Trafalgar Square
London WC2N 4JH
The first concert in the series, Fate, features Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto and his Fifth Symphony, a work known worldwide by only four simple notes.
PROGRAMME:
Beethoven’s Egmont Overture
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5
Performers
The Piccadilly Sinfonia was formed in 2018 and during its debut season was made resident orchestra at St James’ Church, Piccadilly, with a packed schedule of concerts in 2019-20 in London, Manchester and further afield. Launched under the artistic direction of British concert pianist Warren Mailley-Smith, the orchestra is formed from some the UK’s leading young professional talent, with notable guest leaders so far having included violinists Zoe Beyers and Harriet Mackenzie. Their repertoire draws largely from a wide range of baroque and classical works for chamber orchestra including a number of virtuoso concerti.
In 2016 Warren Mailley-Smith became the first British pianist to perform Chopin’s complete works for solo piano from memory in a series of 11 recitals at St John’s Smith Square. Hailed by the critics as an “epic achievement”, Mailley-Smith will repeat the series at several venues in 2020. He has given acclaimed solo recitals at The Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall and has performed for the British Royal Family on numerous occasions. One of the busiest concert pianists of his generation, he regularly gives over 60 solo performances a year. His career has taken him all over the world, with solo performances in Australia, Europe and most recently solo tours in China and the USA.
He has 30 piano concertos in his repertoire, having made his concerto debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Warren’s recordings have been featured by Classic FM as CD of the Week and his recordings are featured regularly on Classic FM and the BBC. He is currently recording the complete works of Chopin over a 3-year period for a 12-disc set for Sleeveless Records. He is also an active chamber musician and is the Artistic Director of the Piccadilly Chamber Music Series and The Piccadilly Sinfonia. He is a graduate in Law from the University of Warwick.
Tom Fetherstonhaugh is a British conductor. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Fantasia Orchestra, a young orchestra of exciting talent. Their concerts have won great acclaim, with The ArtsDesk calling the strings section ‘already a thing of wonder’. With Fantasia, Tom has performed a wide range of symphonic repertoire as well as many world premieres. In 2019 Tom worked with players from the Ulster Orchestra for the first time, workshopping a new piano concerto. Working alongside piano soloist Clare Hammond, the musicians played Piers Hellawell’s new concerto Rapprochement.
Tom made his debut in Asia in 2019, performing in the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) with the Lindenbaum Festival Orchestra. Entitled ‘One Harmony’, the festival promotes peace between the Koreas through music, and the performance included a collaboration with the National Children’s Chorus of America. Tom has a close relationship with the Oxford Chamber Music Festival as a conductor. In 2018 he conducted the festival’s opening concert, working alongside soloists Alena Baeva, Priya Mitchell and Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
Tom was conductor and Artistic Director of the Oxford University Sinfonietta for two years. Together they performed works including Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Blood on the Floor, Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No 2, as well as a number of the Beethoven Symphonies.
Tom is also active as an organist and pianist; he was organ scholar at Merton College, Oxford, and is a prizewinning Associate of the Royal College of Organists. He has played for live BBC Radio 3 broadcasts, and in 2017 played for the first Anglican Evensong at St Peter’s Basilica, Rome. He has appeared as soloist in the UK, Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore, including the Oxford Chamber Music and Oxford Lieder Festivals. On the piano, Tom has recently performed the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas with violinist Athena Hawksley-Walker in the Holywell Music Room; the duo played live on Radio 3’s In Tune as part of the project.
Tom was a chorister of Westminster Abbey where he sang for many state occasions, including performing the solo at the 2011 Royal Wedding. He read music at Merton College, Oxford, where he held academic and organ scholarships and graduated with a First. He has studied conducting with Roland Melia, and is currently a postgraduate conducting student at the Royal Academy of Music under Sian Edwards.