Daniel Tong
“(His) cultured pianism affords unqualified pleasure throughout” Gramophone
Daniel Tong, co-director of the Festival, enjoys a varied career, performing regularly at Britain’s major concert halls, festivals and on BBC Radio 3, as a soloist and chamber musician. His engagements have also taken him to Portugal, France and Sweden. He founded the London Bridge Ensemble in 2003.
During 2009, Daniel performed Schubert’s last sonata at St John’s Smith Square, appeared as soloist in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto at St Martin-in-the-Fields and launched Beethoven Unravelled, a series of lectures and recitals on Beethoven’s piano sonatas with broadcaster Richard Wigmore. The first part of the series took place last year at Milner Hall in Winchester and a second weekend will take place at the end of May in the same venue. A CD recording of solo piano works by Debussy and Bartók is scheduled for 2010 on the Sonimage label.
Daniel has given solo recitals for Cheltenham Festival, the Park Lane Group at the South Bank, for the Keyboard Trust at Steinway Hall and at St Martin-in-the-Fields. To celebrate Elgar’s anniversary in 2007, Daniel gave a recital of rarely-heard piano works at the composer’s birthplace. He has also performed concertos by Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninov and Gershwin.
As a chamber musician, Daniel is a regular performer on BBC Radio 3 and at major concert halls and festivals in the UK. As well as his engagements with the London Bridge Ensemble, appearances have included Wigmore Hall, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Salisbury, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Brighton, Newbury and Warwick Festivals. He has presented the complete cycles of Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano (with Fiona McNaught) and cello and piano (with Pierre Doumenge). Plans are underway to perform the piano trio works with violinist Tamás András and cellist Gemma Rosefield. Alongside Beethoven Unravelled, these form part of an ongoing project exploring Beethoven’s solo and chamber output.
In 2004, to commemorate Dvořák’s centenary, Daniel performed his Piano Quartets with the Picander Ensemble at a range of venues, including Wigmore Hall, the South Bank and Aldeburgh Festival; they subsequently recorded these works for Merlin Classics.
Daniel regularly appears in recitals with baritone Ivan Ludlow, also a member of the Ensemble. They have appeared together at the Wigmore Hall and in recitals in Belgium, France and Portugal. Daniel has also worked with Stephan Loges, Valerie Gabail, Charles Daniels and Andrew Staples. He collaborated with Paul Agnew and the Allegri Quartet in works by Vaughan Williams and Michael Stimpson; this latter was subsequently recorded for RiverRun Records. Daniel also gives regular recitals with Jennifer Pike, including several performances at the Wigmore Hall and live on BBC Radio 3, and also performs with violinist Florence Cooke.
Daniel first came to attention as a finalist in the BBC Young Musicians competition in 1992; his other early successes included selection by the Tillett, Tunnell and Craxton Trusts, the Worshipful Company of Musicians (Maisie Lewis Award), the BBC Radio 3 Young Artists’ Forum and the Park Lane Group. He studied with Irina Zaritskaya at the Royal College of Music and Paul Roberts at the Guildhall in London. He won the Edith Vogel Award and was supported by the Countess of Munster Trust.
As well as co-directing the Winchester Chamber Music Festival, Daniel founded and continues to direct the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival, now in its eleventh year.