Joo Yeon Sir and Irina Andrievsky

ARTISTS: Joo Yeon Sir and Irina Andrievsky

PROGRAMME

Alfred Schnittke Suite in Old Style for Violin and Piano

I. Pastorale

II. Ballet

III. Minuet

IV. Fuga

V. Pantomime

Edvard Grieg Sonata No 1 for Violin and Piano Op. 8

I. Allegro con brio

II. Allegretto quasi Andantino

III. Allegro molto vivace

Benjamin Britten Three pieces from Suite for Violin and Piano Op. 6

I. March

II. Lullaby

III. Waltz

Igor Frolov Concert Fantasy on Gershwin’s Opera ‘Porgy and Bess’

BIOGRAPHIES

Joo Yeon Sir (violinist)

Described by Strad Magazine as “exuberant… seductive…” with “bravura and oodles of personality” Korean-born British violinist Joo Yeon Sir is a winner of the prestigious The Arts Club Karl Jenkins Classical Music Award in association with Classic FM, and the Royal College of Music’s President’s Award presented by HRH The Prince of Wales. She has performed at Royal Albert Hall with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Karl Jenkins, Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Fairfield Halls and at St. James’s Palace for HRH The Prince of Wales. She has appeared live on BBC Radio 3 In Tune and given broadcast performances on Classic FM.

In 2006, aged sixteen, Joo Yeon was overall Grand Prix Laureate at the Nedyalka Simeonova International Violin Competition in Bulgaria, where her gala performance was broadcast on Bulgarian National Radio. Since then, she has been the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Emily Anderson Award, and was selected for St. John’s Smith Square Young Artist Residency 2015-2016, Making Music Philip & Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists and the Tillett Trust Young Concert Artist Platform. Following studies with Dr. Felix Andrievsky at the Purcell School of Music and at the Royal College of Music as Scholar where she twice won the Concerto Competition, Joo Yeon was also Constant & Kit Lambert Junior Fellow 2014-2015 awarded by The Worshipful Company of Musicians, presenting a sold-out concert series of the complete Beethoven’s 10 Sonatas for Violin and Piano cycle with 10 different pianists as part of her illustrator of violin repertoire project at RCM.

Also a composer, Joo Yeon won the coveted title of BBC/Guardian Young Composer of the Year in 2005 and her works have been premiered and performed at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Cheltenham Town Hall and on BBC Radio 3. At present, she is working on transcriptions and compositions with her violin-guitar duo partner Laura Snowden for the Snowden-Sir Duo, supported by the International Guitar Foundation Young Artists Platform.

This seasons’ highlights include the Deutsche Grammophon CD release and world premiere of Sir Karl Jenkins’ Cantata Memoria – For the Children atWales Millennium Centre with Sinfonia Cymru, a return to Royal Festival Hall with London Concert Orchestra and a debut with London Mozart Players

Irina Andrievsky (pianist)

He was born in Upha, Russia. She received her first piano lessons at the age of seven, winning first prize in the Ufa piano competition at the age of 10. At the age of 11 she went to Moscow to study at the Central Music School for Specially Gifted Children, a branch of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she would later graduate with distinction and receive her doctorate. Among her teachers were Professors E. Malinin, L. Timofeeva and M. Mijlumoff. She was among the winners of International Piano Competitions in Italy. In 1991 Irina emigrated to Israel and continued her music career, mainly performing solo recitals and chamber music. She performed in the "Radio France and Montpellier" Festival in France, as well as other prestigious Chamber Music Festivals worldwide. For the past 14 years Irina has developed an impressive career as a piano teacher in Israel, raising a generation of promising young pianists, until she moved to England. Since then, she has participated in mastercourses and festivals in France, UK, Russia and Israel, and given solo and duo recitals with different instrumentalists; she possesses a very broad duo and accompaniment repertoire for violin, viola and cello. At present Irina is actively associated with the Royal College of Music in London, UK.