Concert: A Hop, Skip and Jump through Five Centuries of British Music

The library is delighted to host the Primrose Chamber Group on Friday 21 April. They will be performing a selection of pieces throughout British music history.

Expect Vaughan Williams, John Field,  Handel, Elgar, Karl Jenkins, Benjamin Britten and more…

Tickets: £5 early bird, £6 on the door. Get tickets here.

Doors at 7pm.

About the Primrose Chamber players

Vivian Choi

Vivian grew up in Hong Kong and came to the Royal College of Music on an Associated Board Scholarship. She continued her studies at Kings College London and State University of New York at Stony Brook, obtaining Master and Doctorate degrees. As a pianist, she won national and international awards, and has broadcast and performed as a soloist at venues including St Martin in the Fields, Kennedy Centre (Washington DC), City Hall Hong Kong. Based in Cambridge, she enjoys teaching and in recent years have helped many young players gain places at major musical institutions.

Eri Konii

Eri began learning the violin at an early age in Singapore and played extensively with the Singapore Youth Symphony Orchestra touring the South-East Asia region.  She continued in the UK at the Royal College of Music (“RCM”) and in Switzerland with the world–renowned teacher Professor Max Rostal and with Maria Lidka.  She has since pursued an active performing and teaching career on the violin, including as professor at the RCM Junior Department and performing in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, including as soloist at the Queen Elisabeth Hall and other major London venues.  She recently performed the Malcolm Arnold concerto for double violin with the London Chamber Ensemble of London.   

Jane Armstrong

Jane was born in Primrose Hill and is a lifelong North Londoner. While at school, she studied the violin with Rosemary Rapaport at the Royal Academy of Music. After reading Music and English at Oxford University, she joined Methuen/Routledge as an academic publisher, commissioning books in English literature, media and film studies, which she combined with singing in ensembles including the Tallis Scholars and the Monteverdi Choir. She now works on titles in the Arden Shakespeare series and facsimile medieval manuscripts, and is a keen chamber music player in her spare time.

Elizabeth Hart

Elizabeth grew up in Stockport and started learning the viola at school at the age of 8. She studied Japanese at Cambridge University, and after a few years at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office she ended up as a translator of Japanese equity research at a major Japanese investment bank, where she still works. String quartets have always been her passion and while working and bringing up two children she never stopped playing chamber music in her spare time. Now that her children have grown up she has more time to devote to her favourite hobby.

Yuki Konii 

Yuki started to play the cello at the age of 7 in Singapore.  She continued her cello studies in the UK with William Pleeth while reading Music at Oxford University, and as a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music with Amaryllis Fleming and later Anna Shuttleworth. She then taught and worked for some years as a freelance cellist with several orchestras while studying for her doctorate.  Since retiring from her non-musical career in finance, she has been able to focus again on her biggest passion, playing and coaching chamber music, especially piano trios and string quartets.  

Andrew Readman 

Andrew grew up in North Yorkshire and began learning the cello at the age of 12 firstly with Kitty Peacock and then with Anna Shuttleworth, professor at the Royal College of Music.  Having read Fine Art and Music at Oxford University, Andrew qualified as a solicitor and subsequently specialised in media finance advising clients investing in independent films.  Much of his professional life was spent in Asia and Europe.  Andrew is a board member of Chamber Music by the Lake which is a Swiss foundation established to provide an annual residential chamber music course for amateur musicians at the former home of the composer Paul Hindemith near Lake Geneva.