Hanover Square Lunchtime Concert: Trio Musae

Today's Hanover Square Lunchtime Concert is given by the Trio Musae, a piano trio comprising Kenza Stamselberg, violin, Louis Hirst, cello and Rebekah Tan, piano, performing the following programme:

Mel Bonis - Soir et Matin Op. 76

Rebecca Clarke - Lullaby and Grotesque for viola and cello (transcribed for violin and cello)

Babadjanian - Piano Trio in F sharp minor

British violinist Kenza Stamselberg began her violin studies at the age of six and was later awarded a place at the Junior Guildhall, under Professor Boris Kucharsky. In 2018 she was accepted into the Yehudi Menuhin School, continuing her studies with Boris Kucharsky and later Ning Kam. Kenza will begin her bachelor’s degree at the Royal College of Music in September 2024, studying under Professor Radu Blidar.

As a soloist, Kenza has performed numerous recitals around the UK, most recently touring Scotland in May 2024. She has appeared as soloist with the Yehudi Menuhin School orchestra in the Menuhin Hall Winter Festival 2023 and has performed at the Proms at St Judes. Kenza has also performed solo recitals to raise money for the Youth Music Charity, aiming to provide musical opportunities for young individuals in Britain. Similarly, she performs annually at the Firefly International Gala to fundraise for children affected by war.

A keen chamber musician, Kenza has collaborated with renowned artists such as Natalia Lomeiko, Dinara Klinton, Sally Beamish and the Maxwell Quartet. She has performed at Kings Place, the Menuhin Hall, the Banstead Arts Festival, Milton Court, Blair Castle, the Petworth Festival and other venues across the UK. As an orchestral musician, Kenza led the National Children’s Orchestra from 2016-2019 and has performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Bridgewater Hall and Birmingham Symphony Hall. She has been an active member of the Odyssey Festival Orchestra since their inauguration concert in 2022. She has also toured with the Menuhin School Orchestra across England as well as at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland.

Kenza has attended masterclasses with many acclaimed musicians, both as a soloist and in chamber music. As a soloist she has worked with Nicola Benedetti, Tobias Feldmann and Paul Coker. She also took part at the Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum Salzburg in 2022 with Barbara Doll, as well as the Festival Academy Budapest in 2023, receiving lessons from Hagai Shaham and Jonian Illias Kadesha. Kenza has also worked with Alexander Sitkovetksy, Maxim Rysanov, Tasmin Little, Robert Levin and the Modigliani Quartet.

Kenza is very grateful to be supported by the Albert Cooper Trust and Talent Unlimited.

Louis Hirst began playing the cello at the age of five. After 10 years with is first teacher, Olaf Krüger, he switched to the Zurich Conservatoire where he was taught for three years by Rebecca Firth. Here he also attended the Pre-College program which he completed together with his high school diploma in the summer of 2024. In September of the same year he started his Bachelor studies at the Royal College of Music in London, where he is taught by Melissa Phelps.

Louis was a member and principal cellist of the Zurich Youth Symphony Orchestra, giving concerts throughout Switzerland and the world, with recent tours having taken place in Spain and South Korea. The Orchestra is a Junior Partner of the famous Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, with whom the young musicians receive professional coaching. As a soloist or part of a chamber group Louis has taken taken part at many competitions, especially the Swiss Youth Music Competition, where he has won numerous first prizes throughout past years. At masterclasses he has had the pleasure to learn from internationally acclaimed cellists such as Thomas Grossenbacher, Raphael Wallfisch, Michael Sanderling and many others.

Rebekah Yinuo Tan was born in August 2006 in Shanghai. Inspired to become a concert pianist after hearing Chopin’s music in a live concert when she was 7, she started taking formal piano lessons half a year later with Zijie Wu, professor at the affiliated school of the Shanghai Music Conservatoire. She has played in many concerts in China, including in the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, and won the First Prize in Category C of the China National Finals in the Asian Young Pianists’ Competition. In 2017, she participated in the Manchester International Piano Concerto Competition and was awarded highly commended and received a full scholarship to attend Chetham’s Piano Summer School. In Nov 2017, Rebekah joined Chetham’s School of Music to study with Marta Karbownicka, and then with Helen Krizos from 2019. Since September 2024, Rebekah has been studying at Royal College of Music in London, under Professor Dmitri Alexeev.

During her time at Chetham’s, Rebekah won both the junior and senior categories of the Chetham’s Concerto Competitions, which are open to all instruments, at the age of 13 with the Grieg Piano Concerto, as the only pianist selected in the school. As a result, she gave two public concerto performances in The Stoller Hall, Manchester. This includes a performance of Prokofiev’s 3rd Piano Concerto in Feb 2022, under the baton of Jonathan Bloxham with the Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra.

As a soloist, Rebekah has performed in many concerts in England and abroad. Highlights include St Martin-in-the-Fields (London), Sidney Sussex College (Cambridge), the Bridgewater Hall, and Legnica Art Centre, as well as solo recitals at The Bridge (Shanghai), Chester Methodist Church, Manchester Cathedral, and Bury Parish Church. Competition successes include being the national winner of the EPTA 12-and-under category, and in the following year, the 15-and-under. In 2021 she won the Gold Hands Prize in the Carls and Sofia Piano Competition in the Emergent Class (ages 17-21), and in 2023 she won the Chetham’s Beethoven Competition. Recently, she took part in the 2022 Ettlingen International Piano Competition (Category B), and the 2023 Junior Hilton Head International Piano Competition. She was the recipient of the Vernon D Farley Piano Prize in her final year at Chetham’s. She was also selected as a Junior Drake Calleja Trust Scholar from 2023-2024. Since 2024 she has been kindly supported by Talent Unlimited.

Rebekah has had the privilege to work with top musicians in masterclasses. These include Boris Berman, Piotr Paleczny, Vanessa Latarche, Stephen Hough, Freddy Kempf, Charles Owen, Steven Osborne, Dina Yoffe, Kathryn Stott, and Yoshikazu Nagai. She is also very grateful for having been mentored by Christopher Elton.

Rebekah is also an avid collaborative pianist. She has worked with many string chamber groups, which led to performances in venues including the Bridgewater Hall (as part of the BBC Philharmonic Preconcert Series), and St James Piccadilly (London). As a repetiteur, she has worked with many vocalists and choruses in concerts, opera scenes, and in the Manchester Song Festival.