Introducing the performers…

Elena Urioste (violin)

Elena Urioste is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Joseph Silverstein, Pamela Frank, and Ida Kavafian. She completed graduate studies with Joel Smirnoff at The Juilliard School. Other notable teachers include David Cerone, Choong-Jin Chang, Soovin Kim, and the late Rafael Druian.

Selected as a BBC New Generation Artist and featured on the cover of Symphony magazine, Elena has been hailed by critics and audiences alike for her lush tone, the nuanced lyricism of her playing, and her commanding stage presence. Elena is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Joseph Silverstein, Pamela Frank, and Ida Kavafian. She completed graduate studies with Joel Smirnoff at The Juilliard School. Other notable teachers include David Cerone, Choong-Jin Chang, Soovin Kim, and the late Rafael Druian.Since first appearing with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age thirteen, she has made acclaimed debuts with major orchestras throughout the United States, including the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Chicago, National, Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Richmond, and San Antonio Symphony Orchestras.

Elena has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Würzburg Philharmonic, Hungary’s Orchestra Dohnányi Budafok and MAV Orchestra, and La Orquesta Sinfonica de la Universidad de Guanajuato. She has performed recitals in such distinguished venues as Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Sage Gateshead in Newcastle, and the Mondavi Center at the University of California-Davis. Other engagements have included return performances with the Chicago Symphony and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, the BBC Philharmonic, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; and debuts with the Tucson, Asheville, and Edmonton Symphony Orchestras, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the New York Youth Symphony, with whom she toured Argentina in the summer of 2015.

Elena’s awards include the inaugural Sphinx Medal of Excellence, a London Music Masters Award, a Salon de Virtuosi career grant, and first prize in the Sion International Violin Competition, which also awarded her its audience prize and the prize for best performance of the competition’s newly commissioned work.

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Tom Poster (piano)

Tom Poster is internationally recognised as a pianist of outstanding artistry and versatility, equally in demand as a soloist and chamber musician across an unusually extensive repertoire. Tom studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he held a Postgraduate Fellowship, and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he gained a Double First in Music. He won First Prize at the Scottish International Piano Competition 2007, the Ensemble Prize at the Honens International Piano Competition 2009, and the keyboard sections of the Royal Over-Seas League and BBC Young Musician of the Year Competitions in 2000.

Since his London concerto debut at the age of 13, Tom has appeared in a wide-ranging concerto repertoire of over 40 major works. He features regularly on BBC radio and television and has made multiple appearances at the BBC Proms. He has given solo recitals at the Aberystwyth, Brighton, Cambridge, City of London, Edinburgh, Hay, North Norfolk, Presteigne, Spoleto and Two Moors Festivals, as well as in Canada, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. As pianist of the Aronowitz Ensemble (former BBC New Generation Artists), he has appeared at the Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall and the Aldeburgh, Bath and Cheltenham Festivals.

Tom’s other chamber music collaborations include performances with the Adderbury Ensemble, Alison Balsom, Ian Bostridge, Laura van der Heijden, Steven Isserlis, Guy Johnston and Huw Watkins. Tom is a regular guest at numerous chamber music festivals and has performed piano quintets with the Badke, Brodsky, Carducci, Danish, Elias, Endellion, Heath, Martinu, Medici, Navarra, Sacconi, Skampa and Tippett Quartets. He has recorded three discs for Chandos with Jennifer Pike and the Doric Quartet; two discs for Sonimage with the Aronowitz Ensemble; works by Thomas Ades for EMI; piano transcriptions for Decca Classics; and a critically-acclaimed debut solo CD, In Dance and Song, for Champs Hill Records. His first album for Edition Classics, Light and Shadows, was released in June 2015. He also regularly features as soloist on film and television soundtracks, including the Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe-winning score for The Theory of Everything.

Alongside his busy pianistic career, Tom has appeared as presenter and guest expert on BBC television and radio, given masterclasses at Dartington International Summer School and in Singapore, acted as Artistic Director of Chacombe Music Festival, and moonlighted as conductor, cellist, oboist, recorder player and reciter (Walton’s Façade). Tom’s arrangements of Gershwin and Cole Porter songs have been extensively performed and recorded, while commissions undertaken as a composer include two works for Alison Balsom; a chamber opera, The Depraved Appetite of Tarrare the Freak, for Wattle & Daub Figure Theatre; and the soundtrack for Perfect Features’ film, A Million Happy Nows.

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