Kirker Artists

The Leonore Piano Trio is one of the country’s leading chamber groups and perform at leading venues and festivals. They are also part of a larger group, Ensemble 360 based in Sheffield.

The Scottish pianist and award-winning broadcaster Iain Burnside has worked with the worldÕs leading singers for more than 40 years. He teaches at the National Opera Studio, the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and with young singers at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

A former student at the Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music, Kit Downes is a BBC Jazz Award winner and was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2010.

Described by Musical Opinion magazine as "an outstanding artist" Benjamin is increasingly in demand as a soloist and chamber musician. Performances have taken him throughout Europe, North America, Africa, and the Far and Middle East. Born in Nottingham, he attended Chetham's School of Music in Manchester before studying at the Royal Academy of Music, and later in Chicago with Shmuel Ashkenasi. 

The Maxwell String Quartet was internationally recognised after winning First Prize in the 9th Trondheim Chamber Music Competition in 2017. They very soon started to appear in leading chamber music venues throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, with performances in Copenhagen, Stavanger and Amsterdam. The quartet is comprised of players who grew up together and who played both classical music and Scottish folk music across Scotland.

The pianist Gary Matthewman is one of the foremost accompanists of his generation working regular with the world's leading singers including Aiylyn Perez, Adam Plachetka, John Mark Ainsley, Andrei Bondarenko and many more.

Katherine Broderick, soprano, was born in Oldham. During 2007 she won two major prizes, the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the Gold Medal at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Career highlights include Donna Anna at ENO, Elsa in Montpelier and BrŸnnhilde for Opera North.

Latvian soprano Laura Lolita Perešivana started her operatic journey when she was only nineteen years old covering Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi) at the Latvian National Opera House. She is a recent graduate of Guildhall School of Music & Drama Opera Course, where she was recipient of the Derek Butler Trust Scholarship and The Mercers’ Company Scholarship. This year Laura was one of four finalists selected for the Guildhall School’s most prestigious music prize, The Gold Medal, and performed on the stage of the Barbican Hall.

Ensemble 360 is a group of 11 chamber musicians, each of whom has their own parallel solo careers as soloists or member of leading orchestras. Formed in 2005 by the late Peter Cropper of Music in the Round, the ensemble is based at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield where they have their own annual festival each spring.

Morgan Szymanski, classical guitar, was born in Mexico City and studied with Carlos Bonnell and Gary Ryan at the Royal College of Music.

Emma Purslow & Marike Kruup, violins, Claire Newton, viola, Jobine Siekman, cello. An award-winning quartet and the the Royal College of Music String Quartet Fellows 2022/23.

One of the best loved British singers of recent generations, Elizabeth Watts comes from Norfolk and was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral and then went to the Royal College of Music where she quickly made a name for herself. She won the Song Prize at the 2006 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and in the same year was awarded the Kathleen Ferrier Award. 

Matthijs Broersma was born in Holland and began playing the cello at the age of four. After studying at The Yehudi Menuhin School with Louise Hopkins and Leonid Gorokhov, he continued his studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Hochschule der Künste, Bern. He received numerous scholarships and awards and in 2010 he won 1st prize in the Kenneth Page Cello Competition.

Elisabeth Perry studied with the first class of pupils at the Yehudi Menuhin School. At the age of fourteen, Perry shared center stage with Lord Menuhin in a memorable Royal Albert Hall concert and subsequently recorded the Bach Double Violin Concerto for Teldec.

The British soprano was born in Mallorca and lived there as a child. She studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and later at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she took the Opera course.

The pianist Ashok Gupta won many prestigious awards at the start of his career, including The Ferrier Awards, at the Bonn Beethoven Competition and Royal Over-Seas League.

Maltese tenor Nico Darmanin made his debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and has since performed in Venice, Oviedo, Buxton, Glyndebourne and Grange Park Opera, as well as the Teatru Manoel, Valletta.

One of the UK’s leading international singers, soprano Mary Bevan is equally admired for her versatility on the opera stage, concert platform and recital hall where her creative and unusual programmes win many admirers. She studied Anglo-Saxon at Trinity College, Cambridge and then joined The Royal Academy of Music Opera School. 

Soprano Rosa Feola comes from San Nicola la Strada in Caserta and studied at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Martucci in Salerno. Winning the 2010 Placido Domingo World Opera Prize in 2010 launched her career. Since then she has sung major roles in important theatres throughout Europe.

A multiple-prize winning and critically acclaimed conductor and accompanist, William Vann is equally at home on the podium or at the piano and is particularly renowned for his revival performances and recordings of lost and lesser-known works of vocal and choral music by British composers.

Born in Singapore in 1956, Melvyn Tan came to England at a very young age to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey. There he studied with Nadia Boulanger, Vlado Perlemuter and Marcel Ciampi. They all inspired his lifelong passion for French music. He has circled the globe giving solo recitals and as a soloist with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors in major concert halls and festivals everywhere – Salzburg, Edinburgh, City of London Festivals, Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, Edinburgh and Salzburg to name just a few.

The Kleio Quartet have just returned from winning First Prize at the Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition in Copenhagen, and consist of individually acclaimed musicians Yume Fujise, Katherine Yoon, Jenny Lewisohn and Eliza Millett (formerly of the Kirker-favourite Echea Quartet).

With a British violinist and cellist, a Finnish violinist and an American viola player, the Castalian String Quartet is well placed for an international career after being accepted by the Young Concert Artist Trust. They have an impressive number of engagements throughout the UK and Europe.

The name Sacconi Quartet comes from the outstanding 20th century Italian luthier and restorer Simone Sacconi, whose book The Secrets of Stradivari is considered an indispensable reference for violin makers.

Described by The Times as “A very British Harry Connick Jr”, and by The Guardian as “a jazz pianist and songwriter of considerable talent and no less charm” Joe Stilgoe is the son of songwriter Richard Stilgoe and opera-singer Annabel Hunt.

La Serenissima is the UK’s leading exponent of Italian baroque music. Praised for its ‘all-too-rare ability to make one’s pulse race afresh with every new project’ (Gramophone), La Serenissima has uncovered a plethora of neglected music, making it available to all through live performance, recording and outreach. Uniquely, the group’s entire repertoire is edited from source material by founder and violinist, Adrian Chandler OSI.

"Performer, editor, composer and teacher, Simon Rowland-Jones has always led a very busy, all-embracing musical life. He was founder violist of the Chilingirian Quartet, in which he played for a total of ten years, and subsequently performed with many other leading chamber groups.

Tim Horton studied at Chetham's School of Music with Charles Hopkins, Ryszard Bakst and Heather Slade-Lipkin. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1995. In the same year he replaced Alfred Brendel at short notice in two performances of Schoenberg's Piano Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle at Symphony Hall, Birmingham and the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Eleonora Matsuno & Ida Di Vita, violins; Jamiang Santi, viola; Cosmo Carovani, cello. One of Italy’s leading quartets, the Indaco Quartet was founded in 2007 when all the members were studying at the distinguished Fiesole School of Music.

Ionel Manciu, violin, Leo Popplewell, cello, Dominic Degavino, piano.  Taking their name from a Persian deity eternally engaged in a battle against evil powers, the Mithras Trio met while all three were students at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2017.

Matthew Denton & Michelle Fleming, violins, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, viola Emma Denton, cello. The Carducci Quartet is one of the leading quartets of its generation, performing at venues thought the UK and America. They have their own recording label, Carducci Classics and present their own series of concerts each year in May at Highnam in Gloucestershire.

Classical guitarists Mario Strinati and Pietro Agosti formed Duo StriAgo in 2016 and deeply impressed Simon Rowland-Jones at the Strings Final of the 2024 Royal Over-Seas League in London.