Associate Artists

As Composer in Residence, Sally Beamish’s works will feature in concerts at The Menuhin Hall, our professional concert venue, throughout the year and pupils will have an opportunity to work with her directly in concert preparation. Beamish will visit the school for talks, seminars and workshops about her career and composition, and she will provide coaching for pupils studying first-study composition at the School. An accomplished violist and chamber musician, she will also perform alongside pupils in concerts.

Sally Beamish was born in London. She studied viola at the RNCM with Patrick Ireland and in Detmold with Bruno Giuranna and was a founder member of the Raphael Ensemble. In her early career, Beamish performed regularly with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and the London Sinfonietta and was principal viola in the London Mozart Players and Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

In 1990, she moved from London to Scotland to develop her career as a composer. Her music embraces many influences - particularly jazz and Scottish traditional music.

She has recently moved to Brighton and is married to writer Peter Thomson. She still performs regularly as violist, pianist and narrator.

In February 2012 and July 2015, Beamish was BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week.

Her ballet, The Tempest, (for Birmingham Royal Ballet and Houston Ballet with choreographer Sir David Bintley), was premiered in October 2016 at Birmingham Hippodrome and Sadler's Wells, London, with the US premiere by Houston Ballet in May 2017.

Her second ballet, The Little Mermaid (choreographer David Nixon OBE), was premiered in September 2017 by Northern Ballet and toured the UK with 75 performances. The ballet toured the UK again in Autumn 2022.

In 2018, she was a featured composer at the Ryedale and Trondheim festivals, performing with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as narrator and with the Elias and Chilingirian Quartets on viola, as well as several appearances as pianist.

From 2018-2020, Beamish was composer-in-residence with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields for which she wrote Partita for string quartet and Hover for oboes, horns and string orchestra which was featured at the Academy's 60th anniversary gala concert at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in November 2019.

Sally Beamish is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow, a Creative Scotland Award, and a Paul Hamlyn Award, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2018, she was awarded the Inspiration Award at the British Composer Awards in recognition of lifetime achievement and in 2020 was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. She was recently appointed as an international fellow of the Royal Swedish musical academy.

Distans - a concerto for violinist Janine Jansen and clarinettist Martin Fröst – was commissioned by the Concertgebouw, Swedish Radio Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, and London Symphony Orchestras. The premiere performance was given in May 2021 by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Johannes Gustavsson. It received its Dutch premiere in Amsterdam with the Concertgebouw conducted by Klaus Mäkelä in April 2023, and the London premiere will be at the Barbican in June 2024, with the LSO conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

In March 2022, Beamish premiered a new work for viola, piano and speaker, commissioned by her long-term patron, Dr Gerry Mattock, with pianist Roland Roberts, and speaker Peter Thomson. This was part of a joint celebration for her 65th birthday, and that of the Park Lane Group, at the Royal Overseas League in London. In this concert, she also gave the London premiere of Albatross, as pianist with saxophonist Branford Marsalis. She plays on a viola made by her daughter, Stephanie Irvine.

Her choral piece, A Knock on the Door (libretto by Peter Thomson), commissioned by Quakers Concern for the Abolition of Torture, was premiered by Ex Cathedra at Birmingham Town Hall in Autumn 2022.

With Sir David Bintley, Beamish is currently working on her third full-length ballet, A Christmas Carol, to be premiered by Finnish National Ballet in December 2023. In June Roderick Williams (baritone) performed her Four Songs from Hafez, with the Sinfonia of London conducted by John Wilson, at the Aldeburgh Festival. This year has also seen the world premiere of ‘Trance’ for Piano Trio, commissioned and performed by Trio Gaspard.

As a performer, she is a member of the string quintet Ensemble V, and also the York Road Band, with guitarist Arthur Dick and Peter Thomson on vocals/bass. She has also performed in the Ryedale, Trondheim, Peasmarsh and Oxford Festivals.

Sally Beamish’s music is published by Edition Peters and by Norsk Musikforlag. Since 1999, her music has been championed by the Swedish/International Record company BIS and many of her recordings can be found on this label.

In 2006 the Scottish National Portrait Gallery purchased a portrait of Sally for their permanent collection The screenprint was made by printmaker-artist Shelagh Atkinson.

Since making his London debut in 2009, Mahan Esfahani has established himself as the first harpsichordist in a generation whose work spans virtually all the areas of classical music-making from critically-acclaimed performances and recordings of the standard repertoire to working with the leading composers of the day to pioneering concerto appearances with major symphony orchestras on four continents. He was the first and only harpsichordist to be a BBC New Generation Artist (2008-2010), a Borletti-Buitoni prize winner (2009), a nominee for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year (2014, 2015, 2017), and on the shortlist as Instrumentalist of the Year for the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards (2013, 2019).

As a concerto soloist his partners at the podium have included leading conductors such as Leif Segerstam, François Xavier-Roth, Ilan Volkov, Riccardo Minasi, Ludovic Morlot, Alexander Liebreich, Martyn Brabbins, Thomas Dausgaard, Jiří Rožeň, Antoni Wit, Thierry Fischer, Jiří Bělohlávek, and Andris Poga with major symphony and chamber orchestras and contemporary music ensembles. He also varies his solo engagements with meaningful chamber music partnerships alongside artists such as Antje Weithaas (violin), Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Michala Petri (recorder), and Hille Perl (viola da gamba).

Esfahani’s work with new and modern music is particularly acclaimed, with high-profile solo and concertante commissions from George Lewis, Brett Dean, Bent Sørensen, Miroslav Srnka, Poul Ruders, Anahita Abbasi, Laurence Osborne, Gary Carpenter, Miroslav Srnka, Elena Kats-Chernin, Oscar Jockel, Daniel Kidane, Michael Berkeley, and other contemporary voices in forming the backbone of his repertoire. His commitment to exploring the contemporary voice for the harpsichord is reflected in his 2020 Hyperion release ‘Musique?’ – a compilation of electronic and acoustic works including the modern revival of Luc Ferrari’s 1974 Programme commun for harpsichord and tape.

His richly-varied discography for Hyperion and Deutsch Grammophon – including an ongoing series of the complete works of Bach for the former – has been acclaimed in the English- and foreign-language press and has garnered one Gramophone award, two BBC Music Magazine Awards, a Diapason d’Or and ‘Choc de Classica’ in France, and an ICMA as well as numerous Editor’s Choices in a variety of publications including a spot in the Telegraph’s compilation of essential classical music and the New York Times List of Top Recordings.

He can be frequently heard as a commentator on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and as a host for such programs as Record Review, Building a Library, and Sunday Feature, as well as in live programmes with the popular mathematician and presenter Marcus du Sautoy; for the BBC’s Sunday Feature he is currently at work on his fourth radio documentary following popular programmes on such subjects as the early history of African-American composers in the classical sphere and the development of orchestral music in Azerbaijan. Likewise, he is a regular contributor of cultural commentary and reviews for such publications as The Critic, Engelsberg Ideas, The New Yorker, Guardian, Times, and other print media.

Born in Tehran in 1984, Esfahani grew up in the United States and studied musicology and history at Stanford University and worked as a repetiteur and studied in Boston with Peter Watchorn before completing his studies in Prague with the celebrated Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková. Following several years spent in Milan, Oxford, and London, he now makes his home in Prague.

In recognition of his contributions to the classical music field, Mahan Esfahani was awarded the 2022 Wigmore Hall Prize.

Grammy nominated Ukrainian-British violist and conductor Maxim Rysanov has established himself as one of the worldʼs most vibrant and charismatic musicians. As a violist, he is principally known as a frequent guest of the crème of the international music scene, such as BBC Last Night of the Proms and the festivals of Edinburgh, Salzburg and Verbier.

Among his concerto highlights are the Mariinsky Orchestra (Valery Gergiev), Russian National Orchestra (Mikhail Pletnev), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Jiří Bělohlávek), Residentie Orkest the Hague (Neeme Jarvi), Svetlanov State Symphony Orchestra (Vladimir Jurovsky), Seattle Symphony (Andrey Boreyko), Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Vasily Petrenko), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (Tugan Sokhiev), Moscow Philharmonic (Yuri Simonov), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (Vassily Sinaisky), Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne (Sir Mark Elder), Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Philippe Herreweghe), NDR Philharmonic Orchestra (Eivind Gullberg Jensen), Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (Juraj Valcuha and again with Michał Nesterowicz), Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (Arvo Volmer), Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Michael Schoenwandt), Shanghai Symphony (Long Yu), European Union Youth Orchestra (Matthias Bamert), Czech Filharmonic (John Axelrod), Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Olari Elts), Spanish National Orchestra (Josep Caballe Domenech) and Beethovenorchester Bonn (Dirk Kaftan).

Maxim enjoys a busy career as a conductor parallel to playing the viola. Often he combines conducting and directing a concerto from viola. Maxim studied conducting with Alan Hazeldine at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has taken part in several masterclasses with Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Jorma Panula. Here are some of the orchestras he conducted: Svetlanov State Symphony Orchestra, La Verdi Orchestra Milan, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Tatarstan State Symphony Orchestra, Spanish Radio Orchestra (RTVE), Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Dala Sinfonietta, Danubia Symphony Budapest, London Mozart Players, Southbank Sinfonia, Riga Sinfonietta, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, I Musici de Montreal, Detmold Chamber Orchestra, Musica Viva (Moscow), Voronezh Youth Orchestra, Kiev Soloists, Częstochowa Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Chaarts, Budapest Festival Academy Orchestra, Classic FM Orchestra (Bulgaria), Georgian National Symphony Orchestra, Plovdiv Philharmonic, Sofia Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Sofia Philharmonic, Pfortseim Theatre Orchestra, Badische Philharmonie, Vivaldi Orchestra Morbegno.

Maxim is a keen chamber musician. His chamber partners include Maxim Vengerov, Janine Jansen, Mischa Maisky, Gidon Kremer, Nicola Benedetti, Vadim Repin, Augustin Dumay, Viktoria Mullova, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Sol Gabetta, Leif Ove Andsnes, Denis Matsuev, Alessio Bax, Michael Collins, Martin Frost, Alice Coote, Freddy Kempf, Yeoelom Son among others.

His enthusiasm for new music generates many exciting collaborations which extend the viola repertoire. This includes world premieres by Dobrinka Tabakova, Pēteris Vasks, Richard Dubugnon, Mate Balogh and Elena Langer. Other composers with whom Maxim has developed a close working relationship include Benjamin Yusupov, Leonid Desyatnikov, Giya Kancheli and most recently Gabriel Prokofiev. Gabriel is planning to write a symphony-concerto for Maxim, where the performer will have to combine skills of both soloist and conductor.

Maxim's recordings have gained numerous award nominations including Gramophone Editor's Choice, ECHO, ICMA. Maxim featured as both soloist and conductor on the debut disc of composer Dobrinka Tabakova (ECM) in 2013 - a disc that reached number 2 in the UK classical charts and was shortlisted for a Grammy Award. His last album “in Schubert’s company” was selected as Gramophone Critic’s Choice of the Year. New CD is planned for a spring 2020 release on BIS. Sinfonietta Riga under Maxim’s direction are performing music by Peteris Vasks. It will include the premier recording of the Viola Concerto written and dedicated to Maxim, coupled with the Symphony no 1.

Maxim is a recipient of various awards, including the Gramophone Young Artist of the Year Award and the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Award. He is also a prize-winner at the Geneva, Lionel Tertis and Valentino Bucchi competitions.

Maxim studied viola with Maria Sitkovskaya in Moscow and John Glickman at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama London.

Alexander Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow into a family with a well-established musical tradition. His concerto debut came at the age of eight, and in the same year he moved to the UK to study at the Menuhin School. Lord Menuhin was his inspiration throughout his school years and they performed together on several occasions.

Highlights of his recent concerto performances include appearances with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonietta Rīga, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin’s in the Fields, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bolivia, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orkest The Hague, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Welsh National Opera Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and the Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau.

He is also much in demand as a director and has directed and performed as a soloist regularly with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, London Mozart Players, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Players, Camerata Zurich and the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.

He is also regularly invited as guest soloist with orchestras touring the UK and these have recently included the Russian Philharmonic Novosibirsk, Brussels Philharmonic, St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, and the Tonkünstler Orchester.

The forthcoming season will see his debuts with the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra Tennessee and Romanian Sinfonietta, as well as return visits to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonietta Rīga, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Youth Orchestra, and Camerata Salzburg. Further highlights will be appearances at various chamber music festivals and venues, tours with the Julia Fischer Quartet and the Sitkovetsky Trio and extensive periods of chamber music in Australia and the USA. His critically acclaimed CPO recording of Andrzej Panufnik’s Violin Concerto with the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin commemorating the composer’s 100th birthday won an ICMA Special Achievement Award. His most recent recording with the English Symphony Orchestra of the Philip Sawyers’s Violin Concerto was released to great critical acclaim.

Born in Odessa, Pavel Vernikov graduated from the famous "Stolyarsky Music School" where he studied together with L. and B. Mordkovich. Having been a student of D. Oistrach and S. Snitkowsky at the Moscow State Tchaikovskiy Conservatory, he gained an international reputation as a virtuoso violinist. Among his many awards he won the prestigious ARD Violin Competition in Munich and the Grand Prix International Violin Competition "Vittorio Gui" in Florence. He has since appeared around the world at such renowned venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall as well as the Kennedy Center in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, La Salle Gaveau in Paris, Auditorio National in Madrid, Santory Hall in Tokyo, La Scala in Milan and Santa Cecilia in Rome.

His musical interests and artistic ideas are endless, ranging from the classical repetoire to the modern composers of today. Experimenting with art and drama, he has collaborated and opened a new perspective of music to the world, presenting both music and modern art to the concert stage. Among his many chamber music partners are Sviatoslav Richter, James Galway, Alain Meunier, Patrick Gallois, Misha Maisky, Maria Tipo, Natalia Gutman, Oleg Kagan, Yuri Bashmet, Elisso Virsaladze, Christian Zimmermann, Anthony Pay, Andres Mustonen, Gary Hoffman, Frans Helmerson, Julian Rachlin, Janine Jansen along with many others.

Pavel Vernikov has further inaugurated the Russian Academy of Higher Learning in Portogruaro and the Festival "Estate Musicale di Portogruaro" (1980-2006), inviting outstanding artists from all over the world to work together in the heart of European culture. He was appointed Artistic Director of the Gubbio Music Festival (Italy), the Dubrovnik Chamber Music Festival (Jugoslavia) as well as the Eilat Chamber Music Festival (Israel).

Pavel Vernikov continues to teach and give master classes around the world, including Spain (Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia Madrid), Israel (Rubin Academy and Keshet Eilon Summer Academy), Germany (Kronberg Academy), Austria (Salzburg Summer Academy, Wiener Meisterkurse), Japan (Gedai University and Miyazaki Mastercourse), Sweden (Aurora Mastercourse) along with many others around the world. He has also been invited to be a member of the jury at numerous international violin competitions, including Hannover Competition, the J. Szigeti, F. Kreisler Competition, F. Gui, ARD- Competition Munich, Sendai, Budapest, Sarasate and Wieniawski competition. Since 2013 Pavel Vernikov is an artistic director of the Sion Festival.

Following a professorship position at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Lyon, Pavel Vernikov now teaches both at the famous Konservatorium Wien University (Austria) and at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne (Switzerland). Among some of his many laureate students include artists such as M. Quarta (1. Prize Paganini International Violin Competition, Genua), N. Benedetti, A. Sitkovetsky, F. Miura (1. Prize Hannover International Violin Competition), L. Borrani (Leader of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe), F. Clamagirand (1. Prize Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition, Vienna and 1. Prize International Monte Carlo Violin Competition) and M. Kobayashi (2. Prize Wieniawski Competition), E. Frolova (1. Prize Valesessia Musica Competition; Gran-Prix Osaka International Competition) Pavel Vernikov has also recorded numerous times for RCA, Ondine, and Dynamic and currently plays the beautiful Guadagnini violin courtesy of Varga family.