11/01/2025 – 12/01/2025 RNCM Strings Festival

Agata Zając is a Polish symphonic and opera conductor. She started her musical path as a violinist, and then completed her conducting studies at the Poznań Academy of Music in Poland. In the last artistic season, Agata was the Mills Williams Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Read more about Agata here.

“His playing was commendable for its fluidity and virtuosity, distinguished by both a fleet-fingered lightness and a rich timbre.” (The New York Times) István Várdai is highly regarded for his joyous energy, rhythmic vigour, and elegant grace in his soulful renditions of solo, chamber music, and orchestral cello repertoire. In his fourth season as Artistic Director of Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, he continues to present inspiring and creative programmes. Alongside this, István welcomes world-renowned musicians at the Kapostfest Chamber Music Festival in Hungary and continues his soloist career with leading orchestras performing repertoire from Bach to Péter Eötvös.

Read more about István here.

Hailed for her ​“brilliant… polished, expressive and intense” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and ​“absolutely stunning” (Chicago Tribune) playing, Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma is respected by critics, peers and audiences as one of classical music’s most striking and captivating musical personalities.

Read more about Simone here.

Pavel Fischer was born in Zlín  (Czech Republic) in 1965. He hails from a musical family background, his father, Eduard Fischer, being a well-known composer and conductor.

Read more about Pavel here.

Hannah Roberts is one of the outstanding ‘cellists of her generation. After a wonderful start with Susanna Roberts, then Jennifer Ward-Clarke, she was privileged to have studied extensively with William Pleeth at the Yehudi Menuhin School and Ralph Kirshbaum at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Read more about Hannah here.

Company Chameleon is one of the UK’s leading independent dance companies. Established in Manchester in 2007 by Anthony Missen and Kevin Edward Turner, Chameleon makes dance productions in the city, which they tour and perform around the world.

Packed with possibilities for everyone, their growing programme of classes includes opportunities for professional dancers, young people and adults to enjoy and feel the benefits of dance.

Company Chameleon tours internationally, staging over 50 indoor and outdoor performances every year. The team has grown from a team of two to a team of fourteen and is now based at its own dance studio in Openshaw, Manchester.

Read more about Company Chameleon here.

Anthony is a Clore Fellow, Without Walls Board Director, member of the Greater Manchester Culture Steering Group, Executive Member of Dance Consortia North-West, and member of The UK Dance network. He is also an accredited coach.

He trained at Northern School of Contemporary Dance before working with companys including Scottish Dance Theatre, Mad Dogs Dance Theatre, Cie. Willi Dorner (Vienna), and choreographers including Rui Horta, Didi Veldman and Liv Lorent.

He has Movement Directed plays made at HOME Manchester, The Royal Exchange and the National Theatre. He was series Director for BBC One drama “Everything I Know About Love” (2021/22), and “Fool Me once”, Netflix 2024.

Anthony has taught in most major British contemporary dance institutions, to several professional dance companies and in many countries including South Korea, South Africa, Ethiopia, Israel, Trinidad, Morocco, Sweden, Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Austria and Romania He has led many Choreographic and skills-based Residencies.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, JP started dancing street dance, jazz and contemporary dance at the age of 17. After graduating at The City University of Hong Kong in Material Engineering, she went on to train and graduate at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Art (HKAPA) in 2021, majoring in Contemporary Dance. In Fall 2019, she also participated the Exchange Student Program for Dance in Purchase College, State of University of New York.

She has worked with many renowned choreographers including Marcus Jarrell Willis (USA), Martin Piliponsky (Argentina), Mickaël ‘Marso’ Rivière (UK), David Steele (UK) and Li Yongjing (Hong Kong) etc. During her time studying in HKAPA, she has been the recipient of several scholarships, such as The Helena May Scholarship, The Society of APA Scholarship and The Hong Kong Disneyland Scholarship.

Originally from Italy, Alice formally trained in dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance graduating with a First-Class Honours degree. During her time at Laban, Alice worked with industry acclaimed professionals such as Alison Curtis-Jones, Zoi Dimitriou, Fernanda Prata, Maciej Kuzminski amongst others and she performed in works by Maxine Doyle and Sir Matthew Bourne. In 2017, she joined Company Chameleon as an apprentice dancer and kept collaborating with them as an Associate Artist.

Since 2018, Alice performed and toured works by Company Chameleon, MOTUS, Mercurial Dance and Kapow- Dance Circus Theatre amongst others. The same year she also co-founded DAMAEDANCE, a collaboration with dance artist Sara Marques and the two have been creating and touring ever since. In 2019 DAMAE were accepted as part of the Without Walls programme and were co-commissioned by the Hat Fair and Stockton Riverside International Festival to produce and tour their debut work IRMÃ-sister, which premiered at GDIF in September 2020 and toured nationally and internationally over spring/summer 2021.

The duet are currently working on developing a new ambitious outdoor show (After)Party, set on a rotating set. Alice is thrilled to have joined Chameleon as a Company Dancer in December 2021.

Kadafi was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and moved to England when he was five years old. He grew up in Leeds, where his high school teachers supported and encouraged him to dance as they saw potential in his skills. His dance background is self-taught in hip hop and acrobatics. He has undertaken contemporary and ballet training at De Montford University and is currently working with Company Chameleon as an Apprentice as part of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance Apprenticeship Scheme.

Alec Frank-Gemmill is well known to audiences in the UK and beyond as a horn player. He has performed extensively as an orchestral player, chamber musician and soloist, the latter most recently in Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto in the Philharmonie in Berlin. His album of Mozart’s horn concertos was released in November 2024. He has worked as assistant conductor with Ryan Bancroft and Finnegan Downie-Dear among others. Alec made his professional debut in 2022 conducting the Norrbotten chamber orchestra in Sweden. This season he appears with orchestras in Finland and Italy, the Lviv Symphony in Ukraine, and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. In July 2024, Bachtrack described his performance with the Järvi Sinfonietta in Estonia as “Haydn conducting of appreciable verve and imagination, beautifully weighted inner parts and a relaxed confidence in timing”. Alec is the founder and director of Odin Ensemble, a Gothenburg-based group which performs on instruments from the early 20th century.

Benjamin Huth (Junior Fellow) studied Church Music and Conducting in Leipzig and Detmold. He worked as an assistant at the theatres in Leipzig and Cologne, and with the Academic Orchestra Leipzig, before becoming a repetiteur at the Landestheater Detmold in 2020 and being promoted to 2nd Kapellmeister in 2022. During his time in Detmold, he conducted several productions including Le nozze di Figaro, Das Land des Lächelns, Die lustige Witwe, Jesus Christ Superstar and many more. He was also assistant conductor of the Detmold Orchestra Society and the Free Symphony Orchestra. He has guest conducted at the Filarmonica Mihail Jora Bacau in Romania, Philharmonie Suedwestfalen, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie and Vogtlandphilharmonie Greiz-Reichenbach. Benjamin has participated in master classes with Mark Heron, Johannes Schlaefli, and Ekhart Wycik and in 2021, he won the 2nd prize at the IX Concorso Internazionale per Direttori D’Opera “Luigi Mancinelli”. Prior to winning the Fellowship in Manchester, he was working at the Theatre Plauen-Zwickau.

South-African born Zoë Beyers has established a reputation as one of the finest and most versatile violinists based in the UK, and performs worldwide as soloist, chamber musician, director and orchestral leader. In 2020 she was appointed Leader of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

Read more about Zoë here.

Nobuko Imai is the RNCM’s International Tutor in Viola and, with her exceptional talent, musical integrity, and charisma, is considered to be one of the most outstanding violist of our time.

Read more about Nobuko here.

Cam graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance with a first-class honours’ degree in 2018. He continued his studies as an apprentice with 2Faced Dance Company as part of Northern School of Contemporary Dance postgraduate MA course, graduating with a distinction in 2019.

Cameron has since worked with companies including Zoie Logic Dance, Southpaw Dance Company, Pinwheel Productions, 2Faced Dance Company and at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.

Now based in Manchester, along with working with Chameleon, Cameron is currently freelancing across the North-West, teaching for the outreach team at the Lowry as part of the Centre for Advanced Training course and working with a boys dance group at Stockport Grammar School.

Originally from Italy, Alice formally trained in dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance graduating with a First-Class Honours degree. During her time at Laban, Alice worked with industry acclaimed professionals such as Alison Curtis-Jones, Zoi Dimitriou, Fernanda Prata, Maciej Kuzminski amongst others and she performed in works by Maxine Doyle and Sir Matthew Bourne. In 2017, she joined Company Chameleon as an apprentice dancer and kept collaborating with them as an Associate Artist.

Since 2018, Alice performed and toured works by Company Chameleon, MOTUS, Mercurial Dance and Kapow- Dance Circus Theatre amongst others. The same year she also co-founded DAMAEDANCE, a collaboration with dance artist Sara Marques and the two have been creating and touring ever since. In 2019 DAMAE were accepted as part of the Without Walls programme and were co-commissioned by the Hat Fair and Stockton Riverside International Festival to produce and tour their debut work IRMÃ-sister, which premiered at GDIF in September 2020 and toured nationally and internationally over spring/summer 2021.

The duet are currently working on developing a new ambitious outdoor show (After)Party, set on a rotating set. Alice is thrilled to have joined Chameleon as a Company Dancer in December 2021.

Kadafi was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and moved to England when he was five years old. He grew up in Leeds, where his high school teachers supported and encouraged him to dance as they saw potential in his skills. His dance background is self-taught in hip hop and acrobatics. He has undertaken contemporary and ballet training at De Montford University and is currently working with Company Chameleon as an Apprentice as part of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance Apprenticeship Scheme.

Anthony is a Clore Fellow, Without Walls Board Director, member of the Greater Manchester Culture Steering Group, Executive Member of Dance Consortia North-West, and member of The UK Dance network. He is also an accredited coach.

He trained at Northern School of Contemporary Dance before working with companys including Scottish Dance Theatre, Mad Dogs Dance Theatre, Cie. Willi Dorner (Vienna), and choreographers including Rui Horta, Didi Veldman and Liv Lorent.

He has Movement Directed plays made at HOME Manchester, The Royal Exchange and the National Theatre. He was series Director for BBC One drama “Everything I Know About Love” (2021/22), and “Fool Me once”, Netflix 2024.

Anthony has taught in most major British contemporary dance institutions, to several professional dance companies and in many countries including South Korea, South Africa, Ethiopia, Israel, Trinidad, Morocco, Sweden, Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Austria and Romania He has led many Choreographic and skills-based Residencies.