OCS Pianists
Paul Cibis
Pianist Paul Cibis is known both as a soloist and as an accompanist with regular performances in his native Germany and abroad. He has been invited to several festivals such as the Feuchtwangen Piano Festival, the Oxford Lieder Festival; he has travelled as far as New Zealand for a series of song recitals or the US for solo recitals in Los
Angeles and New York City. He appeared in TV & radio broadcasts for many German stations, RTHK and CCTV in China, and the BBC. During the last years Paul has increasingly been invited to the Far East and beyond to perform at festivals in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Adelaide, Australia. Paul studied piano with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling in Hanover. In 1998 he started working with Peter Feuchtwanger in London - firstly as a private student, since 2002 as his assistant. He now regularly gives workshops and master classes for pianists in Taiwan and South Korea. As a duo specialist Paul graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London studying with Graham Johnson, Robin Bowman and Eugene Asti. Privately or in masterclasses he also worked with Irwin Gage, Sarah Walker, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Hampson und Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. From 2005 to 2009 Paul taught at Trinity College of Music in London; additionally he has conducted workshops at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Paul has been playing for the Oxford Cello School since 2005. www.paulcibis.com
Craig White
Craig White was born in England in 1984. He started playing the piano at the age of four with Patricia Romero. While actively involved in various aspects of music making he developed a special talent for accompanying while still at school, at Epsom College. Under Richard Deering's tutelage Craig gained his ATCL. Craig studied for his music degree at St Catherine's College, Oxford, and graduated in 2005. He then attended a post-graduate piano accompanist course at the Royal Academy of Music, London, taught by Michael Dussek and Diana Ketler, and was awarded the Daniel Kelly Accompanist Prize and the Gilling Family Scholarship. He has had the privilege of attending master classes with eminent professors such as, Malcolm Martineau, Paul Hamburger, Robin Bowman, Jan Philip Schulze and Oxana Yablonskaya. At Oxford he held the Répétiteur Scholarship with the New Chamber Opera, performing in their student and professional productions such as Mozart's La Finta Semplice, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Handel's Semele, John Caldwell's Il Trespolo Tutore. In addition, he has worked as a repetiteur for the Oxford Baroque Soloist and Oxford City Opera, including performances of Bach's St John's Passion, Puccini's La Boheme, Britten's Turn of the Screw and Wolf's Italiensches Liederbuch. Craig was also a regular chamber music performer at the Holywell Music Room, Oxford, including a performance with the Allegri String Quartet at their Golden Jubilee Concert in 2004. Other UK engagements have included performances at the Schubert festival in London; recitals, concerts, and music festivals in Aylesbury, Cambridge, Dorking, Bristol and Windsor. Engagements abroad include the Cantiere d'arte Montepulciano in Italy and performances with the Olive Piano Trio in Belgium. In 2007 Craig was accepted on the 'Live Music Now' scheme with the cellist Edward Furse. Craig has also worked as an accompanist at singers' courses in Ardingly and Oxenfoord. He is supported by the Musicians Benevolent Fund.
Pavel Timofejevsky
Pavel Timofejevsky, pianist and composer, began his music studies at the age of six at the Gnessin Music School in Russia. In 1995 he entered the Purcell School of Music on full scholarship and won a number of prestigious awards and national competitions including the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year award. Pavel studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 2002-2008 with Professor Tatiana Sarkissova graduating with distinction from both the Bachelor and Postgraduate Diploma courses. In 2006, he received the Leslie England Award for achieving one of the highest marks for his Final Recital and was then invited to perform solo in th
e Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the Shostakovich centenary festival. Pavel has also given solo and chamber performances in the Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room, St. John's Smith Square, St. Martin's in the Field, St. James' Piccadilly, Lauderdale House, the Bishopsgate Institute and worldwide in Paris, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Cyprus, Calcutta and Mumbai. In the Academy, Pavel received the John Ireland prize, the Michael Head prize for best accompanist, prizes at the Jacques Samuels Piano Competition and the Beethoven Society Intercollegiate Competition and, in 2008, 4th prize at the 19th Haverhill Sinfonia Soloist International Competition. As a postgraduate, he was awarded the Musician Benevolent Fund Award, the 2007 Myra Hess Award, and the Philharmonia Orchestra Martin Musical Scholarship Fund Award. Pavel also received the Janet Duff Greet Prize for best performance of twentieth century music, for his interpretation of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No 4. Pavel is also keen chamber musician and has forged various professional alliances. He works regularly as an accompanist at The Royal Academy of Music and works as a coach with The Kensington Singing Group. Always interested in trying something new, Pavel, in 2005, recorded the soundtrack and starred as young Tchaikovsky in the documentary film "Tchaikovsky" for the US "Biography TV" channel. Two years later he was commissioned to compose the score for the feature-length documentary "Le fin de la belle époque" for Russian TV which received great critical acclaim. In September 2007, he was invited to join the 'Live Music Now' concert scheme and has since performed in various community venues throughout the UK. He continues to perform at festivals and concert series across UK, and has become a regular live-performing guest on the SW1 London Radio's Passport show. In October 2009 Pavel was appointed Musician in Residence at St John's Church, Notting Hill, London, for the 2009-2010 concert season where he recently produced two highly successful concerts for the Notting Hill MAYFEST 2010. The season of 2010 will also see Pavel performing at Schumann and Chopin Festivals at St. Barnabas Church, West London. He has recently recorded an album of music for saxophone, violin and piano by composer Ian Stewart which will be released on the music-chamber label. A promotional tour of the album will follow in 2010-2011.