Our carefully selected artists were among the top young musicians in the country. They attend or are recent graduates of prestigious music colleges and conservatoires.

The Vardanyan Quartet

The Vardanyan Quartet was formed at the Royal College of Music in 2005. In May 2006, they were selected to represent the RCM in the intercollegiate Gerard Heller and Rosemary Rappaport String Quartet Competition. After hearing them in a private concert in January 2007, Bernard Haitink invited them to perform in his concert series in Switzerland.

The quartet is currently working under the guidance of Levon Chilingirian. They have collaborated with artists such as Magdalena Zuk and Claire Jones, and have received coaching from Siegmund Nissel, Bernard Greenhouse, Simon Rowland-Jones and the Chilingirian Quartet.

The Vardanyan Quartet has performed at a number of prestigious venues, including the British Library, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Lincoln’s Inn Chapel and the National Gallery. Last summer they were invited to participate in the Lake District Summer Music Festival as string quartet scholars, where they gave a recital as part of the festival. Future concert engagements include the St Judes’ Proms in London and a recital at Wolterton Hall in Norfolk.

Astghik Vardanyan graduated from the State Conservatoire in Yerevan in 2005 and continued her studies at the RCM with Levon Chilingirian, receiving an Artist’s Diploma in June 2006. She won First Prize in the Chilingirian All-Armenian Competition in 2001. She led the RCM Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink in 2005 and 2007, and her studies were supported by a personal scholarship from Haitink. She is currently a member of Southbank Sinfonia.

Raja Halder was born in Calcutta in 1982, he started playing the violin at the age of six and made his debut at the age of nine in London. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Mateja Marinkovic. He has given many recitals and concerto performances in venues such as Bridgewater Hall, Cadogan Hall, and Westminster Abbey. He plays regularly with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. He is currently studying with Professor Tomotada Soh.

Arun Menon gained his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the RCM, studying with Simon Rowland-Jones and Andriy Vytovych. In 2004 he was the co-principal viola of Southbank Sinfonia, and has performed around the UK with the Prince Consort Ensemble. As an orchestral musician he has worked with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra as guest co-principal, as well the LSO, Halle, RPO and CBSO.

Steffan Rees studied music as an academic scholar and music exhibitioner at Christ Church, Oxford, before pursuing his cello studies with Melissa Phelps at the Royal College of Music, supported by an RCM bursary. He was awarded diplomas in Performance (2005) and Advanced Performance (2006), both with distinction. He performs regularly as a chamber musician and was a member of Southbank Sinfonia in 2007.

Dominic John, piano

Dominic John was born in 1980 and began lessons with his mother. He studied with Patsy Toh at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and with John Barstow and Andrew Ball at the Royal College of Music. He held the Royal College of Music Society Junior Fellowship from 2004-2006. A versatile musician, he is active as a soloist, member of various chamber ensembles and accompanist to a wide variety of singers and instrumentalists. Performances in this country have included venues such as St. John’s Smith Square, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Fairfield Hall and the Barbican Hall while overseas he has played in France, The Hague, Poland, America, Korea and Japan. Of particular note was a performance with Itzhak Perlman at an evening soirée and in 2005, the Tchaikovsky Concerto and Saint-Saëns ‘Carnival of The Animals’ with the Osaka Philharmonic in Symphony Hall, Osaka.

He has several prizes and awards to his name including First Prize in the 22nd Brant International Piano Competition, the prestigious Chappell Gold Medal of the Royal College of Music, a Director’s Golden Jubilee Award at the Royal College, Winner of the 2004 British Music Society Awards (Piano), Winner of the 2004 Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition and 4th Prize in the 2005 Corpus Christi, U.S.A. International Competition for Piano and Strings.

Dominic is a staff accompanist at the Junior Department, Royal Academy of Music.

“control, musicality and technical finesse” The Times

James Meldrum, clarinet

James Meldrum studied at the Royal College of Music and has recently graduated after 6 years. As a Foundation Scholar and a Postgraduate Scholar, James was the recipiant of the MBF Ian Fleming Award, MBF Music Education Award, Countess of Munster Musical Trust Award and the Wilkins Mackerras Scholarship. James graduated with a First Class BMus Honours degree and a Postgraduate and Advanced Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction.

As an orchestral musician James has played guest principal including a trial with de Filharmonie, Belgium, and freelances with orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britian and also a member of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Academy.

James enjoys working with some of the most eminent composers of today including Mauricio Kagel, Sofia Gubaidulina, Kaija Saariahos, George Benjamin, Oliver Knussen, Colin Matthews, Magnus Lindberg and Helmut Lachenmann and has performed their works throughout Europe. In August he is touring the Netherlands and Belgium performing John Adam’s 'Gnarly Buttons' Clarinet Concerto with the NJO Summer Academy, Etienne Siebans and Adams himself, with performances in the Concertgebouw and live on European radio and television. James is also the resident soloist in the Charcome Music Festival for 2008 and will be performing Howells' chamber music in Cadogan Hall as a part of the ‘Rising Stars’ Series.

Jane Sheldon, soprano

Soprano Jane Sheldon has been singing professionally since the age of 15. She made her debut in 1998 with a recording and performance of George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children with Halcyon and the Sydney Alpha Ensemble. Since then, Jane has sung under the direction of Charles Dutoit, Reinbert de Leeuw, Antony Walker, Ola Rudner, and Paul Dyer, amongst others.

In 2002, Jane’s first solo album, Song of the Angel, was released by ABC Classics. More recently with ABC Classics, she recorded Wild Swans, Elena Kats-Chernin’s acclaimed concert suite, with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. A track from this recording reached no.1 in the itunes UK classical music charts, and in April of this year Jane gave the UK premiere of Wild Swans with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jane is currently undertaking postgraduate study at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she holds the Rose Goulding Scholarship. In June she will briefly return to Australia to record an album of recent compositions for chamber ensemble and soprano.

As soloist in the world premiere performance of Nigel Butterley’s Spell of Creation at the Sydney Opera House, Opera Opera’s David Gyger commented: ‘…the most exhilarating moments of solo singing all night… came… from young soprano Jane Sheldon, who negotiated the fearsome stratosphere assigned her with impressive musicality, soaring beauty and great skill.’

William Berger, baritone

William Berger ("...one of the best of our younger baritones." Gramaphone Magazine), an Associate and graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, is currently a member of ENO’s Young Singers Programme where his roles have included Schaunard La Boheme, Masetto Don Giovanni, Fiorello Barber of Seville, Monsieur Javelinot The Carmelites, Second Nazarene Salome, Novice’s Friend Billy Budd, Shepherd Orfeo and Grimbald, Aeolus & He King Arthur.

Recent appearances have included a Cabaret by Kurt Weill at the Young Vic Theatre, Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony and 5 Tudor Portraits, Elgar's Coronation Ode, Handel's Apollo e Dafne with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), Apollo in Monteverdi's Orfeo for the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, King Arthur with the Mark Morris Dance Company in California and recording The Carmelites for Chandos.

William made his operatic debut at the Internationale Handel-Festspiele Göttingen, Germany as Ormonte Partenope. For the Festival Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence he created the role of Oberon A Summer Night’s Dream for their Mozart/ Shakespeare project and toured to Spain, France and Germany with the same production.

Winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Society Bursary for Young Singers in 1999, he was also awarded a Countess of Munster Trust Scholarship, an MBF grant and the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Award.