Today, Trinity Laban welcomed back renowned pianist and former Professor Christine Croshaw for her annual masterclass with our music students.
The programme included fantastic performances of Beethoven, Franck, Debussy, and Poulenc from Christina Scheutz (violin) and Alex Lukov (piano), Jamile Costa Destro (violin) and Xinyu Han (piano), Sachin Beaman-Patel (violin) and Penny Salvetti (piano), and Amy McColl (flute) and Jayden Leung (piano) respectively.
Christine is a widely celebrated French music expert and would have performed these pieces with legendary violinist Nathan Milstein and distinguished flautist Gareth Morris, who was the first British flautist to play the Poulenc Flute Sonata with Poulenc at the piano.
Collaborative Piano, Chamber Music, and Vocal Coaching professor Andrew Matthews-Owen commented: “It was a pleasure to welcome the distinguished pianist and performance coach Christine Croshaw for her annual chamber music masterclass for duos at Trinity Laban. How wonderful for our students to have the opportunity of working with Christine on duo repertoire for violin which she has performed with many great players, most notably with Nathan Milstein. Similarly, the Poulenc Sonata for Flute and Piano which she performed many times with Gareth Morris, who was the first British flautist to have played this work with the Poulenc partnering him at the piano. This year’s masterclass took the final movement of Beethoven’s Sonata No.7 for Piano and Violin Op.30, No.2 as an example of sonata form, before moving forward in time to the duo sonatas of the great French composers. Through Franck, Debussy and Poulenc we heard how the sonata form was developed, embraced or rejected by these composers as they sought to further the art of duo performance.”
About Christine Croshaw
Christine Croshaw is a British solo pianist, accompanist, chamber music player, performance coach, and teacher. She was a Professor of Piano, Chamber Music, and Accompaniment for nearly 50 years at Trinity Laban. Her concert engagements have taken her to most major venues around the UK, including many appearances at the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Purcell Room. She has performed in multiple places across Europe and North America, described as a “first-rate artist” by Gramophone. As a pioneering music educator and performance coach, she was one of the first to recognise the benefits of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) for performing musicians, in particular in relieving stage fright and the anxiety of playing from memory. Christine was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for her “seminal contribution to music education” at the Music EXPO/Classic FM Awards at London’s Barbican Centre in 2014.