Programme:
Apollo’s Cabinet: TBA
Trio Archai: Schubert Piano Trio No 1 in B flat, D898
We’re delighted to present a concert featuring two ensembles who were recent prizewinners in the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition.
Murders, drinking songs, Cinderella stories, European tours, serene polyphony and candlelit rituals all feature in the evocative and story driven programmes of Apollo’s Cabinet. Winners of the Royal Overseas League Mixed Ensemble prize, Utrecht Oude Muziek Competiton and the Göttingen International Händel Competition, the group offer a signature mix of acting, dancing, poetry and drama to bring historical performance to modern audiences. They have furthermore won the Brian Nisbet Prize for their fusion of Music and Poetry, audience and first prize at #GeneraciónSMADE in Spain, the F. J. Aumann Prize for innovation and new discoveries in Baroque music at the International Biber Competition in Austria, first prize at the Maurizio Pratola Competition, Italy, the Friends prize at the York Early Music International Young Artists Competition, second prize at the CIMA competition in Loire Valley, France, and last but not least won the Potsdam Lunchtime Concert Competition in Germany.
Performance highlights to date include concerts at the London Handel Festival, Konzerthaus Vienna, Felix! Festival Köln, The Georgian Concert Society Edinburgh (as part of a tour supported by Tunnell Trust) , AMUZ Antwerpen, OudeMuziek Fabulous Fringe, :alpenarte Schwarzenberg and the Brighton Early Music Festival.
The ensemble is dedicated to educational outreach for children as well as adults, and members have designed and offered workshops and educational concerts in collaboration with the Royal Opera House, Centre for Young Musicians, Brighton Early Music Festival, English National Opera, ZAMUS Cologne and Wigmore Hall. They have recently joined Live Music Now, a long-established music charity founded by Yehudi Menuhin.
Highlights this upcoming season include performances at Thüringer Bachwochen, AMIA Strasbourg, Cambridge Early Music and Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci. Furthermore, the ensemble will be recording their third and fourth albums, and have just commissioned a new composition for their programme ‘Elements’.
Founded in Switzerland, Trio Archai are rapidly building momentum in their home cities of Basel and London. With extensive chamber music experience between them, Mar Valor (piano), Ayla Sahin (violin) and Finn Mannion (cello) met at the Musik-Akademie Basel and were quick to recognise their distinctive bond as a trio.
As prizewinners of the Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition 2023 and winners of the 72nd Royal Over-Seas League Competition 2024, they made their Wigmore Hall debut in June of the same year. Awarded the Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist Award (PDGYA) by MakingMusic and winners of Tunnell Trust’s Awards Scheme 2025/2026, they look forward to concerts at festivals and music societies throughout the UK. As an ensemble, the trio dedicate themselves to a broad and diverse repertoire and, in collaboration with the Swiss Arts Council ProHelvetia, were given the opportunity to premiere a commissioned work by composer Dominic Röthlisberger at the Swiss Chamber Music Festival 2024. They look forward to a chamber residency at Sophia Rahman’s Whittington International Festival in May 2025, where they will give the world-premiere of a new composition for piano trio by Jeremy Sans, amongst standard repertoire.
Since 2023, Trio Archai has been studying under Claudio Martínez Mehner at the Musik-Akademie Basel and has worked with esteemed artists such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Alexander Lonquich, Robert Levin, Zoltán Fejérvári, Danjulo Ishizaka, and Rainer Schmidt. They are members of ChamberStudio UK, where they are mentored in London by cellist John Myerscough.
Named after the Spirits of Personality, Archai (pronounced ‘Ark-eye’) is also the plural of the word ‘Arche’, meaning the beginning or the first principle of the world in ancient Greek philosophy. The name was chosen to signify their origins, principles and desires to evolve and make music together. With their roots spread across all corners of Europe, Trio Archai is a miniature melting pot of culture from Scotland, Turkey, Spain, Ireland and Germany. Using this to their advantage, the trio strives to expand their knowledge beyond the standard repertoire and challenge audiences in future performances.