“Alessio Pianelli, with his exceptional talent, belongs to the best italian cellists of the new generation. With his phenomenal technique, fantasy, musical intelligence and full mastery of the stage and of his own art, he is able to bring a new fascinating emotion to his listeners.” (Thomas Demenga)

Recently awarded a Borletti Buitoni Trust fellowship, Sicilian cellist and composer Alessio Pianelli brings to the stage the distinctive characteristics of his homeland, where one can still live and breathe the diverse cultures of Sicily, a unique region that was dominated throughout the centuries by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Germanics, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans and Spanish.
Curiosity, research and a love for traveling, arts and culture, all came easily and were befitting to his character, naturally broadening his emotional personality and crystalline talent.

Prizewinner of several international competitions, such as Antonio Janigro International Cello
Competition, and, with his piece Tanzen Wir!, the first prize at the International Composition Competition In Clausura organized by Ravenna Festival and 100cellos in 2016, Alessio has regularly performed as a soloist with symphony and chamber orchestras such as, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Kazakh State Orchestra, Lviv Philarmonic Orchestra, Philarmonie Baden-Baden and Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di Torino.

An avid chamber musician, Alessio is frequently invited to international festivals such as Marlboro Festival, Piatigorsky Festival, Davos Festival, bringing his music into prominent halls in Europe, Asia and North America (Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Hajuko Hall Tokyo and Tonhalle Zurich among others).

Since 2014 Alessio has been realising several albums issued by Almendra Music, a Palermo-based think tank, record label and art collective specializing in instigating collaborations among musicians and artists from different backgrounds, which Alessio has contributed to found and grow to stir up the creative environment of his birthland.
His piece for two cellos “Sulla Quarta” eventually became also the title track of the second volume of an ongoing series of albums, in which Alessio turns his exploration of the six solo cello Suites by J.S.Bach into a voyage of discovery and self-discovery, coupling them with less-explored works composed in 20th and 21st century and with his own compositional reactions to the emotional and intellectual challenges which Bach’s writing poses to musicians and listeners alike.

Some of his compositions are published by Casa Musicale Sonzogno and Mueller&Schade.
In 2017 he was invited by Marianne Piketty as a composer in residence at Musique aux 4
Horizons in Ronchamp, France, where he performed in venues surrounded by the architecture of Le Corbusier, Jean Prouvè and Renzo Piano.Born in 1989 into a family of musicians, Alessio Pianelli studied in Palermo with Giovanni Sollima and in Basel with Thomas Demenga. His training and development have also been influenced by renowned artists such as M. Brunello and W. Boettcher.
Alessio plays a 1921 Evasio Emilio Guerra cello.

Mirei Yamada was born in Tottori (Japan) and began studying the violin at age 3 with her father and then continued with Takeaki Sumi. She proceeded with violin studies and Chamber Music studies in Italy, and has followed some of the most renowned musicians including M. Pradella , P. N. Masi, G. Guglielmo, F. Ayo, R. Bonucci, D. Nordio, R. Filippini, A. Ghedin, M. Jones and the Trio di

Trieste. She graduated in Violin at the “Toho- Gakuen University of Music” in Tokyo. She also graduated in Violin and Chamber Music at the “Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia” in Rome. She continued the studies at the “International Chamber Music School of the Trio di Trieste” (Duino) and the “Hochschule für Musik und Tanz” of Cologne (Germany) with the “Alban Berg Quartet. In 2010, the Chigiana Academy of Siena gave her two prizes: the "Premio Monte Dei Paschi" and the prestigious "Diploma of Honor".

She is the winner of numerous national and international competitions. With the “Quartetto Avos” (now Avos Piano Quartet) she won the two most important chamber music competitions in Italy: the Premio Vittorio Gui in Florence and the International Competition Premio Trio di Trieste, where she also received two other prizes: the Amedeo Baldovino Prize for her interpretation of J.Brahms (Quartet op. 25) and the Public Prize given by the Italian newspaper "Il Piccolo di Trieste".

She has performed in the most important theatres in Italy and abroad: Parco della Musica (Rome), Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Teatro Coccia (Novara), Teatro Verdi (Trieste), Sala Gaveau (Paris), Flagey (Brüssel), Nationales Auditorium (Madrid), Grand Theatre (Shanghai), Poly Theatre (Peking), Phoenix Hall (Osaka), Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo Opera City).

She performs with famous artists such as Felix Ayo, Guy Braunstein, Natalia Gutman, Eliso Virsaladze, Enrico Dindo, I solisti di Pavia, Orchestra da Camera di Mantova, Ebène Quartet, Belcea Quartet and Alban Berg Quartet.

Since 1998, she collaborates with the Opera Project of “Seiji Ozawa Ongaku - juku Orchestra” conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

Since 2012 she is second violin in the Hulencourt Soloists Chamber Orchestra (Belgium) conducted by M° Guy Braunstein, former first Violin at the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Liam took his BMus and Performer’s Diploma in viola da gamba with Wendy Gillespie at Indiana University and holds an MPhil in Musicology and Performance from Magdalen College Oxford, where he studied viol with Laurence Dreyfus and counterpoint and early notation with Margaret Bent. Liam is professor of viola da gamba at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he also teaches Medieval and Renaissance Performance Practice.

Liam Byrne spends most of his time playing either very old or very new music on the viola da gamba. An obsession with the instrument’s most obscure 16th and 17th century repertoire is a recurring theme in his work, whether in devising baroque performance installations for the Victoria & Albert museum, or in collaboration with the Appalachian fiddler Cleek Schrey, or creating new electronic works with Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurðsson.

Over the years, Liam has worked closely with a wide variety of musicians, from Damon Albarn to Emma Kirkby, and is a frequent guest of new music ensembles Stargaze, the London Contemporary Orchestra, and Crash Ensemble. With a background in Historical Performance and degrees from Indiana and Oxford Universities, Liam has played and recorded with many of Europe’s leading Early Music ensembles, including the Huelgas Ensemble, Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen, i Fagiolini, and the viol consorts Phantasm, Concordia, and most notably Fretwork, with whom he toured and recorded extensively for several years.