Cellist ends music society season

Laura van der Heijden will be performing in Alnwick for the first time, at the Playhouse on Tuesday, May 3.

Laura sprang to fame when at the age of 15 she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2012 at the Sage, Gateshead.

She performed Walton’s Cello Concerto with Kirill Karabits and the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra and her playing was described by Nicholas Daniels on BBC Radio 3 as a ‘completely extraordinary performance of incredible creative intensity’.

Born in England to a Dutch father and Swiss mother, Laura began playing the recorder at the age of four and by the age of 10 she had obtained ABRSM Grade 8 on both piano and cello. Since 2008 , Laura has been a student of the renowned British-Russian cellist Leonid Gorokhov.

She subsequently won first prize with distinction in the Swiss National Youth Music competition leading to an appearance with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. She continued to win a number of prizes throughout Europe and in London played Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as part of the First World War Anniversary concerts.

In Alnwick she will be accompanied by the pianist Peter Limonov.

Peter Limonov studied at Moscow’s Central Music School under the guidance of Siavush Gadjiev, Valery Piasetsky and Andrei Pisarev. After winning first prize at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition (Paris, 1998), he started giving concerts throughout Europe and Russia, supported by the Vladimir Spivakov Foundation. He went on to study with Hamish Milne and Alexander Satz at the Royal Academy of Music on a full scholarship and, later, at the Royal College of Music with Dimitry Alexeev, completing his Masters in 2012

Laura’s programme begins with Bethoven’s 7 Variations in E Flat based on Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ and is followed by Brahms Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor Op.38. Following the interval, Laura will play Janacek’s ‘Pohadka’ and conclude with Prokoviev’s Cello Sonata in C Op.119.

The concert takes place in the Alnwick Playhouse on Tuesday, May 3, at 7.30pm. Non-members are warmly welcomed and tickets can be purchased at the Playhouse Box Office in person, by telephone on 01665 510785 or online at www.alnwickplayhouse.co.uk