Timothy Ridout, Frank Dupree - Prokofiev, Romeo & Juliet (arr. V. Borisovsky) (1961)

Wigmore Hall, December 2017

In 2016 Timothy became the first British winner of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. Previous awards include 1st Prize at the 2014 Cecil Aronowitz and 2nd Prize at the 2015 Windsor Festival competitions.

Over the last year Timothy has performed widely in Europe including Wigmore Hall, Munich Gasteig, Verbier Academy & Festival and Schloss Elmau, the Eggenfelden Klassisch, Valdres Sommersymfoni, Koblenz, Musikdorf Ernen and Beethoven Bonn Festivals. He attended, IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music and gave performances with the Nash Ensemble.

Engagements this season include appearances as soloist with the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Baden-Baden Philharmonie and Sinfonia Cymru. He returns to Wigmore Hall and performs George Benjamin’s Viola, Viola at the Purcell Room. In 2017 Champs Hill released his first CD of music by Vieuxtemps.

Born in London in 1995, Timothy studied at the Royal Academy of Music graduating with the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence. He was selected by YCAT in 2016 and is currently at the Kronberg Academy with Nobuko Imai.

Timothy plays on a viola by Peregerino di Zanetto c.1565-75 generously on a temporary loan from Beares International Violin Society.

German pianist Frank Dupree has recently come to international prominence as the laureate prize winner of the 2014 Deutscher Musikwettbewerb in Bonn, having enamoured the judges with his musical maturity, refined technique, and ability to draw a wide spectrum of sound and colour from the keyboard. Renowned pianist Emanuel Ax has remarked that he is "a sincere, feeling, and enormously interesting artist, whom no doubt will be a major presence amongst the leading musicians of his generation".

Initially trained as a percussionist, Frank celebrates the breadth and depth of the piano repertoire, ranging from baroque to classical to contemporary. He is an enthusiast for new music especially, having already worked closely with composers such as Péter Eötvös and Wolfgang Rihm, the latter of whose work ‘Con Piano? Certo!’ was given its world premiere by Frank with conductor Justin Brown and the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe in June 2015.

Highlights of Frank's past engagements include concerts with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Minnesota Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and the Baden Baden Philharmonic. Also an active chamber musician, he was most recently invited on scholarship to the Chamber Music Academy of the Heidelberg Spring Festival and the Verbier Festival Academy.