Fellowships

Trio Archai

The award winning Trio Archai has quickly established itself as one of the most exciting young ensembles of its generation. Founded in Basel in 2023, the trio has quickly gained international recognition through winning First Prize and Beethoven Prize at the Schoenfeld International String Competition 2025 in China, and First Prize at the 72nd Royal Over-Seas League Competition 2024 in London.

Their performances have taken them across Europe, the UK, and Asia to prestigious venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Tivoli Vredenburg, Stadtcasino Basel, St. George’s Bristol, Palau de la Música Valencia, Schaffhausen Klassik, Harbin Cultural Center, Swiss Chamber Music Festival, and Whittington Festival. The trio were Young Artists in Residence at Britten-Pears Arts 2025/26, performing at Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh. Winners of the Tunnell Trust Concert Scheme 2025/26, they are also laureates of the Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition, and the 2026 Basler Förderpreise der Stiftung BOG / Basler Orchester Gesellschaft.

The trio’s repertoire spans the great works of the piano trio canon alongside a strong commitment to contemporary music. Alongside programming works by the leading voices of today, they premiered two new commissions in the 2024/25 season: ‘Triangulum’ by Dominic Röthlisberger (Swiss Chamber Music Festival, supported by Pro Helvetia and Fondation SUISA) and ‘Nocturnes’ by Jeremy Sams (Whittington Festival).

Mar Valor (piano), Ayla Sahin (violin), and Finn Mannion (cello) met at the Musik Akademie Basel, where they study as a trio with Claudio Martínez Mehner, Rainer Schmidt, Anna Gebert, and Anton Kernjak. As of 2026, they study at the International Institute for Chamber Music at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, with Vera Martínez Mehner and Heime Müller. They have benefited from the guidance of eminent artists such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Alexander Lonquich, Alina Ibragimova, Dénes Várjon, Robert Levin, Zoltán Fejérvári, and Danjulo Ishizaka. They are members of the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA), 2026 Fellows of ChamberStudio London, scholarship holders of Jeunesse Musicales Deutschland, and were selected to join Thomas Adès’s class at IMS Prussia Cove 2025.

Elmore Quartet

Winners of the 74th Royal Over-Seas League International Music Competition, the Elmore Quartet are quickly gaining recognition as one of the leading British Quartets of their generation. They hold the position of Hans Keller Chamber Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, following a Fellowship position at the Royal Northern College of Music teaching chamber music to Undergraduate and Postgraduate students.

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Over the past three years, the Elmore Quartet have recorded multiple times for BBC Radio 3 andperformed at esteemed venues throughout the UK and Europe, including Wigmore Hall, Kings Place London, Brighton Dome and Bridgewater Hall. In 2024, they were awarded Third Prize at the 13th edition of the Premio Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition in Reggio Emilia, Italy.

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In 2024, the Elmores were selected as Penzance MusicAbility Foundation’s first resident String Quartet in partnership with the Frost Trust. This three-year position allows the Quartet to integrate themselves into West Cornwall’s unique community by performing regularly as part of the Concerts Penzance concert series, working with local schools, and utilising their passion for sharing classical music with new audiences.​

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Their successes include awards from the Tunnell Trust and the Kirckman Concert Society Award and a recent invitation to join the roster of Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artists. In August 2026, the Elmores will be embarking on their first cross-continental trip to Montreal, having accepted a place in the McGill String Quartet Academy. Additional upcoming plans include an album release with Rubicon Classics in Autumn 2026 and further album projects with Heritage Records over the next few years.

Kleio Quartet

First Prize and Commission Prize winners at the Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition 2023, the Kleio Quartet are quickly establishing themselves as an internationally-recognised quartet. They formed at the Seiji Ozawa International Chamber Academy in 2019 and consist of Juliette Roos (violin), Katherine Yoon (violin), Yume Fujise (viola) and Eliza Millett (cello). They have performed in major international venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Victoria Hall, Cadogan Hall, Royal Festival Hall, the DR Koncerthuset, the Black Diamond in Copenhagen and many others.

The Kleio Quartet are delighted to join the BBC New Generation Artists scheme from September 2024- 26. The quartet have recently been appointed as the resident quartet for the Royal Northern College of Music’s String Quartet Studio. They are grateful for the ongoing support of Le Dimore del Quartetto from whom they received the ‘Ensemble of the Year’ (2024, IT) and most recently,  received the Freiburg and Walburger Prizes at the Jeunesses Musicales International course in Weikersheim (2024, GE).

They have held a residency as Britten-Pears Young Artists in Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh and continue a series of residencies hosted by the Strijkkwartet Biënnale Amsterdam from 2023-2025 and at ProQuartet – Centre Européen de Musique de Chambre for the season 2023/24. They have been selected both for the Tunnell Trust’s Music Club Awards Scheme 2022/23 and as Kirckman Concert Society Young Artists for 2023/24. They have also been selected to join the MERITA platform from 2023-2025, and hold the Hattori Foundation Senior Award.

Recent performance highlights include debuts at the Edinburgh International Festival, London’s Kings Place, and appearances at the North Norfolk Music Festival. Upcoming highlights of their 2024-25 season include a Danish Tour and appearances at La Schubertiade de Sceaux (FR), Frederiskværk Festival (DR) and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (GE) alongside cellist Eckart Runge and pianist Jacques Ammon.

The Kleio Quartet is particularly grateful to have received support and mentorship from Eckart Runge, John Myerscough (Doric Quartet), and Steffan Morris (Castalian Quartet). They have also received coaching from internationally-renowned chamber musicians Sadao Harada, Nobuko Imai, Heime Müller, Kirill Gerstein, Kronos Quartet, Cuarteto Casals, Pamela Frank, Simon Rowland-Jones, György Kurtág and Oliver Wille. The quartet continue their studies at the Hochschule für Robert Schumann in Düsseldorf with their mentor Eckart Runge.

Astatine Trio

Since its formation in 2021, the award-winning Astatine Trio has emerged as one of the UK’s most exciting young ensembles, most recently being named BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists for 2025-27. They were awarded second prize and the special prize for best performance of the prizewinning work of the composition competition at the 2025 Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition in Graz, becoming the first UK-based ensemble to win a main prize in the competition’s history, and their other accolades include first prizes at the Birmingham International Piano Chamber Music Competition, Virtuoso&Belcanto International Chamber Competition (Lucca, Italy) and Senior Intercollegiate Piano Trio Competition in 2022. The trio have performed extensively across the UK and abroad, including at Wigmore Hall, The Glasshouse (as part of the BBC Proms), St George’s Bristol, Aldeburgh’s Jubilee Hall and the Harrogate Sunday Series, and as Britten Pears Young Artists for the 2023/24 season they made their debut appearance on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’ in February 2024. They are current Hans Keller Chamber Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and are a resident ensemble at ProQuartet – Centre Européen de Musique de Chambre (Paris) for the 2025-2027 seasons. The trio have also been selected as Kirckman Concert Society artists for 2025/26.

From 2022-25 the trio benefited from the mentorship of legendary pianist Alfred Brendel, at his personal invitation. They have undertaken residencies at Snape Maltings and at the University of Cambridge, as part of ChamberStudio’s inaugural Hans Keller Forum, and attended the 2025 IMS Prussia Cove masterclasses in the class of Thomas Adès. Currently, they are being mentored by Anthony Marwood through ChamberStudio and are a member ensemble of the European Chamber Academy.
They are also grateful for the guidance of Richard Ireland, John Myerscough, Prach Boondiskulchok, Michał Kaznowski, Luc-Marie Aguera and Riccardo Cecchetti and have worked with Alasdair Beatson, Alina Ibragimova, David Waterman, Thomas Hoppe, Yovan Markovitch, Patrick Jüdt, Minna Pensola, Indre Baikstytė, Tim Horton, Donald Grant, Adrian Brendel, Peter Nagy, Krysia Osostowicz, Christoph Richter, Bruno Giuranna, Robin Ireland, the Gould Trio and the Busch Trio, among others.
Passionate advocates for new music, the trio received the SEAM Prize for contemporary music at the 2023 Lyon International Chamber Competition, in which they were the youngest finalists. They also gave the premiere of a new piano trio by Timothy Salter in June 2025, written especially for the group.

The trio is thankful to ChamberStudio, the Piano Trio Society, Maggie Grimsdell (Music at Longhill Road), Philip Carne and the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust for their generous support.