Programme - 22 November 2019 Andrey Lebedev Lotte Betts-Dean Australian-Russian guitarist Andrey Lebedev is on a mission to redefine the relationship of the guitar to the classical mainstream. His creative collaborations and track record of performing new works have garnered him attention from critics and audiences across Europe, South America, USA, and Australia. He was mentored by guitar giants Julian Bream and John Williams and was the first young guitarist invited by Bream to perform or the Julian Bream Trust. He is a Prize Winner of the renowned ARD music competition and Guitar Foundation of America Competition, First Prize winner of the Gisborne International Music Competition and Adelaide International Guitar Competition, and still the only guitarist in the 85-year history of the Sydney Eisteddfod to win the esteemed NSW Doctors Orchestra Instrumental Scholarship€�. Andrey’s 2018/19 season began with a residency in Eygalieres, France with the Imogen Cooper Music Trust. He gave his Russian debut in a 22-date winter tour of Russia and Siberia in trio with accordion and cello including a concert at the Moscow International Accordion Festival. He made his Austrian solo debut at the Weiner Konzerthaus Schubert Saal, presented by Jeunesse. In a duo formation with mezzo soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, they are joint recipients of the inaugural Musicians’ Company New Elizabethan award. They have recitals at Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre’s Sound Unbound Festival, Guildford Festival, and The Red House Aldeburgh. In June he performed solo and chamber works in ”Classical Mixtape Live” a recital at St George’s Bristol, with leading young musicians including saxophonist Jess Gillam and pianist Martin James Bartlett. He also had recitals with violinist Emily Sun and with saxophonist Jonathan Radford. Andrey started playing guitar at age seven in Adelaide, Australia inspired by his father singing Russian bard songs. He grew up playing classical guitar through the South Australian Youth Guitar Ensemble, jazz guitar in the SA Youth Superband, and rock music in scratch bands at school, but became enamored with classical music after receiving a Glenn Gould CD as a teenager. Andrey studied with Timothy Kain at the Australian National University, and was a full scholarship student at the Royal Academy of Music under Michael Lewin where he graduated with a Regency Award and the David Russell Guitar Prize. Australian mezzo soprano Lotte Betts-Dean's performance experience encompasses opera, oratorio, contemporary music, art song recital/chamber music, early music and non-classical collaborations. She has been based in London since 2014 and works internationally, most often in the UK and Australia.  Lotte is Associate Artist with Southbank Sinfonia and is a member of London-based contemporary music group Ensemble x.y. She is also a City Music Foundation Artist for 2017-2019 and recently won the 2019 Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform. Lotte is a regular collaborator with guitarist Andrey Lebedev with whom she has performed throughout the UK and recently presented a sold out Australian recital tour. In the UK, Lotte has performed at venues including Wigmore Hall, Kansas Smittys, St John's Smith Square, St Martin In The Fields, Handel House Museum, St James’s Palace and Colston Hall Bristol, and she has appeared at many British festivals, including Buxton, Cheltenham, Llandeilo, Aldeburgh, Oxford Lieder, Norfolk & Norwich, Gower and Dartington. She has been a featured singer on two Australian-produced albums, La Compania’s Destino Mexicano (2013) and Stuart Greenbaum’s Mondrian Interiors (2016). Highlights of the current season include Vivaldi’s Gloria with English Chamber Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, a UK-wide tour of Pierrot Lunaire with Manchester Collective, concerts in France with Baroque ensemble La Vaghezza, recitals at Wigmore Hall and Wiltshire Music Centre, the 2019 Australian Festival of Chamber Music and her debut with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. For details, see Schedule. Lotte completed a Masters on full scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in 2016, studying under Catherine Benson and Audrey Hyland. While at RAM, Lotte performed regularly in chamber music and contemporary music events, was a member of the RAM Song Circle, and a soloist for the Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata Series. Lotte recently won the inaugural Musicians Company New Elizabethan Award alongside Andrey Lebedev which will see the duo perform at Wigmore Hall and throughout Britain in the coming year.

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