Tessera Quartet

One of the most exciting chamber ensembles currently emerging on the concert scene, the Tessera Quartet has already created an energetic presence, captivating audiences with its glowing sound and bold interpretations. A compelling mosaic of four accomplished young soloists, the Tessera Quartet was formed under the guidance of the renowned Juilliard String Quartet in 2007. The quartet has performed with the legendary pianist Claude Frank and enjoys an ongoing collaboration with composer Lowell Liebermann, whose complete quartets it is recording for Koch Records. Highlights of its current season include performances and residencies at Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, the Schneider Concerts at The New School, Aaron Copland School of Music, and The National Arts Club, among many other venues.

Hamish Milne

Hamish Milne has appeared as soloist with most of the leading British orchestras and has given over two hundred broadcasts for the BBC. Overseas engagements in recent years have taken him to the USA, the Far East, Africa and several countries of the former Soviet Union as well Western Europe; He is also well known as a chamber musician, formerly with the Parikian/Milne/Fleming Trio and currently with the Pro Arte Piano Quartet and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Ensemble, appearing in London’s Wigmore Hall and at several major music festivals in the UK and abroad. In the past few seasons he gave concerts in Armenia, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany , Italy, Japan, South America and the USA as well as UK venues.

He has recorded for Chandos, CRD, Danacord, Decca and Hyperion labels. He has made a special study of the music of Nikolai Medtner and has performed his music on four continents and was prominently featured in the Medtner Festivals held in Moscow in 1995, 2006, 2007 and in a similar event in New York in March 2004. There is a discography of some twenty commercial CDs. Recent releases include Concertos by Holbrooke and Haydn Wood , described in the press as ‘An exemplary release’ (The Gramophone) and ‘Mesmerising’ (Fanfare, USA), Schubert’s ‘Trout Quintet’ with the ASM Chamber Ensemble and the first CD recording of the Russian Anatoly Alexandrov hailed by International Record Review as ‘altogether exceptional playing’. In 2005 an album of Russian Bach transcriptions was awarded the coveted ‘Diapason d’or’ in France. In 2007, Hyperion released the first ever recording of the Complete Skazki (Tales) by Medtner (2Cds.) which was a Gramophone Award nominee (Instrumental). His recent Busoni CD was also awarded the ‘Diapason d’or’.

He is a piano professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London and a Professor of the University of London.