Shirley Smart - cello
Ben Smith - piano
TBC - violin
This innovative new piano trio explores great masterworks of the piano trio literature, interspersed with improvisatory performance based on a variety of sources, including classical works, folk music and jazz as well as free improvisation and original works. Its three members all draw on a strong classical background, whilst being recognised as leading improvisers in their fields and spanning multiple genres. They present a programme combining both traditional and contemporary approaches to the piano trio recital format.
Programme notes coming soon.
Evening Schedule
Doors: 18:45 - with a welcoming glass of wine or soft drink to start the evening.
First Set: 19:30 - 20:15
Intermission / Refreshments: 20:15 - 20:30
Second Set: 20:30 - 21:15
Reception: 21:15 - 22:00 - the post-concert reception with a curated selection of wines and soft drinks, offering a chance to continue the conversation, meet the artist, and savor the evening.
Shirley Smart - cello
Shirley Smart is recognised as one of the UK’s most versatile and creative cellists – being equally at home and well versed in jazz and Middle Eastern music, as well as classical music. Originally trained under Raphael Wallfisch at the Guildhall School of Music, and Janos Starker in Paris, she subsequently spent 10 years in Jerusalem, studying and performing a wide variety of musical traditions from the region. She worked with many leading artists including Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital and Yasmin Levy. On returning to the UK, she has established herself as a unique performer, in demand with artists such as Mulatu Astatke, Maya Youssef, Neil Cowley, and Robert Mitchell. She also leads her own projects and released her first trio album ‘Long Story Short’ in 2018 to critical acclaim.
She has appeared at numerous festivals in the UK and abroad and recent highlights include the Cheltenham Festival, EFG London Jazz Festival, Lichfield, Aberjazz, Birmingham and Scarborough Jazz Festivals, Vivacello Festival in Moscow and Biennale Festival in the Netherlands.
As well as her educational work at the Royal College of Music, Shirley is also a Lecturer at Kent University, and teaches at Trinity Laban. She has given workshops for Chethams School of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, National Youth Jazz Collective, Jazzlines, Trinity Laban and the Universities of Cardiff, Huddersfield, Manchester, Kent and Surrey.
Ben Smith - piano
Ben Smith is a pianist and composer specialising in contemporary and experimental music. Hailed as one of “the finest new-music pianists in London” (Tempo) and a player of “extraordinary precision and insight” (The Guardian), he is in demand both as a soloist and chamber performer (An Assembly, Apartment House, Athelas Sinfonietta, Apartment House, Explore Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Riot Ensemble, Uproar Ensemble). Known for daring and virtuosic performances which traverse the extremes of the contemporary repertoire, he has given dozens of world premieres across the UK and Europe, including Aldeburgh Festival, BBC Total Immersion, Cafe OTO, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, London Contemporary Music Festival, Musicon, Ny Musik i Birkerød, Spitalfields Music, Transit: Festival voor nieuwe muziek, and at London venues Ambika P3, Barbican Hall, Hackney Round Chapel, Kings Place, Milton Court Concert Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Wigmore Hall.
In recent years he has conducted premiere performances of Sarah Angliss’s Giant (Royal Opera House; Aldeburgh Festival), Alastair White’s RUNE, (Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival) and regularly works as an Associate MD on Operation Mincemeat (Fortune Theatre). Recording projects include works by Nomi Epstein and Paul Newland (another timbre), Brian Ferneyhough and Alastair White (métier), and the complete piano works of Evan Johnson (all that dust). Ben was a Junior Fellow at Guildhall School of Music & Drama from 2020-2022, where he previously studied with Laurence Crane, Rolf Hind, and James Weeks.