Ariana Kashefi, Cello Petr Limonov, Piano

British-Persian cellist Ariana Kashefi is in great demand as both a chamber musician and a soloist.  She began her musical education with Robert Max at the Royal Academy of Music where she achieved a first class honours degree before completing her masters at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Professor Frans Helmerson where she graduated with the highest possible mark.  Ariana has been the recipient of several international scholarships including the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Julius Isserlis scholarship.  She has been invited to play with the Britten Sinfonia, London Chamber Orchestra, RTÉ concert orchestra and West-East Divan Orchestra amongst others.  During her career Ariana has received guidance from such luminaries as Steven Isserlis, David Geringas, Ralph Kirschbaum and Gary Hoffman.  She is a Talent Unlimited artist and a winner of one of Making Music’s awards for young musicians.  In 2018 she was a prizewinner in the Anton Rubinstein Cello Competition and also a finalist for the Pierre Fournier Award.

British pianist Petr Limonov was born in Moscow and began playing the piano at the age of five.  He is a past winner of the Nikolai Rubinstein Piano Competition and is a pupil of Maria João Pires and Dmitri Alexeev.  The Nottingham Post commended his “intelligence…intensity…subtlety and sophistication” and Classical Music Magazine has described his playing as “multi-faceted” and Petr himself as possessing “an endless array of possibilities”. He is sought after internationally as a soloist and has appeared at La Roque d’Antheron Festival in France, the Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls in London as well as at the Conservatory in Moscow. Petr has played a solo recital for His Majesty King Charles III and his arrangement of the Auld Lang Syne (from Nicola Benedetti’s ‘Homecoming’ album, Decca) was performed in the Albert Hall at the BBC Proms. On the 6th of March 2022, Petr conducted an open-air orchestral concert in Trafalgar Square, London in protest at the Russian invasion of Ukraine.