Date/Time
Date(s) - 12/Mar/2020
Genre - Violin and piano recitals
In a programme of Beethoven: Sonata in E flat, Op. 12 No. 3; Brahms: Sonata No. 1 Op. 78; Messiaen: Theme and Variations and Fauré: Sonata No. 1 in A major Op. 13 and Berceuse Op. 16
During the 2019/20 season Savitri Grier makes her debut as soloist with the Concerto Budapest, City of Birmingham Youth and Qatar Philharmonic Orchestras. She gives recitals in Mumbai and concerts across Europe at the Podium Festival (Stuttgart), in Warsaw, Sendesaal Bremen, Chapelle Royale Brussels, Royal Welsh College of Music and Cambridge Music Festival. In 2020 she guest leads the Budapest Festival Orchestra at major venues across Europe. Over the last year Savitri has undertaken a British Council chamber project in Qatar, given a series of concerts in China, collaborated with the renowned sarod players Amaan Ali and Ayaan Ali Bangash at The Times Swarsangam Music Festival and worked closely with a youth orchestra, within their community in Balanyá, Guatamala.
Other highlights include recitals at Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall, a collaboration with the Dvořȧk Quartet at Berlin Konzerthaus and Laeiszhalle Hamburg, an IMS Prussia Cove tour, and a residency at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival performing the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas. As a soloist Savitri has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, English Chamber, London Mozart Players, Welsh National Opera, Barbican Young and Oxford Philharmonic Orchestras, among many others. She has given recitals at major venues and festivals across the UK including the St Magnus, Bury St. Edmunds, Newbury, Norfolk & Norwich, Portsmouth, Harrogate and Roman River Festivals.
Sought after as a chamber musician she has taken part in numerous festivals including the East Neuk Festival retreat, the Holland International Music Sessions, Musique à Marsac in France, Krzyzowa Chamber Music in Poland and Avigdor Classics in Bern. She has collaborated with Susan Tomes, Christoph Richter, Steven Isserlis, Kryzstof Chorzelski, Tom Poster and the Kaleidoscope Collective, Richard Uttley, Andrew Marriner and Alasdair Beatson, and regularly gives recitals with the Grier Trio. Savitri studied at Oxford University, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with David Takeno, and the Universität der Künste Berlin with Nora Chastain. She was selected for representation by Young Classical Artists Trust in 2015.
During her studies she participated in masterclasses with Ferenc Rados, Johannes Goritski, Maxim Vengerov, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Thomas Adès, and was especially grateful for guidance from Ana Chumachenco and Andras Keller. Awards include 1st Prize at the Oxford Philomusica and Tunbridge Wells International Competitions.
Savitri plays on a Matteo Goffriller violin on generous loan from the Aidan Woodcock Charitable Trust.
Tom Poster is a musician whose skills and passions extend well beyond the conventional role of the concert pianist. He has been described as “a marvel, [who] can play anything in any style” (The Herald), “mercurially brilliant” (The Strad), and as having “a beautiful tone that you can sink into like a pile of cushions” (BBC Music).
Since his London concerto debut at the age of 13, Tom has appeared in a wide-ranging concerto repertoire of over forty major works. Equally at home in the high-octane virtuosity of Rachmaninov or Ligeti, as directing Mozart and Beethoven from the piano, Tom has appeared as soloist with the Aurora Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, China National Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Hallé, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, St Petersburg State Capella Philharmonic and Ulster Orchestra, collaborating with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Nicholas Collon, Thierry Fischer, James Loughran, Robin Ticciati and Yan Pascal Tortelier.
Two outstanding new concertos have been written for Tom: David Knotts’ Laments and Lullabies, commissioned by the Presteigne Festival; and Martin Suckling’s Piano Concerto, commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Tom features regularly on BBC radio and television and has made multiple appearances at the BBC Proms, and his exceptional versatility has put him in great demand at festivals across the world. He is a regular performer at Wigmore Hall, and is pianist of the Aronowitz Ensemble (former BBC New Generation Artists) and the Aronowitz Piano Trio. Tom enjoys established duo partnerships with Alison Balsom, Guy Johnston and Elena Urioste, with whom he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2018. He also collaborates with Ian Bostridge, Steven Isserlis and Matthew Rose among many others, and has performed piano quintets with the Brodsky, Callino, Carducci, Castalian, Danish, Elias, Endellion, Heath, Martinu, Medici, Navarra, Sacconi, Skampa and Tippett Quartets.
Tom’s passion for bringing wonderful musicians together, and for creative and innovative programming, has led him to found the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, an ensemble with a flexible line-up and an ardent commitment to diversity. Kaleidoscope’s recent and forthcoming highlights include residencies at Wigmore Hall, Kettle’s Yard, and the Cheltenham and Ischia festivals. Tom has previously been invited to curate series for BBC Radio 3, the Roman River Festival and Wilton’s Music Hall. Tom’s critically acclaimed recordings include solo discs for Champs Hill Records (In Dance and Song) and Edition Classics (Light and Shadows); three discs for Chandos with Jennifer Pike and the Doric Quartet; Finzi’s Eclogue with Aurora Orchestra for Decca Classics; works by Thomas Ades for EMI; and a duo album with Alison Balsom for Warner Classics.
His most recent releases are a duo disc with Elena Urioste, Estrellita, on BIS Records, which includes Tom’s own arrangements; and the premiere recording of Cliff Eidelman’s Symphony for Orchestra and Two Pianos with the London Symphony Orchestra. Tom also regularly features as soloist on film soundtracks, including the Oscar-nominated score for The Theory of Everything. Tom studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he gained a Double First in Music. He won First Prize at the Scottish International Piano Competition 2007, and the keyboard section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in 2000.
As a composer, Tom’s recent commissions include two pieces for Alison Balsom, Turn to the Watery World! and The Thoughts of Dr. May, the latter recorded for Warner Classics; a set of songs for Matthew Rose commissioned by Wigmore Hall; and The Depraved Appetite of Tarrare the Freak, a chamber opera for Wattle & Daub, which received a critically acclaimed three-week run at Wilton’s Music Hall in 2017. A lifelong devotee of the Great American Songbook, Tom’s arrangements of Gershwin, Cole Porter and others have been extensively performed, broadcast and recorded. Tom has also recently appeared on stage as conductor, cellist, recorder player, swanee-whistler and Reciter in Walton’s Façade. His other passions include Indian food, redwood forests, yoga, contrabassoons, bright blue skies, wild freestyle dancing and animals with unusual noses.