philip dukes (viola)
' Great Britain's most outstanding Viola Player..'. The London Times.
Since making his recital debut at London's South Bank Centre in 1991 (described by The Strad magazine as 'world class') Philip Dukes has established himself as a soloist, director/conductor and chamber musician of international repute.
Philip Dukes has appeared as a concerto soloist with all the major UK orchestras and as a recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, Chandos, Nimbus, and BIS labels, amongst others, including a recording of the Suite For Lady Caroline Lamb by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett which received the German Music Critics recording prize.
Since 1992 Philip Dukes has been principal guest viola of England's premier chamber music group The Nash Ensemble, recording the Brahms String Sextets, the Brahms Viola Quintets, the Beethoven Quintets, the complete volume of Mozart String Quintets for the Hyperion label, all to unanimous critical acclaim.
Forthcoming highlights include the release of two new CDs for the Naxos label featuring Berlioz Harold in Italy and the Faure Piano Quartets; conducting engagements with The London Mozart Players, the City of London Sinfonia and the Southbank Sinfonia, and a further CD recording of the Brahms Songs Op 91 with the eminent soprano Sarah Connolly.
anna tilbrook (piano)
Anna is one of Britain’s most exciting pianists, with a considerable reputation in song recitals and chamber music. She made her debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1999 and has since become a regular performer at Europe’s major concert halls and festivals, as well as coaching regularly for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.
Anna has collaborated with many leading singers and instrumentalists including James Gilchrist, with whom she has made acclaimed recordings of 20th-century English song for Linn records, including Vaughan Williams’s On Wenlock Edge, the cycles for tenor and piano by Gerald Finzi and most recently, songs by Britten and Leighton. For Chandos, James and Anna recorded a disc of Songs by Lennox Berkeley. In 2009, their disc of Die Schone Mullerin for Orchid records received great critical acclaim and was Editor’s Choice in Gramophone. Schubert’s Schwanengesang along with Beethoven’s An die Ferne Geliebte was released early in 2011 and their recording of Winterreise was Record of the week in The Independent and was made recording of the month in the 2011 Christmas issue of BBC Music.
Recent engagements have included her New York Carnegie Hall debut with Lucy Crowe, live BBC Radio 3 recitals from the Sage, LSO St Luke’s and Edinburgh, the Perth Schubertiad and concerts at Kings Place, Wiltons Music Hall and St.John’s Smith Square. She gave a chamber music recital in Pisa with Tedi Papavremi and Guido Corti and an acclaimed performance of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time at the St David’s Festival.