Timothy Ridout, Frank Dupree, James Baillieu
Biography Timothy Ridout, Frank Dupree, James Baillieu
Timothy Ridout
a BBC New Generation Artist and Borletti-Buitoni Trust fellow, is one of the most sought-after violists of his generation. This season he appears as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Odense, San Jose symphony orchestras and Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, amongst others. In 2020, Ridout won Hamburger Symphoniker’s inaugural Sir Jeffrey Tate Prize and joined the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center in 2021.
Other highlights this season include recitals and chamber concerts at Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Philharmonie Köln. Further afield, Ridout embarks on a South American tour with the Chamber Society of the Lincoln Centre, returns to Taipei for a series of concerts, and tours Australia with Musica Viva.
In recent seasons, Ridout has made his debut with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Hamburger Symphoniker, Orchestre National de Lille, Camerata Salzburg, Graz Philharmonic, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Hallé, BBC Symphony, Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestra, and performed the Walton Concerto at the BBCProms/Sakari Oramo and with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/David Zinman. He has also worked with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Lionel Bringuier, Gabor Takács-Nagy, Sylvain Cambreling, Nicholas Collon and Sir Andras Schiff.
Sought after as a chamber musician, Ridout has taken part in numerous festivals across Europe, including Rheingau, Bergen, Rosendal, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sion and Lockenhaus, and regularly collaborates with leading international artists including Janine Jansen, Steven Isserlis, Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Kian Soltani, Benjamin Grosvenor, Nicolas Altstaedt and Christian Tetzlaff, among many others.
Ridout records for the Harmonia Mundi label. His latest album – ‘A Poet’s Love’ –was recorded with pianist Frank Dupree and features selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and their own transcription of Schumann’s Dichterliebe. New releases include, amongst others, Berlioz Harold en Italie with Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg/John Nelson on Warner/Erato, and Bloch Suite for Viola and Orchestra and Elgar Concerto with BBC Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins.
Born in London in 1995, Ridout studied at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence. He completed his Masters at the Kronberg Academy with Nobuko Imai in 2019 and, in 2018, took part in Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World.
He plays on a viola by Peregrino di Zanetto c.1565 – 75 on loan from a generous patron of Beare’s International Violin Society.
Frank Dupree
Winner of the 2018 Opus Klassik Award for Concerto Recording of the Year (20th/21st century), German pianist Frank Dupree recently came to international attention as the laureate prize winner of the 2014 Deutscher Musikwettbewerb, captivating the judges with his musical maturity, refined technique and ability to draw a wide spectrum of sound and colour from the keyboard. A “sincere, feeling and enormously interesting artist” (Emanuel Ax) who “always amazes” (PZ News) and whose “broad tonal range and sinuous rhythmic technique” (Classical Source) have earned him acclaim amongst his peers on orchestral and chamber stages alike.
Initially trained as a jazz percussionist, Frank celebrates the breadth and depth of the piano repertoire, with a particular enthusiasm for the music of the 20th century as well as the music of living composers, having already been chosen to work closely with Péter Eötvös (Erdenklavier – Himmelklavier, world premiere recording in 2015 for the GENUIN classics label) and Wolfgang Rihm (Con Piano? Certo!, world premiere performance with conductor Justin Brown and the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe in June 2015).
Recent and forthcoming highlights include an exciting new collaboration with the Kurt Weill Festival as artist-in-residence, debuts with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Trondheim Symfonieorchester and Sinfonieorcheser Liechtenstein, return invitations at London’s Wigmore Hall, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Brussels BOZAR amongst others as well as ongoing relationships with the Stuttgart Philharmoniker and Theater Plauen-Zwickau. Additional highlights include a collaboration with the Repercussion ensemble at the Cologne Philharmonie, debuts with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Ulster Orchestra, recitals at the Heidelberg Spring Festival, Lucerne Festival, London’s LSO St Luke’s, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and Munich’s Allerheiligen-Hofkirche.
An artist who is firmly establishing himself on the international scene, Frank has previously performed with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris (play/direct), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Malmö Symphony, Kristiansand Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Bern Symphony, Duisburg Philharmonic, Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra, Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Essen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Musikkollegium Winterthur. Recitals and chamber music play a particularly important role in Frank’s musical ethos, and he has frequently collaborated with other rising stars of his generation such as Simon Höfele, Edgar Moreau, Daniel Lozakovich, Timothy Ridout, Kian Soltani, and the Calidore and Goldmund string quartets, giving concerts at such places as the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Verbier Festival, Septembre Musical in Montreux, Davos Festival, Heidelberg Spring Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Kurt Weill Festival and in numerous other venues across Germany.
Combining his fine musicianship with the art of direction, Frank was awarded first prize at the 2012 International Hans-von-Bülow Competition in Meiningen for his play/direct work with Beethoven, and was soon after invited to take part in the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris Play-Direct Academy with Joseph Swensen, Stephen Kovacevich, and François Leleux. On the podium, Frank has previously assisted Sir Simon Rattle, François-Xavier Roth, and Mario Venzago.
A Steinway Artist, Frank has been a student of Sontraud Speidel since the age of five and recently completed his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. Over the years, he has played in masterclasses with Emanuel Ax, Ralf Gothóni, Klaus Hellwig, Menahem Pressler, Alexander Braginsky, Cyprien Katsaris, Ferenc Rados, Gábor Takács-Nagy, and Stephen Kovacevich. In Summer 2013, Frank was awarded the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes scholarship and, in 2014, was the recipient of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben scholarship in support of his studies.
James Baillieu
Described by The Daily Telegraph as ‘in a class of his own’ James Baillieu is one of the leading song and chamber music pianists of his generation. He has given solo and chamber recitals throughout the world and collaborates with a wide range of singers and instrumentalists including Benjamin Appl, Jamie Barton, Ian Bostridge, Allan Clayton, Annette Dasch, Lise Davidsen, the Elias and Heath Quartets, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Timothy Ridout, Adam Walker, and Pretty Yende. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Ulster Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, and the Wiener Kammersymphonie.
European highlights of the 2022-23 season include recitals with Lise Davidsen at the Bergen International Festival, a European tour of an all-Hahn program with Veronique Gens, performances in the United Kingdom and Spain with violist Timothy Ridout, and a fully-produced staged presentation of Winterreise with Benjamin Appl at the Gran Teatre del Liceu designed by Spanish painter and sculptor Antonio López.
North American appearances of the current season include a recital with violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen in a program of C.P.E. Bach presented by San Francisco Performances, tour dates with baritone Benjamin Appl in Detroit, New York City, Portland, San Francisco, and Vancouver, and a pair of recitals with tenor Allan Clayton at the Park Avenue Armory, New York.
James Baillieu is a frequent guest at many of the world’s most distinguished music centers including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vancouver Playhouse, Berlin Konzerthaus, Vienna Musikverein, Barbican Centre, Wiener Konzerthaus, Bozar Brussels, Pierre Boulez Saal, Cologne Philharmonie, and the Laeiszhalle Hamburg. Festivals include Aix-en-Provence, Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Festpillene i Bergen, Edinburgh, Spitalfields, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Bath, City of London and Brighton Festivals.
An innovative programmer, he has curated many song and chamber music festivals including series for the Brighton Festival, Wigmore Hall, BBC Radio 3, Verbier Festival, Bath International Festival, and Perth Concert Hall.
At the invitation of John Gilhooly, James Baillieu has presented his own series at the Wigmore Hall with Adam Walker, Jonathan McGovern, Ailish Tynan, Tara Erraught, Henk Neven, Iestyn Davies, Allan Clayton, and Mark Padmore amongst others. This series was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Chamber Music and Song Award for an outstanding contribution to the performance of chamber music and song in the UK.
James Baillieu was prize winner of the Wigmore Hall Song Competition, Das Lied International Song Competition, the Kathleen Ferrier and Richard Tauber Competitions, and was selected for representation by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2010 and in 2012 received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust Award. In 2016 he was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Outstanding Young Artist Award.
Recording projects include ‘Heimat’ with Benjamin Appl (Sony Classical), the complete works of CPE Bach for violin and piano with Tamsin Waley-Cohen (Signum Records), and albums on the Chandos, Opus Arte, Champs Hill, Rubicon, and Delphian Record labels as part his critically acclaimed discography.
James Baillieu is Senior Professor of Ensemble Piano and a Fellow (FRAM) at the Royal Academy of Music, a coach for the Jette Parker Young Artist Program at the Royal Opera House, a course leader for the Samling Foundation, and is head of the Song Program at the Atelier Lyrique of the Verbier Festival Academy. He is International Tutor in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Northern College of Music and a trustee of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. Highly sought after for masterclasses worldwide, recent sessions of learning have brought him to the Aldeburgh Festival, Cleveland Institute of Music, Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Friends of Chamber Music, Portland, Oregon, Vancouver Academy of Music, Canada, and to the University of Waikato, New Zealand.
