Introducing the performers…

Daniel Lebhardt

Young Hungarian pianist Daniel Lebhardt has impressed audiences and critics alike with his thoughtful interpretations and outstanding virtuosity. Daniel won First Prize at the 2014 Young Concert Artists Auditions in Paris, and then won YCA’s International Auditions in New York, where he was also awarded the Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize and four concert prizes. Among his many other accolades, Daniel won First Prize at the Russian Music International Piano Competition in California, First Prize at the Citta di Gorizia International Piano Competition in Italy, First Prize at the Kosice International Piano Competition in Slovakia, and First Prize at the Carl Filtsch International Piano Competition in Romania. Most recently, he won the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) 2015 Auditions in London.

Daniel mades his recital debuts in the Young Concert Artists Series at the Kennedy Center in February 2016 and in New York in the Rhoda Walker Teagle Concert on March 1. He also appeared in recitals for the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music Series, the Port Washington Library, the Levine School of Music, and the Paramount Theatre. In the UK, Danielhas appeared in recital at London’s Steinway Hall, the Colston Hall in Bristol, the Pounds Arts Centre in Wiltshire, the North Fylde Music Circle, the Darlington Piano Society, and as soloist with the Plymouth Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed at Germany’s Usedom Music Festival and given recitals at the Bela Bartok Memorial House in Budapest, at the Senate House in London, at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, and at various concert venues in Hungary, Austria and Japan. As a result of winning the Royal Academy of Music’s prestigious Patron’s Award, Daniel gave his Wigmore Hall recital debut in May 2015.

As a very active chamber musician, Daniel performed at the BBC Proms in a Composer Portrait of Olga Neuwirth, which was recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in 2012). He has also performed with Mark van de Wiel, principal clarinet of the Philharmonia Orchestra, in the Clarinet Sonatas by Brahms.

“Taking a daringly fast tempo, Mr. Lebhardt dispatched the music [Beethoven’s Sonata no 16 in G, op 31, no 1] with scintillating crispness and conveyed its brash humor. But the breathless energy of his account also teased out the sonata’s heedless daring. He revealed the slyness at work in the Adagio, with its almost mock-elegant trills and swirling passagework. The final Rondo was an impish, brilliant delight.”

New York Times

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Castalian Quartet

Sini Simonen (violin)
Daniel Roberts (violin)
Charlotte Bonneton (viola)
Christopher Graves (cello)

The Castalian String Quartet are fast becoming a favourite with audiences in the United Kingdom and elsewhere for their “richly romantic energy and passion” (Strad Magazine). Founded in 2011, the quartet have been the beneficiary of awards from the Royal Over-Seas League (2011 Elias Fawcett Trust Award); the Countess of Munster Trust; the Tunnell Trust; the Royal Philharmonic Society; St Peter’s Eaton Square; Kirckman Concert Society and Mozarteum de France. In 2013, the Castalian String Quartet won both the Audience Prize and First Prize in the Kammermusik Hannover Next Generation Competition, broadcast on German radio station NDR. Two years later, they won First Prize at the 2015 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition. In 2018, the quartet received the prestigious inaugural MERITO String Quartet Award and Valentin Erben Prize, and won a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Award.

The quartet recently gave their debut concerts in North America at the Phillips Collection, Washington DC; the Lincoln Center, New York; the Salle Bourgie in Montreal and the Vancouver Recital Society.. They have also played the Konzerthaus Vienna, Theatre d’Orleans, Louvre, Paris, Flagey, Brussels and in Lucerne. Other recent highlights include performances of the complete Haydn opus 76 Quartets at Wigmore Hall, and concerts at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Heidelberger Frühling, East Neuk, Zwischentöne Festival in Engelberg, Neuchatel Chamber Music in Switzerland and Banff International Festivals. Further afield, they undertook tours of China and Colombia.

The Castalian Quartet have performed widely throughout Europe as part of the Hamburg Chamber Music Series; International Musikfest Goslar; Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker; Quartet Affairs in Frankfurt (broadcast by NDR); French festivals in Queille and Conques; and the Aldeburgh, East Neuk, North Norfolk and Peasmarsh festivals. In 2017 they were resident at the Esbjerg International Chamber Music Festival in Denmark, Festival Musique d’Été à Suzette near Avignon, and Snape Maltings. They have collaborated with Nils Mönkemeyer, Alasdair Beatson, Simon Rowland-Jones, Daniel Lebhardt and Olivier Stankiewicz, among many others.

The quartet’s recording of works by Mendelssohn for the Champs Hill label was awarded BBC Music Magazine’s “Critic’s Choice” in September 2014 and “Chamber Music Disc of the Quarter” by the German Record Critics Association.  The same year, they graduated from the Hannover University of Music, Dance and Theatre with a Masters Degree in Chamber Music, studying with their mentor Oliver Wille. The quartet have also worked closely with Thomas Brandis and Levon Chilingirian.

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