The Swallow Recitals presents: Perks Ensemble

The Perks Ensemble was founded by brothers, Oscar and Elliott Perks in 2010. They enjoy the flexible ensemble format, being able to invite an array of wonderful musicians to work with for different settings. Past performances have included Philip Glass’s Opera “ in the penal colony” a tour of string trios, string sextets and most recently this program of piano, quartets. Often programs include lesser known works alongside more traditional repertoire, as well as some of Oscar’s own arrangements and transcriptions.

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Oscar Perks enjoys a varied career as a violinist, chamber musician and teacher. After beginning his studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Oscar went on to read music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he studied composition with Robin Holloway. He then gained his masters at the Royal College of Music under Lutsia Ibragimova.

For five years Oscar was a member of the Dante String Quartet with whom he gave numerous concerts around the UK and abroad, including the complete Beethoven and Shostakovich Quartet cycles. With the Dantes, Oscar also made recordings of all eight string quartets by C.V. Stanford, many of which were previously unpublished and unrecorded. Since leaving the quartet in 2019, Oscar has devoted more time to his recently formed duo partnership with his wife, Ayaka Shigeno.

Alongside his work as a performer, Oscar teaches Chamber Music and Improvisation at the Guildhall school of Music & Drama; and teaches violin at the Yehudi Menuhin School. He also directs the Langvad Jamboree Chamber Music Festival held annually at the Kirsten Kjaers museum, Denmark.

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Elliott Perks grew up in Surrey, UK where he was home educated with his siblings until the age of nine. In 2001 he was awarded a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School, where he studied with Suzie Meszaros, Rosemary Warren-Green and Loutsia Ibragimova on the violin until 2008, when he changed to first study viola. Elliott was a foundation scholar at the Royal College of Music in London where he studied with Andriy Viytovych and was later invited to work with Hatto Beyerle at his residence in Hanover.

On graduating from the RCM, Elliott joined the Maxwell String Quartet with whom he won both First Prize and Audience Prize at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition in 2017. Since then the quartet has toured internationally, including the Rheingau Festival in Germany,

Stavanger Festival, Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, Amsterdam String Quartet Biennale, Schiermonnikoog and Wonderfeel Festivals in the Netherlands, Lammermuir Festival and Music at Paxton in Scotland. Its debut tour of the USA in January 2019 garnered critical acclaim from the New York Times (“eloquent performers who bring the same sense of charisma and sense of adventure to their programming”), and performing to sold out venues in New York, Florida, California and Washington. They have since played in over 30 states. The two CDs released by Linn Records, featuring string quartets by Haydn alongside the quartet’s own compositions, based on Scottish traditional folk music, received glowing reviews from international press.

Elliott performs as a soloist and chamber musician in venues around the UK, including The Wigmore Hall, The Royal festival Hall, The Royal Albert hall, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Purcell Room, Sadlers Wells, Bradford Cathedral, Snape Maltings, Dorking Halls and The Cadogan Hall. Whenever possible, Elliott joins forces with his broth Oscar to perform under the banner of ‘the Perks Ensemble’.

In 2018, Elliott released his first album, ‘Marchenbilder’ with guitarist, Tom Ellis, which features transcriptions of music by Schubert, Schumann, Wolf and Tchaikovsky, themed around Germanic text. This music was later toured with the Images Ballet Company, with Elliott involved in the choreography process working closely with Jennifer Jackson.

For the past eight years, Elliott has enjoyed developing his career as a teacher, working with Violin and Viola students at the Yehudi Menuhin school alongside Chamber Music coaching.

Elliott plays a J.B Vuillaume viola from 1852, on loan from a very generous benefactor, to whom he is incredibly grateful.

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Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Ayaka Shigeno was first introduced to piano by her mother at the age of five. At age 14 she joined the Yehudi Menuhin School in England, where she studied with Marcel Baudet and Renana Gutman. She then moved to Berlin to study at the Berlin University of fine Arts (Universiät der Künste Berlin) with Prof. Pascal Devoyon and Rikako Murata, where she graduated with a Diploma and Konzertexamen, the highest degree for Music in Germany.

After living and working in Berlin for many years, Ayaka moved back to England shortly before the lockdown. She has taken up a teaching post at the Yehudi Menuhin School, works for Guildhall School of Music and Drama as a collaborative pianist. She performs regularly alongside her sister Tomoka as a piano duo and also as a duo partner with violinist and husband, Oscar Perks.

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Sebastian Kolin (Cello) was given a place and bursary to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School studying with Thomas Carrol, Charles Watt and Marie Macleod, where he had the opportunity to play at prestigious festivals such as the Riems Festival, Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Bath Festival, Bradford Delius Festival and City of London Festival.

An avid chamber musician Sebastian has performed across Europe, made television and radio appearances in Switzerland, Austria and Scandinavia and played in many of Londons main venues including the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Cadogan Hall, the Menuhin Hall and the Elgar Rooms of the Albert Hall. Sebastian has also recorded on a CD of new music by Cheryl-Frances Hoade, 'The Glory Tree', accompanying Leonid Gorokhov in small ensemble for Champs Hill Records.

Sebastian completed his Bachelor of Arts degree studying with Johannes Goritzki and Enrico Dindo at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland, whilst also studying with the Cremona Quartet at the Walter Stauffer Academy in Cremona, Italy.

As part of the Heathcliff trio between 2020/2023 Sebastian performed in the Wigmore Hall for the final concert of The Parkhouse Award (2021). And in 2022, The trio won 1st prize in the 9th International Johannes Brahms Chamber Music Competition with two additional special prizes including the best interpretation of a piece by Brahms. Subsequently they performed at festivals including The Harrogate International Festival, K&M Festival Stavanger, Hobro Musikforening, Kammermusik Odense (broadcast on the Danish Radio).

During this time he was based in Copenhagen under the guidance of Tim Frederiksen at The Royal Danish Academy of Music on the Advance Postgraduate Program and was also a member of the European Chamber Music Academy.

Doors: 6.30pm | Performance: 7.30pm