AJSW Classical music concert in London: CONCERTS FOR EASTER

Green Chorus is a Japanese female singing group based in Golders Green, London.

They have a wide repertoire ranging from traditional Japanese songs to classical western music.

Their annual concert in June, sponsored by the Japanese Embassy will be their 23rd. Their program for this year’s concert covers Japanese folk songs arranged for female voices by a contemporary composer, the sacred music by Mendellssohn and a couple of jazz numbers.

Green Chorus’s past performances include participating in the choral season at the Royal Festival Hall, joining the summer music festival in Scotland, and numerous concerts in churches and synagogues throughout London.

The conductor Mikiko Ridd has been leading Green Chorus for the past five years. She is an acclaimed soprano singer belonging to The London Symphony Chorus. The pianist Noriko Sekiya has been accompanying Green Chorus for more than a decade.

2) Kyoko Murai (soprano) with Ellen Smith (Harp)

12 April 2011, 6:15 to 7:00pm at St. Dunstan-In-The-West

Kyoko Murai, Soprano, was born in Tokyo and began her training at the Musashino Music Academy in Japan. At Trinity College of Music in London, Kyoko studied with Linda Hirst and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Early Music, studying with Timothy Brown. At Trinity, Kyoko won both the Roy Pleasance Singing Competition and the Paul Simm Opera Prize. Kyoko went on to do further postgraduate study in early music at the Guildhall school of Music and Drama with Margaret Humphrey-Clark. She has taken part in masterclasses given by Meribeth Dayme, Michael Chance, Derek Lee Ragin and Emma Kirkby. Recent solo performances include Handel's Dixit Dominus, Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Mozart's Vesperae solennes di Dominica. Operatic roles include Amor in Monteverdi's L'incoronatione di Poppea and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, Angelo custode in Cavarieli's Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo, priestess and Maenad in Rameau's Anacreon and Cupid in Purcell's King Arthur. Kyoko has been a regular tutor at the Dartington International Summer School and this season will be touring the USA, France and the UK, with English Voices

Ellen Smith graduated from University College London with a first class honours degree in Classics before pursuing a Masters in Music Performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she specialised in Early Music. She has since been in great demand throughout the country as both a harpist and singer and has performed in some of Britain's top concert venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, St. John Smith's Square, St. Martin-in-the-Fields where she was also a choral scholar, Cheltenham Festival, Leeds Town Hall and Birmingham's Symphony Hall under such conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Pierre Boulez and Sir Simon Rattle. As a former member of the BBC Symphony Chorus she has often performed at theBBC Proms, including the Last Night of the Proms .

3) Maiko Mori (Piano recital)

13 April 2011, 1:10 to 2:00pm at St. Dunstan-In-The-West

Maiko Mori is a Japanese pianist who first came to prominence after her first prize at the 23rd Robert William and Florence Amy Brant International Piano Competition in 2002. Her playing was described by one of the judges, Yonty Solomon, as “extremely musical, yet balanced with a mature understanding of musical structures”.

Born in Okayama, Japan in 1981, Maiko began her piano and composition studies at the age of five at the Yamaha School. Under the tutelage of Chikako Shibata, Maiko gained much recognition. She gave her first public recital at the age of 6, performing her own compositions. She continued to perform her compositions in major concerts throughout Japan until the age of 13, when she decided to concentrate on piano performance, a decision that was soon vindicated with successes at numerous competitions throughout Japan, including the National Classical Music Competition of Japan. Subsequently she was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music where she continued to flourish and garnered further prizes such as the Hopkinson Gold Medal.

Maiko made her concerto debut in UK with the RCM Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko and went on to debut internationally with the Bombay Chamber Orchestra in Mumbai, India.

Recently she has enjoyed acclaim at prestigious venues such as the Purcell Room at London’s South Bank Centre, the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, Steinway Hall, St Lawrence Jewry, St James's Piccadilly and St Martin-inthe- Fields. Her teachers have included Dmitri Alexeev, Andrew Ball, Benjamin Kaplan as well as Timothy Salter for composition.

She has also pursued an interest in chamber music as a member of the Aquilon ensemble and more recently, in a partnership with violinist Eulalie Charland. This latter partnership has resulted in broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and Radio France broadcast. Although Maiko has a repertoire that encompasses the whole history of piano music, she particularly enjoys playing early 20th century British music.