Looking forward to Sunday 21st January 2024 with Laura Sergeant and Kristina Yorgova - Piano and Cello

Cowal Music Club is looking forward  to its first concert of 2024 this Sunday afternoon, January 21st,  at 2.30pm,  when Laura Sergeant (cello) and Kristina Yorgova (piano) will perform a full and very attractive programme.

Laura and Kristina have been performing together since they met at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in 2014. Since then they have performed all over Scotland and beyond.

Laura comes  from Larbert and studied not only at RCS,  but also at the Hochschule fuer Kunst in Bremen, and Guildhall School of Music in London. As soloist she has performed concertos by Haydn, Dvorak, and Schumann, and she is also cellist in the Sinopia String Quartet and performs in a Duo with guitarist Ian Watt. She has taken part in The Pacific Music Festival, the Singapore Friendship Festival, the Cottier Chamber Project and the Greenwich International String Quartet Festival, and currently freelances with the RSNO, BBCSSO, Scottish Opera, and the BBC Welsh Orchestra.  She teaches at Fettes College Edinburgh and also examines for the ABRSM – which keeps her busy!

Kristina comes from Bulgaria but studied at RCS where she gained an M.Mus and in 2015 won the Bach prize, following studies with Petras Geniusas and Fali Pavri. She was a finalist in the 23rd National Svetoslav Obretenov Competition in Bulgaria, and has performed as soloist with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the RCS Symphony Orchestra, and the Stara Zagora and Vidin  orchestras in Bulgaria. She was the 2022/23 Emerging Artist Repetiteur at Scottish Opera where she was recently music director/pianist for the Opera Highlights tour, having previously worked in this field at the Mascarade Opera Studio in Florence, Italy. She has played recitals across Europe in countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Norway.

The programme for Sunday’s concert includes some of the most attractive pieces in the cello & piano repertoire.  First on the programme is  J.S  Bach’s 2nd Gamba Sonata, - a 3 movement  work, which will be followed in total contrast by Debussy’s popular cello sonata with its amazing effects, very varied textures and joyous ending. Rachmaninov’s beautiful and emotional ‘Vocalise’ (especially well suited to the cello)  will conclude the first part of the recital.

Part 2 will commence with the sunny Requiebros (meaning ‘a flirtatious remark’) by the Spanish composer & cellist Gaspar Cassado, and the finale will be Prokofiev’s  3-movement Sonata op 119 (dating from 1949)– known as an impressive  (if not miraculous) work in its own special category.  It was first performed by the famous Russian performers Rostropovitch and Richter in Moscow in 1950.

This concert promises the perfect pick-me-up for a grey afternoon in Dunoon! Enjoy!

Tickets may be purchased online or on the door.