The sparklingly Sonata in B minor, composed around 1738, permits the fingers to lightly glide up and down the keys. The pianist is required to cross their hands over while playing quick arpeggios. Influences of Spanish guitar music can be heard in passages of flourishing broken chords. Like the composer’s other sonatas, the music exhibits Baroque counterpoint and simple two-three-part writing. It is in binary form- two sections which are both repeated. Scarlatti’s melody writing, regular phrasing and use of functional harmony are all features that later influenced the formation of the classical style.
The Ballade No. 3 in A♭ major, Op. 47, is the third of Chopin's ballades for solo piano. It was composed in 1841. It is the only ballade by Chopin that does not end in a minor key. The inspiration for it is usually claimed to be Adam Mickiewicz's poem Undine, also known as Świtezianka. There are structural similarities with the "Raindrop Prelude" which was inspired by the weather in Mallorca during Chopin's disastrous vacation with George Sand. These include a repetitive A♭ which modulates into a G♯ during the C♯ minor section.
The Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 is a ballade for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin. Completed in 1835, it is one of Chopin’s greatest and most popular works. The ballade dates to sketches Chopin made in 1831, during his eight-month stay in Vienna. It was completed in 1835 after his move to Paris, where he dedicated it to Baron Nathaniel von Stockhausen, the Hanoverian ambassador to France.
i Allegro con brio, ii Introduzione: Adagio molto, iii Rondo. Allegretto moderato — Prestissimo
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53, known as the Waldstein, is one of the three most notable sonatas of his middle period (the other two being the Appassionata, Op. 57, and Les Adieux, Op. 81a). Completed in summer 1804 and surpassing Beethoven's previous piano sonatas in its scope, the Waldstein is a key early work of Beethoven's "Heroic" decade (1803–1812) and set a standard for piano composition in the grand manner.
Berniya Hamie - Piano
Brighton-born pianist Berniya Hamie is currently undertaking postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School with Katya Apekisheva, Ronan O’Hora and Charles Owen as the Frederic William Trevena Award Holder, supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust Derek Butler Award, a Help Musicians UK Postgraduate Award, a Wayne Sleep Foundation Award and a Craxton Memorial Trust Award. The recipient of numerous prizes, including the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Piano Scholarship 2024, she has performed extensively across the UK and abroad, including at Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and the Purcell Room.
Berniya is a founder member of the award-winning Astatine Trio, recently named BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists for 2025-27. They won second prize and special prize for best performance of the prizewinning set work at the 2025 Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition – the first UK-based group to win a main prize in the competition's history – and their other awards include first prizes at Birmingham International Piano Chamber Music Competition, International Virtuoso & Belcanto Chamber Competition (Lucca, Italy) and Senior Intercollegiate Trio Competition in 2022. The trio were also the youngest finalists of the 2023 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition and were awarded the SEAM prize for contemporary music. They were Britten Pears Young Artists for the 2023/24 season, appearing on BBC Radio 3 In Tune in February 2024, and are Kirckman Society artists for 2025/26. Most recently, they have been appointed Hans Keller Chamber Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. From 2022-25, the trio were privileged to be mentored by Alfred Brendel at his personal invitation.
As a concerto soloist, Berniya’s performances include the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Brighton Youth Orchestra under Andrew Sherwood as part of the 2018 Brighton Festival and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 with the Worthing Philharmonic under Dominic Grier in March 2023. She gave the closing recital of the 10th edition of the Torre de Canyamel Piano Festival (Mallorca) in 2024 and has also performed across Italy and France. She was a junior recording artist and cover model for the 2017-18 ABRSM Grade 1 Piano Syllabus and gave the world premiere of Karen Tanaka’s Masquerade at the ABRSM Spectrum 5 launch in 2015. Berniya was also as a Tabor Piano Ambassador for the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021.
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