square, Royal Albert Hall, Kings Place, St James’s Piccadilly, Chapel Royal, Lausanne Steinway Hall and Kultur-Rockt Festival. He has appeared as principal cellist of ensemble Collegium under direction of soloist Lawrence Power, as well as chamber musician in the 2017 Concerts in The West series, the Royal Overseas League and St Martin-in-the-Fields. In February 2017, he was awarded the Grand Prize Special from all categories at the II Augustin Aponte International Music Competition in Tenerife.
Starting his early musical education in Geneva at the Jaques Dalcroze Institute, he later progressed to the Lausanne Haute École de Musique and the Royal College of Music on the Artist Diploma program, under tutorship of professors such as Patrick Demenga, Alexander Chaushian and Richard Lester where he was supported by a Musicians’ Company Lambert Studentship, the Concordia Foundation, the AF Marescotti ville de Carouge Award and the Fondation F & M-F Minkoff. He also has participated in numerous masterclass with renowned cellists such as Gary Hoffman, Franz Helmerson, Jérôme Pernoo and Miklòs Perényi. A keen orchestral musician, Timothée has performed with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève and the European Philharmonic of Switzerland in venues including Geneva’s Victoria Hall, Lausanne’s Salle Metropole and Palais Beaulieu, Montreux’s Auditorium Stravinsky and the Opéra de Vichy, under conductors including Charles Dutoit, Markus Stenz and Christian Zacharias, and with soloists including Martha Argerich and Leonidas Kavakos. He is currently holding a trial position as sub-principal cellist with the Welsh National Opera, with upcoming performances including Birmingham Hippodrome, The Empire - Liverpool, Oxford New Theatre and Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre.
In addition to cello, Timothée has performed regularly as a baritone soloist, singing at Geneva’s Victoria Hall accompanied by the Geneva Chamber Orchestra. Future solo performances include Faversham Music Club, St Margaret’s Church - Westminster, St James’s Piccadilly and a tour in Switzerland with pianist Dinara Klinton.
In great demand as a recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician, John Paul Ekins has given performances throughout the UK, and overseas in Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Kuwait, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain and Switzerland, and he has been broadcast on the BBC, on Romanian national television and radio, and on Polish television. In 2009 he graduated from the Royal College of Music with First Class Honours, and was awarded the James Anthony Horne Scholarship by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama to study with Charles Owen, graduating with Master of Performance (Distinction) in 2011. He has received support from Making Music, The Musicians Benevolent Fund, The Concordia Foundation, The Razumovsky Trust and The Keyboard Charitable Trust.
International Competition successes include as many as 19 awards and prizes, and performances have taken him to prestigious venues such as Bucharest's Athenaeum, Zurich's Tonhalle, Prague's Martinu Hall, London's Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall (where he recently made his concerto debut playing Rhapsody in Blue with Southbank Sinfonia), Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Fairfield Hall and Steinway Hall, Birmingham's Symphony Hall. John Paul has been particularly honoured to be presented to Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip at a Reception for Young Performers at Buckingham Palace.
Educational and outreach work is enormously important to John Paul too, and as well as private teaching he has also given workshops and masterclass-recitals with great success in the UK. He has taught at St. Paul’s School since 2013.
You can find out more information on John Paul here or follow him on Twitter @jpekinspianist.
John Paul’s Live in Concert DVD will be for sale during the interval and after the concert.