Afternoon recital Chopin and Janáček

Laura van der Heijden, British cellist with Dutch roots, has recently received great reviews of her most recent CD recording with English music, including Walton’s cello concerto; the concerto with which she won the BBC Young Musician Competition in 2012, aged 15. Her earlier CD recordings were received with similar enthusiasm, such as the CD 1948 on which she plays Russian music with pianist Petr Limonov, and the CD Pohádka, which included music of Janáček and Kodály, with pianist Jâms Coleman. Collaborations with her fellow musicians are of the utmost importance to Laura; she regularly takes part in international chamber music courses and festivals. She is a member of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective and frequently performs with the Brodsky Quartet.  Laura van der Heijden was a student of the renowned British-Russian cellist Leonid Gorokhov, and she has regularly took part in masterclasses with David Geringas, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Miklós Perényi. Laura plays a late 17th-Century cello by Francesco Ruggieri from Cremona, on loan from a private collection.

Quirine Viersen received her first cello lessons from her father Yke Viersen, who was a cellist in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from 1971 to 2014. She went on to study with Jean Decroos and later with Dmitry Ferschtman at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. She completed her studies at the Mozarteum Salzburg with Heinrich Schiff. Quirine has won many prizes at international competitions. In 1994, she was the first Dutch laureate of the Tchaikovsky Competition. In 1996, she formed a duo with pianist Silke Avenhaus and recorded five CDs with romantic and contemporary music. These were received with great enthusiasm, as were her recordings of the solo suites by Bach and Britten. She has worked with musicians such as Antje Weithaas, Thomas Beijer, Leonidas Kavakos and Liza Ferschtman, and has performed as soloist with various major orchestras in and outside The Netherlands, such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. Her recital in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam in 2017 marked the successful beginning of her collaboration with pianist Enrico Pace. Ever since the first Cello Biënnale in 2006, she has performed at the festival regularly as soloist, including in concertos by Vieuxtemps and Korngold. At the Cello Biënnale 2018, one of her performances included the world premiere of Glacier, a solo cello piece composed for her by Jacob ter Veldhuis.  Quirine plays a cello by Joseph Guarnerius Fillius Andrea from 1715, made available to her by the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation.