Ben Goldscheider
has performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo and made his BBC Proms concerto debut in 2022 performing the Ethel Smyth Concerto for Horn and Violin with Elena Urioste and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kazuki Yamada. Ben has also appeared as a soloist with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Ulster Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Royal Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, Lucerne Symphony, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Manchester Camerata, Prague Philharmonia and Sinfonie Orchester Berlin.

In the 2023/24 season, Ben will premiere multiple new commissions for horn including concerti, solo and chamber works. Highlights include debuts and the world premiere performances of Gavin Higgins’ Horn Concerto with BBC National Orchestra of Wales in collaboration with Philharmonie Zuidnederland and the London Chamber Orchestra in addition to Huw Watkins’ Horn Concerto premiering with Britten Sinfonia in collaboration with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen at the Köln Philharmonie. In recital, Ben will make his Lucerne Festival debut including a new commission for natural horn and keyboards by Sara Cubarsi, his debut at the Purcell Room (Southbank Centre) featuring horn, electronics and live lighting design with commissions by Zoe Martlew and Mark Simpson and two appearances at the Wigmore Hall, London. Ben will also commission new works by Nicola Lefanu (Lammermuir Festival), Victoria Kelly & Georgina Palmer (At World’s Edge Festival, New Zealand), Matthew Peterson and Joseph Phibbs (Hatfield House Chamber Music Festival).

A committed chamber musician, Ben has collaborated with Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich, Sergei Babyan, Elena Bashkirova, Sunwook Kim and Michael Volle at the Verbier, Salzburg, Jerusalem, Intonations (Berlin) and Barenboim (Buenos Aires) Festivals, among many others. In recital, Ben has collaborated with Michael Barenboim, Stephen Hough, Tom Poster, Benjamin Baker, James Baillieu, Allan Clayton and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective.

His recordings include Legacy: A Tribute to Dennis Brain on Three Worlds Records with newly commissioned pieces by Huw Watkins and Roxanna Panufnik and a solo concerto recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra featuring the works of Arnold, Schoenberg and Gipps conducted by Lee Reynolds. Ben also recorded the solo horn call from Wagner’s Siegfried with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder.

Ben is a member of the Boulez Ensemble and principal horn of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. He was a prize-winner at the 2019 YCAT International Auditions and a BBC Young Musician Concerto Finalist in 2016.

Born in London, in 2020 Ben completed his studies with honours at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin with Radek Baborák. In 2023, Ben was appointed Artist in Association at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

Callum Smart
is quickly developing an international reputation as one of Britain’s finest young violinists and an innovative pedagogue. He is celebrated for the sincerity of his singing line, combining ‘brilliant technique with the confidence to take risks’ (Bachtrack) and his ‘utterly convincing’ interpretations (BBC Music Magazine).

Recognised as a rising star since winning the BBC Young Musician strings category and being the top European prize-winner at the Menuhin Competition in 2010, Smart now enjoys concert appearances with the UK’s leading orchestras. This season sees him return to Wigmore Hall with Ben Goldscheider and Richard Uttley, direct the Northern Chamber Orchestra in a series of concerts, and perform the Elgar, Schnikkte, Bruch, Mendelssohn and Dvorak Concertos.

Previous season highlights include re-invitations to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Orchestra, as well as performances with the Hallé Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Sinfonia and Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra covering a wide range of concerto repertoire.

As a recitalist, Smart performs at some of the world’s most prestigious venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, and at a number of European festivals including the Cheltenham Festival, Dvorak Festival in Prague, Menuhin Festival, Mecklenburg Vorpommern and the Malmo International String Festival. Now with 3 recital discs to his name, 2020 saw the release of ‘Transatlantic’, which was a top 30 album on the UK classical charts and earned Smart features as Classic FM and Scala Artist of the Week.

As a celebrated violin pedagogue, Smart holds a professorship at the RNCM and held a position teaching and performing at Orford Musique in 2023. He continues his work towards diversification and accessibility of classical music with mentorship roles in the Benedetti Foundation and Music Masters, as well as his Instagram account with 55k+ followers.

Smart earned an Artist Diploma from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying with Mauricio Fuks. He then took up a place on the International Artist Diploma postgraduate course at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) studying with Ana Chumachenco and Noah Bendix-Bagley.

Smart plays on a c.1730-35 violin by Carlo Bergonzi.

Richard Uttley
Noted for the integrity and breadth of his musicianship as soloist, chamber musician and recording artist, Richard has been recognised for his ‘musical intelligence and pristine facility’ (International Record Review), ‘amazing decisiveness’, and ‘tumultuous performance’ (Daily Telegraph). His playing has been frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and has featured on BBC Two, BBC Four, BBC World Service, Classic FM and Sky Arts. He won first prize in the British Contemporary Piano Competition in 2006 and the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International Auditions in 2011.
Richard studied with Ian Buckle at the Junior School of the Royal Northern College of Music, before going on to read Music at Clare College, Cambridge (graduating with a double first in 2008), and studying with Martin Roscoe at Guildhall School. His London debut at the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room in 2010 was described by The Times as a ‘brilliant recital’.

Richard has released several solo recordings to critical acclaim and appeared at venues and festivals including: Auditorium du Louvre (Paris), Banff Centre (Alberta), Bath Festival, Bridgewater Hall, BOZAR (Brussels), Cadogan Hall, Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Fundacíon Juan March (Madrid), Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Het Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Klangspuren Festival (Innsbruck), Kings Place, Konzerthaus Berlin, Modulus Festival (Vancouver), Musikverein (Vienna), National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai), Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and Wigmore Hall, and has toured in China and Colombia.

Highlights this season include duo recitals at Lucerne Festival and Wigmore Hall with horn player Ben Goldscheider, and in trio (with Callum Smart) at Wigmore Hall and on tour in Sweden; the release of a new disc for Delphian Records with violist Jordan Bak; and chamber music with composer-clarinettist Mark Simpson.
A passionate exponent of new music, Richard has given major solo recitals at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and commissioned new work. He has given world premieres of pieces by composers including Julian Anderson, Fransisco Coll, Michael Cutting, Rolf Hind, Matthew Kaner, Daniel Kidane, Naomi Pinnock, Mark Simpson, Dobrinka Tabakova, and Kate Whitley. Other composers Richard has worked with on their solo piano music include Thomas Adès, Louis Andriessen, Chaya Czernowin, Brian Ferneyhough, Erika Fox, Georg Friedrich Haas and Robin Holloway. Richard was a Trustee of New Dots – a charity promoting new music and supporting emerging composers – from 2013 to 2016. In 2018, Richard and composer Kate Whitley became the first UK prize winners of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust Pianist/Composer Commission prize.
Richard was a contributor to Edition Peters’ Piano Masterworks series on the Tido Music iPad app, which includes films of him performing and giving tutorials on core piano repertoire. He also records for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Piano Syllabus CDs.
Richard is a Piano professor at the Royal College of Music and a Professor of Academic Studies at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He also teaches at the RCM Junior Department. In 2021 he became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He lives in London with his wife and two children.

Next season’s agreed concert dates are: 2025: 14-Oct, 4-Nov, 2-Dec, 2026: 10-Feb, 17-Mar, 14-Apr, 19-May, 30-Jun.