Quanta Trio
Dominic Ingham - violin
Shirley Smart - cello
Ben Smith - piano
Quanta Trio brings together three musicians grounded in the classical tradition, each equally at home in the worlds of improvisation and contemporary music. Their programme places Mendelssohn’s celebrated Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 49 at its heart, alongside original works by Shirley Smart, Anouar Brahem and Peter Michaels, traditional material, and Mediterranean-influenced improvisations.
Moving freely between composed and improvised music, the Trio explores the many colours and possibilities of the piano trio — at times drawing upon the intimacy and lyricism of the 19th century chamber tradition, and at others allowing the music to unfold spontaneously in the moment.
The result is a performance that is both rooted in the great masterworks of the past and alive to the present: a meeting of tradition, imagination and improvisation in the intimate spirit of the great musical salons of the 19th century.
Evening Schedule
Doors: 18:30 - with a welcoming glass of wine to start the evening.
Music: 19:00
Reception: 20:45 - post-concert reception with a curated selection of wines and refreshments.
Dominic Ingham - violin
Dominic is a firmly established voice on the UK jazz scene. He has toured extensively across the UK with his quintet, performing at renowned venues and festivals such as Ronnie Scott's, Love Supreme, Royal Albert Hall, and the EFG London Jazz Festival. His self-released debut album, Role Models, launched to critical acclaim. It features a captivating suite of lucidly crafted and characterful pieces that showcase Dominic's distinctive and highly personalised style, rooted in his background in folk and classical music.
Dominic has collaborated with internationally renowned musicians such as Trish Clowes, Emma Rawicz and Camila Meza. He is also a member of the award-winning band Bonsai, with whom he has performed at leading jazz festivals and venues across the UK and Europe. In 2020, he was nominated for a Parliamentary Jazz Award for Jazz Newcomer and was a finalist in the renowned Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition. Currently, Dominic is a Jazz Violin tutor at Chetham’s School of Music and at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
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.
www.shirleysmart.com
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.