Springboard was honoured to have two world class musicians mentoring and hosting our first festival: Melvyn Tan and Levon Chilingirian. Both have been hugely supportive and enthusiastic about Springboard and the opportunity it provides for the young musicians involved.
“It’s a pleasure to be involved in this project and to encourage more talented generations to participate and to perform to a wider audience.” (Melvyn Tan)
“Springboard provides a great chance to develop the musical understanding of our younger colleagues by not only giving them master classes but also having the opportunity to rehearse and perform chamber music with them. Some of my most memorable learning experiences as a young player were during musical encounters with older and more experienced players.” (Levon Chilingirian)
Piano & FortepianoBorn in Singapore and resident in the UK since 1978, Melvyn Tan began his studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School, where his teachers included Vlado Perlemuter, Nadia Boulanger and Marcel Ciampi. At the Royal College of Music he studied both piano and harpsichord and intrigued by the sound of early keyboards, soon focused his attention on the fortepiano. Melvyn Tan rapidly built a formidable international reputation for his performances on the fortepiano and his exclusive contract with EMI Classics produced a series of groundbreaking recordings, including the complete Beethoven Sonatas and Concertos.
2007/8 sees appearances in a wide repertoire ranging from Mozart to Messiaen across Europe and Australasia. Last season Melvyn celebrated his 50th birthday, an occasion marked by concerto appearances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, a recital at Wigmore Hall, collaborations with cellist Steven Isserlis, violist Tabea Zimmerman and pianist Ronald Brautigam, and a major international recital series including the complete Mozart Sonata cycle. In early 2008 Melvyn toured Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
He has given complete cycles of the Beethoven Sonatas, Debussy and Chopin Preludes, in New York, Tokyo and London, and has performed at leading concert halls around the world, including: the Barbican; the Wigmore Hall, London; New York’s Lincoln Centre and Frick Collection; Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris; Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus; Salzburg’s Mozarteum; Die Glocke in Bremen and the Philharmonie in Cologne. Festival appearances include: Salzburg (summer festival and the Mozartwoche); Mondsee; Cheltenham; Bad Kissingen, La Roque d’Anthéron, City of London; Spitalfields; Bath; Oxford and Beijing. In addition to Roger Norrington his concerto partners have included conductors Bruno Weil, Leonard Slatkin, Frans Brüggen, Nicholas McGegan, Herbert Soudant, Libor Pešek, Marin Alsop, Emmanuel Krivine and Jaap van Zweden.
Orchestras with which he has worked include the BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Stuttgart Radio, Netherlands Symphony, Stavanger Symphony, Budapest Concert Orchestra, Salzburg’s Camerata and Mozarteum Orchestras, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Symphony, New World Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Melbourne Symphony and Australian Chamber Orchestra. He recently toured France with Emmanuel Krivine and the Chambre Philharmonique de Paris.
Chamber music and Lieder recitals hold an important place in Melvyn’s repertoire, and his regular partners in repertoire ranging from Bach to Shostakovich include cellist Steven Isserlis, violinist Christian Altenberger, the Škampa Quartet and fellow pianists, Ronald Brautigam and Andreas Staier. His Lieder recitals partners have included Anne-Sofie von Otter, Arleen Auger, Angelika Kirchschlager, Wolfgang Holzmaier and Olaf Bär with whom he performed Berg and Schoenberg at the Wigmore Hall.
He recently made his directorial début in Italy touring Mozart concerti with the Orchestra Filharmonica Marchigiana and began a collaboration with the London Chamber Orchestra directing Beethoven and Mozart. In the 2009/10 season he returns to the Royal Festival Hall to perform with the LPO and in 2010 will mark Chopin’s 200th birthday with a series of performances both on modern piano and fortepiano.
In addition to the complete Beethoven Concertos, Sonatas and Schubert Impromptus, Melvyn Tan’s recordings for EMI Classics include discs of Mozart concertos and Weber’s Konzertstück with the London Classical Players and Sir Roger Norrington. Further recordings of Mozart concertos are on Harmonia Mundi (Philharmonia Baroque and Nicholas McGegan) and Virgin Classics, this time with Tan’s own group, the New Mozart Ensemble.
For RCA Victor, he has recorded the complete Mendelssohn cello works with Steven Isserlis, and for Deutsche Gramophon, a Haydn/Mozart album and a disc of French and German Lieder with Anne-Sofie von Otter. His radio recordings for the BBC are numerous and the corporation released a BBC Music Magazine cover disc recording of Nocturnes by Chopin, Debussy and Field and a live Wigmore Hall recording of the Dvorák Piano Quintet with the Škampa Quartet. Melvyn’s most recent recording – a complete CD set of Debussy’s Préludes – received critical acclaim when it was released by Deux-Elles in May 2005.
Violin Levon Chilingirian was born in Cyprus to Armenian parents and was introduced to music from a very early age through his pianist mother and violinist great uncle. When the Chilingirian family immigrated to London in 1960, Levon concentrated on the violin, studying at the Royal College of Music where he is now a professor. His early influences in music were his uncle, the violinist Manoug Parikian, his teacher Hugh Bean, musicologist Hans Keller, and the Amadeus Quartet.
His long-standing partnership with Clifford Benson was launched by winning the first prizes in both the 1969 BBC Beethoven Competition and the 1971 Munich Duo International Competition. Recital appearances have taken the duo to most European countries and their recordings include works by Schubert and Frank Bridge.
From his student days, Levon Chilingirian was drawn to the wonderfully rich chamber music repertoire and, in 1971 formed The Chilingirian Quartet with three other ex-RCM students. The Quartet has held residencies at Liverpool and Sussex Universities and is currently attached to the Royal College of Music. It is one of the most active and celebrated string quartets on the international scene with tours to over fifty countries on six continents. Called “one of the great string quartets of our day” (Boston Globe) and acclaimed as “world class from the first stroke” (Basler Zeitung), the Chilingirian Quartet has played in all major centres in North America as well as regular visits in Europe to all the capital cities and main festivals, resulting in a strong and devoted following. They make annual appearances at London’s Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls and have given Beethoven Cycles in London, Sydney and Melbourne, a Schubert Cycle in Paris, and premieres of works by John Tavener and Hugh Wood. The Quartet’s wide-ranging recorded repertoire includes works by Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Beethoven, Dvorak, Bartok, Prokofiev, Tavener, Part, Panufnik, Chausson, Debussy, Ravel, Grieg, and Komitas/Aslamazian.
In addition to his work with the Quartet, Levon Chilingirian has always enjoyed recital and concerto appearances. He was invited to perform the Sinfonia Concertante on the Amadeus soundtrack by Sir Neville Marriner and performed the Brahms Double Concerto with Steven Isserlis in Yerevan. Steven Isserlis invited Levon Chilingirian to lead a performance of the Schubert Quintet to end the millenium’s music at the Wigmore Hall. He has played the Tippett Triple concerto with six different orchestras and his recording of the piece for Chandos with Richard Hickox had the enthusiastic endorsement of the composer. Other distinguished partners include Sir Andrew Davis, Tadaki Otaka, Sir Charles Groves, Jeremy Menuhin and Steven De Groote. A partnership with organist William McVicker widens his repertoire to include inspiring works by Karg-Elert and William Lloyd Weber.
Levon Chilingirian was invited to give the String Master Class for the BBC TV’s Young Musician of the Year and has appeared as soloist with the BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic, Bournemouth, Liverpool Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber, Bergen Philharmonic, Armenian Philharmonic, and Russian National Orchestras. He has received the Cobbett Medal, the Royal Philharmonic Society’s chamber music award and, in January 2000, an OBE in the Queen’s Honours List for his “services to music”.
By playing and directing the Camerata Roman, Levon has become an important part of Swedish musical life since 1996. This highly talented young string ensemble has explored quartet music on a larger scale as well as unusual classical and contemporary pieces. In regular partnership with the pianist Per Tengstrand, three CDs of Mozart piano concertos have been recorded as well as the 29th Symphony and oboe divertimento with Gordon Hunt. Future plans include tours throughout Europe and North and South America.
In Armenia, Chilingirian has organised two competitions for young string players since 2000 and in May 2002, he invited winners to take part in an inaugural chamber music festival with Ani and Ida Kavafian, Alexander Chaushian and himself. His collaboration with Alexander Chaushian continues in the Pharos Chamber Soloists, a group containing some of Europe’s best young players. Levon Chilingirian is also the artistic director of the Mendlessohn on Mull festival, encouraging the artistic development of young professionals through performances with more experienced mentors.