Programme 26 March 2010 Evgenia Startseva, born in Kazakhstan, is a pianist with an international concert career both as a soloist and as a chamber music player. She is regarded as a musician with an accomplished technique and a wide-ranging command of the tonal resources of the piano, giving vivid interpretations true to the composer’s style. She studied in Moscow with Irina Savina, and then graduated from The Russian Gnesins Academy of Music, where her professors were Theodore Gutman and Ekaterina Derzhavina. During this time she regularly gave concerts in Russia and Kazakhstan, also taking part in the 1993 Igumnov Piano Festival in Lipetsk. As a postgraduate, she studied first at the Moscow State Conservatoire with Professor Mikhail Nikeshichev, then at the Musikhochschule in Saarbrucken with Professor Robert Leonardy. She has also received lessons from Vassily Lobanov in Cologne and Roger Vignoles in London. Evgenia Startseva’s busy concert schedule has subsequently taken her across the globe to the former USSR, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Mexico, South Africa, the United States and the UK, where she now lives. She has also featured in numerous broadcasts for ITV (UK), Sudwestrundfunk (Baden-Baden), ORF2 (Vienna), Westdeurscher Rundfunk (Cologne), RTE (Ireland), Saarlandischer Rundfunk and Eastern Kazakhstan Television. In the year 2000, she made a recording with violinist Nadezhda Korshakova of works by Mozart, Prokofiev and Schedrin, released by DMK Classics. Yuri Paterson-Olenich was born in Brighton where, at the age of four, he started piano lessons with Christine Pembridge, a pupil of Adelina de Lara and Harold Craxton. In 1991 he was awarded an entrance exhibition to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with the late Alexander Kelly. He performed extensively throughout the UK and took part in the London Bach Festival of 1994. He also received harpsichord lessons from Terence Charlston. As a post-graduate Yuri studied with Professor Vladimir Tropp at the Russian Gnesins' Academy of Music in Moscow, supported by the Ian Fleming Charitable Trust and the Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarship Trust. He has also received lessons from Tatiana Zelikman in Moscow, Alexander Satz in London and Alicia de Larrocha in Barcelona. Yuri took advantage of the many varied opportunities to perform in the former USSR : of particular interest was a series of performances of the ten sonatas of Scriabin in different venues including the composer's Moscow apartment, now a museum. Yuri was very well received during his stay in Russia, notably for his performances of works by Scriabin, Rakhmaninov and of the sonata by Frank Bridge, which he performed in a series of concerts sponsored by the Frank Bridge Trust. Concert tours have taken him to Russia, Kazakhstan, Italy, Armenia, France, Germany, Denmark and the Canary Islands. More recent concert activities include Yuri's participation in the international festival Piano at Auxerre, his inclusion in a festival of British music held in Copenhagen, a tour of Kazakhstan with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, appearances in Criccieth and Lower Machen festivals and a recital as the concluding event of the Lewes Live Literature festival in the UK. Yuri has recorded Collage, a concerto for saxophone, piano and orchestra by Paul Carr with the Sussex Symphony Orchestra for the Claudio label and more recently his CD, SCRIABIN : LATE PIANO WORKS (Prometheus EDITION001) has come out on general release, to critical acclaim. Yuri is a pianist who likes to maintain as wide a repertoire as possible, encompassing the mainstream repertory, more unusual works and music by living composers. Being an admirer of the visual arts, Yuri has a particular interest in repertoire inspired by visual elements. Yuri's last CD with Rachmaninov's works has become 'Editor's choice' in 'The Gramophone' in September issue.