Love, loss, fairy stories and daydreams, all shared through the intimate medium of song.

Ciará Preston Myakicheff, soprano, studied Vocal Performance at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with Louise Crane. She was awarded an Ex Cathedra Choral Scholarship for 2020–21, and sang with the newly-formed Scholars’ Consort, directed by Jeffrey Skidmore. Ciará has a particular affinity and interest in early and choral music, and has been engaged as a soloist in major works including Allegri’s Miserere, Bach’s Mass in B minor, Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Creation, and has recorded solos with the Birmingham Bach Choir under Paul Spicer. Forthcoming projects include an exploration of French song from the Belle Époque to the cabarets of Paris in the 1920s, and vocal consort performances of sacred works by Renaissance and Baroque composers.

Pascal Pascaleff is a prize winner of several international piano competitions, including 1st prize at the Liszt–Bartók Competition in Sofia, Bulgaria, 3rd prize at the Chopin Competition in St Petersburg, and 1st prize at the Pavel Serebriakov Competition in Volgograd, Russia. His solo recitals and concerto appearances have been well received in France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Bulgaria, and across the UK.

Born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Pascal commenced his music studies at the age eleven. He went on to the music school in his home town and subsequently graduated from the National Academy of Music in Sofia, where he studied with Atanas Kurtev. Active participation in festivals and masterclasses have seen him work with eminent pianists including Stephen Hough, Peter Donohoe, and David Wilde, to name a few.

In 2016, he was awarded the Golden Muse for young artist, and became the inaugural Denis Matthews scholar at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he spent three years studying with Pascal Nemirovski and Anthony Hewitt, winning the Piano Prize in 2018. Pascal has appeared in live radio broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and recorded a disc of Scarlatti sonatas for Naxos, released in 2020.

This concert will start at 2pm.