With recent awards including the inaugural Sir Jeffrey Tate Prize in Hamburg and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, Timothy Ridout has confirmed his position at the forefront of young European soloists. He has been a BBC New Generation Artist since 2019 and joined the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center in 2021.

Concerto engagements this season and last include Berlioz Harold en Italie with the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and Orchestre National de Lille; Mozart Sinfonia Concertante at the Sion Festival (alongside Janine Jansen) and with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Camerata Salzburg; Bartok with the BBC Symphony, Hamburger Symphoniker and Sinfonieorchester Aachen; Walton with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Luzerner Sinfonieorchester; and the Britten Double Concerto with the Tapiola Sinfonietta and Siberian State Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, David Zinman, Gabor Takács-Nagy, Sylvain Cambreling and Sir Andras Schiff.

Equally in demand as a recitalist and chamber musician, his engagements include several appearances per season at the Wigmore Hall as well as throughout the UK, Europe and Japan. Festivals invitations encompass Lucerne, Lockenhaus, Heimbach, Bergen, Evian, Boswil Sommer, Heidelberger-Frühling, Montpellier, Aspen, the Enescu Festival and the Marlboro Academy; whilst his chamber music collaborators include Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Janine Jansen, Christian Tetzlaff, Nicolas Altstaedt, Steven Isserlis, Kian Soltani, Benjamin Grosvenor, Lars Vogt and Christian Gerhaher, among many others. He also maintains a regular relationship with the Nash Ensemble.

His second album, Music for Viola & Chamber Orchestra: Vaughan Williams, Martinu, Hindemith & Britten with Jamie Phillips and l’Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne was released to general acclaim in February 2020 on Claves Records. He released his debut album with Champs Hill Records in spring 2017 Henri Vieuxtemps: Complete works for Viola, with pianist Ke Ma.

In 2016 Ridout won 1st Prize in the Lionel Tertis Competition and was selected by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT). Other prizes include the 2019 Thierry Scherz Award at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad and 1st Prize at the 2014 Cecil Aronowitz Competition.

Born in London in 1995, Ridout studied at the Royal Academy of Music graduating with the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence. He completed his Masters at the Kronberg Academy with Nobuko Imai in 2019 and in 2018 took part in Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World.

He plays on a viola by Peregrino di Zanetto c.1565–75 on loan from a generous patron of Beare's International Violin Society.

Alexander Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow into a family with a well-established musical tradition. His concerto debut came at the age of eight, and in the same year he moved to the UK to study at the Menuhin School. Lord Menuhin was his inspiration throughout his school years and they performed together on several occasions.

The forthcoming season will see his return to the Anhaltische Phiharmonie Dessau, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Leopoldinum Orchestra Wroclaw, Detmold Chamber Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonietta Rīga, English Symphony Orchestra and Anima Musicae Budapest. He will also debut with the North Netherlands Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia and will appear at Le Pont Festival in Japan, Reno Chamber Music Festival, Surrey Hills Festival and Contrasto Festival in Norway. He will also tour Germany with Julia Fischer’s quartet and return to the United States as part of the prestigious CMS touring.

Amongst the highlights of previous season are his debut at Vienna’s Musikverein with the Tonkünstler Orchester, with Pomeranian Philharmonic Bydgoszcz and Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, as well as return visits to the Manchester Camerata and Russian Philharmonic Novosibirsk.

Tours with the Sitkovetsky Trio brought him to the Chamber Music Series in Basel and Bern and to festivals in Finland, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Highlights of his recent concerto performances include appearances with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bolivia, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orkest The Hague, Welsh National Opera Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra.

He is also much in demand as a director and has directed and performed as a soloist regularly with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, London Mozart Players, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Players, Camerata Zurich, Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and most recently with the Romanian Sinfonietta.

He is also regularly invited as guest soloist with orchestras touring the UK and these have recently included the Russian Philharmonic Novosibirsk, Brussels Philharmonic, St Petersburg Symphony
Orchestra and the Tonkünstler Orchester.

His critically acclaimed CPO recording of Andrzej Panufnik's Violin Concerto with the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin commemorating the composer's 100th birthday won an ICMA Special Achievement Award. His most recent recording with the English Symphony Orchestra of Philip Sawyers’ Violin Concerto was released to great critical acclaim.

Alexander was awarded 1st prize at the Trio di Trieste Duo Competition alongside pianist Wu Qian. He is an alumnus of the prestigious ‘Chamber Music Society Two’ programme at the Lincoln Center, and in 2016 received the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award.

Alexander is a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio, with whom he has won various prizes including the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Kammermusik Prize. The trio has performed all over the UK and Europe including Alte Oper Frankfurt, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Wigmore Hall, and toured Asia recently.

Alexander plays the 1679 ‘Parera’ Antonio Stradivari violin, kindly loaned to him through the Beare’s International Violin Society by a generous sponsor.

The London born pianist, Jeremy Young, performs throughout the world as a chamber musician and soloist.

He has appeared in recital at the Lincoln Center (New York), the Herbst Theater (San Francisco), Esplanade Concert Hall (Singapore), Jin Mao Concert Hall (Shanghai), National Concert Hall (Dublin), and performances have taken him as far a field as Beijing, Macau, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan much of the USA and Europe. He has performed at the Mecklenburg -Vorpommern (Germany) and Graz (Austria) international music festivals amongst others and in the UK he gives concerts at the Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, South Bank Centre and appears in festivals including Lake District, Harrogate, Brighton, Petworth, Endellion, City of London and Dartington.

Jeremy has made broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, RTE Lyric FM, BBCTV, Channel 4, S4C, Hong Kong Radio 4, CCTV (China) and radio in USA, Kazakhstan, Russia and much of Europe. His recordings are available on EMI Asia, Decca, Meridian, Signum and Somm record labels.

A founder member of Ovid Ensemble and the Manchester Piano Trio, Jeremy works alongside such artists as the cellists Li-Wei Qin and Karine Georgian, violinist Mengla Huang, violists Thomas Riebl and Simon Rowland-Jones, the Navarra, Talich and Finzi String Quartets and with singers Roderick Williams, Pamela Helen Stephen and Daniel Norman. 

Jeremy Young studied as a scholar at the Purcell School of Music, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. His piano teachers included Professor Christopher Elton, Frank Wibaut and Vladimir Ovchinkov. He studied chamber music under the guidance of the Amadeus String Quartet, Andras Schiff and Joseph Seiger at the Royal Academy of Music, Menahem Pressler at the Banff Center of the Performing Arts in Canada and with Dr. Christopher Rowland at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Now also an internationally recognised teacher, Jeremy has given classes at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, Singapore, the Shanghai Conservatory, the Sibelius Academy in Finland, Conservatorio di Verona, Hsingchu University in Taiwan, the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the European Chamber Music Academy.  He acts as an external examiner for institutions including the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Manchester University.
He holds the position of Senior Piano Tutor and Head of the International Chamber Music Studio at the Royal Northern College of Music and teaches chamber music at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, UK.

In 2007 Jeremy was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) for distinguishing himself in his profession.

Jeremy is the co-founder of South Downs Summer Music.

Shunta Morimoto was born in Kyoto, Japan in 2004. He has won some of the top piano competitions in his native Japan and played many recitals and with orchestras around the world as a soloist and chamber musician. He gained the Yasuko Fukuda Scholarship and AOIDE Scholarship. In 2022 he won the First Prize in the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition. Following this victory he played Schumann's Piano Concerto with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Mozart's 22nd piano concerto with The Royal College of Music Prince Consort Orchestra. He is now studying with William Grant Nabore as a special student of the International Piano Academy Lake Como and studies piano accompaniment in the class of Maestro Giovanni Velluti at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome.

Sophia Rahman made the first UK recording of Florence Price’s piano concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, broadcast on BBC Radio 3. She has recorded Shostakovich’s piano concerto Op. 35 with the Scottish Ensemble for Linn Records and over thirty-five chamber music discs for a host of international labels including CPO, Guild, Resonus, Dutton/Epoch, ASV and Champs Hill.

Sophia has appeared in recital with Steven Isserlis, Augustin Hadelich, Alex Klein, Karl Leister and Mark Padmore, as well as working frequently with her partner the violinist, violist and conductor Andres Kaljuste.

Sophia has coached junior chamber music at the Sibelius Academy, Finland and Lilla Akademien, Sweden, and on a course she specially designed at the Arvo Pärt Centre for young Estonian chamber musicians. She is also known for her work as a class pianist at IMS/Prussia Cove where she has played for the classes of Kim Kashkashian, Atar Arad, Thomas Riebl, Hartmut Rohde and, for more than a decade, Steven Isserlis. Her interest in this field began as a class pianist for the legendary William Pleeth at the Britten-Pears School.

After early tuition with Antonietta Notariello, Sophia studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School under Peter Norris, with additional guidance from Vlado Perlemuter and Louis Kentner. She took a first-class honours degree in English from King’s College, London and completed her piano studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Alexander Kelly and Malcolm Martineau.

She was the winner of the Royal Overseas League’s Accompanist Award and the Liza Fuchsova Memorial Prize for a chamber music pianist in consecutive years.

Sophia is the Artistic Director of the Whittington Festival in Shropshire.

Kate has a varied career of performing, recording and teaching. She has played with orchestras across the UK and Ireland including the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, Ulster Orchestra and London Contemporary Orchestra, performing for BBC proms and broadcasts. She has toured extensively across Europe, Asia and the USA with Camerata Ireland directed by pianist Barry Douglas.
Kate's film, television and commercial recordings include the Downton Abbey films, Alien Covenant, The Matrix Resurrection, Dr Who and the most recent Stranger Things series.
As well as performing, Kate teaches at the Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth.
Kate has previously collaborated with the Benyounes Quartet for two series of children's concerts across Ireland and Northern Ireland of 'The Three Little Pigs' and 'Little Red Riding Hood.'
Kate began learning horn aged 10 at the City of Belfast School of Music with Jenny Leslie and Martin Wall becoming a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Britain. She moved to London to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Richard Bissill and Jeff Bryant becoming a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and continued her studies at the Royal College of Music with Simon Rayner, receiving numerous awards and scholarships.

Harry is Principal Bass Clarinet of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and also clarinettist for Mary Poppins the musical in London. After studying at the Royal College of Music he went on to win Young Artist schemes at the Park Lane Group and Manchester Midday Concert Society. His debut recitals at the QEH and Wigmore Hall were well received in the press;

‘Penny displayed singular virtuosity’ (The Independent)

‘…great imagination, revealing intellectual and physical prowess’ (The Times)

Nigel Kennedy invited Harry to tour Switzerland with his Polish jazz group, and after this he became a Junior Fellow at Trinity College of Music. Harry regularly guests with UK orchestras and ensembles.

Graham is Principal Double Bass of English National Opera, Senior Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and Double Bassist with the Nash Ensemble.

He was a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra from 1998- 2011, and as a guest works regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic. As a guest principal home and abroad Graham has led many orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw, Stuttgart Radio, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Over the years Graham has performed and recorded with many soloists and chamber ensembles including Anthony Marwood, James Crabb, Pekka Kuusisto, and Imogen Cooper; the Florestan, Gould, and Kungsbacka Piano Trios, the Belcea and Takacs Quartets and the Aronivitz Ensemble.

In 2007 Graham was invited by Steven Isserlis to perform at the IMS Prussia Cove Chamber Festival followed by a national tour and concert at the Wigmore Hall. This resulted in IMS Prussia Cove winning the chamber prize at the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Awards. His recording of Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Paul Lewis and the Leopold String Trio is praised as “one of the finest modern Trouts available” (The Sunday Times).


Graham plays on a 1750 double bass attributed to Testore. He is extremely thankful to the Stradivari Trust for their support.

Born in the USA, Maggie Cole has made her home in the UK for the past 40 years. During this time, she has enjoyed a career playing harpsichord, fortepiano and piano. She will always be grateful for the superb tuition received here, most notably from Jill Severs on harpsichord, and for the extraordinary opportunities that living in Europe has brought to her. She is harpsichordist with Britten Sinfonia and has performed with The Nash Ensemble and London Sinfonietta in music that ranges from JS Bach to Henri Duttileux and Benjamin Britten.

Maggie has recorded a diverse repertoire which includes on harpsichord, Scarlatti and Soler solo sonatas, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, his violin sonatas with Catherine Mackintosh and his flute sonatas with Philippa Davies . Another particular delight was in recording Poulenc’s “Concert Champêtre” with Richard Hickox and the City of London Sinfonia. On fortepiano she has recorded trios by Haydn and Beethoven with her group Trio Goya and a CD of Boccherini cello sonatas with Steven Isserlis. She can be heard on modern piano in a recording of romantic flute music by Philippe Gaubert with Idit Shemer.

Maggie is professor of fortepiano at the Guildhall School of Music and teaches all three keyboard instruments from her home in London.

She has recently had the great pleasure of recording all of the solo harpsichord and fortepiano music for the theatre production of “Bach and Sons” at the Bridge Theatre.

Harriet Walter is an award-winning British actress. She trained at LAMDA and has worked extensively in theatre, film television and radio. Her television credits include Sky Atlantic’s The End, Succession,Ted Lasso, Killing Eve, Belgravia, The Spanish Princess and The Crown. Films include The Last Duel, Herself, Rocketman, The Sense of an Ending, Sense and Sensibility and Atonement.

On stage she is best known for her Shakespearean work, for example as Lady Macbeth, Beatrice and Cleopatra but also as Brutus, Henry IV and Prospero in the all-female trilogy for the Donmar Theatre. She has also created many new characters for contemporary writers.

She was awarded a CBE in 2000, an honorary doctorate by Birmingham University and is an honorary associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She was made a Dame in 2011.

Harriet is also a writer and has published four books: Brutus and Other Heroines, Other People’s Shoes (Nick Hern Books), Macbeth; portrait of a marriage (Faber) and a book of images of older women Facing It

Guy Paul appeared with Harriet Walter most recently in the SkyAtlantic series Patrick Melrose, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. They can also be seen on film in The Sense of an Ending. Paul and Walter appeared together on stage in Death of a Salesman at the RSC and the West End, and in a play written for them, Boa at Trafalgar Studios. He was seen most recently in Straight Line Crazy with Ralph Fiennes at The Bridge Theatre. He can also be seen on film in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Fifth Estate, Hyde Park on Hudson and the upcoming Indiana Jones 5. He was featured on Father Brown, and he can be heard on Radio4 most recently in The Portrait of a Gentleman. He’s known in the States primarily for his performances on Broadway in everything from Twelve Angry Men to The Invention of Love, from The King and I to Mary Stuart, the show that brought Walter and Paul together for the first time.

Formed in 2010, The Julian Bliss Septet - which will perform in Alfriston in their quintet form - quickly became widely known for their trademark inspiring jazz-fuelled shows which have captivated audiences across the globe. Their dazzling virtuosity, extraordinary musicianship
and charming humour shines through their programmes of swing, Latin, American and jazz music. The band has played at some of the most prestigious venues and festivals around the world, including the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Bermuda Jazz Festival and venues across the United States. On the jazz circuit, the Septet has played Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center (New York) and Ronnie Scott’s (London).

The Septet’s early shows were inspired by the great Benny Goodman whose iconic music captivated Julian Bliss as a young musician. Taking a fresh, modern approach to Goodman’s work, the Septet’s first album (‘The King of Swing’) and live performances gained widespread critical and popular acclaim and these programmes remain in great demand today. Expanding their repertoire and working with new genres of music, the group used their mastery of Western classical, swing and jazz to complement the rich heritage of Latin and wider American traditions. Co-founder Neal Thornton (piano) created a programme of new arrangements of the instantly recognizable style of Gershwin and his contemporaries (‘Celebrating Gershwin’). Including music from ‘Porgy and Bess’, ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ and popular favourites – ‘I Got Rhythm’, 'Embraceable You’ and ‘Lady Be Good’: timeless classics.

A recording of the Gershwin programme ‘I got rhythm’ released in 2021 received rave reviews: “impressive recording by talented clarinettist Julian Bliss and his excellent Septet .. Bliss’s quick-fire clarinet starts weaving free-flowing improvisational lines around the tune from the very outset .. jaw-dropping, side-stepping vibes solo .. the whole ensemble is on fire” – Gramophone.