Iris Axon Concert Series 2024-25
Our 20th Season - Promoting young professional musicians

​First Sunday of the month.

Download a copy of the season concert list here. 

Esther Park - violin
September 1st, 2024

South Korean violinist Mee-Hyun Esther Park performs extensively throughout the UK and abroad. Notable achievements include winning the Joint 1st Prize of the 2024 North London Festival D’Addario String Competition, the 2022 Royal College of Music Violin and String Quartet Competitions and performing with Maxim Vengerov and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.
Esther has also performed in venues as the Bridgewater Hall and the Korean Cultural Centre London and had guidance from internationally acclaimed artists including Leonidas Kavakos and Alina Ibragimova. Esther is also a member of the Brompton Quartet, winners of the 2019 St-Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Music Competition.
Currently pursuing an Artist Diploma degree at the RCM with Professor Radu Blidar, Esther is an awardee of the Help Musicians Postgraduate Award 2023 and 2024 and is also grateful for the support of Talented Unlimited.​

Albert Lau - piano
October 6th

Steinway Artist Albert Lau was born in Hong Kong and performs internationally both as a solo pianist and chamber musician. He was named a Steinway Artist by Steinway & Sons in 2022. He studied with Emile Naoumoff at Indiana University (USA) before furthering his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, under the tutelage of Joanna MacGregor, Head of Piano. His recent concerts have taken him to Mendelssohn-Remise Berlin, Schloss Homburg Nümbrecht, Schloss Loersfeld Cologne, Villa Zanders, Forum Mariengarden. He recently toured Germany with the English violinist Philippa Mo and performed at the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Glocke Bremen, Marienmünster Abbey and Riverside Studios Cologne. Albert Lau is particularly committed to fighting discrimination and racism. In March 2024, he played a fundraising concert ‘Red Card against Anti-Semitism and Racism’ in Cologne. The Federal President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier has already thanked him for his commitment.

Harris Leung - piano
November 3rd

Harris Tsz-Chun Leung is a Hong Kong-born pianist based in London. He has performed in various cities across East Asia and England, both as a soloist and a collaborative pianist. He made his concerto debut with the Hong Kong University Students’ Union Philharmonic Orchestra in 2018 under Gabriel Leung. He made his London concerto debut in January 2024 with the Firebird Orchestra under George Jackson.
Harris graduated his postgraduate study at the Royal College of Music in 2022 with distinction, with the support of Noel Croucher Scholarships. Before his study with Gordon Fergus-Thompson in London, he studied piano with Amy Sze and harpsichord with Betty Li at the University of Hong Kong, where he was awarded first honour for his Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Music and Linguistics. He has also received numerous scholarships and prizes during his undergraduate study.

Patrick Hemmerle - piano
December 1st

2024

Hugh Mackay - cello
January 5th

Catherine Underhill - oboe
​February 2nd

Catherine Underhill is a British oboist and cor anglais player. 
Performances have taken Catherine across the UK and to Europe, in concert halls and theatres, including Cadogan Hall and the Mayflower Theatre. She has played in France, the Netherlands and with the Berlin Opera Academy in Switzerland. Catherine has given recitals for the Iris Axon Concert Series, in the Old Royal Naval College Chapel and at Southwark Cathedral. As a soloist, she has performed with the Marcello Oboe Concerto and she is a member of Hacha Duo (bass clarinet and cor anglais). Catherine has performed in masterclasses for Juliana Koch and Tom Blomfield and received a scholarship to study with David Theodore at the British Isles Music Festival.
​Catherine plays a Marigaux 2001 oboe and a Lorée cor anglais.  ​

Julianna Antczak - cello
​March 2nd

Julianna Antczak is a Polish cellist. After growing up in the countryside, she spent eight formative years at Manchester’s Chetham’s School of Music. This ripe environment led to her undertaking an undergraduate degree under Alice Neary.
A comprehensive education led to an early love for mixing genres. From taking part in Nordoff Robbins’ Music Therapy training, to touring the UK with West End stars at the age of seventeen and performing Sollima’s Lamentatio in complete darkness and recording jazz standards two years later – Julianna continues to embrace it all.
The support of the Finzi and the MacFarlane Walker Trusts, as well as the Wolfson and Open Music Foundations continues to have a great impact on her life.
Julianna plays a 2018 Amati copy made for her by Wojciech Topa in the Polish mountains and a fine contemporary bow made by Paul Sadka in Paris.

Grace Callaghan – flute
​April 6th

Grace Callaghan graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with a BMus MMus in 2022, where she studies under Laura Jellicoe, Kevin Gowland and Cormac Henry. She studied piccolo under Janet Richardson and Jenny Hutchinson. Since her studies, Grace has grown a keen interest in teaching and passing her love of flute playing onto the next generation of students. Grace gives regular recitals around London at venues such as the Savile Club, as well as freelancing with various orchestras in and around London. She regularly records with the Northern Film Orchestra, and has performed at venues such as Royal Albert Hall, King’s Place, Cadogan Hall and the Royal Festival Hall.

Stephania de Stefano - piano
May 4th

Graduated from the Conservatory of Bologna in Piano, Music Didactics, and Electronic Music, Stefania de Stefano studies with Ennio Pastorino and Anli Pang in Reggio Emilia and Vincenzo Balzani in Milan.
Stefania de Stefano has performed in various theatres in Italy and abroad in the recent past years and she is a piano teacher at the Conservatory of Bologna, where for several years she has focused on the research and broadcasting of women composers.

Peter Cigleris – clarinet                                         
​June 1st

Bose-Pastor Duo – piano four hands
July 6th

Second-prize winners of the 18th International Piano Duo Competition in Tokyo, Pia Bose and Antonio Pastor have garnered critical acclaim for their "remarkable dexterity and subtlety.” American-Swiss pianist Pia Bose and Spanish-Swisspianist Antonio Pastor formed the Bose-Pastor Duo in 2012. The pianists have appeared in London, Paris, Edinburgh, Lisbon,Milan, Chicago, New York, and Geneva, at notable venues such as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Palais de l’Athénée, and Preston Bradley Hall. Pia Bose and Antonio Pastor each hold the Diplôme de Soliste from the Académie Tibor Varga. Pia Bose holds the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder and completed earlier studies at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Peabody Institute. Antonio Pastor holds degrees from the Haute École de Musique de Genève and the Real Conservatorio de Música de Madrid. Their former teachers include Dominique Weber and Andrew Cooperstock.

Do come along and join us – the first Sunday of every month (except January) at 4pm-5pm. Programmes at the door:  Adults £6.00, Concessions £5.00, children £2.00. There are crèche facilities available. Details also on the church website www.actonhillurc.org.uk