ANGUS RAMSAY (Violin & Artistic Director)

Angus Ramsay studied under the celebrated violinist Max Rostal at the Music Conservatoire in Bern, Switzerland. Throughout the last 35 years, he has performed both as a soloist and as part of many of the most respected and well-known orchestras and chamber music groups in the UK and Europe. He is Artistic Director of The Music Parlour, teaches extensively throughout Scotland and has also spent his career as a principal player in the orchestra of Scottish Opera.

ALLAN NEAVE (Guitar & Artistic Director)

Allan Neave studied classical guitar at the then RSAMD, RNCM and finally with the Great Spanish master – José Tomas in Alicante. Since this time he has been a regular guest at many of the world’s leading musical festivals including the Edinburgh International, St Magnus, Cheltenham, Lorient, Iserlohn International Guitar Festivals, as well as performances at Tartan Week, New York in 2012. He is a regular guest at many of the worlds leading musical events and has worked with many influential musicians including Nikita Koshkin, David Fennessy, Hans Werner Henze, Gordon McPherson and Stephen Dodgson.

To date, his career has been an eclectic one, from recordings to international tours. Past highlights have included many performances of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with some of the UK’s leading ensembles – Royal Scottish National Orchestra/ Northern Sinfonia/ Scottish Chamber Orchestra. 

During his 30 year career, Allan was the Artistic Director of the Dundee International Guitar Festival for over 20 years and since 2010 has led RCS’s ‘ Big Guitar Weekend’ a winter event for all matters guitar!  In 2000, he received the Scotland on Sunday Glenfiddich ® Spirit of Scotland Award for Music; these awards were set up to recognise individuals who lead the way in Scottish culture. He was also awarded his Professorship from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for  contribution to the musical landscape of our country.

Allan is currently Head of Guitar and Harp at RCS, he plays Michael Gee guitars and is a D’Addario, New York sponsored artist.

MARTIN STOREY (Cello)

Martin Storey has performed in many countries around the world as a soloist and chamber musician and has served as principal cellist with many British orchestras including the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. For eight years he held the position of Principal Cellist with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and in 2019 he was appointed principal cellist of Scottish Opera.

Martin was a founding member of the highly successful Gould Piano Trio which won three international chamber music competitions. During his fourteen years with the trio he toured to many countries playing in major concert halls, radio broadcasts and music festivals including the BBC Proms Chamber Series.

Martin has broadcast chamber music many times on BBC Radio both in live concerts and studio recordings. He has recorded several CDs of chamber music for various labels and his recording of the Brahms cello sonatas was released on the Oxford Classics label. He has given masterclasses all over the world.

From 2001 Martin lived in Kansas City, Missouri in the U.S. where he had an active career as a soloist and member of several chamber ensembles and was the cello professor at Park University in Parkville, Missouri. In 2010 Martin moved to Glasgow to take up the position of Principal Cellist with the BBC SSO.

GORKA PLADO (Piano)

Gorka Plada (2002) showed his passion for music at an early age. He was mainly self-taught during the first years of this immersive interest, and the only formal guidance he received would be a copy of B.Bartók’s Mikrokosmos, that his father handed him at an early stage. From 2011, he received piano and harmony lessons from Maria Jesús Durán, who would remain his principal teacher for several years, and during this period he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto “Jeunnehomme” K.271 with the Ensemble Foresmus under Álvaro Corral Matute. And at the age of 14, Gorka received a full scholarship to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England, where he studied piano with Marcel Baudet, as well as harmony with Oscar Colomina i Bosch and Damian LeGassick, composition with John Cooney, and improvisation with David Dolan, all very influential teachers in Gorka’s musical taste. He currently studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler of Berlin with Eldar Nebolsin.

He performs regularly around Europe, occasionally as a soloist, but mainly as a chamber musician, which has brought him to collaborate and learn from world renowned musicians such as Stefan Dohr, Valeriy Sokolov, Abel Realp, Vera Martinez Mehner, or Ruth Reindhart. He has also taken part in numerous prestigious festivals including the IMS Prussia Cove, Cliburn Junior, Segovia, Maryat Players, and the Wimbledon Festival, performing in prestigious venues such as the Wigmore Hall in London, St.James Piccadilly, the Muth of Vienna, or the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Gorka has had success in various competitions, having received prizes in the Enschede Piano Competition (Holland), the Maria Canals Competition of Barcelona, the Beethoven Intercollegiate Piano Competition in London, Julio Casas competition (Seville), Santa Cecilia Juan de Bourbon competition (Segovia), and Lorenzo Palomo Chamber Music Competition, among many others. He is also grateful for the scholarships he has received in order to pursue his studies, coming from prestigious foundations like the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, or the Music and Dance Scheme of the UK.

Concerning masterclasses and musical encounters, Gorka has received important advice from artistic personalities such as Robert Levin, Eberhard Feltz, András Schiff, Claudio Martinez Mehner, Edith Fischer, Nino Kereselidze, Jaques Rouvier, Josep Colom, Paul Roberts and Artur Pizarro, all of which have left an important mark in Gorka’s development as a musician.

LEV ATLAS (Viola)

After graduating from the Rostov State Rachmaninov Conservatoire, Lev Atlas joined the Rostov String Quartet, is currently Principal Viola of the Scottish Opera Orchestra and lecturer in Strings at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. A virtuoso Klezmer and Eastern European music performer, he is a living encyclopaedia of hundreds of traditional tunes and has influenced many musicians across Europe. 

Lev has enjoyed an outstanding career as a classical musician in his native Russia, then USA and now the UK.  A member of the international award winning Rostov String Quartet and first prize-winner of the International Shostakovich Competition and grand prix winner of the Borodin Quartet Competition, Lev has recorded extensively with Koch Swan International in Vienna, MCA Classics in New York, BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and WCBH Boston. His solo and lead performances include Wigmore Hall, Great Hall, Moscow State Conservatoire, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Usher Hall, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and Atlantic City Music Festival. 

In 2013 completed his PhD and was awarded a title of Doctor in Music and Philosophy by the University of Saint Andrews and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for his research, titled “In the Shadow of Shostakovich”. 

Lev has developed a distinguished career in the World and Klezmer musical genres as a member of World Music group Koshka, which he founded in 1998 along with violinist and composer Oleg Ponomarev and Scottish Jazz guitarist Nigel Clark. Koshka has headlined various major Folk, World and Jazz festivals around the globe from Celtic Connections in Glasgow and Lake Piedmont Festival in Vermont to accepting invitations to play with orchestras such as the Nordic Chamber Orchestra in Sweden. Koshka’s unique fusion of self-composed material blends Gypsy, Jazz and Klezmer genres, played with the technical nous that can only be achieved through classical training, which has influenced a number performers on this scene. 

PETER FRY (Double-Bass)

Born in Hampshire, Peter studied the double bass first with Barry Glynn, and then at the Royal College of Music with Michael Brittain. Upon leaving College in 1990 he joined the orchestra of Welsh National Opera, and in 2009 became a member of the Orchestra of Opera North, before being appointed section principal double bass in the Orchestra of Scottish Opera in 2012.

Peter has performed in many countries around the world and has worked as guest principal bass with several orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC National Orchestras of Wales and Scotland, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

In 2001 Peter formed a small chamber orchestra, the Vale of Glamorgan Ensemble, made up mainly from ex colleagues at WNO. The Ensemble performs regularly in Wales, has given two world premieres and has featured on the Welsh channel S4C.