Hampstead Arts Festival

Kovacevich has enjoyed two long-term relationships with recording companies, first Philips and then EMI.  Great projects of his work with EMI were a compelling series of Schubert Sonatas and a set of the 32 Beethoven Sonatas completed in 2003, hailed as one of the most authoritative ever recorded.  One critic described The Hammerklavier as: an unflinching, sometimes combative view of a titanic masterpiece, and a version to be spoken of in the same breath as those of Brendel, Gilels and Pollini...Kovacevich announces the music's potency from the first bar.
Kovacevich has recently released to unanimous critical praise Beethoven's Diabelli Variations for Onyx Classics, exactly forty years after his first recording of the work for Philips in 1968. The Financial Times wrote,…a temperamental, almost explosive approach that resonates with rhythmic and nervous energy but also leaves room for elegance, wit and introspection. Kovacevich's journey is always engrossing and never less than Beethovenian. This recording won the 2009 Classic FM Gramophone Editor's Choice Award.

Stephen Kovacevich has appeared with many of the world's finest orchestras and conductors including Colin Davis, Hans Graf, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur, Simon Rattle and Georg Solti.

Stephen Kovacevich is a committed chamber music player whose partners include Steven Isserlis, Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Kyung-wha Chung, Truls Mørk, Emmanuel Pahud and Anna Larsson.  Future concerts include partnerships with Alina Ibragimova (Brahms and Takemitsu - Wigmore Hall), Philippe Graffin (Brahms's Trio - Wigmore Hall), Khatia Buniatishvili (Wigmore Hall) and the Belcea Quartet (Brahms's Piano Quintet at the Bath MozartFest).

In demand as a recitalist, Tamsin's partners include Huw Watkins and Simon Crawford-Philips. She also regularly plays with cellist Gemma Rosefield, and has worked with artists such as Andreas Haefliger, Heinz Holliger and Anssi Kartonnen. She has premiered works by composers including Torsten Rasch and Richard Causton; recently she gave the premiere of a new "Concertino" written for her by Huw Watkins. She is also values her experience as a chamber musician and has formed the Honeymead Ensemble, now resident at the Tricycle Theatre in London as well as the Honeymead Festival on Exmoor. In its first four years it has included Adrian Brendel, Guy Ben-Ziony, Leon McCauley, Thomas Carroll, and Sarah-Jane Bradley. Tamsin has performed in many festivals - Cheltenham, Academia San Felice, Florence Chamber Music, The Red Violin, The Two Moors, Stift and Presteigne, three years ago making her American debut with the Mendelssohn Concerto in the Bowdoin Festival. This year she will be artist in residence at Frome Festival.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen was born in London in 1986. She became a Foundation Scholar, studying with Itzhak Rashkovsky, at the Royal College of Music where she won all available awards, including - twice - the concerto competition, and was their String Player of the Year in 2005. Numerous competition successes include winning the 2005 Royal Overseas League String Prize and the 2007 J&A Beare Bach competition.

Tamsin has been a regular participant at the International Musicians' Seminar at Prussia Cove since she was 16. She has also participated in master classes given by Ida Haendel, Igor Ozim, and Ruggiero Ricci, the latter describing her as "the most exceptionally gifted young violinist I have ever encountered."

From 2011 she has been the Artistic Director of London's Tricycle Theatre's Chamber Music Series, and of Music at the Bargello Chamber Music Festival in Florence, Italy.

In 2005 Laura joined the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music, where she learns piano with Emily Jeffrey and participates in many ensembles. Since 2008 Laura has been a student of the renowned British-Russian cellist Leonid Gorokhov. In 2011 they performed together at the Brighton Festival and in Germany.

In 2010 she won "Erster Preis mit Auszeichnung" (full marks) and a special prize in the final of the Swiss National Youth Music Competition, which led to her performing the Boccherini Cello Concerto in G with the Zurich Kammer Orchestra at the Zurich Tonhalle in January 2011. She was also the 2011 winner of the Marjorie Humby competition at the Royal College of Music, 2011 Beckenham Musician of the Year and 2012 Woking Young Musician of the Year.

Laura's first public performance as a cellist was at the age of 9 with the Jupiter Chamber Orchestra. Since then, she has given many recitals and played with various orchestras. Recent performances include Elgar's Cello Concerto with Worthing Symphony Orchestra and Dvorak's Cello Concerto with Somerset County Youth Orchestra. 

Future engagements include performances of Walton's Cello Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Cadogan Hall and Dvorak's Cello Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Colchester, Worthing and Woking Symphony orchestras, alongside recitals in London (Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall) and Ashdown Music Festival. 

Laura plays a 1987 cello by Colin Irving.

He is a viola professor at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama and regularly gives masterclasses in the UK, US, his native Poland and Israel.His viola and piano recital disc with Katya Apekisheva is due to be released next year on the Champs Hill Records Label.

Krzysztof is also pursuing a conducting career. His recording of Ittai Shapira’s Violin Concerto “Concierto Latino” with the London Serenata Orchestra and the composer as soloist has been released in May 2011 on the Champs Hill Records label.

Matan Porat’s artistic activity encompasses a wide spectrum of work as a pianist and composer. 

Matan Porat studied with Emanuel Krasovsky, Maria João Pires and Murray Perahia. He obtained his Master’s degree from the Juilliard School. Winner of the 2009 Prime Minister Award for composers, Porat studied composition with Ruben Seroussi and George Benjamin.

An avid chamber musician, Porat has participated in many distinguished festivals including the Marlboro, Ravinia, Verbier, Salzburg and Delft Festivals and the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. Other chamber appearances include performances with the Ysaÿe and Jerusalem Quartets, Dorothea Röschmann, Kim Kashkashian, Emmanuel Pahud and members of the Guarneri Quartet.

Porat has appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and with all major symphony and chamber orchestras in Israel. He has also performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the Barbican in London, and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. His varied concert programme includes Bach’s Goldberg Variations and 6 Partitas, as well as the two monumental Ives sonatas. A passionate performer of contemporary music, Porat has premiered works by Matthias Pintscher, Philippe Schoeller and Gideon Lewensohn, among others. In the 2010/11 season, Porat toured with Peter Brook’s production of Mozart’s Magic Flute, in a version for piano solo and 7 singers.