Tabitha Appel read music at St John’s College, Cambridge, whilst studying violin with David Takeno in London.

She performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician and in recent years has participated in masterclasses with Philippe Graffin, Krysia Osostowicz, and members of the London Haydn, Doric and Castalian String Quartets. In 2023 she won the Oxford Philharmonic Junior Concerto Competition and followed this with a performance of the Brahms Double Concerto with her sister, Rachel, and the Isis Chamber Orchestra.

She has performed numerous concerti with orchestras in Oxford, most recently Mozart’s 3rd Violin Concerto and Saint-Saëns Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso with the Isis Chamber Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Wantage Symphony Orchestra, and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the St Giles Orchestra and the Oxfordshire County Youth Orchestra. Her musical development has been hugely influenced through participation in Festival Resonances Academy in Belgium, MusicWorks, and Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival summer residency.

As a member of the Telyn Quartet, formed in 2023, she has performed in prestigious venues around England and has been awarded a place on ChamberStudio’s residency and Mentorship scheme. She was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain from 2019 and led the orchestra in its 2021 season.es here

Seth Collin is currently studying the cello with Louise Hopkins at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and particularly enjoys exploring the extensive chamber music repertoire for the cello. His studies are supported by awards from Help Musicians, the Wayne Sleep Foundation, Kathleen Trust and the Munster Trust.

Seth has been invited to festivals such as Brundibar Arts Festival, IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, La Roque d’Antheron, and in 2026 won first prize at the Irish Heritage finals in Wigmore Hall. As the cellist of Trio Havisham, he is a Munster Recital Scheme and Kirckman Concert Society artist, a prize-winner at the 2025 International Schoenfeld Competition in China, and recently gave a recital at Wigmore Hall. Seth recorded a disc of works for cello ensemble and voice with Roderick Williams and the Endellion Cellos which was released on SOMM Recordings in 2025.

Seth also has a keen interest in new music, personal highlights of which include performances of Philip Venables’ chamber opera ‘Denis and Katya’ and of Boulez’s Messagesquisse with David Cohen as part of an LSO Chamber Ensemble concert. In 2023 Seth founded the Pudding Chare Music Festival, an annual chamber music festival taking place in his hometown of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Prior to his studies at GSMD, Seth obtained a BA from the University of Cambridge and is grateful to have studied with Karen Stephenson, Jennifer Langridge at the JRNCM and Sue Lowe. Seth is a keen educator, having taught for national organisations such as Procorda and NYOGB. From September this year he will teach chamber music to undergraduates at the RNCM in the role of Junior Fellow

Zany Denyer is an award-winning pianist specialising in chamber music and vocal accompaniment. A Samling Artist, he is recognised for his insightful approach to music-making. His performances have been described as having “real flair, while never losing that sense of balance” (CAVATINA, 2022).

With the award-winning ensemble Trio Havisham, he has been awarded the Tunnell Trust, Kirckman and Musicians’ Company Awards, 1st prize at the CAVATINA competition and 2nd prize at the Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Lyon.

Equally passionate about Lieder accompaniment, he has won awards including the Kathleen Ferrier Society’s Denis Horner Prize and the RAM Schumann Lieder prize. With one of his duo partners, Aksel Rykkvin, he has taken part in the Franz-Schubert-Institut five-week summer programme and, more recently, the Leeds Lieder Young Artist Programme. He was a 2024 Samling Artist

Matthew is a violist from Whitley Bay in the North East, currently based in Manchester, where he is studying at the Royal Northern College of Music with Lucy Nolan. Recent highlights include performing alongside in projects Manchester Collective, Manchester Camerata and the BBC Philharmonic and as co-principal viola of the St Endellion Easter Festival 2024. As a session musician, Matthew frequently plays with the Northern Film Orchestra and can be heard on May Payne’s EP ‘Sane’. Matthew has performed in chamber music concerts with the Hive Sinfonia and the Osian Ensemble. He also attended the English Camerata Soloists chamber music course as an intern in 2022 and 2023.

Born in Sabah, Sophia Lim is a Malaysian pianist currently based in London. She had studied under the tutelage of Danny Driver at the Royal College of Music. Prior to her education in London, Sophia studied with her mentor, Krzysztof Slomiak, in Kota Kinabalu. Her experiences learning the erhu, as well as growing up in Sabah greatly enriched her insight and musical versatility through the influence of diverse cultures.

Sophia has premiered several new works on both the piano and erhu. Her determination to share new music has led her to several collaborations with composers. Highlights include her performances in FestivAll 2023 ‘From Takemitsu to Miku’, celebrating the music of contemporary Japanese composers, including the premiere of Delyth Field’s Digital Lullaby for harp and piano, curated with Malaysian harpist Ian Lim as Liminal Duo.

Sophia performs both solo and chamber music at venues including St James’s Piccadilly, St George’s Hanover Square, St Mary le Strand, St James’s Sussex Gardens, Austrian Cultural Forum, St Mary Abbots Church, St Michael’s Highgate, St Michael’s Sittingbourne, and at the Royal College of Music. She was appointed Ambassador of the Benedetti Foundation in 2024. In the summer of 2024, she will be giving a series of workshops and concerts in Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu.

Isobel Neary-Adams studies with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she holds a scholarship and is also supported by the Munster trust and Albert Cooper trust, having completed undergraduate study at the University of Oxford.

She cultivated a passion for chamber music at MusicWorks, Festival Resonances Academy, Maiastra and IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music. To further pursue chamber playing, she founded the Telyn Quartet and a concert series, Coco Concerts, while at university.

Recent performances include concerts with the Telyn Quartet, Castalian Quartet, Sinfonia Cymru, Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, Ensemble 360, and Welsh National Opera. Isobel has been invited to play in Lewes, Penarth Chamber Music Festival, Southwell, Pudding Chare and Wye Valley Festivals, and in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Holywell Music room, and Menuhin Hall.

She has greatly benefitted from masterclasses with eminent musicians Thomas Riebl, Jennifer Stumm, Asbjørn Nørgaard, Antje Weithaas, Arisa Fujita, Peter Herresthal, Malin Broman, Helena Winkelman and David Waterman.

As a soloist, she performed the Walton Concerto with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and City of Cardiff Symphony Orchestra, Bruch double concerto with Oxford Chamber Orchestra, and Mozart Sinfonia Concertante.

Upcoming engagements include a project of her own curation with Sinfonia Cymru, and concerts with the Lawson trio, Adler quartet, and Neary-Adams string trio.es here

Description goes herMagdalena Riedl is an Austrian violinist based in London and Berlin. She has performed with prominent musicians like James Ehnes, Barbara Hannigan, Alasdair Beatson, Adrian Brendel, Rakhi Singh (Manchester Collective), Henning Kraggerud and the Elias String Quartet at venues like Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room (Southbank Centre) and Conway Hall. Magdalena plays a violin by Enrico Ceruti kindly loaned to her through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

Magdalena has been a part of Trio Havisham since 2019, together with Zany Denyer and Seth Collin. They pursue an active concert activity in the UK and at festivals abroad and have won 2nd prize at the International Chamber Music Competition Lyon, as well as 4th prize at the International Harbin Schoenfeld Competiton.

Her solo performances include appearances with Hallé Orchestra at Bridgewater Hall and Nottingham Philharmonic playing Sibelius Violin Concerto, after winning the RNCM Concerto competition. She led an ensemble for a CD recording for Linn records with Barbara Hannigan, a program of Stravinsky chamber pieces and song cycles, which was released in Autumn 2024. Magdalena has performed at chamber festivals like Zeister Musiekdagen (Netherlands), La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival (France), Manchester Chamber Music Festival (Vermont), Virtuoso & Belcanto Festival (Italy) and Södertälje Chamber Festival (Sweden). She has experience over a wide range of repertoire, leading chamber groups and orchestras with pieces by Copland, Britten, Higdon, Alberga, Arango-Prada, Monteverdi and Handel amongst others.e

North East born Richard Taylor is currenty studying at Magdalene College where he is Schola Cantorum Director of Music and Gilbey Organ Scholar.

He is also Magdalene Music Society president and a researcher in the The Lost Music Project examining the typology and case studies of losses in the music world.

Working on lost keyboard instruments, reviewing historical catalogues, wills, museum and private collections, and contemporary inventories to determine whether surviving instruments are representative of the variety of historical keyboard instruments.

Alma is in her final year reading English at the University of Cambridge while studying the violin with David Takeno in London. She has participated in masterclasses with members of the London Haydn and Doric String Quartets, Philippe Graffin, Krysia Osostowicz, among others. At Cambridge, Alma is on the Instrumental Award Scheme and is a member of the University Orchestra, with whom she will perform as a soloist in Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante in May. On baroque violin, she has been mentored by Margaret Faultless and Nicholas Mulroy, and played in the Dartington Baroque Orchestra (2023) led by Rachel Podger. She will start studying in the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague

Cellist, Cameron Walls, is a scholarship holder at the Royal Academy of Music, entering his 4th year, and studies with John Myerscough. He began his cello studies at five years old with John Finnon, going on to study with James Craig at the Glasshouse International Centre for Music from the ages of 8 to 18. Recently, he performed Schumann Cello Concerto in a public masterclass with Steven Isserlis. He also performed in a public masterclass with Garth Knox, in which he explored the extended colour world of unconventional cello techniques.
A passionate chamber musician, Cameron regularly performs in a diverse range of groups and festivals across the country. He is the cellist of Scintilla Quartet, who were awarded the distinguished Frost ASSET Scheme at the Academy. They are grateful to receive guidance and mentorship from distinguished figures in the chamber music scene.

A dynamic player, Cameron has a love for historical performance and studies Baroque cello and viola de gamba with Andrew Skidmore and Nathan Giorgetti.

Cameron is extremely grateful to play on a William Forster II cello, loaned by the Academy and generously funded by the Calleva Foundation.