With his superlative technique, musicality and insightfulness, Shunske Sato has established himself as one of the most noted violinists of the young generation, and continues to perform as soloist and chamber musician throughout the world. Actively developing and confirming his keen interest in historically informed performance in recent years, Shunske has begun to perform regularly on the baroque violin as well, and is distinguished as a versatile and historically conscious musician.

In addition to regular appearances with all the major orchestras in Japan, he has worked with leading European orchestras including the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian Radio Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio, NDR Radio Philharmonic Hannover, Hamburg Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Gulbenkian Orchestra, State Symphony Orchestra of Russia, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra and St. Petersburg Symphony. Since his American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 10, he has performed with renowned American orchestras such as the Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and the Syracuse Symphony.

Collaborations with many distinguished conductors have enriched Shunske´s musical experience, particularly those with Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Gary Bertini, Myung-Whun Chung, Sergiu Comissiona, Valery Gerghiev, Christopher Hogwood, Hiroyuki Iwaki, Zdenek Macal, Ingo Metzmacher, Eiji Oue, Yuri Temirkanov, and David Zinman.

Shunske launched his recording debut in 2005 with Eugène Ysaÿe´s Six Sonatas for solo violin (Live Notes, 2005), which was met with an uncommon unity of laudations from the Japanese press, including those from major newspapers as the Asahi, Yomiuri, and Mainichi. Further recordings include an album of short pieces, “Preludes” (Live Notes, 2006), and Edvard Grieg’s complete sonatas for violin and piano (Live Notes, 2007), which was awarded the Grand Prize of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan. Most recently, Shunske became the first violinist ever to issue a recording of Niccolò Paganini’s Twenty-Four Caprices for solo violin (UCJ Japan, 2009) from a historically informed perspective, using pure gut strings and a late eighteenth-century style bow.

A recipient of numerous awards, he made his New York debut under the auspices of Young Concert Artists, and has most recently received the S and R Washington Award in 2006, and the Idemitsu Award in 2005.

Born in Tokyo in 1984, Shunske began the violin at the age of two, immigrating to America with his family two years later. Studying with Chin Kim before coming under the tutelage of Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki at the Juilliard School of New York, he then pursued his studies with Gérard Poulet in Paris, France. Since October 2009, Shunske has been living in Munich, Germany, studying baroque violin under Mary Utiger at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München.

A long-term recipient of instruments generously provided by the Nippon Music Foundation, Shunske currently plays on violins – modern and baroque – made by Stephan von Baehr (Paris, 2007 & 2009).

Yorkshire born soprano Rowan Pierce was awarded the President’s Award by HRH Prince of Wales at the Royal College of Music in 2017.  She won both the Song Prize and First Prize at the inaugural Grange Festival International Singing Competition in 2017, the first Schubert Society Singer Prize in 2014 and the Van Someren Godfery Prize at the RCM.    She was a Britten Pears young artist, a Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a Harewood Artist at English National Opera.

Rowan has appeared in concert throughout the UK, Europe, North and South America.  She performs regularly with ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, Dunedin Consort, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Rowan made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2017 with the OAE and returned in 2019 for Handel Jephtha with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.   She made her Wigmore Hall debut with the London Handel Players and has subsequently appeared with many other chamber ensembles in repertoire including Bach and Wolf.

Other recent highlights include performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Freiburg Baroque, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, La Nuova Musica, Polyphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Early Opera Company and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.   Visits to the US in 2019 included appearances with the OAE at the Lincoln Center in New York, with the Academy of Ancient Music in San Francisco and at the Disney Hall in Los Angeles.  She also gave a recital at the Kennedy Center, Washington with Richard Egarr and William Carter in January 2020.  Recent and future engagements include Mahler 4 with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Martyn Brabbins,  Belinda in Dido and Aeneas with the Early Opera Company and Dame Sarah Connolly as Dido,  Israel in Egypt  and Bach B minor mass with the SCO,    appearances at the Wigmore Hall with the London Handel Players and Florilegium, Christmas Oratorio with the Britten Sinfonia, Oberto in concert performances with Les Violins du Roy, Messiah with the Hallé and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Schumann Requiem with Philharmonia Baroque and Handel Ode for St Cecilia’s Day with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra,  Handel Nine German Arias and Italian Cantatas with Les Arts Florissants / William Christie.

Rowan has performed Drusilla in Monteverdi’s  L’incoronazione di Poppea as a Britten Pears Young Artist,  and roles as a Samling Artist included  Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Miss Wordsworth in Britten’s Albert Herring and Princess in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges.

Nominated for The Time Sky Arts Award for opera in 2020 her operatic roles have included Galatea / Acis & Galatea, Iris / Semele, Dorinda / Orlando,  Belinda / Dido and Aeneas,  Elsie / Yeoman of the Guard.   As a Harewood Artist she has performed   Tiny / Paul Bunyan, Papagena / The Magic Flute and Barbarina / The Marriage of Figaro.  In 2019 Rowan made her debut at the Buxton Festival in the role of Papiria / Lucio Papirio Dittatore by Caldara with La Serenissima and performed the roles of Quivera and Orazia / The Indian Queen with Opéra de Lille under Emmanuelle Haïm,    Recent and future engagements include various roles in performances of both Purcell’s King Arthur and the Fairy Queen with the Gabrieli Consort and also with Ensemble Alia Mens in France,  Oberto / Alcina for the Staatstheater Stuttgart, more performances of the Indian Queen with Opéra de Luxembourg, Opéra de Caen and Antwerp Opera and her Glyndebourne Festival debut singing Oberto.     In 2022/23 she will make her Covent Garden début singing Papagena.

Festival and recital performances have included collaborations with Sir Thomas Allen and Christopher Glynn in the Ryedale Festival, Dame Ann Murray, Sholto Kynoch and Malcolm Martineau in the Oxford Lieder Festival and Roger Vignoles in the Leeds Lieder Festival.  2019 saw her appear in a staged production of the Wolf Italian Songbook at the Barbican, Chiltern and Ryedale Festivals as well as a shared recital with Roderick Williams and Christopher Glynn at the Swaledale Festival.  She appeared in the 2019 Edinburgh International Festival with the English Concert as Amore / Gluck’s Orfeo and returned to the festival in 2021 with the RSNO, she also gave a recital with Philharmonia Baroque at the Ryedale Festival in 2022. Future festival appearances include Lully’s Phaeton with the Early Opera Company at the Buxton Festival and in 2023/24 she will give a Wigmore Hall recital with Richard Egarr.

Although Rowan has been much acclaimed for her interpretation of Baroque and Early Music she has also been applauded for her performances of a wider repertoire including English song and Lieder by composers such as Mahler, Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams and Britten.   She has also premiered works by composers including Iain Bell and Julian Philps.

Her discography includes Purcell ‘The Cares of Lovers’ with Richard Egarr and William Carter (Linn Records), 2019 BBC Music Magazine Opera Award winner Acis and Galatea with the Early Opera Company / Christian Curnyn (Chandos), An English Coronation and King Arthur (BBC Music Magazine Opera Award nominee 2020) with the Gabrieli Consort / McCreesh (Signum), Vaughan Williams Symphony No 7 ‘Antartica’ with the RLPO / Manze (Onyx).   She was the voice of the singer Siena Rosso in the Neflix series Bridgerton.   Future plans include a disc of Schubert songs with Roderick Williams and Christopher Glynn.

Photo by Gerard Collett

Mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu joined the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme in the 2018/19 season, subsequently making her house debut as Flora in Richard Eyre’s popular production of La traviata under Antonello Manacorda. Further roles on the main stage included Mercédès in Barrie Kosky’s acclaimed production of Carmen, Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Siébel in Gounod’s Faust and, in the Young Artists Summer Showcase, scenes from Pelléas et Mélisande and Il barbiere di Siviglia.  In the Linbury Theatre, she received strong praise for her portrayal of Hans Werner Henze’s Phaedra – “Wu is particularly impressive in the title role, singing this hugely difficult music with great skill and acting the role with great passion” (The Express).

The 2021/22 season sees Hongni Wu return to Covent Garden as Flora and makes two house debuts in the US: for San Francisco Opera as Bao Chai in Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber, and for Santa Fe Opera as Comrade Chin and Shu Fung in the world premiere of Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly. In concert, she adds Verdi’s Messa da Requiem to her repertoire with the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra under Yang Yang, and returns to Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yu Long. On the recital platform, she debuts on the main stage of Guangzhou Opera House in a solo programme of Mahler and Strauss.

Recent highlights on the concert platform include Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, Das Lied von der Erde with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under Tan Dun, Respighi’s Il tramonto at Shanghai Symphony Hall in a chamber programme with bass-baritone Shenyang and the Polaris Quartet, and a national tour of China in Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion conducted by the composer himself.

A 2018 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Wu completed her Professional Studies and Master of Music Degree at the Manhattan School of Music (where she was recipient of the Stan Sesser Career Award), received her Bachelor of Music Degree from Xinghai Conservatory of Music, and participated in the Scuola di Bel Canto summer programme in Urbania, Italy.  During her time at the Manhattan School of Music, Hongni Wu performed the roles of Angelina (La cenerentola), Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), and La libellule (L’enfant et les sortilèges), garnering praise from the New York Times for her “technical agility, warm colourings, and ample sound”. Further performing experience includes Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) with Opera Maine, Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) with the Martina Arroyo Foundation, the title role in Carmen with the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, and Mrs. Umeya in Qingling Song at Guangzhou Opera House.