Tenor Dr. Panos Ntourntoufis holds the diploma of Licentiateship of Trinity College of Music (TCM), as well as a diploma in Performance Studies from Birckbeck College (University of London). He is currently pursuing a postgraduate course at TCM where he studies voice with John Wakefield. He has performed in a variety of operatic tenor roles with a variety of opera companies in the UK.
He has recently performed in Kurt Weill's Street Scene at the Young Vic, in Mozart's Don Giovanni and as Remendado (Carmen) in the Ardingly International Summer School. He has also sung Don Basilio (Nozze di Figaro), Dr. Blind (Die Fledermaus) and Remendado (Carmen) at TCM. He has recently sung in Donizetti's Elisir d' Amore with Hampstead Garden Opera (HGO), Monostatos in Mozart's The Magic Flute with Village Opera, Goro in Puccini's Madama Butterfly with Greenwich Park Opera, Tybalt in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet with West London Opera (WLO), Il Trovatore (chorus) with English Opera Singers and Britten's Curlew River (chorus) as part of Hampstead & Highgate Springfest 2009. He has also recently sung chorus in Cav and Pag with Dorset Opera, in Linda di Chamounix with the Royal Opera House, in the Monty Python -based oratorio Not the Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall and Gastone in Verdi's Traviata with Rhapsody Opera.
Future engagements include Tupman in the Ornadel's Pickwick with Imperial Productions, the Mayor in Britten's Albert Herring with TCM, Remendado in Carmen with WLO, chorus in Verdi's Otello and Strauss' Elektra with London Symphony Chorus, Fenton in scenes from Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor and in scenes from Verdi's Falstaff. Panos also sings regularly with the London & BBC Symphony Choruses, with which he has toured internationally and sung under the baton of prestigious conductors such as John Adams, Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, Mark Elder, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink and Simon Rattle.
Panos is also a regular recitalist specialising in French song repertoire. He has recently sung at Blackheath Halls and Longborough. He has also recently sung in masterclasses hosted by Robert Dean and Dame Felicity Lott. Other activities include music teaching, educational projects and language coaching (including language coaching for the BBC Singers).
Cheng-Ying Chuang
Cheng-Ying was born
in Taipei and studied in diverse genres of music since childhood. His first
experience in vocal music began as a boy treble in the Children’s Choir of
Taipei Symphony Orchestra. Since his junior high school years, he began his
study of Chinese lutes (liuqin and ruan), performed as a singer/ lutenist/
conductor in solo/ chamber/ choral/ orchestral music, and won the first prizes
of Taiwan Music Competition of Liuqin
solo in 1991 and of Chinese Orchestra in 1996 as the principal conductor of
National Taiwan University Chinese Orchestra. In 1997 he finished his study at
the National Taiwan University and was awarded the BS in Horticulture.
Cheng-Ying was awarded the Master
Degree of Landscape Architecture in 2003 at the University of Pennsylvania.
During his post-graduate study in Philadelphia, he sang as a countertenor with
the choir of St. Peter’s Church, an early music ensemble ‘Ancient Voices’
conducted by Professor William Parberry, Mendelssohn Club in Philadelphia
conducted by Professor Alan Harler, and the Conductors’ Chorus in Temple
University. He had singing lessons with American countertenor Drew Minter in
2004 and with Taiwanese soprano Jessica (Hsing-An) Chen during 2004-2005.
After winning the 4th Voice
Competition of the Celebration of Arising Stars Festival held by Taipei
Philharmonic Foundation for Culture and Education in 2004, Cheng-Ying finished
PGDip program in June 2006 and MMus program in June 2007 in the Department of Vocal
and Operatic Studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire with the Head Professor
Julian Pike and Mezzo Soprano Christine Cairns as singing teachers. He sang in
the masterclass and currently had individual lessons with Michael Chance. He
was also the 2nd prize winner of 2006 Cecil Drew Oratorio Prize and a finalist
of 2006/2007 Mario Lanza Opera Prize and of 2007 Ashleyan Opera Prize at
Birmingham Conservatoire. He was awarded Vocal Young Star of National Concert
Hall. He is a member of London Symphony Chorus and Crouch End Festival Chorus
Cheng-Ying applies his musicality
to multi-cultural concerts, projects and educational workshops. He recently
finished a recital series "Wandering Voices" in UK, performing both
Chinese and Western classical music on voice and Chinese lutes. Other
engagements have included choir's Chinese/vocal coach for Damon Albarn's
Monkey's World in O2 Centre from Oct. 2008 - Jan. 2009; as vocal/instrumental
soloist in Harmony Ensemble and iMAP Ensemble in Scotland from April 2008-now; Chinese
instrument tutor in Kingston Chinese Association in 2007-2008; the role Apollo
in Birmingham Conservatoire's early opera production Psyche in June 2007
by Matthew Lock; voice/lute lecture recital "East & West" in
Bielefeld University, Germany in April 2007: World Music project
"Faces" with England composer Mark Lockett and Indian classical
singer Sanchita Pal in April 2007; the gallery musician for Ukrainian Artist
Yuri Leiderman's exhibition Geopoetics in Birmingham IKON Gallery 2007 summer
exhibition; recitals as a Chinese lutenist/ countertenor in Birmingham ArtsFest
2006 & 2007; an organ song and a Chinese lute recitals in St Martin's
Church of Bullring in Birmingham in 2006/2007; Chinese and English lute song
recital with guitarist Liz Larner in Birmingham Cathedral; quartet solo
countertenor in English Eccentrics at Birmingham Conservatoire
production 2006; one scene as both title roles of Handel's opera Giulio
Cesare (Dec. 2005) and Ariodante (Dec. 2006) in the Opera Scenes of
Birmingham Conservatoire; countertenor solo for Bernstein's Chichester Psalms
with Taipei Philharmonic Chorus; principal conductor/concert master and
liuqin/zhongruan concerto soloist in National Taiwan University Chinese
Orchestra; ruan leader and concerto soloist in Taipei Youth Chinese
Orchestra; choir singer/soloist with Taipei Men's Glee and Taipei Philharmonic
Chorus; score arranger for Taipei Liuqin Ensemble; and conducting tutor of the
Chinese Music Association at Affiliated Senior High School of The National
Taiwan Normal University.
Anastasiya Filippochkina
Anastasiya Filippochkina is a graduate of the prestigious Eastman School of Music (NY, USA),
where she completed her Masters Degree in Music Performance and Literature.
She came to London in 2008 to join the Southbank Sinfonia, "Britain's
Orchestra of Young Professionals and the country's leading orchestral
academy". During this project she was playing with the Royal Opera
House, BBC Concert Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the
National Theatre. Recently she was invited for the trial with the BBC Concert
Orchestra.
Anastasiya
is regularly involved with various Chamber Music projects. This
summer she was performing at the Dartington International Summer School
and the Lincoln & Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival.
She is also a member of the Hummel Ensemble. Some of the recent projects
include perfromances at the Orpheus and Bucchus Music Festival
(Bordeaux. France) and at the Kings Place, under the series of
the London Chamber Music Society. Recently she returned from Paris where
she was recording a Piano Trio by a New Zealand/French composer Nigel Keay.
Anastasiya
is registered as a violin teacher with the Associated Board of the Royal School
of Music and is successfully preparing her students for the
exams, Grades 1 to 8. She also enjoys teaching piano and
theory.
Bobby Chen
Acclaimed by the Independent and Guardian in London, Irish
Examiner in Ireland, the Straits Times in Singapore, and described by
International Piano Magazine as: “...an armour-clad player of complete technique, a
thinking musician, a natural Romantic. Young bloods come no better”, Bobby
Chen burst on the scene in 1996 with a sensational season of concerts, which
included a British tour with Lord Menuhin in a performance of Beethoven’s Triple
Concerto and a recital at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the South Bank
Prokofiev Festival.
Ruth Nye, who nurtured his precocious talent at the Yehudi Menuhin
School, brought him to the Royal Academy of Music where Chen also worked with
Hamish Milne, winning no fewer than eight coveted awards, noticeably that for
‘Best Final Recital’. He was also awarded numerous scholarships and learnt with
artists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, John Lill, Charles Rosen, Nikolai Demidenko
and Krystian Zimerman.
His highly successful concerto début in 1998 with the Singapore
Symphony Orchestra playing Rachmaninov's Paganini Variations led to
collaboration with conductors Maximiliano Valdes, Lan Shui, Sir Neville
Marriner, Lord Menuhin, Pierre-Andre Valade and several orchestras including the
Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Warsaw Sinfonia and the Malaysian
Philharmonic Orchestra.
Since then, he has made appearances in British venues such as
Bridgewater Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room and the Wigmore Hall as
well as travelled to Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, China, the USA
and most of Europe. In Kuala Lumpur, his performance at the Petronas Towers of
Beethoven’s first Piano Concerto with Sir Neville Marriner was particularly
well received.
Chen’s six commercial recordings include the acclaimed ‘Live at
the Wigmore Hall’ recording and a solo CD of works by Haydn, Liszt, Schubert
and Stravinsky, both for Jaques Samuel Recordings. Chen also recorded for the ‘Cello Classics’
label with cellist Leonid Gorokhov, for Illuminate Records of Piazzolla’s piano
trio music and broadcast on Classic FM. His most recent releases include an
all-Prokofiev solo piano disc for SOMM Recordings, and a piano trio recording
for Toccata Classics.
Recent highlights include Bobby Chen’s performances of
Rachmaninov’s concerti with the
Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra under Matthias Bamert and at the Midland
Centre of the Arts in the USA, solo recitals at Fazioli Hall in Italy,
Worcester Three Choirs Festival, Guildford International Music Festival and
Marlborough College Summer School, participating in the Complete Beethoven
Sonatas Cycle as part of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts’s 70th
Anniversary Celebration in Singapore, chamber music performances at Musica Nova
Contemporary Music Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Lidköping
Music Festival in Sweden, broadcasts and interviews for Radio Television Hong
Kong and Pianoforte Chicago (USA), and celebrating Malaysia’s 50th
Anniversary as a sovereign nation with a world premiere performance of a piano
concerto with London Sinfonietta at Cadogan Hall in London.
Bobby
has just performed under the auspices of the Southern Highlands International
Piano Competition in Australia, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore
and Music for Wexford
in Ireland. He also made a welcome return to London’s Wigmore Hall, for the
third time as a solo artist, and gave world premiere performances at the
Guilford International Music Festival and the Wicklow Arts Festival. He
recently represented Malaysia in The Rising Stars Showcase Performances for the
27th Annual Federation of Asian Cultural Promotion (FACP) Conference
2009, as well as performing for the Sultan of Selangor in Kuala Lumpur. Other
activities include serving as adjudicator for two summer festivals.
As
well as his busy solo career, Bobby is also a keen chamber musician. He will
tour with the Syrius Piano Trio and with sculptor Pia de Richemont in the
coming months. A keen exponent of contemporary music, Bobby is working with
Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Tazul Tajuddin, Stephen Goss and Grant Foster.
