Programme

F. Schubert (1797 – 1828)                                    Rondo in B Minor D895

L. van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)                         Sonata no. 9 in A Major op. 47 (‘Kreutzer’)

F. Kreisler (1875 – 1962)                                      Liebesleid

                                                                            Liebesfreud

Andrea Gajic’s performances have been described“a triumph of musical expression which held one spellbound from the opening cadenza to the last wisp of sound” (The Scotsman).

Since her London debut performing Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy at St James’s Palace for Yehudi Menuhin’s 70th Birthday Celebration at the age of 12, Scottish violinist Andrea Gajic has enjoyed an international career as a soloist and chamber musician of the highest order. As a soloist she has performed with many orchestras across the globe and most recent performances include concertos by Sibelius, Barber, Brahms, Prokofiev, and Glazunov. She has also recorded for BBC Radio, Bavarian Radio, Lithuanian Radio, and Radio Baltimore together with appearances on BBC, STV, ITV and Russian and Serbian television.

Chamber music highlights include leading the Fibonacci Sequence at Conway Hall in London, recitals at the Munich Residenz and the Arctic Arts Festival and a recording of Beethoven’s Theme and Variations op. 107 with pianist Michael Leslie, Thomas Rugge and Michael Shopper for Bavarian Radio, then released by Büchergilde Gutenberg. Andrea also plays as part of Ab Libitum – a unique and exciting violin and accordion duo – with her husband Djordje performing regularly across UK, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, Australia and at the Victoria International Arts Festival in Gozo.

Alongside an active performing career, Andrea is also a passionate and dedicated pedagogue. A professor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, many of her students have excelled in national and international competitions: Queen Sophie Charlotte International Violin Competition, Lithuania International Music Competition, Hunter Foundation BAFTA, and gone on to work with some of the major orchestras and ensembles: RSNO, BBC orchestras, SCO, Scottish Ballet, and the Scottish Ensemble.  Andrea previously taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Surrey, St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh, and the Douglas Academy, Glasgow. In demand internationally as a visiting professor, Andrea has given classes and workshops at the Sydney Conservatorium, University of Performing Arts-Graz, Rostov Conservatoire of Music, University of Delaware, Peabody Conservatory, European String Teacher’s Association, Sistema Scotland and music schools across Serbia, Russia, and Scotland. Working regularly alongside Nicola Benedetti, Andrea is a tutor for the Benedetti Foundation and in 2017 together with Natasha Boyarskaya she gave a series of filmed workshops for the Benedetti Strings Festival in Saffron Hall which was featured in The Strad and Music Teacher magazines.

Andrea began her musical studies at St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh, before being awarded scholarships from the Martin Trust, the Caird Trust and the Scottish International Educational Trust to study with Sylvia Rosenberg at the Peabody Conservatoire, Baltimore.  Five years of study with Khalida Akhtiamova followed at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, Moscow, before she completed her studies at the Royal College of Music with Dr. Felix Andrievsky.

Andrea plays on a 1766 Nicola Gagliano violin.

Since settling in the United Kingdom in 1984, Aaron Shorr has established an international career as soloist, chamber musician and educator. As well as appearing as soloist at London’s South Bank in over thirty concertos, he has toured extensively as a recitalist and chamber musician worldwide. More recent performances have included tours of Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Holland, Turkey, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico and the United States. He has performed extensively in the United Kingdom appearing in concerti, solo recitals and chamber music concerts at the Wigmore Hall, St Martins in the Field and St John’s Smith Square, apart from taking part in festivals throughout Britain. He has also appeared in major European Festivals including the BBC Proms, Menuhin Festival, Munich Biennale, Hanover Expo, Paganiniana, Genoa, Venice Biennale, Instrumenta Festival, Mexico, the Skopje Days of New Music, Cyprus International Contemporary Music Festival and the Istanbul Biennale. He has broadcast frequently for radio, including BBC Radio 3, BBC Scotland, Classic FM, Bavarian Radio, Swiss Classical Radio, ABC Australia, and WQXR New York.

Aaron has recorded for Naxos, Mettier, Olympia, NMC and Meridian. His recordings of Beethoven with duo partner, Peter Sheppard Skaerved, have won wide acclaim. Research on composers in Beethoven’s inner circle of friends and contemporaries has yielded modern recording premieres of works by Mayseder, Ries and Archduke Rudolph as well as unknown chamber version of Beethoven’s Third Symphony. He has also enjoyed close associations with composers and has given countless premieres and performances of works, including those by Hans Werner Henze, George Rochberg, Sadie Harrison, David Matthews, Paul Moravec, Elliott Schwartz, Jorg Widmann, Michael Alec Rose, Jeremy Dale Roberts, Gordon McPherson, Rory Boyle, and Sidika Ozdil.

Aaron studied at the Manhattan School of Music, New York, and at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he received their most prestigious prizes for performance, the Harold Bauer Award and McFarren Prize, as well as the DipRAM. His teachers have included Alexander Kelly, Solomon Mikowsky, Gary Graffman, André Watts, John Browning and chamber music with Joseph Seiger, former duo partner of legendary violinist Mischa Elman. Aaron was a professor and researcher at the Royal Academy of Music from 1992 to 2006. His students have gone on to win major prizes at international competitions including the Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Tel Aviv, UNISA, Pretoria, Rio, Brazil, Munich, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Vines – Spain, Piano Campus – Paris, Redding-Piette and the Schubert Competition, Czech Republic. His students have also won prizes in major UK competitions, including the Royal Overseas League, Brandt, Bromsgrove, Park Lane Debut Series and the Moray Piano Competition. In 2011, he became Artistic director and Chair of the Jury for The Scottish International Piano Competition. 

In 2006, Aaron was appointed Head of Keyboard at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In 2013, he was awarded a Professorship from the RCS and in 2023, he was appointed Interim Director of Music at the RCS.