Iris Axon Concert Series 2021-22

First Sunday of the month.
​Begins September 5th, 2021.

Download a copy of the season concert list here. 

Concerts this Season...

Mayasuki Tayama – Piano
September 5th, 2021

Masayuki Tayama, one of today’s most accomplished pianists, is much in demand across Europe and Japan. He first came to prominence when he won First Prize in the Takahiro Sonoda International Piano Competition in Japan, followed by numerous top prizes in Europe, including the Birmingham International Piano Competition. Tayama studied at the Toho University of Music in Japan, and subsequently in London on a Fellowship from the Japanese Government, where he was awarded the Performer’s Diploma with Honours from both the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. 
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His recent performances with orchestra, notably at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Fairfield Halls and the Last Night of the St Jude’s Proms, include all the Piano Concertos by Brahms and Rachmaninov, collaborating with conductors including Stephen Bell, Adrian Brown, Darrell Davison, John Gibbons, Levon Parikian, Brien Stait and Vladimir Válek. 

Trio Cavatina
October 3rd, 2021

Trio Cavatina perform “A celebration of Poets and Song”, a slightly unconventional recital programme which is based around poets rather than composers. The programme includes different settings of four of poems, including “ Oh my love is like a red, red rose”.

Since completing her studies at London College of Music (where she was awarded the Lloyd-Webber Performance Prize) and Trinity College of Music Carol-Anne Grainger has enjoyed a wide variety of performance situations from oratorio to musical theatre. She has been a member of the John McCarthy Singers, Ambrosian opera Chorus, London Voices, Classical Productions, The G & S Company, and the Geoffrey Mitchell Singers for Opera Rara and deputised on a regular basis at the West London Synagogue. In the past couple of years Carol-Anne has returned to her love of art song with performances of “A Celebration of Poets of Song” which she has performed at various venues including the NPL Music Society, Westminster Central Music Library and St Pancras Euston. This in turn has led to the formation of Trio Cavatina (voice, piano and spoken word). 

Carol Mounter studied singing at The Calcutta School of Music, India and then with Ellis Keeler (Trinity and Guildhall).  She enjoyed a career of opera, recital, musical theatre and cabaret, whilst bringing up four reasonably sane and successful children. 

Andrew Charity is a conductor, pianist and composer. He trained at the Royal College of Music and the London Opera Centre, and won prizes for conducting. He was the Musical Director for OperaUpClose’s first production of La boheme, and has played and conducted a wide and varied repertoire for various small touring companies.

Robert Bridge – Piano 
November 7th, 2021

Robert Bridge studied in London and Germany and made his debut at the Purcell Room for the Park Lane Group, followed by two solo appearances at the BBC Proms. He has recorded and broadcast live for Radio 3 as a solo pianist and chamber musician and has played at the major London venues as well as across the UK and Europe. He has accompanied masterclasses at Aldeburgh and given regular concerto performances with orchestras in London and Hampshire. For the last 15 years he has organised an annual series of Knitting Concerts in Putney, aka Purls before Wine, where he subjects unwitting audiences to Webern, Tippett, Janacek and Ligeti whilst they read, sew, finish their crosswords and sometimes even listen.

Poppy Beddoe – Clarinet
December 4th, 2021

Specialising in Chamber Music, Poppy performs extensively throughout the U.K and Europe. With the Oriole Quartet, she has performed at the Barnes Festival, the Clifton International Music Festival and in Carmona, Spain. In 2014 Poppy formed the Temple Ensemble, a mixed Chamber Ensemble which expands and contracts according to the chosen repertoire. The group have performed at the Wigmore Hall, Gloucester Cathedral and at the Pastel en Scène and Marcilhac Festivals in France. Each year Poppy organises an eight concert tour for the group in the South of France. Poppy is also in much demand as a soloist and orchestral musician. In 2021 she will be the Artist in Residence of the Clifton International Music Festival. She is looking forward to playing the Mozart Concerto at the Clifton International Music Festival in 2021 and giving a recitals at the Marlborough Summer School and St Martin in the Fields. She plays regularly as the Principal Clarinet with various orchestras around London including the Barnes Festival Orchestra and the Nonclassical Orchestra. Poppy is a Chamber Music coach and Musicianship Teacher at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and she also teaches Clarinet and Chamber Music at Bradfield College. Poppy is the Artistic Director of the Berkshire Chamber Music Festival. 

Catherine Underhill – Oboe 
February 7th, 2022

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.  

Ida Pelliccioli – piano 
March 6th, 2022

Ida Pelliccioli is an italo-croatian pianist who grew up in France. Her multicultural background often shows in her choice of repertoire, as well as her interest in contemporary music and her interest in collaborating with young composers. The programmes that she will present in her 2020-2021 season are built around these lines as well as the will to bring to the audience some less played and forgotten pieces. 

Petar Dimov - Piano 
April 3rd, 2022

Petar Dimov is a Bulgarian pianist and composer based in London. He was a scholar at the Royal College of Music in London from 2014 to 2020 in the piano class of Norma Fisher, obtaining a Master of Performance degree with Distinction in 2020 and a Bachelor of Music degree with Honours in 2018. His musical education began in his native Plovdiv (Bulgaria) where he studied with Svetlana Koseva until his graduation in 2014.
Dimov has won over twenty prizes from International competitions and has performed in Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Turkey and the UK.
As a composer, Petar Dimov has had output for orchestra, chorus, various solo instruments and chamber ensembles.
Dimov is currently supported by the Talent Unlimited foundation.

Lance Mok – Piano 
May 1st, 2022

Lance Mok is a pianist and composer based in London. He was born and raised in Hong Kong. “A fine musician with searching intelligence and very personable […] an adventurer” (FringeReview, 2020), Lance is noted for his interest and mastery of a wide repertoire of diverse styles and advocacy of contemporary music as well as slightly neglected works by past composers.
Lance’s versatile performance career as a recital and concerto soloist, collaborative pianist, répétieur, and chamber musician has brought him around the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, to Finland, Poland, South Korea, Taiwan, Macau, and the United States. His performances have been broadcast by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) and Television Broadcasts Ltd.

Jelena Makarova - Piano 
June 5th, 2022

London-based Russian-Lithuanian pianist Jelena Makarova is in high demand as a soloist, chamber musician and an accompanist. She has performed internationally in recitals and festivals in USA, UK, Austria, Sweden, Russia and Lithuania. Her piano performances have also been televised in Russia.
Following her graduation from the Royal Academy of Music, Jelena has been performing at the world’s finest concert venues, which include Carnegie Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Purcell Room, St. James’s Piccadilly, St. George’s Hall Bristol and St. Martin-in-the-Fields, where she performed for the prestigious ‘Pianists of the World’ concert series.

Arun Menon - Viola
with Daniel King Smith on Piano
July 3rd, 2022

Arun Menon was born in London and began his music studies at the Newham Academy. He studied viola with Simon Rowland-Jones and Andriy Viytovych and violin with Dona Lee Croft at the Royal College of Music, where he gained bachelors and masters degrees. Whilst a student there he was a winner of the Royal Overseas League Bernard Shore Viola Competition and co-principal of Southbank Sinfonia. 
As an orchestral musician he has played in venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Vienna Konzerthaus and Carnegie Hall, New York. He has been a regular extra player with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as a frequent guest principal and co-principal with Birmingham Royal Ballet, and he now works as a doctor in the NHS.

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