Ivan began his musical education at the conservatory of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in his home town Bogotà. In the year 2001 he was finalist for the competition for young talented musicians, organized by the BLAA.

At fifteen, he was awarded one of the five scholarships given annually by the United World college of the Adriatic to young musicians from all over the world, allowing him to study chamber music at the International chamber music school of the renowned Trio di Trieste at Duino, Italy. Whilst studying for his IB diploma and undertaking chamber music studies, he trained with Enrico Bronzi (professor at Salzburg Mozarteum). In 2005 he moved to Parma and studied at the local conservatory with Enrico Contini Following this, he took lessons at the Teatro Cinghio with Trio di Parma and later in the year 2007 at Fiesole music school in Florence where he obtained his chamber music diploma . In the year 2010, Ivan obtained his cello diploma at the Parma Conservatoire “Arrigo Boito”

Recently, Ivan won first prize at the Teatro Bonoris chamber music competition, in Montichiari. He has recently performed at the Museo Lombardi, Auditorium del Carmine, Sala Sinopoli in Florence, Auditorium Raimondo and Teatro Verdi di Trieste, for which he was invited personally by the Trio di Triste.

In the summer of 2008 he was accepted into the National Youth Orchestra in Holland with whom he toured the Netherlands under the baton of Paul McCreesh and Ludovic Morlot, playing in the main halls of the Netherlands and Belgium, including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has played in orchestras such as Chamber orchestra Musici di Parma, Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, the Dutch Orchestra and Ensemble Academy and currently plays in the Orchestra del teatro regio di Parma.

He is currently studying with Marianne Chen, and counts amongst his teachers Enrico Bronzi, Othmar Mueller and Susanne Muller Hornbach.

He has undertaken masterclasses with David Geringas, Peter Wispelwey, Yves Savary, Anatol Lieberman and most recently with Giovanni Gnocchi (Principal Cellist at the Camerata Salzburg).

Born in Paris, Arthur Boutillier started playing the cello at the age of 5 under the guidance of Erwan Fauré at the Schola Cantorum, where he obtained his Concert Diploma and his Virtuosity Diploma. In 2010 he moved to Lausanne to start his BMus degree at the Haute Ecole de Musique with François Salgue. Now he is studying at the Royal College of Music in London with Helene Dautry. In addition to his studies he took part in masterclasses with Gary Hoffman, Jens-Peter Meintz and Pieter Wispelwey.

Arthur is a very keen chamber musician and regularly performs in England, France and abroad. His passion for string quartet performance led him be part of the ProQuartet festival in 2007 and be a member of the Vina Quartet founded at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2010. He performed at the Fete Française RCM festival. As a chamber musician, he studied with the Ysaye Quartet, Wanderer Trio, Manfred Quartet and Florestan Trio.

Arthur’s orchestral experience includes playing with the French Youth Orchestra in 2007, the Pro Musica Festival Orchestra as principal cello in 2010 and the Camerata of Lausanne conducted by the violinist Pierre Amoyal. With this ensemble Arthur played in various French and Europeans festivals. A disc of Tchaikovsky was recorded in April 2011 for Warner Classical. He has also worked with conductors such as Jean-Claude Casadesus, Anthony Hermus, Kaspar Zehnder, and Maxim Vengerov in concerts across Europe.
When he is free, Arthur enjoys a glass of french wine, goes to the cinema or travel. He also loves listening to soul, pop, disco and jazz music.

Born in the Canary Islands, Spain, Violinist Judith Choi-Castro started learning music at the age of 6 with her father. In 2003 she came to England to study for a BMus at the Royal College of Music in London, studying under Yuri Zhislin and Natalia Lomeiko, supported by the Martin Musical Scholarship. She also studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York with Albert Markov. Last June she graduated with an LRam diploma and Masters of Arts degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied under Maurice Hasson and Mayumi Fujikawa.

As a developing performer, Judith has taken workshops and masterclasses with violinists such as Sergey Kravchenko, Hagai Shaham, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Dong Suk Kang, Tasmin Little, and worked with many distinguished conductors including Andrew Litton, Christopher Warren- Green, Alan Gilbert, Leif Sergestam, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Bernard Haitink.

As a soloist and chamber musician, Judith has performed in numerous London venues including Steinway Hall, St. Lawrence Jewry, Dukes Hall, St. Mary Abbotts, Victoria and Albert Museum, The National Gallery and Cadogan Hall, and has played in concerts and Music Festivals in Portugal, Spain, New York, Germany, France, South Korea and Japan.

Catherine works as a freelance percussionist and pianist and has a first class honours degree from Guildhall School of Music & Drama, an ABRSM Piano diploma, and has received a Woolfson Bursary award. Catherine conducted research into the study of music in Brazil as a 2010 Winston Churchill Travelling Fellow and continues to be a member of the Rhythms of the City samba band.

Her recent performances include drumming for the Clod Ensemble’s production of ‘An Anatomie’ at Sadlers Wells theatre as well as performances with the Cabinet of Living Cinema to create live soundtracks for short films. Catherine’s solo performance of Xenakis’ “Rebonds” was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2009, the same year she worked with Sir Colin Davis. Catherine has worked with many orchestras both in the UK and abroad including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Britten-Pears Symphony Orchestra and the Academies Festival Orchestra in Singapore.

Helix percussion duo (Catherine Ring and Louise Morgan) won the Israeli Music Competition 2010 and the Chartered Surveyor’s Percussion Ensemble Prize 2009. The duo were fellows at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2010/11, Dartington International Summer School bursary award winners in 2010 and also made their Southbank Centre debut as part of the Park Lane Group Young Artists series in January 2011. (www.helixduo.co.uk)

Catherine is a member of the Colin Currie Group, having performed Steve Reich’s ‘Drumming’ in Bristol and the 2011 Cheltenham Festival. An enthusiastic teacher and collaborator, she has been involved in LSO Discovery work, Wigmore Hall education, LPO Funharmonics and ETO education department.

“Catherine Ring, once more, was superb” ClassicalSource.com
“Catherine Ring’s timpani-playing (in Brahms Symphony No.1) was particularly noteworthy” ClassicalSource.com

Raffaele was born in Anghiari, Tuscany, Italy in 1989. He began to play the trumpet at 10, in his local wind band. He continued his studies at the Liceo Musicale F. Petrarca in Arezzo with Marco Anthony De Novellis and Simone Ferrini, then at the Conservatorio C. Monteverdi in Bolzano with Marco Pierobon, where he graduated in 2009. In this period of study he also had lessons with Rex Martin, Roger Bobo and Reinhold Friedrich.

From 2009 Raffaele completed his masters with Marco Pierobon at the Istituto Musicale A. Peri in Reggio Emilia. He is currently studying with Emanuele Antoniucci.

During his studies he collaborated with various youth orchestras like the Bedfordshire County Youth Orchestra, with whom he played in the Royal Albert Hall, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music Orchestra in the USA the Junge Philharmonie Salzburg conducted by Isaac Karabtchevsky, the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana and the Royal Northern College of Manchester Orchestra conducted by Roland Böer.

In 2009 he participated to the Festival Junger Kunstler in Bayreuth, Germany, wherehe worked with conductor Elisabeth Fuchs. In 2009-10, he also participated in the Internationale Junge Orchesterakademie in Germany.

Raffaele has collaborated with the Orchestra del Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducted by Zubin Mehta, the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi, Trieste, working with conductors Julian Kovatchev and Andrea Battistoni, the Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi in Milan conducted by Xian Zhang, the Orchestra del Festival Puccini, Torre del Lago Puccini, Lucca, the Orchestra of the Opera Festival, Firenze, the Orchestra Bruno Maderna, Forlì, the Orchestra Camerata Strumentale, Prato, the Orchestra Città di Ravenna and the Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina with whom he recently performed as soloist at the Teatro della Pergola in Firenze.

In 2010/2011 Raffaele assisted Emanuele Antoniucci in the trumpet class of the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, near Firenze.

Phillippa Slack was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire in 1988. She moved to Manchester at the age of 7 where she began her musical education, initially on piano. She took up French horn at the age of 12 under the tuition of Liz Goodall and became Principal Horn of Stockport Youth Orchestra. She was subsequently Principal Horn of Hallé Youth Orchestra for three years.

Phillippa studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she gained a Bachelor of Music with Honours. She studied with Lizzie Davis and Julian Plummer. Her performance opportunities at the RNCM have included two opera productions, Principal Horn in Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions, Chamber Orchestra and Concert Orchestra. With the RNCM she has also participated in a tour to America for the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles conference in Ohio, Cincinnati and a tour to Italy in summer 2010 with RNCM Sinfonia for the Cantiere Internazionale D’Arte De Montepulciano. With her Brass Quintet, she won the RNCM 2010 Philip Jones Brass Ensemble Prize. Her Wind Quintet was awarded ‘highly commended’ in the 2010 Trevor Wye Woodwind prize and performed a programme of contemporary wind quintet music at the Cantiere Internazionale D’Arte de Montepulciano in 2010.

Phillippa recently completed her Master of Arts with Distinction at the Royal Academy of Music, on a full scholarship funded by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. She studied with Michael Thompson, Richard Watkins, and Martin Owen. During her year at the Royal Academy of Music, Phillippa performed the Strauss Horn Concerto no. 1 with the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, and won the RAM 2011 Dennis Brain Horn Prize.

Her professional engagements include work with the Hallé Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Brass, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Professional Access Scheme on the Natural Horn.

Chris first began to play the horn at the age of 12 and won a scholarship to attend the Junior Royal Northern College of Music where he studied with Tom Redmond and Laurence Rogers. Whilst there he won the Zochonis Scholarship and the Brass playing Prize.

He won an entrance scholarship in 2006 to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Michael Thompson and Richard Watkins. In his time there he won the Nicholas Blake Prize and was Very Highly Commended in the Dennis Brain Horn Prize. Whilst at the Academy he performed a solo recital tour with the Royal Academy of Music’s Harp Ensemble.

Chris has played with many orchestras including the London Sinfonietta, London Contemporary Orchestra, Britten Pears Orchestra, RAM Soloists and RAM Symphony Orchestra.
He has participated in several side by side scheme’s with orchestra’s including the LPO, ENO, BBC Philharmonic and the Hallé. He also participated in the Academy’s prestigious side by side scheme with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Chris is a keen modern music enthusiast and has premiered many new works including a piece by Matthew King commissioned by the Wigmore Trust. He gave the UK premiere of a piece for wind quintet by Stockhausen. He also played 1st solo horn in a piece by Robert Peate with the RAM Concert Orchestra.
He has worked in commercial recordings for television for companies including McDonalds and Lighterlife and played in several recordings for BBC Radio 3.

Chris has performed several recitals throughout the UK and also recently participated in a performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass with the West London Bach Players. He has performed Strauss’s 1st horn Concerto with both the Sheffield Chamber Orchestra and the Tallis Chamber Orchestra.