October 3rd 2015 Concert £9 (£11)
Wen Wen ~ violin & erhu
Mina Beldimanescu ~ piano
photo photo
Programme
Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor Elgar
From My Homeland for Violin and Piano Smetana
Sonata for Violin and Piano Poulenc
Sonata for Violin and Piano Op 30 Beethoven
A Fine Evening (Erhu and Piano) Liu Tianhua

Wen Wen is a prize-winning violinist/erhuist from China who completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Distinction. Her professors were Maurice Hasson, So-Ock Kim and Colin Huehns. Before joining the Royal Academy of Music on a rare full scholarship, Wen Wen had already shown her talent as a violinist. She began to study the violin at the age of four, and at the age of twelve won 1st prize in the Young Beijing Violinist Competition and was selected to perform in front of Henry Kissinger and senior Chinese officials in the Great Hall of The People. She studied at Millfield School, and as Leader of National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in 2006-2007, she worked closely with Richard Hickox, Sir Neville Marriner and Sir Mark Elder. As an orchestral violinist, she has played with the London Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Philharmusica, Southern Sinfonia, Royal Academy of Music Sainsbury's Soloists and Multi-Story Orchestra. Wen Wen has performed in Royal Albert Hall, Barbican, St Paul's Cathedral, Cadogan Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Fairfield Hall, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Sheldonian Theatre, St. John's Smith Square, Cardiff St. David's Hall, Santander Symphony Hall, Palace of Congress Santiago, Beijing Concert Hall and Forbidden City Concert Hall.

Mina Beldimanescu was born in Bucharest in 1990. She studied with Carmen Enescu at the Dinu Lipatti Music High School and obtained her Bachelor degree at the Royal Academy of Music under Diana Ketler. She is currently completing her postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music And Drama with Philip Jenkins. Mina has won prizes in the Val Tidone and Larnaka International Piano Competitions and in 2009 was awarded 1st Prize in the National Music Competition organized by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research. She is also a laureate of the Lilian Davies, Douglas Cameron and Harold Craxton Prizes in London and appears regularly as a chamber musician in Massachusetts, Costa Brava and Barcelona.