Joseph Tong and Ben Costello join forces in this concert of celebrated French music for piano duet, played on the fine Yamaha grand piano in the sublime acoustic of All Saints' Church, Tooting.
French cheese and wine will be available following the concert.
Proceeds from this performance will go to support the musical life of the church and the upkeep of its renowned Harrison and Harrison organ.
Joseph Tong enjoys a busy and varied career as soloist, duo pianist, chamber musician, festival director and teacher. He studied at Wells Cathedral School, Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, where his teachers were Hilary Coates and Christopher Elton. Joseph made his Wigmore Hall debut in 1997 as winner of the Maisie Lewis Young Artists Award and made his first CD recording at Hurstwood Farm Studios in Kent the following year. Other competition successes include prizes at the ISM Sheffield Piano Competition, the St Charles International Piano Competition in the USA and 1st Prize in the John Lill Awards in 1996. Joseph has given recitals at the Purcell Room at the South Bank, Steinway Hall (for the Keyboard Trust), the Chopin Society and other London venues including Fairfield Halls, Croydon, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St James’s, Piccadilly, and the Parliament Chamber, Inner Temple. Joseph Tong was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in 2008 and also appointed visiting teacher at Wells Cathedral School that year. He is also founder and Co-Director of the Bristol International Piano Duo Festival, held biennially in October at St George’s, Bristol.
Ben Costello is a freelance musical director, singing coach, accompanist, and adjudicator, working internationally. He is also Artistic Director of Thames Concerts, Chorus Master for the Leith Hill Musical Festival, Founding Director of Kingston Chamber Singers, and a lecturer in musical theatre at the University of Portsmouth. He is a busy generalist music adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals, and in this capacity judges at festivals throughout the UK and overseas. A specialist in musical theatre, Ben has been MD on numerous productions, and has taught at most of the major London colleges including Arts Ed, Mountview, LAMDA, GSA, Trinity Laban, Laine Theatre Arts, LSMT, Drama Studio London, and the Royal Academy of Music. Countless of his former singing students enjoy successful careers in London’s West End and beyond. He is also a busy accompanist, working with a variety of singers and instrumentalists in a range of performing environments. Ben also enjoys playing for Cantabile (The London Quartet) and has given concerts with them in Germany, Belgium and the UK.