Following Raphael Wallfisch’s appointment as International Chair of Violincello and Chamber Music, we are delighted to announce that Alexandru-Mihai (Sascha) Bota, Malcolm Johnston, Milena Simovic and Stephen Upshaw are joining the conservatoire’s roster of accomplished professional musicians, educators and artists as full-time members of teaching staff. 

Of the new appointments Professor Nic Pendlebury, Head of Strings comments –   

“I am very excited to welcome Milena, Malcolm, Sascha and Stephen into our already illustrious Viola department. They are all fabulous musicians and teachers and bring with them a wealth of knowledge and a breadth of complementary skills joining Richard, Rivka and Roger to create one of the most dynamic choices of teachers in the country.” 

Accomplished American violist Stephen Upshaw has enjoyed a close relationship with the conservatoire since holding the Trinity Laban Carne Trust Junior Fellowship 2016-17, returning frequently to deliver masterclasses and workshops.  

With a strong interest interdisciplinary collaboration, he led a project for CoLab 2022 which saw Stephen and fellow Solem Quartet musicians work alongside TL string composition and dance students to co-create Bela Bartok Now: Song & Dance. Inspired by the quartet’s Beethoven Bartok Now concept, which uniquely reimagines classical works with music from composers of today, it wove together existing music from Bartok, Beethoven and living composer Jasmine Morris, culminating in an hour-long performance side-by-side at Blackheath Halls. 

Stephen is a member of the innovative Solem Quartet and London’s Riot Ensemble and has worked closely with many of today’s leading composers, including John Adams, George Benjamin and Errollyn Wallen. A noted interpreter of contemporary music as both a soloist and chamber musician, Stephen’s teaching will focus on this repertoire.  He comments –  

“In recent years I have had the pleasure to work regularly at Trinity Laban with The Solem Quartet, Riot Ensemble and on individually designed projects focused on collaboration and innovation. I am thrilled to be joining the music faculty professorial staff and look forward to creating opportunities within the department to nurture and encourage students in what it means to be a 21st century musician. I am excited to develop a class of violists who are hungry to delve into the world of contemporary music and who are ready to take advantage of the many unique and creative offerings the Trinity Laban curriculum provides.” 

Equally at home as a violinist and violist, Serbian musician Milena Simović has an illustrious international career of concerto, recital and chamber music performances. Her playing has been praised in the press as “jaw-dropping, seductive and exciting”. Milena is also a resident viola and a chamber music coach at the annual Culture Festival in Sardinian town of Santulussurgiu. 

On her appointment at Trinity Laban, Milena comments –  

“I am tremendously excited to be embarking on this new chapter at Trinity Laban from September 2022. I look forward to joining force with students and colleagues, finding new ways of expression and joy in music-making.” 

Newly appointed by the Oculi Ensemble and joining the professorial staff of Trinity Laban from this September, Alexandru-Mihai (Sascha) Bota has quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after viola players in London. Since relocating to the UK in 2017, Sascha has been in high demand as soloist, chamber musician and guest principal with symphony and chamber orchestras alike.  He joined the Navarra String Quartet in 2018 and Britten Sinfonia in 2021 as co/and leader of the viola section.    

On his appointment, Sascha comments – 

“I am deeply honoured and thrilled to be joining the professorial staff at Trinity Laban Conservatoire! It is a humbling opportunity for me to share the knowledge and inspire young talented viola players from all over the world in their search for truth and beauty in music.” 

Malcolm Johnston currently holds the Sub-Principal viola chair in the London Symphony Orchestra, working with the world’s greatest conductors including Claudio Abbado, Sir Georg Solti, and Sir Simon Rattle. He is also Principal Viola with the European Camerata and has appeared as Guest Principal Viola with the Royal Opera House, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. 

As a chamber musician, Malcolm was a member of the award-winning Amernet String Quartet from 1990, performing globally and holding residencies at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, LSU and The New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. More recently, he has worked as guest violist with the Leopold String Trio, the Falk Quartet and participated in the Chamber Music series at the Wigmore Hall with the LPO Chamber Players. 

A sought-after educator, Malcolm served as a visiting professor at Trinity Laban for several years. Several of his former students now hold prominent positions in orchestras around the UK. 

Malcolm comments –  

“I’m looking forward to joining the professorial staff team at Trinity Laban. There is so much on offer at the conservatoire, and I am very excited to be able to be part of that, focusing on all forms of viola playing with special emphasis on the orchestral world.” 

Find out more about studying at Trinity Laban.

Image credit: John Hunter

World-renowned cellist Raphael Wallfisch has joined the conservatoire’s dynamic strings department to teach on the prestigious Artist Diploma Programme and provide chamber music coaching across the Faculty of Music.  

Trinity Laban’s String Department comprises leading professionals and acclaimed artists from a wide variety of backgrounds. The latest addition to the talented teaching team is Raphael Wallfisch, one of the most celebrated cellists performing on the international stage.  

Having honed his craft studying with distinguished tutors including Russian cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, Wallfisch has played with many of the great orchestras worldwide and at major festivals such as the BBC Proms, Edinburgh and Aldeburgh.  

Wallfisch has an extensive discography, having recorded nearly every major cello work, and has worked with leading British composers including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and John Tavener. He also has a long-standing and distinguished duo with pianist John York and tours with his very successful piano trio, Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch. 

With a passion for teaching, London-born Wallfisch is also in demand globally as a respected educator. He has taught at Zürich Hochschule der Kunst in Switzerland and is currently a professor at Royal College of Music.

In his new role as International Chair of Cello and Chamber Music at Trinity Laban, Wallfisch will deliver one-to-one teaching on the conservatoire’s selective Artist Diploma programme from September 2023, and lead masterclasses and chamber music coaching starting later this year. 

On joining Trinity Laban, Wallfisch comments –  

“I am delighted and greatly looking forward to becoming International Chair of Cello and Chamber Music at Trinity Laban. It is an honour to be involved with gifted musicians from all over the world at such a high level.” 

Trinity Laban’s Director of Music, Havilland Willshire, comments –  

“We are delighted to welcome the celebrated cellist Raphael Wallfisch to Trinity Laban’s vibrant strings department as International Chair of Violoncello and Chamber Music. Raphael is recognised the world over as a successful soloist and chamber musician and we are thrilled that our students will have the opportunity to work with him regularly. We hope that Raphael will enjoy the Trinity Laban environment immensely.” 

Nic Pendlebury, Head of Strings at Trinity Laban, comments –  

“Chamber music is a core focus of string training at Trinity Laban, and it’s important for us to work with musicians and educators who are active in the profession, which is why it is so brilliant to welcome Raphael Wallfisch to our talented roster. The appointment expands our world-class teaching and enables us to continue to support our students to develop an enquiring musical mind and the technical security necessary to flourish as an artist in the 21st century.” 

In addition to sharing his expertise with students, Wallfisch will act as a global Ambassador for Trinity Laban, representing the conservatoire abroad as he continues his illustrious and wide-ranging performance career. 

Find out more about studying at Trinity Laban.

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Image: Raphael Wallfisch (credit: Bill Knight)

Choreographer and researcher Irene Fiordilino explores mapping as an approach to practice and performance 

Irene Fiordilino is a choreographer and researcher at Trinity Laban, where she is completing her PhD in Creative Practice.  

Her research is situated between choreography and architecture, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary outputs (installations, films, staged pieces) and their implications in the field of phenomenological aesthetics. 

Irene’s article ‘Mapping: An original method of practice and research’ has recently been published in Drawing: Research, Theory, Practice: a peer-reviewed journal that facilitates international debates on all forms of drawing practice and theory. 

Irene describes mapping as “a particular instance of drawing employed to portray the movement of bodies in space within the specific context of my choreographic practice and performance-oriented projects”. 

Using her recent choreographic work Invisible Cities as a case study, Irene’s paper demonstrates mapping’s potential applications within a creative process. 

Invisible Cities premiered at the Laban Theatre in July 2021, was performed at the Bath Fringe Festival 2022, and will be touring nationally in July 2022 thanks to the support of the Arts Council through the National Lottery Project Grant.  

Alongside her studies, Irene is Director of the emergent Scirocco Dance Theatre Company, and works as a guest lecturer, speaker and teacher internationally. In July she will be presenting at the NOFOD Conference in Copenhagen and at the Performative & Experiential Translation: Meaning-Making through Language, Art, and Media conference at King’s College London.  

World-leading research is at the core of Trinity Laban’s mission and informs our teaching activity. 

Find out more about research at Trinity Laban.  

Student ensemble the Metastos Trio win second prize

With its origins dating back to 1961, the CAVATINA Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition has long celebrated the finest talent from the UK’s leading conservatoires.

For 2022, eight ensembles performed Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D Op. 70 No. 1 ‘Ghost’.

Representing Trinity Laban on the Wigmore Hall stage were Greta Papa (violin), Miguel Villeda Ceron (cello) and Christos Fountos (piano). The trio are supported in the studies by scholarships from Trinity College London (TCL).

The ensemble impressed adjudicator Roger Wright CBE to claim second prize.

The competition was broadcast live 11 May 2022, and the video is available on demand for 30 days. Voting is now open for the audience prize.

Find out more about chamber music at Trinity Laban.

Nic Pendlebury expands electric viola repertoire with release of Multiple

Internationally acclaimed violist and founder of the Smith Quartet, Nic Pendlebury, has been at the forefront of the contemporary music scene for over thirty years and leads one of the most vibrant string departments in Europe.

His latest venture, Multiple, is an unchartered and exciting project showcasing the solo electric viola.

“This album is unique in terms of genre and sound world – I don’t believe anything like it has been heard before.”

Featuring a wide range of works from an ambitious transcription of Thomas Tallis’ 40-part choral epic Spem in Alium to a specially commissioned piece by Trinity Laban alum and former staff member John Ashton Thomas, the recordings demonstrate the instrument’s versatility and performance qualities.

Nic explains –

“The electric viola has tremendous scope for timbral exploration, particularly when combined with sonic manipulation, and is an instrument that has exciting and wide-ranging compositional possibilities.”

The album also includes Pendlebury’s arrangement of Electric Counterpoint by composition legend Steve Reich, which received a standing ovation from Reich himself following an exclusive performance in October 2019.

Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint / Head of Strings Nic Pendlebury – Bing video

Commenting on Nic’s fresh take, Reich said –

“The idea that Electric Counterpoint would be bowed had never occurred to me. I want to thank Nic for a beautiful surprise. I was moved to tears.”

The album will be released on the Orchid Classics label 20 May 2022, and is available to pre-order now.

Find more about the Trinity Laban Strings Department at our Strings Open Day (7 July 2022).

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Image credit: Molly Ann Pendlebury

Featuring Errollyn Wallen CBE, ‘Feeling Her Way’ has won the Golden Lion at the 59th International Art Exhibition

Sonia Boyce has made history as the first black artist to represent Britain at the Venice Art Biennale, the world’s longest-running and most high-profile international exhibition of contemporary art.

And now her multi-layered artwork for the British Pavilion has claimed the top prize at the 59th International Art Exhibition, making her the first British artist to win the award in almost 30 years.

Feeling Her Way combines video, collage, music and sculpture to focus on the vocal experimentation of five outstanding black female musicians as they embody feelings of power, freedom and vulnerability.

At the heart of the installation are filmed sessions recorded at London’s iconic Abbey Road studios.

Trinity Laban composition professor Errollyn Wallen CBE guides jazz singer Jacqui Dankworth, singer songwriters Poppy Ajudha and Tanita Tikaram, and experimental vocalist Sofia Jernberg through a series of exercises, inviting them to improvise and play with their voices in new ways.

Boyce wants to hear what happens when creative women are unconstrained by social expectations or market forces, by the demand that they behave themselves. So Wallen encourages the vocalists to use the voice as a vehicle of free expression, inviting them to make curious, disturbing, even ugly sounds: “You don’t have to make a nice sound”, she explains.

On being involved in the award-winning artwork, Wallen comments –

“I loved working with Sonia as I have long been an admirer of her work. Feeling Her Way captures the essence of being a musician and the devotion combined with attentive listening, which is central to this activity.”

Described by The Observer as a “renaissance woman of contemporary British music”, Wallen is central within Trinity Laban’s Composition department.

Leon Bosch and Chi-Chi Nwanoku feature in BBC Classical Music magazine’s list of the 10 best double bass players.

TL Professor Leon Bosch and Visiting Professor and Honorary Fellow Chi-Chi Nwanoku OBE, both feature in BBC Classical Music magazine’s list of the 10 best players who have helped to develop the role of the double bass as a solo and chamber instrument.

Throughout his diverse career as virtuoso player, conductor and broadcaster, Leon has been committed to rediscovering neglected music, as well as expanding and diversifying the double bass repertoire. He commissions chamber arrangements of well-known symphonic classics for his ensemble I Musicanti.

Chi-Chi is the Founder, Artistic and Executive Director of the Chineke! Foundation, which supports, inspires and encourages Black, Asian and ethnically diverse classical musicians working in the UK and Europe. Her range of musical interests have resulted in a broad career performing and recording in a diversity of styles from authentic baroque through to 21st century and new commissions.

The world-renowned performers are part of our exceptional roster of teaching staff inspiring students in our dynamic and innovative Strings Department.

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Image: Leon Bosch (credit Juno Snowdon)

Take Care by piano professor Douglas Finch celebrates the remarkable work of carers

Trinity Laban piano professor and curator of New Lights Festival Douglas Finch has penned a brand-new chamber opera with librettist Cindy Oswin.

Telling the story of carer Katie’s and her clients, Take Care is based on extensive research into the working lives of those who care for people with dementia and features a chorus of twelve carers from the local community in Nottingham.

The elegant and direct narrative is supported by a complex yet accessible and empathetic score by Finch that has stylistic references ranging from Vaudeville to Wagner.

It premieres at Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham 2 April 2022, under the baton of Trinity Laban’s Head of Orchestra Studies Jonathan Tilbrook.

Take Care is supported by Arts Council/National Lottery and the ESRC Impact Accelerator Fund.