Knowledge

World class international musicians are in Jersey this week to perform along with some of the world’s leading music college students as part of the Jersey International Masterclasses.

Launched in Jersey for the first time last year, the Jersey International Masterclasses is a series of events designed to provide students with world class education from internationally acclaimed music professors. Students and professors are in Jersey from July 28 until August 6 during which several concerts will take place to showcase the talents of both students and their distinguished teachers. Among the guest performers will be the winner of the BBC Young Musician of 2012, the cellist, Laura van der Heijen.

The Jersey International Masterclasses – Student Showcase Concert, which features Laura, will take place at 7.30 pm on Saturday 2nd August at the Jersey Arts Centre and will deliver a wide variety of virtuosic music for strings and piano. The students performing the concert will be some of those who have spent the week receiving tuition from a faculty of teachers of international stature.

Concert performances will also take place on Thursday, July 31 at Georgetown Methodist Church and on Sunday August 3 at Chateau Vermont in St Saviour. There are also a number of lunchtime concerts.

The Jersey Masterclasses is supported by the Jersey Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, The Tsukanov Family Foundation, the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation, Bedell Trust, accountants BBA and Nedbank Private Wealth and the One Foundation.

Founded by Viktoria Grigoreva, Professor of Music at the Royal College of Music (RCM) and Eton College, the masterclasses also feature a number of world renowned  musicians which this year includes Professor Nina Balabina (violin);Professor Boris Berman, Head of Piano at Yale (piano), Professor Leonid Gorokhov (cello) and Professor Mark Messenger from the UK, the RCM’s Head of Strings and the legendary Professor Dimitri Bashkirov.

Students will participate in a number of workshops hosted by the Jersey Academy of Music at Chateau Vermont and they include a number of Jersey students who are attending music colleges in the UK or are about to start a course. In total there are about 70 young people taking part, 40 local young musicians and 30 from music colleges in Russia, Sweden, Italy, Spain and the UK. Jersey musicians include Krystian Lamb and Elliot Samphier, previous winners of the PwC Jersey Young Musician of the Year.

The visiting professors will be joined by Jersey’s own Christopher George, an accomplished pianist and cellist Emmanuel Dumas of the Jersey Academy of Music. (TBC).

The Jersey International Masterclasses has been established as a wholly charitable foundation which is supported by Bedell in Jersey. Bedell has assisted in the establishment of the foundation and prepared the foundation’s charter and regulations. The firm’s professional support will continue, while a representative from Bedell Trust also sits on the Foundation’s council.