Federica Gatti
Federica Gatti graduated at the Conservatory "G.Verdi" in Milan under the guidance
of Cinzia Barbagelata.
In November 2018 she was accepted to the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and
Drama in London where she currently studying for a Masters in Performance with the
highly acclaimed violinist and teacher Simon Fischer. At the Guildhall School she is
also attending the classical improvisation course with David Dolan, and chamber
music course with Jacqueline Ross and Carole Presland. She has performed at the
Barbican Center with the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra under the conductors Roberto
Gozales Monjas, Dominic Wheeler and She regularly attends repertoire orchestra
sessions with members of the London Symphony Orchestra
In October 2018, she won the audition to get into the Italian Youth Orchestra, with
whom she undertook an intense concert season playing under the guidance of
conductors such as Daniele Gatti ,Gianna Fratta, Pierre-André Valade, Jeremiè
Rhorer, Luciano Acocella, and Alexander Lonquich. In September 2018 she was
selected to perform as a soloist for Mozart’s 5the Concerto K219 with the Symphony
Orchestra of Lario.She has also performed as a soloist in Vivaldi 's Estro Armonico in
the Verdi Hall of the Milan Conservatory under the direction of Ottavio Dantone,
She played at the Ars Lituanica Summer Festival in Vilnius. From 2014 to 2018 she
was the concertmaster of the Pizzetti Youth Orchestra that she founded and also
managed. She attended masterclasses with Stephan Picard, Dzeraldas Bidva, Anton
Sorokow, and Alina Company.
She performed in Budapest in collaboration with The Liszt Academy, with the
Orchestra and "Sinfonico" opera choir of Rome at the Offida Opera Festival, and with
the Orchestra OF Milano Classica.
She performed in Cremona as a soloist on the occasion of the Stradivari Memorial
Day 2014 where she played for the first time the song "Acronym" by Maestro Giorgio
Spriano. She won the first prize in the chamber music "Carlo Lorenzo Cazzullo", the
third prize at: the Crescendo Competition, the "Salieri" International Competition,
the Città di Stresa" International competition, the European Music Competition of
Moncalieri.
William Bracken
William Bracken was born into a musical family and began playing the piano at the
age of four. By the age of twelve he had been accepted onto the Pianoman
scholarship scheme studying in London with Richard Meyrick. Two years later, in
2013, William received a scholarship from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools
of music to study with Jonathan Middleton at the Junior Royal Northern College of
Music in Manchester. During this time he also had the opportunity to perform to
pianists such as Simon Trpceski, Joanna Macgregor, Gabrielle Baldocci and David
Malusa. In 2016 William was a prize winner in both the junior and senior categories at
the Welsh International Piano Competition and was the only successful UK applicant
to the prestigious Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists in Germany.
A year later he was awarded a scholarship to study with Ronan O’Hora and Martin
Roscoe at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where he is in his final
year. William has already performed concertos by Beethoven, Prokofiev, Gershwin,
Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saens. In July 2017, to great acclaim, he performed
Rachmaninoff’s mighty third concerto at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall. He also has an
impressive number of recital performances to his name including a St James’
Piccadilly debut, a two week residency aboard a cruise ship in the Indian Ocean and
recital tours of the North East of England for the ‘Master Musicians International’
concert series. In summer 2019 William was also a prize winner at the Musikfest
Schloss Gesmold International Piano Competition in Germany and in December he
made his solo radio debut playing in a concert of works by German composer Detlev
Glanert at GSMD. Most recently William was the 2020 winner of the GSMD’s Glass
Seller’s Beethoven Prize. Since 2018 William has been a Concordia artist and he is
also a keen Jazz performer, composer and arranger.
