Meet the artists 2022

  • Peter Regan

    Peter Regan is an Irish pianist. Described as “a major talent” and “the most individual and developed young Irish pianist I’ve heard in years” in the Irish Times, Peter directs Fulham Fest with Carolina Blaskovic and Tara Viscardi. He also set up the Roscommon Chamber Music Festival this year with the support of the Department of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, and Roscommon County Council. His performances have been broadcast on RTÉ Radio One and RTÉ Lyric FM. As a concerto soloist he has performed Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Grieg and Mozart concertos with Camerata Ireland, the Hibernian Orchestra, the Dublin Orchestral Players and Artematica Orchestra. He is also the keyboard player for European Union Youth Orchestra this year.

    As a soloist and chamber musician, he has appeared in Carnegie Hall, the National Concert Hall Dublin, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts Toronto, the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts Toronto, Stoller Hall Manchester, Schloss Grafenegg, the National Gallery of Ireland, the West Wicklow Festival, Westport Festival of Chamber Music, the Clandeboye Festival, Winterval, Boyle Arts Festival and in venues throughout Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Canada, Finland, Austria, the Netherlands and the U.S.A.

    Peter graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the Glenn Gould School in Toronto having studied with Dr. John O’Conor, and he completed his Master’s studies at the Royal College of Music London with Prof. Gordon Fergus-Thompson.

  • Carolina Blaskovic

    Violinist Carolina Blaskovic graduated from the Royal College of Music, London where she was generously sponsored by the Frankopan Fund, Albert Cooper Music Charitable Trust, the Zetland Foundation and the Hockerill Educational Foundation. Carolina directs Fulham Fest with fellow team members Peter Regan and Tara Viscardi.

    As a soloist, she has performed at venues throughout the UK such as the Regent Hall, Pushkin House and V&A Museum, and internationally in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, The Grand Concert Hall of the Vietnam National Academy of Music in Hanoi. In 2017, she won a first prize at American Protégé International Piano and String Competition and in 2019 she was invited to participate at Vietnam International Competition for Violin and Chamber Music and at Bromsgrove International Musicians Competition.

  • Tara Viscardi

    First Prize Winner of the Camac Harp Competition at the 2021 North London Festival, Irish harpist Tara Viscardi recently graduated from the Royal College of Music, London with a Master of Music in Performance (Distinction) where she studied with Prof. Ieuan Jones. She also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Harp Performance at the Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado, Milan under Prof. Irina Zingg, and is a 2021 Wigmore Learning/Open Royal Academy of Music Fellow as member of early music/folk fusion trio Nobody's Jig.

    Recent highlights include appearances at the Bloomsbury Festival London, Wigmore Hall, Dublin Philharmonic Society recital series, the Irish Embassy in London, The Royal College of Music Chamber Music series and the Irish Cultural Centre, in association with Irish Heritage. Previous highlights include performing at the 13th World Harp Congress Hong Kong, for HRH The Prince of Wales in Hillsborough Castle, and for Irish President Michael D. Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin.

    A passionate Irish traditional musician, Tara regularly performs her own arrangements and compositions and has performed Live on RTÉ Ceili House and Radio Kerry. In 2018, she was a finalist in the World Music Competition at the Wales International Harp Festival, accompanied by piper Fionn Ó hAlmhain and flute/bodhrán player Jack Ó hAonghusa, winning the Confucius Prize. Tara plays a beautiful Killarney Harp hand-crafted for her by Tim O’ Carroll in her native Co. Kerry.

  • Emily Sun

    ‘Possessed of a superb talent’ (The Advertiser), with ‘a searing and poetic tone’ (The Guardian), violinist Emily Sun is in demand internationally for her compelling and captivating interpretations, and her genuine connection with audiences. Her impressive versatility as soloist, chamber musician and recitalist and genuine connection with her audiences allows Emily to perform with leading orchestras and festivals across Europe, the USA, Asia and Australasia.

    A multi international prize winner, Emily was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal from the Royal College of Music, presented to her by HRH Prince of Wales. She won the 2018 ABC Young Performer of the Year (Australia), and the 2016 Royal Overseas League Commonwealth Musician of the Year (UK), and international competition prizes at Brahms International Violin Competition (Austria), Yampolsky International Violin Competition (Russia), Bromsgrove International Music Competition (UK), and Lipizer International Violin Competition (Italy). She was a Young Concert Artist for the Tillett Trust, The Worshipful Company of Musicians and City Music Foundation.

    Emily has performed in major concert venues including Sydney Opera House, Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Bridgewater Hall Manchester, Tchaikovsky Great Hall Moscow, Auditorium du Louvre Paris, and Flagey Brussels. She was invited to perform at Buckingham Palace alongside Maxim Vengerov in Bach’s Double Violin Concerto at the Royal Gala in the presence of HRH Prince of Wales, and at the Royal Palace of Brussels in the presence of the King and Queen of Belgium.

    As a concerto soloist, Emily has appeared with orchestras worldwide including the Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, Queensland Symphony and Canberra Symphony Orchestras in Australia; Arlington Symphony, Arizona Symphony and Garland Symphony Orchestras in USA; Shanghai Youth Orchestra and Qingdao Symphony Orchestra in China; European Union Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Royal Wallonie and Orchestre de Chambre Namur in Europe.

    An active chamber musician, Emily has collaborated with musicians such as Maxim Vengerov, Gary Hoffman, Miguel da Silva, Marc Coppey, Danny Driver, Gemma Rosefield and is regularly invited to perform at music festivals across Europe. She recently featured on a disc released by Rubicon Classics on the forgotten chamber works of Robert Kahn which received 5 stars from BBC Music Magazine. Her recent solo album ‘Nocturnes’ released on ABC Classics/Universal reached and stayed at No. 1 for 4 weeks on the ARIA Classical Charts.

    As a teen, Emily shot to national fame after being featured in the acclaimed award-winning Australian documentary ‘Mrs Carey’s Concert’. Her media presence continues as the ABC Artist-in-Residence, BBC Introducing Artist, with regular broadcast on Classic FM, BBC Three (UK), Kol Hamusica (Israel), WXQR (USA), and Musiq 3 (Belgium).

    Emily studied with Dr. Robin Wilson at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Itzhak Rashkovsky at the Royal College of Music, London, Augustin Dumay at Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth, Belgium, and received further mentoring from Pinchas Zukerman, Maxim Vengerov and Ivry Gitlis. She currently teaches at the Royal College of Music, London.

    Emily plays a 1760 Nicolo Gagliano violin, kindly loaned to her through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

  • Miriam Kaczor

    Miriam is a Polish-born, Dublin-raised flautist and freelance photographer. Curious about a variety of styles, she equally enjoys performing with early music ensembles, modern orchestras and contemporary groups, as well as capturing other artists and their creative endeavours.

    She has appeared at numerous concert series at the National Concert Hall, chamber music festivals around Ireland, as well as in recordings with Crash Ensemble, Vanbrugh Quartet and several RTÉ lyric FM broadcasts. As an orchestral player she has guested with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the Ulster Orchestra. She has also featured as soloist in flute concerti by Liebermann, Ibert, Nielsen, Mozart, Telemann and Vivaldi. A member of the experimental new music group, Kirkos Ensemble, she has brought contemporary Irish music to audiences at home, in the UK, New York and Beijing, working on premiere performances as well as interpreting solo and chamber repertoire from the CMC library. Most recently Miriam was awarded the Tile Style Bursary in the Business to Arts Awards 2021. She was the Irish Freemasons' Young Musician of the Year 2015, inaugural recipient of the RDS Jago Award and a multiple ESB Feis Ceoil prizewinner.

    Having been fascinated with early music for as long as she can remember, she taught herself the traverso for three years before receiving an Arts Council Travel and Training Award which enabled her to take lessons in London. She now plays with the Irish Baroque Orchestra and has fond memories performing with Collegium Marianum, Ex Cathedra, Camerata Kilkenny, Ensemble Marsyas and her own emerging ensemble, Cybele's Flutes. She has worked on Bach Cantata projects directed by Philippe Herreweghe and Mark Padmore and performed alongside baroque flautists Wilbert Hazelzet, Rachel Brown and Jana Semeradova. A dedicated teacher, she has been involved with a number of educational and outreach projects in Ireland and the UK for the past 7 years and is a tutor for the Irish Youth Baroque Orchestra.

    Miriam graduated from the Royal Irish Academy of Music as a pupil of William Dowdall and Patricia Morris. Among her other influential teachers were Michael Cox, Lisa Beznosiuk and Rachel Brown as well as memorable masterclass encounters with William Bennett, Sir James Galway, Peter-Lukas Graf, Lorna McGhee and Felix Renggli. She trained as part of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme and was a scholarship participant of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra Institute in Toronto. She is currently mentored by Erwin Klambauer at Kunstuniversität Graz.

    At 11, after months of photographing pebbles, pavements and her guinea pig with a slider Sony Ericsson, she was gifted a compact camera for Christmas. She got her first analogue camera at 15 from her parents and it has served her ever since.

    Miriam is grateful for the support of the Music Network funded by the Arts Council and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the RDS, RTE lyric fm, Flax Trust, South Dublin County Council, RIAM, Halpin & Jago families and the ever-supportive Bill Dowdall.

  • 97 Ensemble

    In March 2021, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for UN Women published a report on the prevalence and reporting of sexual harassment in UK public spaces. It found that 97% of women aged 18-24 in the UK experience sexual harassment.

    At the same time, Solace Women's Aid is overwhelmed as a result of an increase in violence against women in lockdown.

    97 Ensemble is a campaign to raise awareness of the prevalence of sexual harassment in the UK. We are working with Solace Women's Aid by giving performances at their centres and raising funds for them through our concerts.

    We had our debut on 30th April at St James's Church Sussex Gardens and raised 500 pounds for Solace Women's Aid. Thank you for supporting us and our mission.

    Our Aims

    EMPOWER

    By raising awareness to the figure of 97% we hope not only to empower those who experience sexual harassment but to empower all to take action, speak up and make some noise. It makes more of an impact when men speak up about violence against women.

    FUNDRAISE AND SUPPORT SOLACE WOMEN'S AID

    Through our public concerts we aim to raise funds to support Solace Women's Aid. Every £10 could provide an emergency food parcel to a family fleeing abuse and every £100 could provide life-saving counselling support for survivors to recover from their trauma.

    MAKE CLASSICAL MUSIC MORE INCLUSIVE

    97 Ensemble will always champion works by underrepresented composers in our concerts. In addition to our public concerts, we aim to give performances at Solace Women's Aid's centres and bring classical music to those who may otherwise have not experienced it.

    I was a third year undergraduate student at the Royal College of Music in 2020 when Black Lives Matter protests happened across the world. A student at the prestigious Royal College of Music, yet I had never performed music by a Black composer, and I had only ever once performed one work by a female composer - on international women's day. Since then, I worked with the directors, governors and head of departments to make syllabuses and concerts more inclusive. It is now a requirement for students at the Royal College of Music to perform a work by an underrepresented composer in at least one of their exams. All students now learn of underrepresented composers in the first year historical studies course.

    - Niki Moosavi, Founder

    If you wish to find out more about underrepresented composers, please visit:

    musicbyblackcomposers.org nateholdermusic.com/blog hildegard.com disabilityarts.online africandiasporamusicproject.org composerdiversity.com

    If you wish to actively take part in changing music education, please visit www.edimusicstudies.com

  • Nahre Sol

    Nahre Sol performs, composes and teaches an eclectic mixture of music that draws from aspects of improvisation, the avant-garde, traditional Western forms and harmony, jazz, and minimalism. She runs a notable series of videos on Youtube that distill her distinct perspective as a classically-trained pianist with an insatiable appetite for new ideas about music theory, harmony, practicing, and composition. She has gained notoriety and over 380,000 subscribers through her videos breaking down the stylistic elements of great classical composers and documentaries that share excursions into various genres she explores.

    She holds degrees from The Juilliard School and The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at venues across North America and Europe, including The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Gusman Theatre in Miami, in addition to numerous spaces in Canada, France, Holland, Italy, Poland, and Germany. In 2013 she was a recipient of the Harriet Hale Woolley Grant, which enabled her to study in Paris under Gabriel Tacchino and Narcis Bonet, pupils of Francis Poulenc and Nadia Boulanger. Nahre's music has been premiered in New York City, Buenos Aires, Paris, and Toronto by artists such as Julian Martin, Han Chen, Jaewon Bang, Jeremy Smith, and Griffin McMahon. She has given performances, masterclasses, and talks at institutions such as the Carnegie Mellon University, Boston University, M.I.T., Syracuse University, University of Costa Rica, among others. In 2019-2020, she was the co-host of Sound Field, a music channel by PBS Digital Studios alongside drummer L.A. Buckner. Recently, she released her debut album of original works for keyboard, “Alice in Wonderland,” which features a mix of compositions for solo piano, synthesizers, and prepared piano. Also in 2021, she has been contributing to video game and film projects that will be publicly announced in the near future.

  • Victoria Hodgkinson

    Australian and American soprano Victoria Hodgkinson is currently a PhD candidate at The Royal Academy of Music. Victoria’s research focuses on female performance identity in Baroque Opera and analyses contemporary and historical methods of casting. During her Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of

    Music, she was awarded the position of Kohn Bach Scholar and performed as a soloist under Sir Trevor Pinnock and John Butt.

    Victoria has performed operatic roles with Opera New England, The Sydney Conservatorium Opera Studio and The Berlin Opera Academy. Furthermore, Victoria is a keen chamber musician and with her baroque ensemble, Nobody’s Jig, she has performed a wide variety of repertoire ranging from 17th Century lute song and folksong to a contemporary music premiere at Wigmore Hall. Victoria has also sung as a soloist for The London Song Festival in a concert of contemporary Australian music, The Bloomsbury Festival and as a young artist of the Pacific Opera Company at the Utzon Room at The Sydney Opera House.

    Additionally, Victoria has a particular passion for outreach performance. In 2021 she was selected for the Open Academy and Wigmore Learning Fellowship with her ensemble Nobody’s Jig. Here, she had the opportunity to develop musical and workshopping skills in early years, education and care settings. Project highlights have included acting as a musician for Wigmore Hall Learning ‘For Crying out Loud’ concert series and workshops such as ‘Singing with Friends’ and ‘Out of the Ordinary.’

  • Yaoré Talibart

    Born in France, Yaoré Talibart discovered the violin at the age of 4. She quickly developed her experience in chamber music, which she discovered at the same time as her violin learning. She experimented very early a vast repertoire and many formations, from the duet to the chamber orchestra. She graduated from the Conservatoire in Paris where she studied with Boris Garlitsky and Philippe Graffin. She also perfected her skills with Rainer Schmidt at the Hochschule in Basel.

    She also decided to learn baroque violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Pavlo Besnoziuk. During her studies, she got the chance to work several times with Christophe Coin and the Ebène quartet, Rachel Podger, Philippe Herreweghe. She has been invited for several years by various festivals, such as Sonates d'Automne en Lochois, Knokke d'Ysaÿe in Belgium,

    Le Printemps du Violon, Musique à Marsac, Kamermuziek Festival Schiermonnikoog, Blaricum Muziek Festival in the Netherlands and Mendelssohn on Mull in Scotland. She was invited to join the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Experience Scheme. In April 2022 she joined Arcangelo as a New Ensemblist. Since June 2017, she is leading the Appassionato Ensemble, and recently released their album Métamorphoses Nocturnes, which has been awarded the Gramophone Magazine Editor’s choice in February 2022.

  • Annabel Kennedy

    Annabel Kennedy is a 25-year-old Mezzo-Soprano from Devon. She is part of the Royal College of Music’s International Opera Studio as a Siow-Furniss Scholar supported by the Sir Gordon Palmer Scholarship. In addition, Annabel is grateful to be supported by the Josephine Baker Trust, The Drake Calleja Trust, The Munster Trust Award and the Sybil Tutton Opera Awards. Annabel is continuing her studies under the tutelage of Amanda Roocroft and Caroline Dowdle.

    As part of the RCMIOS, Annabel has performed ‘2nd Lady’ in Mozart’s ‘Die Zauberflöte’, ‘Hänsel’ in Humperdinck’s ‘Hänsel und Gretel’ and ‘Minskwoman’ in Jonathan Dove’s ‘Flight’. Annabel is looking forward to performing the role of ‘Public Opinion’ in Offenbach’s ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’ this Autumn.

    Last summer, Annabel performed as a Garsington Young Artist in the chorus and cover of ‘Noble Orphan 2’ for their production of Strauss’ ‘Der Rosenkavalier’. She also had her first ever principal role debut as Flora in Verdi’s ‘La traviata’ for Nevill Holt Opera, as well as performing in the chorus for their production of Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’.

    Annabel made her solo debut at Cadogan Hall performing a ‘Suite of Lieder’ composed by Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha with the London Chamber Orchestra, under Christopher Warren-Green. More recently, Annabel performed Mahler’s ‘Rückert-Lieder’ with the RCM Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Martyn Brabbins and made her debut at Wigmore Hall singing the role of Euterpe in Handel’s ‘Parnasso in festa’ as part of the London Handel Festival.

    Since beginning her studies, she has had many opportunities, including premiering solo pieces of Karl Rankl’s music at the Austrian Cultural Forum, singing in the chorus of Stravinsky’s ‘Les Noces’ at the Royal Festival Hall with the LPO under Vasily Petrenko and the chorus for Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder at RFH and Paris’ St. Denis Basilica with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen. She has performed in the chorus of the RCMIOS production of Mozart’s ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’, directed by Sir Thomas Allen and a semi-staged performance of Mahler’s ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn’ directed by Roger Vignoles. Annabel has been the alto soloist for Bach Cantatas in the ‘London Handel Festival’ at The Charterhouse and for Mozart’s ‘Coronation Mass’ with the Croydon Philharmonic Chorus. She has also had the pleasure of performing in masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, Kathryn Harries, Dennis O’Neill CBE, Dame Ann Murray and Dame Sarah Connolly.

    Her recent awards include First Prize in the Lies Askonas Competition, Audience Prize at the Somerset Song Prize, Second Prize in the Hurn Court Opera Singer of the Year Competition, First Prize in the RCM ConcertoCompetition, Second Prize in the ‘Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards’ Competition at Wigmore Hall, First Prize for the ‘AESS Dame Patricia Routledge English Song Competition’, First Prize for the ‘AESS Courtney Kenny Award’ English Song Competition and the ‘Undergraduate Prize’ for the Brooks van der Pump English Song Competition.

  • Nobody's Jig

    Nobody’s Jig is a trio which formed with the desire to explore some of the lesser-known elements of 17th-century folk traditions as well as more mainstream approaches to folk music from across the British Isles and further afield. Made up of harps, lutes and the voice, this combination of instruments draws on an old and intimate tradition of song accompaniment which travelled from Europe as far as Latin America in the 17th century. Ensemble members hail from musical traditions including traditional Irish and Mexican music as well as mainstream baroque and classical training.

  • Sergio Bucheli

    Born in Mexico City, Sergio Bucheli started playing the classical guitar before moving to the UK to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School thanks to a bursary funded by the Rolling Stones. In September 2016, Sergio was awarded the ABRSM and Christopher Hogwood Scholarships to pursue his undergraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Elizabeth Kenny where he studied the lute, theorbo and baroque guitar.

    A sought after continuo player, Sergio is the principal lutenist of The English Concert, La Nuova Musica, Early Opera Company and a “New Ensemblist” with Arcangelo. He also plays with The Irish Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Marsyas, English Baroque Soloists and Fretwork.

    Sergio is a keen chamber musician and often collaborates with Lawrence Power and the Collegium orchestra for the West Wycombe Chamber Music Festival. He is also a frequent duo partner with soprano Ruby Hughes.

  • Shizuku Tatsuno

    Cellist Shizuku Tatsuno is from Japan. In 2008, she won an Award for Excellence in the Kumanichi Student Music Competition and a year later in 2009, won First Prize. She went on to win an Award for Excellence in the Miyanichi Music Competition in 2010 and in the same year also received an Award for Excellence at the Minami-Nihon Music Competition, First Prize in the Kumanichi Student Music Competition, and the Grand Prize in the Kumanichi Grand Prix. In 2011, she co-performed in the 1st JASTA Fresh Concert both in the string orchestra and as a soloist.

    She held her first recital in 2012 and from 2013-2018 she held the Marie & Shizuku Duo Recital in Japan. She has also performed with the Harlem Quartet at Royal College of Music.

    Shizuku graduated from the Yehudi Menuhin School, U.K., in July 2016. She is studying at the Royal College of Music since 2016 supported by a scholarship from the Royal College of Music: Thomas Llewellyn Cottrell.

    She is currently studying under the tutelage of Thomas Carroll and Raphael Wallfisch.

  • Nathan Giorgetti

    Nathan Giorgetti is currently a Masters student at the Royal Academy of Music, where he specialises in historical performance on the Viola da Gamba and Baroque Cello with Jonathan Manson. Since his time at the Academy Nathan has had the pleasure of working with leading figures in the early music scene, including Philipe Herreweghe, Rachel Podger, Michael Chance, Matthew Truscott and Pavlo Beznosiuk.

    Recent highlights include performing the solo from “Es ist vollbracht” on the Viola da Gamba with Philippe Herreweghe, participating in Rachel Podger’s “Brecon Baroque” Festival, being accepted onto the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's "Experience Scheme", and a debut performance at the Wigmore Hall in March 2022, led by Rachel Podger. In 2021 Nathan co-founded the Tufnell Trio at the Royal Academy of Music, which specialises in Baroque and Classical repertoire on period instruments. Since beginning to play together the Tufnell Trio has won the Nancy Nuttall chamber music competition at the Academy, and have been selected for Brighton Early Music Festival's "BREMF Live!" scheme for 2022/23.

    Before specialising in historical performance, Nathan studied modern cello with Louise Hopkins (GSMD) and performed regularly as a freelancer. In 2017 he was a founding member of the Portorius Quartet, which was active until 2020 and performed at Barbican Hall, LSO St Luke’s, Cadogan Hall, and Milton Court concert hall in the UK, as well as in various halls in France and Bulgaria.

    Nathan is also the founder of the Vilalte Festival, a yearly chamber music festival taking place in southern France. The festival has been running for 7 years and has put on over 30 concerts.