Trio for Piano, Viola & Mezzo-Soprano

PROGRAMME – Scotland Based Modern Composers

• Erin Thomson - Imagine, for soprano, piano and viola (2023) – Text:Amy Lowell
• Tom David Wilson - Kirschenbaum Songs – Text: Lydia Kirschenbaum
• Oliver Iredale Searle– Postcards from the Barras (2022) – Text from the postcards

MUSICIANS

Baichuan Hui (Piano)

Baichuan Hui is an accomplished and actively versatile pianist in solo and chamber music repertoire. She is ‘a first-class musician with cultivated taste,’ (Aaron Shorr) with ‘virtuoso technique, real temperament and flair’ (Fali Pavri), and her performance work has been described as having ‘undiluted emotional drama: hope, joy, fear, confusion, and despair.’ (Snack Magazine) Baichuan has performed in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Beijing, Xuzhou, Shijiazhuang, and Ningxia, at venues including the Royal Concert Hall, House for an Art Lover, the Scottish Music Centre, Ningxia Theatre and Steinway Hall in Beijing, China. She also has appeared at the Hidden Door Festival in Edinburgh, and she is featured in ‘Music for First Contact’, an interdisciplinary electronic opera album with Scottish band Post Coal Prom Queen. Baichuan has won several competition prizes, including the Agustin Aponte International Music Competition (second prize), the 7th Shenzhen Piano Open Competition (first prize) and the Jock Holden Memorial Mozart Prize (first prize). She has participated in international festivals and masterclasses as both a soloist and chamber musician, including masterclasses with Malcolm Martineau, John Thwaites, Meiting Sun, Steven Osborne, Roy Howat, Ashley Wass, Dina Yoffe, Cristina Ortiz, Ian Fountain and Jean-Efflam Bavouze.

Baichuan began learning piano at four years of age. At age 12 she gained a place at the China Conservatory Affiliated High School, studying with Professor Xiaoxue Hu. In 2013, Baichuan was awarded an ABRSM full scholarship to study for the degree of Bachelor of Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) under the tutelage of Professor Aaron Shorr. Baichuan was awarded a full scholarship by RCS Trust to undertake postgraduate studies at RCS and has since been awarded a Masters degree in Music and thereafter in 2021, an Artist Diploma under the guidance of Professors Aaron Shorr and Fali Pavri. She is currently studying towards a Doctor of Performing Arts (D.Perf.) jointly supervised by the RCS and the University of St Andrews. Her area of study focuses on Jewish composers whose lives and music were suppressed by the Nazi regime during the Second World War. In 2019, she achieved a Diploma in Piano Teaching from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). She works regularly with students of RCS Junior Conservatoire as Deputy Piano Lecturer since 2021, and has been appointed as Lecturer in Piano Performance in RCS Junior Conservatoire in 2024. https://www.baichuanhui.co.uk/

Sarah Hanniffy (Viola)

Sarah Hanniffy is an Irish violist studying under the tutelage of Dr. Lev Atlas at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Following her graduation from the BMus course in 2024, she is currently participating in an orchestral fellowship with the Scottish Conservatoire.

Sarah is an avid chamber musician and regularly travels between Scotland and Italy for masterclasses and performances with Xenia Chamber Music and is featured in Nikita Lukinov’s Scottish Tour. In addition to performing in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Het Concertgebouw and Slovak Radio Hall, Sarah has performed with the Irish, Ulster, Welsh National Youth Orchestras and was the principal violist of the Scottish National Youth Orchestra in 2021 and 2023. Hanniffy is a decorated orchestral having played with Scottish Opera, Scottish Ensemble, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

From growing up in the west of Ireland, Sarah also has an affinity for traditional music and has a keen interest for cross-genre music. She has performed with the GRIT Orchestra and Qawwali Orchestra at Celtic Connections as well as with Natasha Bedingfield, Sharon Shannon, and Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro. Hanniffy is a member of the Sòlás Collective with Fionnlagh Mac A’Phiocair and Tom Macfadyen, which features music from the Irish and Scottish Gaelic cultures. Sarah and Fionnlagh made features on Classic FM for their performance with the King’s Foundation in London and have performed at private concerts for HM King Charles III and the President of Sierra Leone. Sarah Hanniffy's performances have also been broadcast on RTÉ Lyric FM, TG4, BBC Radio Scotland Classical Now and Travelling Folk.

In 2020, Sarah was awarded with the Eimear Noonan Award of Excellence and in 2021, the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrument Purchase Grant. Within the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2023, she won the Highly Commended Award at the Watson Forbes Viola Competition.

Lizzie Fletcher (Mezzo-Soprano)

Lizzie Fletcher is a mezzo-soprano, originally from Southampton. She graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance with BMus in Classical Vocal Performance in 2023, where she studied under the instruction of Joan Rodgers and Andrew Matthew-Owens. She decided to continue her studies starting an MA in Vocal Performance at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2024 under Kathleen Mckellar Ferguson and Michael Bawtree.

As well as singing in many solo settings, Lizzie has continued her passion for choral music, holding choral scholarships throughout her studies. While in London she sang with the BBC Symphony chorus, singing under Jules Buckley with Father John Misty (The Barbican, May 2023) and during the BBC Proms. Recently, she has performed as Hansel (Hansel and Gretel, Humperdinck) and Dorabella (Cosi Fan Tutte, Mozart) in RCS opera scenes.

As well as enjoying singing, Lizzie is passionate about community outreach work. She has been actively involved in many community projects, including Music and Theatre for All's Urban Opera Project, Constella Operaballet and working as a mentor facilitator with Singing for Parkinson’s.

COMPOSERS

Erin Thomson

Erin Thomson is a composer and music educator whose works have been performed at prestigious venues across Scotland, London, Dublin, and New York by renowned ensembles such as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia. Her music is featured on Live Music Now Scotland’s 40th Anniversary album, Building Castles, and in 2024, was commissioned by James MacMillan to compose a new work for SATB choir and solo trumpet, premiered at the Cumnock Tryst Festival. Erin is dedicated to fostering creativity through education and community engagement across Scotland.

Tom David Wilson

Tom David Wilson was born in Manchester in 1957. In the 1970's he was a student at theBirmingham Conservatoire where he studied composition with Andrew Downs. In the1980's he was a student at Goldsmiths College, London University where he spent five years studying composition with Melanie Dakin and Edward Gregson. For ten years he was Head of Woodwind and Tutor for Academic Music at Uppingham School in Rutland but since 1989 he has lived in Glasgow and Musselburgh. He teaches composition at theRoyal Conservatoire of Scotland. He is married to Emma and has two children; Rachel andJames. Recent performances include the premiere of his Concertante Viola in Edinburgh,March 2024, with Emilian-Teodor Danila as soloist.Selected works are available through the RCS Library, the Scottish Music Centre or via thecomposer directly via t.wilson@rcs.ac.uk

Oliver Iredale Searle

Oliver is a Glasgow-based composer and educator and is Head of Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He has written a wide variety of works for many professional, amateur, youth and theatre organisations, which have been broadcast and performed around the world, and is interested in developing new environments for new music, collaborating with other artists and organisations to find ways to communicate to new audiences.