Alasdair Beatson coaches the Chloé Piano Trio
Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66
Chaminade Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 34
Princess Alexandra Hall, Royal Over-Seas League
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Maria Gîlicel – violin
Jobine Siekman – cello
George Todică – piano
The Chloé Piano Trio, current winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society Henderson Prize for Chamber Ensemble Award, was formed in 2017 by talented emerging musicians at the Royal College of Music, London. They have performed across the UK and abroad (France, Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands), including at London venues such as the Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, Charlton House, Royal Academy of Arts, Champs Hill (Sussex), the Romanian Cultural Institute in London, Austrian Cultural Forum, Lichfield Festival, Banstead Arts Festival and Hargrave Festival.
In February 2022 they were selected as Kirckman Trust Young Artists and thus will perform in a major London concert hall as well as several UK concert societies in the 22/23 season.
Notable appearances include performing for HRH King Charles during his President Visit at the Royal College of Music in March 2020.
In April 2018 the Chloé Piano Trio, at the time known as the Daphnis Trio, was nominated by the RCM for the Birmingham Intercollegiate Piano Trio Competition and won the Third Prize. The repertoire of the trio ranges from Baroque and Classical periods to the modern and newly commissioned music. They are also highly interested in the performance of works written by women composers, having already recorded Trios by Clara Schumann and Rebecca Clarke as well as Lili Boulanger’s “D’un Soir Triste” and “D’un Matin Du Printemps” at Abbey Road Studios.
The Chloé Piano Trio has recently received tuition from pianist Alasdair Beatson as part of the Chamber Studio sessions, as well as worked in the past with high profile musicians like Norma Fisher, Johannes Meissl, Ricardo Castro, Vera Martínez-Mehner, Ulrich Koella, Patrick Jüdt, Alexander Lonquich, Lucy Gould, Richard Lester, Ben Hancox, Mark Messenger, Simon Lepper, Suzie Meszaros, Leonid Kerbel, and others.
The trio also performed at the Ticino Musica Festival in Lugano, Switzerland in July 2020 and participated in the European Chamber Music Academy sessions in Manchester (March 2022) and Fiesole (August 2021).
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Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson works prolifically as soloist and chamber musician, adept on modern and historical instruments, and renowned as both performer and pedagogue. Notable performances in 2022/23 include regular appearances at Wigmore Hall, in concert with Steven Isserlis, Viktoria Mullova, the Doric and Maxwell string quartets, as member of the Nash Ensemble, and in festivals including Cheltenham, Ernen, Festivalta, Lewes, O/Modernt, Resonances, Spitalfields and Yellowbarn.
Alasdair is acclaimed as a sincere musician and intrepid programmer. Alongside a particular affinity with the classical repertoire and the music of Schumann and Fauré, he often explores the more exotic: Catoire, Pierné, Thuille; Debussy’s Jeux (in the composer’s arrangement for solo piano); Ligeti Horn Trio, Harrison Birtwistle’s Harrison’s Clocks; and Thomas Adès Piano Quintet. His concerto repertoire includes works of Bach, Bartok, Fauré, Hans Abrahamsen, Hindemith, Mozart, Sally Beamish, Stravinsky, and Messiaen. In recent years he has appeared with Britten Sinfonia, Moscow Virtuosi, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Sønderjyllands Symphony Orchestra and Vaasa City Orchestra.
Recent recordings include Schubert works for violin and fortepiano with Viktoria Mullova on Signum, and a solo piano recital Aus Wien on Pentatone. These join an acclaimed discography of numerous solo and chamber recordings, on modern and historical pianos, on BIS, Claves, Champs Hill, Evil Penguin, Onyx, Pentatone and SOMM labels.
A regular participant at the open chamber music at IMS Prussia Cove, Alasdair took part in their tours of 2007, 2011, and 2021, and collected the 2008 RPS Award for Chamber Music on their behalf. He has enjoyed working closely with composers George Benjamin, Harrison Birtwistle, Tom Coult, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Thomas Larcher, and Heinz Holliger. Future plans include the first performances of a new piano concerto, written for him by Helena Winkelman.
Alasdair was a student of John Blakely at the Royal College of Music, London, and Menahem Pressler at Indiana University. He teaches solo piano at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and regularly mentors for the London-based Chamber Studio. From 2012 to 2018 Alasdair was founder and artistic director of Musique à Marsac, and since 2018 is the artistic director of the chamber music festival at Musikdorf Ernen in Switzerland.