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The Borletti-Buitoni Trust is pleased to announce its Award and Fellowship winners for 2024 – a richly varied line-up of string quartet, piano trio, double bassist, violinist, clarinettist, pianist and soprano. Discussions are currently underway regarding a range of impressively creative and innovative projects for which these artists are seeking the Trust’s support, from commissioning and recording to multi-genre presentations of music for diverse audiences.

Awards of £30,000 and Fellowships of £20,000 are announced every other year on 17 March to mark the birthday of Franco Buitoni (1934-2016), co-founder of BBT with his wife Ilaria Borletti Buitoni.

Photo Leonkoro Quartet © Peter Adamik

I am encouraging our 2024 BBT award winners – two ensembles and five solo artists – to reflect and to experiment at a crucial time in their career development. Setting out on their individual BBT journeys, each will benefit from a flexible programme designed to enable them to deliver their own projects, from CD recordings and immersive digital projects to new collaborations, whilst drawing on practical career support and considered advice.

I am so looking forward to working alongside these artists and the brilliant BBT team to build on the vision of Ilaria Borletti Buitoni and her late husband Franco Buitoni, to nurture musicians who are shaping a future where classical music’s remit and reach is urgent, relevant and broad.

Join me in getting to know these artists and their extraordinary music-making over the next years.

Toby Smith was appointed BBT’s new chief executive in January 2024, successor to Susan Rivers who has run the Trust since it was founded 20 years ago. Originally trained as a musician, he has over 25 years’ experience in artistic and executive leadership roles in classical music and multi-arts environments including nine years working with young musicians as Director of Performance and Programming at Royal Northern College of Music and running and programming festivals including Salisbury International Arts Festival and Global Streets for Greenwich + Docklands Festivals.

For the Leonkoro Quartet, founded in 2019 in Berlin, its 2024 BBT Award is the latest in a string of prestigious international prizes and accolades. In 2021 the ensemble was awarded the second prize (in the absence of a first) and coveted Audience Prize at the Premio Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition, followed the next year by first prizes and special awards from the Jürgen Ponto Foundation, International String Quartet Competition Wigmore Hall, Concours International de Quatuor à Bordeaux and the MERITO String Quartet Award. The Quartet participates in the current BBC New Generations Artists scheme, and earlier this year received the Young Talent Award of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. The Quartet’s studies continue with the likes of Heime Müller at the Musikhochschule Lübeck and Günter Pichler at the Albéniz Foundation’s Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid. Its 2023/24 international performance schedule is packed with debuts including Berlin Philharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Konzerthaus Wien. The Quartet’s debut album featuring Ravel’s String Quartet and Schumann’s Third Quartet was recently released on the Mirare label.

© Nikolaj Lund

Established in 2017 while students at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the Mithras Trio boasts an impressive portfolio of top prizes in addition to its BBT Award including the Trondheim International Chamber Music and Royal Over-Seas League competitions and the Royal Philharmonic Society Henderson Chamber Ensemble Award, all in 2019. The Trio was also selected as Kirckman Concert Society Young Artists (2019/20), Countess of Munster Trust Recital Scheme Artists (2020-23) and BBC New Generation Artists (2021-23). It has toured the UK, Europe and Canada and recorded extensively for radio as well as giving live broadcast concerts from several major music festivals. A passionate exponent of contemporary music, the Trio has given world premieres of works by Péter Tornyai and Joy Lisney. In November 2023 Linn Records released the Trio’s debut album, Eros, featuring works by Bridge, Grime, Erőd and Ginastera.

Photo © Matthew Johnson

Hana’s current studies with Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy are supported by Nikolas Gruber-Patronat and she continues to be mentored by her former teachers Ida Kavafian and Janine Jansen. Recent performances include the Rockport, Deer Valley, Vevey Spring Classic, Sion, Solsberg and Utrecht Chamber Music Festivals, and with orchestras including the Prague Radio Symphony, Philharmonie Baden-Baden, Czech Virtuosi, Hunan Symphony, Utah Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra and Poznań Philharmonic. She plays a 1647 Nicolo Amati violin kindly loaned by the Rin Collection in Singapore.

Photo © Kaupo Kikkas

He was also a finalist in the 2018 BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. He is fast building an international career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader and has given premieres in London and Milan of several new works written for him. He recently performed Bottesini’s Gran Duo with the LGT Young Soloists alongside violinist Haeun Kim at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and has collaborated with artists such as Alexander Sitkovetsky, Lawrence Power and Maxim Rysanov. 2023/24 season highlights include his debut at St George’s Bristol, plus performances at the North Norfolk Music and Buxton International Festivals.

Photo © Kaupo Kikkas

She has given modern premieres of rediscovered pieces from Baroque to the mid-20th century and is sought-after for her collaborations with today’s composers. In recital she frequently appears in venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Park Avenue Armory and Merkin Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and Toronto’s Koerner Hall. As a soloist, she has joined the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Tafelmusik, the Naples Philharmonic, and the American, Albany, Richmond and Tulsa Symphony Orchestras. She has also spent summers at the Tanglewood Music Center and Marlboro Music Festival and serves on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory.

Photo © Steve Riskind

Other highlights include performances with Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla and the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa. Jaeden studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky at the Juilliard School and Corey Hamm at the University of British Columbia and is now a student of Jacob Leuschner and Benedetto Lupo. Other than his BBT Fellowship he has won top prizes at the Hilton Head, Maria Canals and Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competitions.

Photo © Waldy Martens

In 2022 he became a YCAT and Concert Artists Guild artist and also a Classic FM Rising Star. Highlights of the 2023/24 season include performances at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Konzerthaus Berlin, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Vancouver Recital Society, plus numerous appearances in the UK, including at Saffron Hall, Wigmore Hall and St George’s Bristol, as well as a concerto performance with the London Firebird Orchestra at St George’s Hanover Square. His debut recording with Delphian Records, alongside violinist Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux and pianist Joseph Havlat, will be released later this year.

Photo © Kaupo Kikkas