featuring
Qian Wu / violin
Russell Lomas / piano.

PROGRAMME:

Adagio in E major K.V. 261 Mozart

Sonata in G minor Debussy

 Allegro vivo
 Intermède (Fantasque et léger)
 Finale (Très animé)

Sérénade Mélancolique Opus 26 Tchaikovsky

Alt-Wien Godowsky-Heifetz

Zigeunerweisen Opus 20 Sarasate

Qian Wu was born in Shanghai, China, in 1984. She began violin lessons at the age of seven and was awarded a place at the Junior School of the Shanghai Conservatoire in 1994, where she studied with Jiyang Zhao for three years until she entered the Middle School in 1997 to have lessons from Shishen Zheng. The following year she won 2nd prize in the National Young Violinists competition of China and in 2000 she was a semifinalist in the Menuhin International Violin competition in France. During this period, she gave many solo recitals in Eastern China in addition to giving performances of Saint-Saens Concerto No. 3, and Wieniawski’s Concerto No. 2.
In September 2000, she came to England to study with Wen Zhou Li at Chetham’s School of Music where she gave numerous solo and chamber music performances and also had the honour of playing in a concert for H.M The Queen at Buckingham Palace.
Two years later, she won the String section of the Liverpool Young Musician competition, which gave her the opportunity to perform Walton’s Violin Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.
In furthering her studies, Qian has performed in masterclasses of Isaac Stern, Gil Shaham, Salvatore Accardo and Mauricio Fuks, amongst others and has participated in International Summer Music Schools in the USA, UK, and a number of European countries.
In 2004, Qian was awarded a full scholarship to study with the celebrated violinist and teacher, Gyorgy Pauk, at the Royal Academy of Music, London, from where she graduated in 2008 with a B.Mus (Hons) First Class. She was also awarded the HRH Princess Alice Prize for Exemplary Studentship. After graduating, she continued her studies at the RAM with Mr. Pauk and is currently working to obtain a M. Mus degree at the end of this academic year.  She is hoping she will be allowed to stay in the UK after she finishes her course so she can  continue her concert career both as a soloist and as the leader of her string quartet, which has already given many concerts in the UK and Holland.

Russell Lomas was born in Manchester and began piano lessons at an early age. When he was fifteen he won a scholarship to study with Gordon Green, Franz Reizenstein and Clifton Helliwell at the Royal Manchester College of Music, from where he received the Ricordi Prize for Piano Accompaniment, and graduated with a Distinction in both Performer’s and Teacher’s Diplomas.
He has given piano duet concerts and accompanied chamber music and vocal recitals throughout the UK, and numerous venues throughout the UK including the Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room in London, and in a number of European countries, Jordan and Lebanon. He has also made several visits to the United Arab Emirates to give concerts in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.
Russell has broadcast for the BBC, Classic FM and many European and local radio stations and has appeared on BBC Television, several ITV channels and stations in the Middle East.
Until his retirement in 2003, he was a member of the Music Department of Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester for over thirty years, and Head of Accompaniment for the final twelve. Since then he has given many concerts in the UK and abroad, and for the past seven years has been one of the accompanists at the Oxford Flute Summer School. He is also the only accompanist to have appeared on at least one televised programme in every series of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition between 1978 (the year of the first competition) and 2004.