Members

Catherine's formative musical education was at the International Cello Centre in Scotland and at an early age she decided to make a speciality of chamber music. Aged 20 she took up a position as first violin of the Atlantic String Quartet in Canada and since then she has frequently been a guest of chamber groups including the Chilingirian and Endellion Quartets, the Florestan Trio and the Nash Ensemble.

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For the past twenty years she has been invited to participate in the Open Chamber Music at the International Musicians’ Seminar, Prussia Cove. She has performed frequently with such artists as Steven Isserlis, Trevor Pinnock, Ton Koopman, Leslie Howard, Anner Bylsma and Michael Chance, and also recorded for Hyperion, Dorian, Glossa, ASV and Teldec, in addition to many radio recordings and broadcasts in the U.K. and abroad.

A particular interest in baroque and classical performance led her to found the classical London Haydn Quartet which has been invited to many of the most prestigious concert series and festivals in Europe and USA including the Wigmore Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Washington's Library of Congress. In 2006 she was appointed as leader of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Since her appointment she has played in Carnegie Hall, Boston's Symphony Hall as well as concerts and recordings throughout Europe. She is frequently invited as a guest leader for “period instrument” projects with other ensembles including Smithsonian Chamber Players and Santa Fe Pro Musica in the USA, Ensemble Innovacion in Germany, Il Gardellino and Ensemble Explorations in Belgium.

Teaching is an important part of Catherine's mucial life - she is a co-founder of MusicWorks, a specialised chamber music summer school for young musicians. In addition she has given masterclasses at the Baroque Perfomance Institute in Oberlin, Ohio, at the Domaine Forget chamber music programme in Quebec and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. This year she will also teach at the Granada Festival's Music Interpretation Course.

Michael Gurevich, originally from the Netherlands, began studying the violin at the age of five with Joan Wijzenbeek. He later joined Amsterdam Conservatoire Young Talent Class under the guidance of Jan Repko, and was successful at an early age in several Dutch competitions including the Princess Christina and Davina van Wely competitions.

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Michael entered the Royal Northern College of Music where he studied with Jan Repko, Maciej Rakowski and baroque violin with Pauline Nobes, as wel as participating in master classes with Leonidas Kavakos, Gerhard Schulz and Yossi Zivoni, amongst others. Scholarships from the RNCM, the John Hosier Music Trust, Philharmonia Orchestra/Martin Musical Scholarship Fund and the Musicians Benevolent Fund have supported his studentship. Whilst at the RNCM, Michael won several internal solo and chamber music competitions and was a finalist in the Kloster Schöntal International Violin Competition 2005 in Germany. Upon completion of his Bachelors degree, Michael was awarded the prestigious Sir John Manduell Prize ‘for outstanding contribution to the college’. Currently, Michael is the RNCM’s Leverhulme Junior Fellow in violin and viola under the mentorship of Ivry Gitlis. Alongside his work with students at the RNCM, Michael was recently appointed a tutor in violin and chamber music at Chetham’s School of Music.

Michael has appeared as concerto soloist in the Netherlands and the UK, performing concertos by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Brahms. Since leading the Netherlands Youth String Orchestra he has also led the Manchester Camerata and numerous RNCM orchestras. A dedicated chamber musician, and member of the Rhodes Piano Trio, Michael won the RNCM’s major chamber music prizes, the Tunnell Trust’s Award and the Elias Fawcett Prize at the Royal Overseas League Ensemble Awards. Michael studied chamber music extensively with the late Dr Christopher Rowland and Alasdair Tait and has played in chamber music masterclasses with Professor Milan Skampa, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Charles Rosen and members of the Endellion quartet as well as the Florestan and Gould trios. Michael performs regularly in events such as the London String Quartet Week, Windsor, Newbury Spring, Norfolk and Norwich and Mendelssohn on Mull Festivals joining members of the Chilingirian quartet, Ensemble 360°, Gaby Lester and Alasdair Tait. Broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 include two BBC Proms Composers’ Portraits and several other live performances.

Michael joined the London Haydn quartet in 2009 and plays a brothers Amati violin, generously loaned to him by the RNCM.

James Boyd is widely recognised as one of Britain’s finest chamber musicians. He has been a member of some of the country’s foremost ensembles and is in demand as a guest artist with many others. He was a member of the Raphael Ensemble for five years and a founder member of the Vellinger String Quartet.

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In 2001 he formed the London Haydn Quartet which has been acclaimed for its highly individual stylistic approach, making a particular speciality of the works of Haydn. Their recording of the Op.9 quartets was released on Hyperion earlier this year to great acclaim. James has appeared as a regular guest with many ensembles including the Endellion, Wihan and Szymanowski Quartets, the Barbican and Florestan Piano Trios, and mixed ensembles such as the Nash Ensemble, Spectrum Ensemble Berlin and the London Sinfonietta. Gramophone Magazine described his CD of the viola music of York Bowen, with the pianist Bengt Forsberg, as “a gem of a disc!”

He teaches chamber music at Cambridge University and has co-founded MusicWorks, a chamber music course for young string players. Recently he has appeared as soloist and conductor of the Irish Chamber Orchestra, in concerts of Beethoven string trios with Peter Cropper and Paul Watkins, and has appeared at the Aldeburgh festival with in recital with Tom Ades. James also writes occasional articles for the Strad magazine.

Leading chamber-musician, solo-cellist and member of the much-acclaimed Florestan Trio, Richard Lester appears regularly at the world’s foremost concert venues and festivals. Equally at home on both period instruments and ‘modern’, he is principal cello with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and has recently joined the London Haydn Quartet

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Recent highlights include concerts as soloist, conductor and director with the OAE, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and in Montreal and Quebec with Les Violons du Roy. This season the Florestan Trio is appearing throughout Europe and the U.S., at the South Bank and Wigmore Hall, and at its own series in Wimbledon and annual festival in Peasmarsh, Sussex.

He has made over 30 highly acclaimed recordings, twice winning the Gramophone award for best chamber-music. His recordings of the complete works of Mendelssohn for cello and piano with Susan Tomes, and a disc of Boccherini sonatas on period instruments are available on the Hyperion label.

Richard Lester teaches at the Guildhall School.