Concert: The Medlam Ensemble

Saturday 24th September 2011. 19.30

In aid of Leukaemia Research

Ticket Information: £15.00 Tel: 01983 740609

The Medlam Ensemble

Featuring music by Rachmaninov, Elgar, Satie, Provost, Kurt Weill and more.

Lukas Medlam

LUKAS MEDLAM, born in 1985, started piano at five and violin at six learning initially with his mother, herself a professional violinist, before going to the Purcell school where he studied with Paul Barritt, leader of the Halle Orchestra. Lukas was leader of the Hampshire Youth Orchestra for two years but now prefers the repertoire for solo and chamber music.

In 2000 Lukas won the Basingstoke Young Musician of the Year competition,followed in June 2002 by the Newbury Young Musician of the Year both as a pianist. The award included a concerto performance with the Southern Sinfonia in Autumn 2003. After ten years of home-schooling by his parents, Lukas spent two years in the sixth form at the Purcell School, where violin became his principal study. There he also enjoyed jazz, composition, choir, a symphony orchestra tour to Paris as well as football and tennis. Between commencing college, he devoted his GAP year to intense practice, work on a commission for a local choir, preparation for competitions and some travel in Europe. Lukas studied violin for a year with Itzhak Rashkovsky at the Royal College of Music, before then embarking on a four-year physics degree at Imperial College London. A music scholarship ensured his continuing studies at the RCM. He spent his third year in Padova, working on a major research project and learning Italian.

In November 2008 he performed the Barber Violin Concerto with the Imperial College Symphony Orchestra, and in summer breaks he performed at various festivals and private events. Cruises with P&O as part of the on- board music team, take place regularly - October 2009 having seen a memorable cruise to the Caribbean. Now that his academic pursuit is over, he plans to perform more concerts internationally. He is currently studying at the Vienna Conservatoire with Thomas Christian, a renowned soloist.

Hannah Medlam

HANNAH MEDLAM, born July 1988, and brought up tri-lingually started studying piano and violin aged 5. She began her studies at the Purcell School of Music in London. As a violinist, performing the Mendelssohn concerto with the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra, the Beethoven concerto with orchestra, Bartok's first string quartet at Wigmore Hall, and winning the Newbury Young Musician of the Year in 2006. She entered the Vienna Hochschule as a violinist in 2006 and during her time there also had singing lessons with Hungarian Soprano Tünde Szaboki, who inspired her to pursue this more closely. Hannah was offered a place at the Jeune Choeur de Paris with teacher Florence Guignolet in June 2007and during her time in Paris, as well as solo recitals and choral concerts; she sang solo in the Theatre de la Ville and performed Summertime in the Jeune Choeur Cabaret Production.

In August 2008 she was invited to take part in Escales Lyriques, an opera course on Ile d’Yeu, and studied the role of Cherubino with teacher Valerie Guillorit and director Stephen Taylor. Hannah studied with Valerie Guillorit at the Konservatorium van Amsterdam then returning to Paris to continue her studies with Malcolm King. She has also participated in masterclasses with Laurent Naori, Malcolm Walker, Magreet Honing and Laura Sarti. Hannah regularly performs operatic roles as part of the on-board music-team with P&O cruises. She has given recitals in Europe, notably singing a programme of Handel and Purcell with London Baroque and Emma Kirkby in St John's Smith Square, a solo recital in the Teatro Sociale for the Como music festival, and recitals in the Paris Cité des Arts for the Romanian cultural institute. Hannah is now based in London, studying with Laura Sarti, and taking part in Udo Reinemann's International Lied Masterclasses in Bruxelles. She won the Pierre Bernac prize at the Académie Maurice Ravel this summer for her interpretation of Ravel's Shéhérazade and will be taking part in St Jean de Luz's "Concerts du Printemps". This November she is singing Mahler 4 with the 'I Maestri' orchestra in London. She was invited to sing Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme, as part of the Dutch National Reisopera's Residential Artists Programme, in Spring 2011.

She also regularly performs as second violinist in London Baroque and as part of the "Medlam family string quartet". Her other interests include painting and she has exhibited her portraits in the London Mall Galleries, and Desmoulin, Her other hobbies include theatre, creative writing and various sports.

Jean-Michel Dayez

Born in Valenciennes, Jean-Michel Dayez began his musical studies at a very early age and was soon awarded the highest marks at the conservatoires of Valenciennes and Lille. In 1997 he was introduced to Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden at the Royal Conservatory in Bruxelles. After the first year, he finished his diploma with first class honours, and the special jury prize. In September 1998, he gained a place in the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth and studied at this prestigious institution for three years graduating with "Grande distinction". He continued his education at the Conservatoire National Supérieure de Musique et de Danse de Paris studying accompaniment and composition graduating with first class honours and a prize for harmony in June 2004. During 2002 he was a prize-winner at the Tenuto competition in Bruxelles, and at the International Emmanuel Durlet competition in Antwerp, where he was awarded the Press Prize. In 2004 he was prize-winner in the Émile Bernheim foundation (Bruxelles) and the Meyer foundation (Paris).

He performs by invitation with the Bruxelles Philharmonic Orchestra, the 'Festival des Arcs', the piano festival in Lille, Musique 3, and France Musique and is particularly aadmired for his qualities as a chamber musician. He regularly plays the big concerto repertoire with orchestra (Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Liszt, Mozart...) and gives recitals of a great variety of music, from Bach to Berio.

Jean-Michel also has several recordings to his name, the complete works of Fauré for cello and piano with Xavier Gagnepain, Beethoven's 5 sonatas for cello and piano with Nicolas Deletaille, and the Franck quintet for piano and strings.

Jean-Michel also teaches at the CRR in Lille.