Wednesday September 9th 7.30 pm

Jiafeng Chen (violin) Alexis White (piano)

Debussy : Violin sonata
Paganini : Caprice no 9
Beethoven: Violin sonata in G Op 96

The Pente Wind Ensemble

Ibert: Three short pieces for wind quintet
Nielsen: Wind Quintet Op 43

Admission free with retiring collection. No tickets issued beforehand 

Jiafeng Chen (violin) was born in Shanghai in 1987, and studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 2004 he moved to England, studying at Chetham's School of Music, Manchester. He subsequently studied at the Royal College of Music, and the Juillard School in New York. In 2005, aged 18, Jiafeng Chen won 2nd Prize in the prestigious Sibelius Violin Competition, Helsinki, and later gained 1st Prize at the 9th Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Poland. He is also a Laureate of the Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition and was awarded the Paganini Prize at the Indianapolis International Violin Competition, and the Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He is a member of faculty at the Chetham's School of Muic and the Birmingham Conservatoire, and also works at the Royal College of Music as a Violin Teaching Assistant. He plays a Gagliano violin kindly on loan from a generous group of owners.

Alexis White (piano) studied at the Menuhin School , the Royal Northern College of Music and the Eastman School of Music in USA. She won many prestigious prizes and scholarships, most notably First Prize in the 7th Noyers International Piano Competition in France , and has performed in prestigious venues throughout the UK and abroad. She has collaborated with many distinguished musicians, has broadcast on the radio and featured for several years as a Countess of Muster Artist. She is currently one of the staff pianists at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and Head of Keyboard at St Paul's Girls' School.

The Pénte Ensemble is a recently established wind quintet based in London, consisting of five postgraduate scholarship students, at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Having formed in September 2014, notable performances already include recitals and concerts at venues such as St James' Church, Piccadilly, the National Maritime Museum and Southwark Cathedral. Individually, members of the group are forging successful freelance careers, winning many awards between them including the Sir James Galway's Rising Star Award, June Emerson Launchpad Prize, and both Wilfred Hambleton Chamber Music and Clarinet prizes. Collectively, members of the ensemble have performed with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Festival Sinfonia and the English Festival Orchestra. Future performing highlights include a collaborative, side-by-side project with the New London Chamber Ensemble on a work by Philip Cashian, Head of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music. In June, the ensemble opened the annual All Hallows' Music Festival in Twickenham with a full evening recital of 20th century music.

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