Sunday - 14th July 2013 - 3.30 pm

The Catholic Centre, 2 Duke's Avenue, Chiswick, W4 2AE (Opposite Chiswick Library) See location map

Laura Isaacson began learning the cello at the age of six. She studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Melissa Phelps, the Eastman School of Music with Steven Doane and at the Juilliard School with Harvey Shapiro.

She has participated in numerous music festivals, including the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove and the Verbier Academy in Switzerland, and she has also played for many renowned cellists such as Steven Isserlis, Daniil Shafran and Lynn Harrell. Laura Isaacson has been a prize-winner in the Heidi Hermans Young Artists Competition, the Kingsville International Competition and the Sorantin Young Artists Competition. During her studies at Eastman she won the coveted performer's certificate for excepional playing. Laura has performed in festivals and concerts in Portugal, England, and the United States. She has played chamber music in the Wigmore Hall, the Fairfield Hall and at the International Menuhin Festival in Gstaad. Recently she has performed in Lisbon at the Aula Magna in a memorial concert for the Portuguese hero Aristides de Sousa Mendes and in the Ciclo Manuelino de Musica in Belem.

Masa Tayama now lives in London, and performs extensively in Europe, returning regularly to Japan for recital and concerto appearances.
His recital at Toppan Hall in Tokyo in 2005 was broadcast on Nikkei National Radio in Japan, and his performances of Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3 with Osaka Symphonika at The Symphony Hall in Osaka, twice on the same day in July 2006, were hailed as "re-inventing the image of Rachmaninov". He made his USA debut in 2006 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, where the recital was broadcast live on the Internet.

Tayama's London debut was in 2002 at the South Bank's Purcell Room, and in 2007 he gave his debut recital to a sell-out audience at the Wigmore Hall. In May 2010 he made a successful return appearance at the Wigmore Hall with a programme including Rachmaninov's complete Etudes-Tableaux Op.39.

His recent performances with orchestra, notably at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Fairfield Halls and St. John?s Smith Square include Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos Nos.2, 3 and 4 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and the two Piano Concertos by Brahms, collaborating with conductors including Stephen Bell, Adrian Brown, Darrell Davison, John Gibbons, Levon Parikian and Vladimir Valek.

Tayama is one of the youngest faculty members at Chetham's School of Music, and regularly givessolo recitals and Master Classes at the Chetham's International Summer School and Festival for Pianists.