Artists
Meet our artists!
Nathan Tinker, piano
Nathan Tinker obtained his Bachelors of Music with Honours from the Royal college of Music, in 2011, where he studied piano with Gordon Fergus-Thompson, composition with Jonathan Cole and jazz piano with Michael Moran. Nathan then graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Distinction, in 2017, under the tutelage of Pamela Lidiard.
Primarily a collaborative pianist, Nathan has performed in the UK, at the Barbican Centre, Hampton Court House, St. Martin’s in the Fields, St. James’s Piccadilly, the Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall; and internationally, Corsica, Italy, France, Romania and his native Japan. In 2016 he was the winner of the Guildhall Accompanist Prize. In 2017 Nathan was awarded the Concert Recital Diploma at the GSMD and in the following year became an Artist Fellow of the GSMD in contemporary piano, and currently leads seminars for undergraduate pianists in improvisation.
Also a keen composer, Nathan has recently composed works ‘Fantasy on Japanese Themes’ for violin and piano written for violinist and founder of the Resono Collective, Ioana Forna, and ‘Topsy Turvy’ written for long-standing award-winning duet partner Mark Taylor for flute and piano, the latter of which was performed in the inaugural Islington Festival of Music and Art this year. Earlier this year, Nathan finished his ‘Kaneko Misuzu Settings’ for voice and piano. The last of the set, Are You an Echo? was premiered digitally on the 11th of March 2021 in his first video opus to help promote his GoFundMe Campaign.
Before that, in 2018 he was commissioned to arrange for GSMD’s Songs at Six: Adventures in the Great American Songbook project and was contracted as a creative consultant for the feature film, Your Eyes on Me produced by Da Arts Film Ltd. Nathan also makes piano arrangements of current pop songs which are published on Sheet Music Plus. He performs regularly with fellow pianist and wife, Alexandra Tinker, and together form the Passepartout Piano Duo, who have been associated with the Live Music Now scheme offering interactive concerts in care homes, hopsitals and schools since 2014. Since Covid-19, Nathan has diversified his focus online and on social media and is currently editing works for the Passepartout Piano Duo and his own page on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
When he is not busy performing, Nathan teaches piano privately, at Kensington Primary Academy, at Hillbrook Primary School, Tooting and for the Sutton Music Service. In addition, he is contracted as a live musician for Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance as well as St. Thomas’s Day schools. He also accompanies dance classes for people living with Parkinson’s, for BalletBoyz and English National Ballet.
Alisa Liubarskaya, cello
Alisa Liubarskaya is a guest cellist at venues including the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Birmingham Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Scottish Opera, Southbank Sinfonia, Orchestra of Welsh National Opera and the Belarus State Music College in Minsk. She started playing the cello at the age of seven and began giving public performances soon after. Among her early successes were prizes at the Heran, Beethoven and Chandos International Competitions as well as a solo Concerto performance with the Belarus State Chamber Orchestra and a place in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Scheme. As well as multiple funding awards to support her Undergraduate and Masters degrees, Alisa has received first prizes at the Vivian Joseph Concerto Competition, Vera Kantrovic, Leonard Smith and Felicity Young Competitions. She also won the John Thompson, Cavatina Chamber Music Prizes and the Barbirolli Memorial Prize for Cellists. Since 2007 Alisa has been studying in London under Natalia Pavlutskaya and Hélène Dautry, generously supported by the Royal College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire and the Albert Cooper Trust. During 2012 Alisa became a member of the Southbank Sinfonia and most recently has been invited as a Guest Section Principal with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera and a member of Covent Garden Soloists. Her most recent performances including solo concerto performances with the Southbank Sinfonia, Trinity Laban Sinfonia, Canterbury Symphony Orchestra as well as chamber music recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, St. Martins in the Fields, Warwick and Leeds University Halls, Jacqueline du Pre Music Building in Oxford and Adrian Boult Hall in Birmingham. Alisa has taken part in masterclasses with Steven Isserlis, Torleif Thedeen, Karine Georgian, Bernard Greenhouse, Aleksander Ivashkin, Roel Dieltiens, Leonid Gorokhov and Patrick Demenga.
Markella Vandoros, violin
Violinist Markella Vandoros is a highly versatile London-based artist who has performed as both soloist and chamber musician throughout the UK and Europe.
As a founding member of the Mediterranea Trio but also as a recitalist alongside pianists Hara Kostogianni and Emma Abbate, Markella has appeared at numerous venues around the country, including St John’s Smith Square, British Museum, St Martin-in-the-Fields, National Gallery, St James Piccadilly, V&A Museum, Chichester Cathedral, and Balliol College Oxford, among others. She has performed as soloist with orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra of Athens, the Orchestra of Patras and the Nonesuch Orchestra, conducted by Saulius Sondeckis, Errico Frezis, William Carslake and Tom Seligman.
Markella studied with renowned violinist Boris Belkin at the Maastricht Conservatorium, where she was awarded the Huygens Grant, and with Yuri Zhislin at the Royal College of Music, supported by a full scholarship from the IKY Foundation, obtaining a Master of Music in Advanced Performance. Markella also holds a PhD in Music from King’s College London, where she was supervised by Matthew Head and Roger Parker. Her thesis entitled Pierre Baillot: Institutions, Values and Identity explores chamber music aesthetics in Paris in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Markella plays on a violin by Roberto Regazzi, which was dedicated to Boris Belkin, with a bow by Eugene Sartory (c.1895).
Alexandros Koustas, viola
Alexandros Koustas is the principal violist of the English National Ballet Philharmonic and a member of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He studied the violin and viola at the Royal Academy of Music and during his studies was awarded both of the institution’s viola prizes. In 2009 he was a resident artist in the Banff Centre, Canada, where he performed as a soloist and chamber musician. He was also a prize winner in the 2006 Lionel Tertis Viola Competition. He has appeared as a guest principal with the BBC Concert orchestra, the CBSO, LPO and other ensembles and regularly works as a guest principal with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. In January 2020, Alexandros recorded the Skalkottas double concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Elenlucia Pappalardo, piano
Elenlucia Pappalardo was born in Italy and began her studies at the Conservatory of Music Vincenzo Bellini in Palermo where she graduated in 1998 cum laude. She then studied with Michele Campanella at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena where she was awarded the Diploma of Merit. In July 2007 she was awarded a Master in Advanced Piano Performance with distinction from the Royal College of Music and in the same year she was offered a Ruth Dyson Award to study Harpsichord and Fortepiano at the RCM from where she graduated in July 2009 with distinction.
While at the RCM, Elenlucia has been a scholar from 2001 to 2003, was selected as an Erasmus student to study at the Universität der Kunste in Berlin in 2003 and was awarded both the Amadeus Fortepiano Prize in 2008 and the Kendall Taylor Beethoven Prize in 2006. She was also awarded the Nick Ferguson Piano Award and a scholarship from the Italian Cultural Association Il Circolo in 2005.
Elenlucia has given many recitals in the UK, Italy, Belgium, France, Austria and USA and has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the orchestra of the Palermo Conservatory of Music, the Contemporary Music Orchestra of Palermo, the Mediterranean Orchestra for Peace and the Dorking Philharmonic Orchestra.
Elenlucia is also a member of the Mediterranea Trio, with which she performs regularly in numerous venues around the UK. As a solo pianist, Elenlucia’s concerts in London have included performances at St James’s Piccadilly, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Italian Embassy, the Anglo-Italian Society in Bedford, St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Blenheim Music Circle, the Steinway Hall, the Proms at St Jude’s, Händel House,the House of Parliament, the Goldsmith Hall and the Royal Opera House.
Alessandro Sanguineti, cello
Alessandro Sanguineti is currently living and working in London, enjoying a rich and varied career as a freelance musician and early-music specialist. Cellist of the Mediterranea Trio, he regularly performs in Italy, France and United Kingdom. Recent performances include recitals in London at King’s Place, St James’s Piccadilly, St. Martin in the Fields, Linbury Theatre at Royal Opera House and Wigmore Hall.
Alessandro is in demand as a session player. His solos, such as the recording for the BBC One production ‘Muddle Earth’ and the BBC Two series ‘The Great British Story: A People’s History’, are broadcast internationally on the networks BBC, SKY, RAI and MTV. Recently his solo, recorded for the winning pitch of ‘The Paradise’ by Maurizio Malagnini, has been aired on BBC One, ‘The Paradise’, Serie 2, Episode 6. Furthermore, Alessandro records solos in movies such as ‘Love of my Life’, ‘Coconut Shy’, and documentaries such as ‘Giovanni XXIII, il pensiero e la memoria’ and ‘Ligabue between fiction and reality’ presented at the Rome Film Festival 2009. He also plays in orchestral sessions for Isobel Griffiths, Hilary Skewes, Cool Music and, amongst others, has recorded the BBC One series ‘Body Farm’, ‘The Paradise 1&2’ and ‘Call the Midwife’ at Abbey Road, Air Lyndhurst and Angel Studios.
Former member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Italian Youth Orchestra, Alessandro performs with some of the country’s finest orchestras including Britten Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony, English National Ballet, Gabrieli Consort & Players, European Union Chamber Orchestra (Principal Cello), London Mozart Players and BBC Concert Orchestra. He is currently on trial for Section Principal with RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Ireland and had trials for Principal no. 1 with Scottish Opera, Principal no. 2 and Sub-Principal no. 3 with Opera North. Alessandro has been Co-Principal Cellist of Southbank Sinfonia with whom he also performed as solo cellist in Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals at the Royal Opera House. He has collaborated with Riccardo Muti’s Orchestra Cherubini and has played at Salzburg Festival, Musikverein in Vienna and Ravenna Festival. He has been Principal Cellist in the National Theatre’s production of ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Favour’ at the Olivier Theatre in 2010. As a soloist he has performed Haydn’s C major concerto with Southbank Sinfonia and Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme.
Alessandro is a graduate of the Royal College of Music where he studied with Melissa Phelps as a scholar to attain a Master’s degree in performance. Prior to this he gained a Diploma and a Postgraduate degree with distinction studying with Boris Baraz and Marianne Chen in Italy, accumulating a large number of prizes and awards during his education. Alessandro has been awarded a PhD at the Royal College of Music for a thesis on the bass violin and its performance practices in Northern Italy at the end of the seventeenth century. Alessandro is a recipient of several scholarships and awards, among others, the Boris Christoff Foundation, Lucy Ann Jones, Amaryllis Fleming, Il Circolo and Art & Humanities Research Council awards. Alessandro plays a Pio Montanari cello built in Genoa in 2002.