Royal Academy of Music
YMF 2005
THE ST CECILIA PIANO TRIO was formed in 2003 and almost immediately began to attract attention, winning First Prize in both the Harold Craxton Chamber Music Competition and the Harry Isaacs Chamber Music Competition (with Brahms' Trio in C minor op. 101) in 2003, and the First Prize in the Max Pirani Chamber Music Competition (with Beethoven's 'Ghost' Trio) in 2004. Also in 2004, the Trio participated in the Trapani International Chamber Music Competition in Italy and reached the semi-finals.
The Trio has played at venues throughout London and are developing a busy concert schedule.
MIO KOBAYASHI (violin) has already won many prizes both as a soloist and a chamber musician, including a second prize at the Japan International League of Artists Music Competition and a first prize at one of the most prestigious prize held at the Royal Academy of Music, the Harold Craxton Prize.
Mio was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1983, and started playing the violin at the age of 4. At the age of ten, she gave her first public performance with an orchestra and also appeared in a TV programme. At the age of 13, she was selected for the Young Artist Programme with a scholarship to the Cleveland Institute of Music in Cleveland, Ohio. In the four years that she was there, she studied with Linda Cerone.
She has attended numerous summer festivals where she has studied with eminent teachers and artists including Masao Kawasaki, Hagai Shaham and Daniel Gaede.
Mio currently attends the Royal Academy of Music with a scholarship to read for a Bachelor of Music in Performance degree. Now in her third year, she studies with Professor Remus Azoitei, having previously studied with Professor Howard Davis in the first two years.
Mio is an active chamber musician and, as well as the St Cecilia Piano Trio, has formed a quartet, a piano quartet, and a piano quintet at the Royal Academy of Music.
KEN ICHINOSE (cello) was born in London and began cello lessons at the age of 5. After studying with Susan Dorey for several years, he attended the Royal Academy Intermediate Department, studying with Paul Watkins. During his final year at school, Ken performed the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto which he recently performed again with the Finchley Chamber Orchestra.
During the winter semester of 2003 / 04 he spent six months studying with Wolfgang Weber at the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Hochschule in Leipzig, and spent most of his time there performing, giving numerous orchestral, chamber music and solo concerts.
Ken currently studies with Josephine Knight and has had baroque cello lessons with Jennifer Ward-Clark. Period performance is an area he is keen to pursue further having recently given his first concert with the Academy Period Instrument Baroque Orchestra at Farnham Castle. Other than working with the St Cecilia Piano Trio, Ken is cellist of the Galitzin Quartet whose most recent engagement was at Senate House, London University, performing works by Haydn and Ravel and with whom he won the Sir Edward Cooper Prize with a performance of Brahms' quartet no. 2 in A minor. In 2005 Ken will also be playing with the South Bank Sinfonia based at St. John's, Waterloo, London.
CHIHO TSUNAKAWA (piano) was born in Japan in 1984 and began learning piano at the age of 3. She came to study in London in 1996 as a pupil of Noretta Conci-Leech and became a student of Tessa Nicholson at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music in September 1999, where she also took violin lessons studying with Carol Slater. She attended the Arts Educational School, London, before she joined the Purcell School of Music in September 2000. There she performed Saint-Saens' Second Piano Concerto in the School's 2001 Concerto Final, as well as representing the Piano Department through many performances chosen by the School.
In 2002, Chiho received an entrance scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music where she is now a third year student.
Chiho has performed frequently in London as a soloist and a chamber musician achieving numerous awards and accolades.