Judith Choi Castro & John Paul Ekins

Performers

Notes on the performers

Spanish-South Korean violinist Judith Choi-Castro enjoys a versatile career performing internationally as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestra player. She also collaborates in making recordings, and is the artistic director of the Festival y Academia de Música Internacional in Tenerife.

Judith was born in the Canary Islands, Spain and at the age of 17 moved to London where she graduated with a BMus (Hons) degree and a Masters degree from the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. She also studied in Manhattan School of Music in New York. Her Professors include Maurice Hasson, Mayumi Fujikawa, and Stephanie Gonley.

During her studies she won Hatfield Music Festival 1st prize, J.E Motimer award from Martin Musical Scholarship Foundation, award from Rondo Music society, New York, a violin by Lavazza from Italy c.1740 was kindly on loan by the Harrison Frank Foundation and played in international competitions where she came finalist at the Llanes International Competition, Móstoles Violin Competition in Madrid and “Concurso de Intercentros de España”.

Highlighted concerts and touring include: the Stockhausen Donnerstag aus Licht with the London Sinfonietta at the Royal Festival Hall in London (2019); Beethoven Cycle symphonies at the Barbican in London conducted by Thomas Adès (2019); BBC Proms concerts with Britten Sinfonia, Chineke!, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestras at the Royal Albert Hall; Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima in Royal Festival Hall under the baton of Krzysztof Penderecki.

Venues where she performed as a chamber musician include: Lincoln Center, New York, St. Martin in the Fields, Fairfield Halls, Fitz William Museum in Cambridge, The National Gallery as part of the Belle Shenkman Music Program, Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. As a soloist she has appeared with Southbank Sinfonia in Italy and Magec Camerata in Spain.

​Judith has played in Music Festivals including Aurora in Sweden, Alps in France, Strictly Strings in South Korea, MMCJ Japan, Kronberg Academy in Germany, and Caneti in Portugal, and has received masterclasses from Alan Gilbert, Midori Goto and Dong Suk Kang.

In 2015, Judith recorded her solo debut album “Assorted Encores” sponsored by Candelaria council, in Tenerife. She has also recorded symphonic repertoire with the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic in Abbey Road, London Symphony, etc.

Judith has a great interest in Contemporary music and collaborates often with modern composers. She is the violinist of the Albany piano trio, which is focused on commissioning new works of women’s composers.

Judith is also a dedicated teacher. She holds a LRAM teaching diploma from the Royal Academy of Music and enjoys educational outreach work and workshops in schools around the UK.

In demand as a recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician, John Paul Ekins has given performances throughout the UK and Northern Ireland, and overseas in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Kuwait, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain and Switzerland, and he has been broadcast on the BBC, on Romanian national television and radio, and on Polish television. He gained First Class Honours from the Royal College of Music and a Distinction in Master of Performance as a scholar at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied with John Barstow and Charles Owen respectively. He was the recipient of a Music Education Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund, and received generous support from Making Music, The Concordia Foundation, The Razumovsky Trust and The Keyboard Charitable Trust.

International Competition successes have seen him awarded as many as 19 scholarships and prizes, and performance highlights have included Rhapsody in Blue and the Warsaw Concerto at The Royal Albert Hall.

Educational and outreach work is enormously important to John Paul, and he has given workshops and masterclass-recitals with great success in the UK. For many years he was visiting piano teacher at St. Paul’s School, London from 2013-2020.

In response to the Covid pandemic John Paul set up Cats, Chats & 88 Keys (www.youtube.com/CatsChats88Keys), a live online concert series for maintaining a connection with audiences, which raised over £5,000 for the NHS. With performances coming live from his music room in south-west London, the series was founded on a passionate belief that classical music is for everyone, fuelled by a desire to instil his love for music in others. He delivers informal yet enlightening introductions to welcome and inspire those who are new to classical music, while deepening the experience for those who are more familiar with the genre.

John Paul was particularly honoured to be presented to Her late Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip at a Reception for Young Performers at Buckingham Palace.

Programme

Programme notes

Franz Schubert

Violin Sonata No. 4 in A major D 574

1. Allegro moderato (A major)
2. Scherzo: presto (E major)
3. Andantino (C major)
4. Allegro vivace (A major)

The Violin Sonata No. 4 (also known as the Duo or Grand Duo) in A major, Op. posth. 162, D 574, for violin and piano by Franz Schubert was composed in 1817. This sonata, composed one year after his first three violin sonatas, was a much more individual work, showing neither the influence of Mozart, as in these previous works, nor of Rossini, as in the contemporaneous 6th Symphony.

Source: Wikipedia

Sergei Prokofiev

Violin Sonata No. 2 in D major Op. 94a

1. Moderato
2. Presto – Poco più mosso del – Tempo I
3. Andante
4. Allegro con brio – Poco meno mosso – Tempo I – Poco meno mosso – Allegro con brio

Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major, Op. 94a (sometimes written as Op. 94bis), was based on the composer’s own Flute Sonata in D, Op. 94, written in 1942 but arranged for violin in 1943 when Prokofiev was living in Perm in the Ural Mountains, a remote shelter for Soviet artists during the Second World War. Prokofiev transformed the work into a violin sonata at the prompting of his close friend, the violinist David Oistrakh. It was premiered on 17 June 1944 by David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin.

The work is highly classical in design as it opens with a sonata movement which is followed by a scherzo, a slow movement, and a finale. The violin part is replete with virtuosic display but is also highly lyrical and elegant, evidence of the work’s inception as a sonata for flute.

Source: Wikipedia