Yamaha More Music!
New Artists
Classical
Le Yu (percussion)
Le Yu, from ShaanXi province, China, is a talented percussionist at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he was awarded the RNCM's first Yamaha percussion scholarship for 2010-11. In 2011 he performed on Yamaha marimba and vibraphones with the BBC Singers at the 2011 Judith Weir Festival at the Royal Northern College of Music. His final recital in May 2011 completed his undergraduate course, followed by a summer of engagements in Taiwan and China. A highlight of this is the first concert of the new China Percussion Quartet, in Xi`an Concert Hall, China, of which Le Yu is the founder member and will perfom alongside other high-calibre percussionists, including the principal percussionist of the China National Centre for Performing Arts Orchestra. The ensemble has plans for tours throughout China and abroad. Le Yu will complete his studies at RNCM with an intensive one-year masters degree course and plans to move back to China at the end of 2012, where he plans to teach at Xi'an Conservatoire of Music and to launch his professional perfoming career. (February 2011)
Ivan Hovorun (piano)
Ukranian-born Ivan began his piano studies at the age of 5. His first public performance was at nine years of age and, three years later, he won third prize in the international Ragusa Ibla Grand Prix Competition for Young Pianists in Italy and first prize in the Farbotony International Competition in the Ukraine. In 2004 he was awarded a scholarship to study with Norma Fisher at the RNCM. He has completed undergraduate study at the College and is now undertaking postgraduate study with Graham Scott, the RNCM Head of Keyboard Studies. He has participated in masterclasses with Stephen Hough, Howard Shelley, Charles Rosen, lmogen Cooper, Nelson Goerner and Barry Douglas and has also taken part in the College's Brahms, Beethoven and Rachmaninov Festivals. In 2010 he performed Mozart's Piano Concerto in D major K537 with the RNCM Chamber Orchestra, Haydn's Piano Concerto in D major with the Manchester Camerata, and Liszt's Hungarian Folk Melodies with the RNCM Wind Orchestra at Bridgewater Hall and Manchester BBC Studio 7. He was a special guest recital performer in early 2011 for a Yamaha/Duet Finance event for directors of music from the UK's leading independent schools. (February 2011)
Tom Poulson (trumpet)
Tom Poulson was one of the three UK Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarship winners in 2009, who graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) a year later with a PGDip (Distinction). He has already clocked up some notable performances, including Haydn's Trumpet Concerto with the RSNO, Jolivet's Concertino for Trumpet, Piano and Strings with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Tom has also won the RSAMD's concerto competition and Governor's recital prize in brass while also being a recommended artist for Making Music's Philip and Dorothy Green award. He enjoys playing music spanning from baroque to contemporary, including the premiere of Oliver Searle's Sequenza XI which received a five-star review from the Herald Scotland: "Tom Poulson's performance was staggering". He has performed across the UK and will perform Neruda's Trumpet Concerto in Mauritius with NYOS Camerata in December 2010. We look forward to following Tom's growing impact on the international music scene. (November 2010)
Maya Irgalina (piano)
Maya was the holder of a Yamaha piano scholarship in 2009-2010, which is awarded annually at the Royal Northern College of Music. During the academic year she has enjoyed a most productive year studying for her master's degree with RNCM head of keyboard Graham Scott, with some notable performing successes, too. In October 2009 she won third prize in the Dudley International Piano Competition, performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in Bb, K595 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and, in June 2010, she was the only pianist to win an RNCM Gold Medal - the College's highest accolade for solo performance. Her programme included Carl Vine's notoriously difficult first sonata, which she performed with great panache. Indeed, Maya has had considerable success in RNCM competitions, having also won the RNCM Gordon Green Prize for Piano and, with a vocalist, the RNCM Chris Petty Prize for English Song. She has developed a busy recital schedule, highlights of which have included performances for Yamaha as part of Chappell's Lunchtime Conservatoire Concert Series in London, at Warwick University and in Haworth to mark the return of the Bronte piano to the Bronte family home. Maya is certainly developing a most exciting early career and we have every expectation that she will continue to assert herself as a pianist of immense promise. (August 2010)
Yshani Perinpanayagam (piano)
Yshani Perinpanayagam was the winner of the Yamaha Birmingham International Accompanist Competition competition in 2009, a collaboration between Yamaha UK and Birmingham Conservatoire. In an interview for the Summer 2010 issue of Yamaha's education magazine, YES, she described one highlight of being an accompanist. "It's fascinating that two players of the highest musical quality will often have completely different views on how to play the same piece. It makes you listen very carefully. In that way completely different performance can come out of the same piece, which I find wonderful." Yshani is an orchestral pianist, was répétiteur in 2009 for the English National Opera's production of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and begins a teaching post at the junior Royal College of Music in Autumn 2010. (August 2010)
Sasha Grynyuk (piano)
Kiev-born Sasha Grynyuk was one of the three outstanding young pianists who won the 2008 UK Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarships, following his exciting performance at the finals before a panel of piano professors from the UK conservatoires, while he was studying at Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Ronon O'Hora. He was also the only pianist in more than a decade to win the Guildhall's prestigious Gold Medal award - previously awarded to atists of the calibre of Jacqueline Du Pre and Bryn Terfel. Based in London Sasha now performs regularly in the world's most renowned concert halls. (April 2010)
(updated: May 2011)