6th October 2017

Watch Corina Belcea, Claire Wells, Eirian Lewis and Taro Takeuchi play highlights from our October Sale

Corina Belcea

Corina is a founding member of the famous Belcea quartet.

Corina Belcea was born in Romania in 1975 and began playing the violin at the age of six. In 1991, as a result of her participation in the Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition, she was invited by the late Lord Menuhin to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School where her teacher was Natalia Boyarskaya. After graduating from the Menuhin School, Corina continued her studies at the Royal College with Dr. Felix Andrievsky. Her competition prizes include the 1st Prize in the Kloster Schontal Internation Competition (Germany), second prizes in the Wieniawski International Competition (Lublin) and the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition (Folkestone) and the first prize in the Bromsgrove Festival. In 1998 she was the winner of the Lasmo Staffa award.

Claire Wells

Violinist Claire Wells, studies with Lutsia Ibragimova at the Menuhin School. She has won several competitions and has performed solos in 10 countries. Claire’s Recent Concertos include: Prokofiev 2 with the Dallas Symphony, and Tchaikovsky in Austin Texas, and in China.

Taro Takeuchi

Taro Takeuchi was born in Kyoto, Japan, and studied lute and early guitar with Nigel North at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Since leaving college, he has been in great demand world-wide as soloist and ensemble, and has played with The English Concert, The Orchestra of Age of Enlightenment, Berliner Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle, Rachel Podger and Nigel Kennedy. He has made numerous recordings for Deux-Elles, EMI, Hyperion, Harmonia Mundi, BBC and others. He is a member of The Lute Society and The Consortium for Guitar Research at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

Eirian Lewis

After winning the South Wales Guitar Competition and receiving the Walker Prize from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Eirian Lewis was accepted into the Royal College of Music, London, to study under professor Gary Ryan.

He has performed at a variety of venues in London, Wales and Spain, and has attended master-classes with Carlos Bonnell, Helen Sanderson, Rory Russell of the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet, Antigoni Goni,  Judicael Perroy and Gabriel Bianco. Recent highlights include recitals with Gary Ryan and  with distinguished harpist Ieuan Jones, as well as performing as a featured artist at the prestigious Hay Literary Festival.