63, Cambridge Street • London • SW1V 4PS
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7976 5041 • email: info@tashmina.co.uk
London Bridge Ensemble
Daniel Tong, Benjamin Nabarro, Tom Dunn, Kate Gould and Ivan Ludlow
"Sounds of unfailing beauty and warmth." The Strad
"I cannot recall a more persuasive realisation of the lovely (Bridge) Phantasie Trio – brain and heart are fully engaged" Gramophone
Since making its Wigmore Hall debut in 2005, the London Bridge Ensemble has rapidly established itself as one of Britain’s most exciting and brilliant chamber groups. The concert included the premiere of a work written for the group by David Matthews. The Ensemble’s engagements since then have included St John’s Smith Square, the City of London Festival, Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival, St George’s Bristol, Leicester International Music Festival’s lunchtime series, St David’s Hall Cardiff, Sheffield Music in the Round, the Kerry Chamber Music Festival, and a return visit to the Wigmore Hall.
In April 2008, the Ensemble presented a brand new festival in Winchester, the home town of its cellist, Kate Gould and future engagements include Bridgewater Hall for the Manchester Mid-day Concerts Society. A CD of works by Frank Bridge, from whom the Ensemble takes its name, was released in spring 2008 to critical acclaim, including recommendations by both Gramophone and International Record Review. The disc is part of the Epoch series for the Dutton label. The London Bridge Ensemble are the resident chamber group at the Ponte de Lima Festival in North Portugal where they appear annually.
The Ensemble presents innovative and stimulating programmes of chamber music and song, or instrumental music alone, on occasion inviting guest artists to form larger combinations in order to explore an even richer and more versatile repertoire. The name represents the group's special ability to bring together different musical genres and styles from the fields of both chamber music and song. It also reflects, through Frank Bridge, an admiration for the English music of the early twentieth century, which has from the outset formed an important part of the group’s varied repertoire. The name is also an affectionate homage to the bridge and station of that name in the City of London.
"These stylish newcomers deserve a place at the top table next to such exalted predecessors as ..Benjamin Britten with members of the Amadeus Quartet.." Gramophone
"Ivan Ludlow was able to inject an urgency and yearning that was beautifully complemented by the instrumentalists’ responsive playing." Classical Source
Daniel Tong, founder of the London Bridge Ensemble, enjoys a varied career, performing regularly at Britain‘s major concert halls, festivals and on BBC Radio 3. He has performed solo recitals for the Park Lane Group on the South Bank, at Steinway Hall and the Cheltenham Festival. Concerto appearances have included works by Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninov and Gershwin. In 2007 he gave a special recital of Elgar’s solo piano works at the composer’s birthplace to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Elgar’s birth.
To commemorate the composer’s centenary in 2004, Daniel performed Dvořák’s Piano Quartets with the Picander Ensemble on a tour which included Wigmore Hall, the South Bank and Aldeburgh Festival. The Picander Ensemble recorded these works in 2005 for Merlin Classics. Daniel recently appeared in recitals in Belgium with baritone Ivan Ludlow, also a member of the London Bridge Ensemble. He has also partnered tenors Paul Agnew and Charles Daniels, soprano Valerie Gabail and baritone Stephan Loges, as well as the Allegri String Quartet.
Daniel has a long-standing duo with violinist Fiona McNaught and together, they have been recipients of awards from the Musicians’ Company and the Craxton, Tunnell and Tillett Trusts. They give regular recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and South Bank and have played at St David’s Hall in Cardiff as well as at the Brighton, Newbury, Cheltenham, York and Warwick Festivals. In 2002 they performed the complete Sonatas by Beethoven in several venues around the country. Daniel also performs with the young violinist Jennifer Pike.
Daniel is Director of the annual Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival. He studied in London at the Royal College of Music with Irina Zaritskaya and at the Guildhall with Paul Roberts.
"Here was an outstanding performance of a great work... a recital of rare and enlightening insight". Musical Opinion on Bartók’s 2nd Violin Sonata.
Benjamin Nabarro plays worldwide as soloist and chamber musician. He appears regularly at international festivals such as Cheltenham, the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, Schleswig-Holstein, Edinburgh and also in Ponte de Lima, Portugal and Bullawayo, Zimbabwe. Duo partners include Philip Moore and Leslie Howard, as well as the London Bridge Ensemble's pianist Daniel Tong. During recent years he has given concerto performances of works by Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Sibelius, Leighton and Piazzolla. Benjamin has appeared as director and leader of the English Chamber Orchestra and was invited to play Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherezade with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Charles Dutoit.
As well as his membership of the London Bridge Ensemble, Benjamin is violinist of the Olivier Ensemble and Wakeford Ensemble. He is also a regular guest of the Nash Ensemble and Fibonacci Sequence. He has made recordings on the Hyperion, Black Box and Dutton labels.Future plans include the recording of Liszt's complete works for violin and piano with the celebrated pianist and world authority on Liszt, Leslie Howard.
"His reading of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto demonstrated his purity of style, elegance of phrasing and the unsurpassed perfection of his technique which led to him being called back time and again by the capacity audience...He is an outstanding artist". Musical Opinion
Tom Dunn joined the London Bridge Ensemble in 2006. He has held Co-Principal Viola positions with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Mozart Players and has appeared as Guest Principal Viola with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Avison Ensemble and the King's Consort. He has also performed with the Lindsay and Eroica Quartets, Martin Roscoe, Richard Simpson and Trevor Pinnock.
Increasingly focusing on chamber music, as reflected in his membership of the London Bridge Ensemble, Tom is also a member of the Quince Quartet and The Chamber Players. He has recently made recordings of the two Dvořák Piano Quartets with the Picander Ensemble and of Mozart’s Flute Quartets and Beethoven’s Serenade with the Beznosiuk Ensemble.
Tom studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and at Manchester University where his teachers included Robin Ireland, Roger Benedict, Nicholas Logie and Annette Isserlis.
Kate Gould is one of the outstanding chamber musicians of her generation, appearing regularly at Wigmore Hall, on BBC Radio 3 and at the major international concert halls and festivals world-wide. In addition to her membership of the London Bridge Ensemble, she is a founder member of the Leopold String Trio, with violinist, Isabelle van Keulen and violist, Lawrence Power. She spends the rest of her concert life giving duo recitals and playing with a wide range of chamber ensembles. In 1997 she was a winner of the Tillett Trust Young Artists Platform and the BBC Radio 3 Young Artists’ Forum with her duo partner, Viv McLean.
The Leopold String Trio recently won the Chamber Music category at the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards and in 2004 was the winner of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, set up by Mitsuko Uchida to assist established young ensembles and soloists. In 2001, the Trio represented Wigmore Hall at major international concert halls in the ECHO Rising Stars series and in the same year was selected for the inaugural BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme. The Trio records for Hyperion, on occasion with guest artists such as Paul Lewis and Marc-Andre Hamelin, and all of their discs have received immense critical acclaim.
She joined the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in 2000 and plays as guest principal cellist of the English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
"I doubt we will ever hear better recorded performances of the three piano quartets than we have here...Kate Gould's cello in the moving slow movements of Nos 2 and 3 is breathtakingly beautiful..." Classic FM Magazine, Brahms’ Piano Quartets, Hyperion Records.
Ivan Ludlow is a regular guest at Europe’s most prestigious opera houses including Opéra National de Lyon, Capitole de Toulouse, Welsh National Opera, Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Opéra Comique (Paris), Opéra National du Rhin (Strasbourg), Opéra de Marseille, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Opéra de Metz, Casa da Musica (Porto), Vlaamse Oper (Antwerp), Opéra de Lausanne and Opera Faber (Ponte de Lima Festival, Portugal). He performs with conductors such as Christophe Rousset, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Jean-Yves Ossonce, Cyril Diedrich, Franck Ollu, Christoph Ullrich Meyer, Gerard Korsten and Gustav Kuhn. He has sung the title roles in Don Giovanni and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Guglielmo (Così fan Tutte), Nick Shadow, (Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress), Danilo (Lehàr’s Die Lustige Witwe), Iarba (Cavalli’s La Didone), Escamillo (Carmen), Nevers (Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer), The Count (in Strauss’ Capriccio) Marcello (La Bohème), Aeneas, The Traveller (Britten’s Curlew River), Astrologer (Britten’s Burning Fiery Furnace), Baritone (Maxwell-Davies’ No. 11 Bus).
Ivan is a frequent recitalist, performing throughout Europe and the United States and is often partnered by Daniel Tong, pianist of the London Bridge Ensemble. Concert, recital and oratorio engagements include performances with orchestras such as Le Parlement de Musique, Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Il Seminario Musicale, the Israel Camerata and Northern Sinfonietta.
Future engagements include, Don Giovanni in Lisbon, The Traveller in Britten’s Curlew River in Nîmes, Lyon and Athens, Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Lyon and Athens, Junius in The Rape of Lucretia in Antwerp and Mercutio in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette in St. Etienne. Ivan studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio.
"Ivan Ludlow’s powerful and beautiful voice was able both to illuminate the proud and masculine sides of this song cycle as well as to delve in to the subtler semantics of the poems." Music and Vision, Schumann op. 24 Liederkreis, Wigmore Hall
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