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The Aquinas Piano Trio is a new, exciting and ambitious chamber group.
Ruth Rogers (violin) has worked as a duo with Martin Cousin (piano) for several years and has also played extensively with Katherine Jenkinson (cello) in the Iuventus Quartet. All three players are established solo artists in their own right and have vast experience of the chamber music repertoire.
Between them they have an outstanding array of awards and achievements and have performed at such prestigious venues as the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, South Bank Centre, Barbican Hall and Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. They are all major prizewinners from a number of important competitions, have performed concertos with the country's leading orchestras, chamber music at festivals throughout Europe and have played all over the world, including recent concerts in Indonesia and Thailand. The Aquinas Piano Trio has been chosen as a featured ensemble in the Concert Promoters Network Scheme.
Born in London in 1979, Ruth Rogers began violin lessons at the age of five. As a soloist, Ruth’s playing has been described as “not calculated in any sense, her performance style and technique so assured that the music flows as a natural consequence of innermost understanding. Ruth Rogers must be one of the most gifted young violinists in Britain.” (Musical Opinion.) In 2008 Ruth was appointed as the co-leader of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. She also guest leads the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Aurora Chamber Orchestra and has appeared in principal roles with the Hallé, Philharmonia and RLPO. As chamber musician, Ruth has performed at the Aldeburgh and Bath Festivals with the Tate Ensemble and with pianist John Lill in Shostakovich’s piano quintet. She has appeared at the Wigmore Hall with the Nash Ensemble. In February 2009 Ruth reached the final of an International Duo Competition with Martin Cousin – the Franz Schubert and Modern Music International Competition which took place in Graz, Austria. They were one of five duos in the final, chosen from thirty-seven participating duos.
Katherine Jenkinson(Cello) was born in 1980 in Derbyshire where she began to play the cello at the age of five. Three years later she was accepted as the youngest ever pupil to be taken on by the cellist and teacher, Florence Hooton.
Katherine takes a keen interest in contemporary music, which has led her to work closely with composers such as Arvo Pärt. She is a member of the London Contemporary Music Group, and performs with ensembles such as the London Sinfonietta and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.
Katherine has performed as soloist throughout Europe, in Africa and Asia. She gave her Wigmore Hall debut in 2004 and has since returned there three times. In the last few years Katherine has performed concerti by Dvořák, Saints-Saëns, Elgar, Haydn, Schumann, Shostakovich, Lalo, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi and Beethoven (Triple Concerto).
Martin Cousin is now regarded as one of the most exceptional pianists of his generation He has appeared regularly in the major British musical venues since graduating from the Royal College of Music, making his London solo debut at the Purcell Room in 1998 to great critical acclaim. Highlights of the last two seasons have included Tchaikovsky's 1st Concerto at Bridgewater Hall and Symphony Hall, Gershwin's Concerto in F at the Adrian Boult Hall and the European premiere of Terry Mann's "No Ordinary Piano Suite" at the Purcell Room. This season will see the release of his much-anticipated second CD for SOMM Recordings, which will feature Glazunov's Piano Sonatas, along with a return to the Wigmore Hall and Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto with the Philharmonia at Barbican Hall.
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