John Hutchinson & Daniel Peter Silcock - Violin & Piano

John Hutchinson - Violin

Born in England, John Hutchinson represents the youngest member of a family spanning three generations of musicians.

John began his musical journey in his hometown of Newcastle. He undertook initial studies with Julia Jasinski, Iona Brown and Nicholas Nowicki, before going on to obtain his Bachelors Degree with Honours at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, under Professor Benedict Holland. Through the generous support of Alex Amos, John studied privately with Dr Remus Azoitei and is currently in the final year of his Masters at the Royal Academy of Music where he is in the highly sought after class of Rodney Friend MBE and Joshua Fischer.

As a soloist in previous seasons John has performed from Vivaldi to Barkauskas to John McLaughlin around Europe and has most recently given recitals at Literary and Philosophical Societies, Carol Nash Recital Room, EUROPAfest (Romania), amongst many others and has been broadcast on ITV.

As an orchestral musician, John has appeared in many of Britain’s premiere concert halls, including the Bridgewater Hall (Manchester), the Duke’s Hall, Cadogan Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), and The Sage (Gateshead), and has performed at home and abroad in such festivals as the Liverpool International Music Festival, the Manchester International Festival, Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte and Festival Orchestre Giovanili (Italy). He has worked under the baton of such esteemed conductors as Edward Gardner OBE, Sir Mark Elder, John Wilson, Vasily Petrenko, and Vassily Sinaisky amongst others and has also been broadcast on BBC’s Radio 3 and Classic FM. Currently John is freelancing around the UK with various professional orchestras and co-leading Royal Academy of Music projects.

During his studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, John was fortunate to have the opportunity to play chamber music in a wide variety of ensembles, leading to numerous performances around the UK. His exploration of the chamber music literature was enhanced by the guidance of members of the Chilingirian, Talich and Elias Quartet, Sitkovetsky Piano Trio and Trio Gaspard, as well as renowned collaborative clarinettist Matthew Hunt.

John has been privileged to receive masterclasses from many of the world’s leading musicians – including Mauricio Fuks, Henk Guittart, Natalia Lomeiko, and Yuri Zhislin. Inspired by his parents and the teaching he has received; John has become a highly sought after teacher. His students have gone on to receive places in NCO, Junior Guildhall, ProCorda, scholarships in London’s top private schools and perform at the Royal Opera House and Opera Holland Park. John is now currently sharing his knowledge at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music, Wimbledon High School for Girls and in his private studio in London and via Zoom with students globally. Previously he has taught at The Royal Ballet School, Newcastle University, National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain and has advised various music education establishments around the globe.

John is thankful both to Jonathan Sparey and Florian Leonhard Fine Violins for having loaned him French and Italian instruments in the past. John now plays on a True Copy of a violin by Guarneri ‘del Gesu’ ‘Ex-Ruggiero Ricci’, Cremona 1734 made by Florian Leonhard and Melina Polizzi. He is also grateful for the support given to him by Help Musicians UK, EMI Sound Foundation, The Loan Fund for Musical Instruments, The Kathleen Trust and the Elliott & Kayne Families.

Daniel Peter Silcock - Piano

Scottish Pianist, Daniel Peter Silcock, has recently moved back to London, taking up a scholarship to study collaborative piano with Joseph Middleton at the Royal Academy of Music. Daniel specialized in the music of Chopin on the Professional Diploma course under the tutelage of Mei-Ting Sun at RAM through the Covid-19 Pandemic. Prior to this, Daniel studied with Aaron Shorr and James Willshire at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

During his time at the RCS Junior Conservatoire, Daniel was winner of the Gilbert Innes Prize for Piano on two occasions, the Beethoven Piano Competition, and also won the concerto competition – leading to a performance of Mendelssohn’s G Minor concerto aged fifteen, under the baton of David Danzmayr.

Daniel has found particular affinity with the French piano repertoire - being awarded the A Ramsay Calder Debussy Prize at the RCS in 2019. He was also awarded with second prize in the Conservatoire’s Governors’ Recital Prize for Keyboard. Amongst other competition success, Daniel won second prize in the Roma International Piano Competition, in December 2019. Since the pandemic restrictions have eased, Daniel has been busy performing around the United Kingdom. Recent highlights include performances at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Italian Cultural Institute, and Regent Hall; and in Scotland, Aberdeen’s Music Hall and Cowdray Hall - alongside an all-Chopin recital tour around Scotland, including at Caird Hall (Dundee).

In November 2022, Daniel was awarded the Major Van Someren-Godfrey prize at the Royal Academy of Music for song accompaniment. Alongside Amy Strachan (soprano), Daniel performs regularly as part of Live Music Now Scotland - giving concerts recently at Usher Hall (Edinburgh) and the Music at Paxton festival. Daniel also travelled to the Netherlands with Helen Corlett (mezzo-soprano) to perform in the Young Artist Platform at the 2022 Zeist International Lied Festival.

Most recently, Daniel accompanied Annabel Kennedy, winner of the solo singers section of the ROSL Annual Music Competition, and together they are looking forward to competing in the Gold Medal Final at Wigmore Hall in June. In the spring, Daniel is looking forward to performing in the first Academy Voices recital at the French Institute of the United Kingdom; and with Live Music Now, taking John Mcleod’s new song-cycle ‘Songs from Above and Below’ to historic mining communities in Scotland and the North-West of England, with sopranos Emily Mitchell and Amy Strachan. Daniel is delighted to be a Leeds Lieder Young Artist with Charles Cunliffe.