Recital for Two Pianos

Debussy | Guastavino | Piazzolla | Schumann

Fruzsina and Louis have been playing together since 2017 and were the winners of the Royal Northern College of Music's Piano Duo Prize. They have since performed extensively in venues such as the Bridgewater Hall, the Buxton Opera House, Nottingham's Theatre Royal, and the Lionel Wendt Theatre in Sri Lanka. Their music-making has raised money for Music Action International and the National Cancer Institute of Sri Lanka. They have been coached by Sally Ann MacLeod, Paul Janes and Trio Gaspard, as well as Philippe Cassard, Paul Roberts and Petr Prause. Apart from playing music together, they enjoy travelling and learning about different cultures, their languages and their food.

Tonight, Louis and Fruzsi would like to share with you some of their choicest earworms, including Debussy's sultry Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Piazzolla's melancholy Adiós Nonino.

All photographs by Rashmi De Silva Wijeyeratne.

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PROGRAMME

Schumann, arr. Debussy, Studien in kanonischer Form

Debussy, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

Piazzolla, Adiós Nonino

Guastavino, Bailecito

PERFORMERS

FRUZSINA SZŰCS

Fruzsina completed her undergraduate and master's studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Piano Performance and Music Psychology. She studied with Paul Janes, and on her postgraduate course she was supported by the Margaret Allen Piano Award. As part of her master's, she also participated in an Erasmus exchange semester at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar, where she studied with István Lajkó.

She performed at venues such as the Faculty of Music of the University of Debrecen (Hungary), the Lionel Wendt Theatre (Sri Lanka), the Festsaal, University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar (Germany), and the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. She also appeared as a soloist with the Athenean Ensemble, performing Bach's F minor Keyboard Concerto, conducted by Nicholas Simpson.

She is currently pursuing a PhD in Music Psychology at Durham University, and her research focuses on how musical cues, and cues from other modalities (visual, olfactory, gustatory, linguistic, auditory), influence autobiographical memories. She has recently presented her paper on how semantic associations with music evoke memories at the 18th International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition in São Paulo, Brazil.

LOUIS PERERA

Born and raised in Sri Lanka, Louis's early-childhood enthusiasm for the piano led to formative studies in Western classical music with Sheryl Perera, who transformed this enthusiasm into an enduring love and curiosity for the art form. Subsequent mentorship from Eshantha Peiris and Keiko Kobayashi allowed Louis to establish himself quickly in the local circuit, becoming assistant conductor of the Junior Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka and keyboardist of the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka. Conducting, concerto, and recital debuts followed, along with a place at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Paul Janes and Philippe Cassard were Louis's professors at the RNCM. Gains from their boundless knowledge and eclectic musicianship were supplemented by opportunities to: learn from Stephen Hough, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Rohan De Silva; and play in performances and productions led by conductors like Martyn Brabbins, David Parry, and Andrew Greenwood.

As a soloist, Louis had the fortune to perform Mozart's C minor (soloist and conductor, Musical Excursions Orchestra, Colombo), Brahms's D minor (Daniel Hogan, Kew Sinfonia), Bach's Fifth Brandenburg (Jonathon Heyward, The Hallé), Franck's Variations Symphoniques (Frank Lennon, Burnley Orchestra), Mendelssohn's G minor (Nicholas Meredith, West-Yorkshire SO), and Beethoven's C minor (Mahler Society of Colombo) concerti.

Louis is the rehearsal pianist for the Cheshire Chorale. He greatly enjoys food and, when not in music, works at Holy Grain Sourdough Bakery.