Theophilus Piano Trio

Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Young Musicians' Festival, 2001

Rupert Luck, violin
Helen McVey, cello
Gavin Brady, piano

The Theophilus Trio was formed last year by top students at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama. The three musicians each have extensive experience of solo and chamber music performance, and have a collective enthusiasm for exploring the less well-known items of the repertory. Their programme for the Young Musicians' Festival therefore includes an early composition by the last great exponent of the Russian Romantic tradition together with one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century chamber music. These are linked by Gyorgy Sviridov's Piano Trio which combines an austerity of character with the harmonic lushness of the nineteenth century.

Rupert Luck studied the violin with James Coles and in London with Mateja Marinkovic. He read music at Cambridge University, where he was an Instrumental Exhibitioner, before being awarded a postgraduate scholarship to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where he currently studies with Simon Fischer. He made his concerto debut at the age of 11 and has since made many solo appearances - his recent performance of the Kurt Weill Violin Concerto elicited much critical acclaim - as well as receiving masterclasses from such violinists as Ernst Kovacik, Yehudi Menuhin and Felix Andrievski. An experienced chamber musician, he has received tuition from the Allegri, Endellion and Fitzwilliam Quartets, and his performances include a BBC recording as well as concert appearances alongside Jessye Norman and Barbara Thomson.

Helen McVey was born in Edinburgh and is currently in her final year at the RSAMD. She has been playing the cello for fourteen years, during which she has won numerous prizes including the Dunbar-Gerber Chamber Music Prize and an `Outstanding' award in the Open Cello Class at the Edinburgh Festival. She also won the Edinburgh Schools Concerto Competition and consequently performed the Lalo Cello Concerto with the Edinburgh Schools Orchestra at the age of 16. Helen frequently performs with numerous chamber ensembles, and as a composer, is particularly interested in contemporary music. Future plans include one further year of study and the continuation of performance, combined with teaching the cello.

Gavin Brady was born in Dundee in 1978. After completing his undergraduate performance degree in solo piano with Jean Hutchison, he is now studying for a Postgraduate Diploma in chamber music with Fali Pavri. Whilst at the RSAMD, Gavin has won many competitions with violinist Feargus Hetherington, including the John Ireland Memorial Prize, the Dunbar-Gerber Prize and the lain D Watt Prize. He has also been selected to play to many distinguished pianists including Dmitri Alexeev, Benjamin Frith, Malcolm Martineau and Charles Rosen. Recent performances of both solo and chamber music have taken him to venues throughout Scotland, and future concerts see him performing in Manchester and, in summer, in a tour of Germany and Denmark. Gavin hopes to continue his studies at the RSAMD next year, and then go on to the Cologne Hochschule für Musik.

Programme details