As a soloist and chamber musician James performs regularly throughout the UK and Europe. His recital work includes appearances at major concert series in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Holland, the Czech Republic, Bermuda, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Malaysia and in the UK at Wigmore Hall and the Edinburgh and Aldeburgh festivals. Having studied at the Moscow Conservatoire (during which time he reached the semi finals of the International Tchaikovsky Competition) he frequently returns to perform in the former Soviet Union. Highlights have included performances at the Sakharov Festival in Nizhny Novgorod and the Omsk Festival. His orchestral performances include concertos with the Moscow, Khazakh and Belorussian Symphony Orchestras, and the Arad and Oradea Philharmonic Orchestras (Romania), and the English and Scottish Chamber Orchestras, at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire and Astana Opera House. He has performed both Brahms Concertos in Russia and Romania.

He has been a member of the Barbican Piano Trio since 1992, performing regularly at Wigmore Hall and in major UK festivals and concert series, and throughout Europe and the USA. Highlights include Carnegie Recital Hall and many cycles of Beethoven’s complete Piano Trios including the Master Concert Series at Wigmore Hall. The Trio’s repertoire consists of over seventy works and their discography includes trios by Lalo, Tchaikovsky, Taneyev, Rachmaninov and Schnittke.

James has worked with the Vanburgh Quartet, BBC Singers, Lydia Mordkovitch and the mezzo soprano Sarah Connolly and has made several recordings for Chandos. He is a dedicated teacher and enjoys posts at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff and Royal Holloway, University of London. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Rachmaninov Institute, Tambov, Russia where he makes frequent visits to perform concertos, give recitals and masterclasses and lead chamber music courses.

He has served on the Juries of several international Piano competitions, notably in Romania, Latvia, Russia and Slovenia and gives many masterclasses, both in the UK and overseas, most recently in China and Hong Kong. He is in considerable demand as an adjudicator and is a member of the ABRSM examining panel, which has taken him to Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Indonesia and many European countries.

Margaret Fingerhut is one of the UK’s most distinguished and poetic pianists, renowned for her exploration of the highways and byways of the repertoire. As a concerto soloist she has appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the London Mozart Players, in major venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican. She is often heard on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM and many other radio stations worldwide.

Margaret is a Professor of Piano at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and a Visiting Tutor at Birmingham Conservatoire where she was recently awarded an Honorary Fellowship. She is a regular guest at summer schools such as Chetham’s, Jackdaws and Dartington. Her teaching at Dartington was described by The Spectator magazine as demonstrating “enormous skill and sympathy”. She has given masterclasses in the USA, Canada, China, and Japan, and she has also been on the jury for many competitions including the BBC Young Musician of the Year.

Stephanie Waite, began playing the violin at the age of two and then studied in the Junior department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Later, while reading English Literature at Cambridge University she studied violin with Levon Chilingirian. After a gap of several years, during which she ran arts and music projects for prison inmates, she returned to her playing, studying intensively with Diana Cummings. Now she enjoys a diverse career performing in many orchestras and string ensembles, and teaching a small but cherished group of students.

Ian studied cello with Elizabeth Braddock, Joseph Koos, Florence Hooton, Colin Walker and Donald Mcall. At Trinity College of Music London he won the Sonata, Louise Bande and Sir John Barbirolli prizes for cello. Following membership of the BBC Concert Orchestra he joined the Rasumovsky String Quartet, coached at and became Assistant Director of Pro Corda (The National Association for Young Chamber Music Players).

Ian is a music education consultant to the London Chamber Orchestra, continues to perform, teach and coach, and is a string coach and principal cellist of the Forest Philharmonic Orchestra.

Robert Max enjoys a career that weaves together solo performance, chamber music, conducting and teaching. He has given recitals throughout the UK, Europe, Russia and the USA and performed concertos with the BBC Concert Orchestra, London Mozart Players, English Sinfonia, Arad Philharmonic, Wren Orchestra, Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra, Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra and many others. As cellist of the Barbican Piano Trio for thirty years, he has performed on four continents and made recordings for ASV, Dutton, Black Box and Guildmusic. Robert is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, where he has taught at the Junior Academy since 1992, and he has coached chamber music at MusicWorks since its inception in 2001. He is an Honorary Professor of the Rachmaninov Institute in Tambov (Russia), a member of the International Board of Governors of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and President of the North London Festival of Music, Drama and Dance. Robert is the principal cellist of the London Chamber Orchestra, conducts the Oxford and North London Symphony Orchestras and plays a Stradivarius cello dating from 1726 known as “The Comte de Saveuse”.  After performing Bach’s Six Cello Suites throughout the UK in 2019 Robert recorded them and they were released by Guildmusic to critical acclaim last year.

Hilary Sturt studied the violin with Sheila Nelson, David Takeno, and Felix Andrievsky, graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal College of Music with solo, chamber and contemporary music prizes. As a violinist and violist she performed and recorded worldwide with Ensemble Modern for 20 years, including notable projects with Frank Zappa, Peter Eötvös and Pierre Boulez. She has been guest leader of many British ensembles and chamber orchestras, a member of the Rasumovsky Quartet and Apartment House, winners of the Philharmonic Society Award for the Most Outstanding Chamber Music in 2011.

Hilary is much in demand as a teacher, adjudicator and conductor, and sits on many audition and interview panels throughout the UK. She is Head of Strings at St Paul’s Girls’ School, Head of Chamber Music at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music, lecturer at the Senior RCM, a Diploma examiner for the Associated Board and an examiner for AQA exam board. Hilary recorded the violin syllabus Grades 1-4 for the ABRSM in 2015 and was involved in choosing repertoire for the forthcoming ABRSM violin syllabus in 2019. Most recently, she was awarded an MA from the Institute of Education. A delightfully misbehaved rescue dog and her husband’s home-made bread keep her grounded.

Jon Thorne joined the Badke Quartet in April 2009 and is also the violist in the Abbracci Piano Quartet. In addition to his work with the Badke Quartet, Jon has played with many of the major orchestras in the UK and has appeared on numerous film releases, including Batman: The Dark Knight and The Mummy Returns. Jon also performs on many pop albums, from Amy Winehouse to Primal Scream. Jon is a strong believer in music education and is a Viola & Chamber Music Professor at the Royal Academy of Music. Previously he taught viola at the Royal College of Music (2001–2011), the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (2006–2011) and the Royal Holloway University. He is a viola and chamber music coach for various courses and has given masterclasses at festivals across the UK and Europe. He is also a trustee of Vacation Chamber Orchestras.

Soprano Jacqueline Barron studied at the Royal College of Music and began her professional singing career soon after graduating when she was invited to join international vocal group, The Swingle Singers. Since then her busy career has encompassed everything from West End musicals (The Phantom of the Opera) to contemporary repertoire (40^th anniversary performance of Stockhausen’s Stimmung at London’s Barbican in 2017). Concert highlights include the first ‘live’ performance (2015) of Disney’s Frozen (Royal Albert Hall) singing the Kulning solos, a role she reprised in 2016 with the CBSO at Birmingham Symphony Hall. She works extensively in all of London’s main studios, recording incidental music for radio & television and the soundtracks for over two hundred Hollywood films, including Lord of the Rings, Beauty and the Beast and the Harry Potter films. Her solo voice can be heard on War Machine (released on Netflix in 2017) starring Brad Pitt. She has made many broadcasts for BBC Radio 2, including star singer on ‘Friday Night is Music Night’. Jacqueline is much in demand as a singing teacher (Ithaca College, New York, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts) and has worked as a vocal coach for the RSC.

Ian Wilson studies recorder and clarinet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he won the woodwind prize twice (once on each instrument) and gained the Principal’s Prize upon graduation. Other prizes include the Skene Award, A LAMSMO Staffa Music Award and the Van Wassenaer Competition’s Musica Antica Prize for best individual musician. He has performed as a soloist with many of Europe’s period instrument orchestras including the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, The Irish Baroque Orchestra and the English Concert Orchestra and has performed, recorded and broadcast with the Early Opera Company, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and contemporary music specialist Kokoro. In addition to his performing work, Ian has worked as an adjudicator and examiner in the UK, France, Ireland and Hong Kong. He is Head of Woodwind at Eton College, the Principal Recorder Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and teaches Contemporary Recorder Repertoire at Trinity College of Music.