The first of the 2024 lunchtime recitals in the Stoller Hall.

We are delighted to welcome Callum Mclachlan and  Pedro López Salas to the Young Artist programme this year.  They have both reached the final 24 of the Leeds International Piano Competition. The competition begins in September and they will perform some of the repertoire that they will play in the competition.

CPE BACH – Sonata in F# Minor

– Allegro

– Poco Andante

– Allegro Assia

Lili Boulanger – Prelude in Db

Schumann – Etudes Symphoniques

A finalist of The 18th International Robert Schumann Competition Zwickau and Semi-Finalist of the XX Santander International Piano Competition Paloma O’ Shea, Callum Mclachlan, 24, has been described as ‘A born Schumann player’ with a ‘magical sense of colour and extraordinary technical prowess’ (July 2019, London recital). He has been selected as one of the final 24 Pianists in the 21st Leeds International Piano Competition.

He is now studying for Masters with Professor Jacques Rouvier in the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg and Professor Claudio Martinez Mehner in the Hochschüle für Musik und Tanz Köln.

In the last season, he made his debut in Klavier Festival Ruhr, Menton International Music Festival, Lake District Summer Music and gave the Swiss Premiere of Eric Tanguy’s Piano Quartet for Classeek in Aubonne, Switzerland. In 2024 he will debut with Nürnberg Staatsphilharmonie and make his Japan Recital Debut for Yamaha in Ginza Hall, Tokyo. Most recently he was a finalist of the Royal Over Seas League Piano Competition in London, and was nominated for International Classical Music Classeek Award.

He has performed at many of the most important concert venues throughout the UK, Europe, and USA, including Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Wien Konzerthaus, Pereda Hall Santander, London’s Steinway Hall and Manchester’s Bridgewater and Stoller Hall. He has performed with the renowned ensemble Casals Quartet and continues to play recitals with Queen Elisabeth Laureate Cellist Jeremias Fliedl. He made his debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2016, performed works of Benjamin Britten in Steinway Hall London, Liszt’s 2nd Piano Concerto with Paul Mann and CSO at RNCM Concert Hall, which he recently repeated at the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton in March 2020 and Mozart Sonatas for Piano and Violin at The Bridgewater Hall. He receives repeat re-engagements at these leading venues and festivals across the UK. In 2019, he made his New York recital debut, performing works of Beethoven, Brahms and Percy Grainger, a recital programme he performed at the newly opened Stoller Hall in Manchester, to critical acclaim.

He was recently personally invited by Pascal Nemirowski to perform in the Young Artist Series in the RBC Birmingham Piano Festival. He has played in numerous masterclasses with Stephen Kovacevich, Kiril Gerstein, Leif Oves Andsnes, Christopher Elton, Grigory Gruzmann, Markus Groh, Dmitri Alexeev, Andrei Gavrilov, Stephen Hough, and Boris Berman. He made a recording of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata at the Universitat Mozarteum Salzburg, in collaboration with G. Henle Verlag for Beethoven 250. Recent highlights of the past season include performing Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Sheffield Chamber Orchestra, numerous solo recitals in London, Vienna and Manchester, and Mozart’s ‘Jeunehomme’ Concerto arranged for Piano and String Quartet with students from the Royal College of Music in London.

Born into a family of musicians, he first started piano lessons with his father at the age of 7, and entered Chetham’s School of Music at age 11, where he studied Dina Parakhina. He was awarded the highest diploma from Trinity College – the FTCL, in his final year. He studied under Professor Claudius Tanski for Bachelors at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg. He has won 1st prizes in the Welsh International Piano Competition, The Scottish International Piano Competition, the RNCM Chopin Competition as well semi-finalist of the Ferrol International Piano Competition 2022.