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Join us at lunchtime to hear the Custodio Quartet perform

Mahler Piano Quartet in A minor
Brahms Piano Quartet in C minor

Laura Custodio Sabas

Catalan violinist Laura Custodio Sabas started learning the violin at the age of 5 with Pablo Cortés.

She was accepted for the prestigious Purcell School of Music in London and started her studies there at the age of 16 with Carol Slater and Yuri Zhislin, professor at the Royal College of Music.

In 2012 Laura was accepted in the Royal Academy of Music where she is currently finishing her last year of Bachelor of Music. She was given a scholarship from the Generalitat de Catalunya. Her teachers at the Academy have been Igor Petrushevski and Nicholas Miller.
She has also played in masterclasses to artists such as Maxim Vengerov, Yuri Volguin and Eva Graubin.

Laura has been a prize winner in Spanish competitions such as Premis d’Interpretació Musical del Conservatori de Música de Girona and Concurs Obert d’Interpretació Musical Arjau.

Laura has been an active orchestral and chamber musician for a long time. She was first accepted in the National Youth Orchestra of Catalonia (JONC) in 2009, orchestra which she has led since 2014, including works with major violin solos. She has participated in projects with professional orchestras such as the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra de Cadaqués and Orquestra de Cambra del Penedés and in prestigious youth orchestras such as the European Union Youth Orchestra. Laura has also performed with the Royal Academy Symphony Orchestra under the baton of maestros such as Christoph von Dohnányi, Semión Bychkov, Robin Ticciati, Sir Mark Elder, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Marin Alsop. She has recently been made a member of the Sainsbury Royal Academy Soloists, the Academy’s elite string ensemble directed from the violin by Clio Gould, eminent soloist and leader of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Laura has played in major venues in London and Catalonia including the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Duke’s Hall in London and l’Auditori, Palau de la Música and Teatre del Liceu in Spain. In July 2015 she was invited to take part in the Winter Festival Campos do Jordão, the most important festival in Latin America, where she played in the festival orchestra under the baton of Sian Edwards, Eiji Oue and again, Marin Alsop. She also gave recitals in major venues in São Paulo with her String Quartet.

William Percy

As a student at the Royal Academy of Music, William has developed a versatile and expressive playing style, equally comfortable in solo, chamber and orchestral performance. His performance experience is varied, including performances in the Guitar and Accordion showcases at the Royal Academy of Music, regular chamber ensemble performances, appearances with the Academy Cello Ensemble and Manson Ensemble, a cycle of the solo Bach suites for the friends of St. Cewydd’s Church foundation and an inaugural performance in the ‘Dora Stoutzker Hall of the RWCMD.

His additional study of Baroque Cello has seen him appear in the Royal Academy of Music Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata series. Currently studying with the RAM Piatti Chair of Cello, Josephine Knight, William has also received extensive instruction from Felix Schmidt and Ioan Davies as well as Cellists such as Sung- Won Yang, Robert Cohen and Colin Carr. His awards include the Kenneth Loveland memorial award, Caerphilly Borough Strings prize and winner of the concerto competition of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama junior department.

Ariane Elise Laurence Van Hoof

British-born violist Ariane van Hoof started playing the violin at the age of 7 and turned to the viola when she was 11. She is currently studying at London’s Royal Academy of Music under the tutorage of Jon Thorne.

As a keen soloist, Ariane has attended masterclasses with violists such as Garth Knox, Tatjana Masurenko, Hartmut Rohde and Roger Chase. Being an experienced chamber musician, she has been taking part in many different quartet and trio projects. Previously, from 2012-14, Ariane was the violist of the Halycon Quartet, a prestigious string quartet at the Royal Academy of Music supported by the Davey-Poznanski Scholarship Scheme.

Ariane has recently formed a new string trio at the Academy in January 2015. Since starting her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, Ariane has been immersed by major orchestral works such as Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 and Shostakovich Symphony No. 6 and has played under the baton of Semyon Bychkov, Mark Elder and Yan-Pascal Tortelier. She has also performed in London’s major venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall and St. John’s Smith Square. She plays on a Gasparo Piattellini viola made in 1760.

Ariel Shimon Lanyi-Umansky

Ariel Lanyi, born in 1997, began piano lessons with Lea Agmon just before his fifth birthday and made his orchestral debut at the age of 7. Since then, he has given numerous recitals in London, Paris (including Radio France), Rome, Prague, Belfast, and regularly in concerts broadcast live on Israeli radio and television. Currently Ariel studies under full scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music.

Ariel has appeared as a soloist with a variety of orchestras in Israel, and has participated in the Israel Festival, Prague Music Performance, Tempietto Festival in Rome, the Ravello Festival, and the Young Prague Festival.

As a chamber musician, Ariel has appeared with members (including leading members) of the Prague Philharmonia, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic, among others.

In 2012, Ariel released Romantic Profiles on LYTE records, a recital album featuring Schumann’s Carnival Scenes from Vienna, Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue on the theme B-A-C-H, Brahms’ Fantasies Op. 116, and Janacek’s Piano Sonata I.X.1905.

Ariel has recently participated in three workshops with Leon Fleisher: the Beethoven and Schubert Institute in Prague (2013), the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Lübeck (2014), and the Menuhin Festival and Academy in Gstaad (2014). He played in masterclasses for renowned artists such as Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, András Schiff, Emanuel Ax, Murray Perahia, Thomas Adès, Andrei Gavrilov, Yefim Bronfman, Paul Badura-Skoda, Ivan Moravec, Ronan O’Hora, Angela Hewitt, Dénes Várjon, Jonathan Biss, and others.

China Exchange is delighted to be working with the Royal Academy of Music to put on this series of free lunchtime concerts.