Passionately fond of chamber music, Pierre Doumenge was a member of the Dante Quartet and regularly explores the repertoire with artists such as Pascal Rogé, Lars Vogt, Daniel Hope, Pekka Kuusisto, Lawrence Power, Belcea, Allegri, Sacconi, London Haydn quartets and the Nash Ensemble. He has appeared at many international festivals (Aldeburgh, Kuhmo, Bucharest, La Hague, Nuremberg, Bergstaden, Hindsgalv, IMS Prussia Cove, Stellenbosch, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Vancouver, Boston) and recorded for the Dutton, Meridian and Hyperion labels to great critical acclaim. In 2008 he was chosen to be the official cellist of the Menuhin International Violin Competition, performing the Ravel Duo Sonata with the nine semi-finalists. Pierre works regularly as guest principal cellist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra, l’Orchestre du Monde, London Sinfonietta, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Bournemouth Symphony, BBC Welsh and English National Opera. Pierre taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School from 2003-2009 and is a cello professor at GSMD. He gives annual masterclasses at the Oxford Cello School, International Cello Courses UK, Violoncello Society of London, Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, West Helsinki Music Institute, Conservatoire Royal de Mons and the Szymon Goldberg Seminars in Toyama, Japan.

Cellist, Hannah Sloane, performs regularly in the UK and USA as a chamber musician and soloist. Hannah has appeared with the Blackheath, Haydon, Lambeth and Juilliard Orchestras and has played recitals in Boston, New York, San Francisco and throughout the UK. As a chamber musician, Hannah has attended the Domaine Forget, Kneisel, Lewes, Taos and Wye Valley chamber music festivals. Hannah studied at The Juilliard School in New York with Darrett Adkins and Joel Krosnick.

In addition to her formal studies, Hannah has worked intensively with Ralph Kirshbaum at the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, and at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris as a recipient of a Carla Bruni Sarkozy French-American Exchange Grant with Philippe Muller. She is very grateful to play an Antonio Piattilini cello dating 1750, which is kindly on loan to her from the Stark family.

Philip Higham has been described as ‘possessing that rare combination of refined technique with subtle and expressive musicianship... all the qualities of a world-class artist’ (The Strad). Already in high demand, in recent months Philip has appeared as soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

He has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, Brighton Festival, the City of London Festival and Lichfield Festival as well as debuts further afield in Germany and Istanbul. His USA debut at the Phillips Collection in Washington received high praise in the Washington Post. Already regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Philip has also recorded an acclaimed disc of the Britten Solo Suites (Delphian Records), which won the title of ‘Instrumental disc of the month’ in Gramophone Magazine. 

The 2014/15 season sees Philip recording the complete Bach Suites, and performances including at the Musashino Cultural Foundation in Tokyo, and a return visit to the Wigmore Hall.

Cellist and viol player Jonathan Manson was born in Edinburgh and received his formative training at the International Cello Centre in Scotland under the direction of Jane Cowan, later going on to study with Steven Doane and Christel Thielmann at the Eastman School of Music in New York. A growing fascination for early music led him to Holland, where he studied viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken. For ten years he was the principal cellist of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, with whom he performed and recorded more than 150 Bach cantatas and, together with Yo-Yo Ma, Vivaldi’s Concerto for two cellos. As a concerto soloist he has recently appeared at the Wigmore Hall, the Carnegie Hall and the South Bank Centre.

Jonathan is an active chamber musician, performing repertoire from the Renaissance to the Romantic, and a long-standing partnership with the harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock has led to critically acclaimed recordings of the Bach gamba sonatas and, together with Rachel Podger, Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin en concert. In recent years they have joined forces with the flautist Emmanuel Pahud and violinist Matthew Truscott, leading to two recordings of Bach and successful tours of Europe, the USA and the Far East. Jonathan is also co-principal of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a founder member of the renowned viol consort Phantasm. Jonathan lives in Oxfordshire and is a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.