ANOTHER coffee concert of the highest quality is set to wow an audience at Bridport Arts Centre tomorrow (5).

Michael Petrov on cello and Alexander Ullman on piano will perform a concert from 11am to 12pm, the final Concerts in the West performance of the year.

Michael and Alexander are two of the UK’s most outstanding young musicians. Both of these young men are prize winning artists who studied at the UK’s top music academies and who play with leading orchestras around the world.

Bulgarian-born Michael Petrov has been winning awards since he was a student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, winning the Gold Medal in 2014 and the Wigmore Hall prize in 2017. In 2015 he was nominated by the Barbican as ECHO Rising Star and his reviews confirm the impact he has made on both audiences and critics alike.

Michael, who plays on a J B Vuillaume cello (1846), has performed widely in Europe appearing at major concert halls including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Cité de la Musique Paris, Musikverein Vienna, Budapest Palace of Arts, Kölner Philharmonie and the Laeiszhalle Hamburg. Further afield he has given recitals at Carnegie’s Weill Hall and Los Angeles Cello Festival, and toured throughout China.

As a soloist Michael has appeared with the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, CBSO Youth, City of London Sinfonia, Barbican Young (conducted by Edward Gardner), City of London Sinfonia, Munich Chamber and English Chamber Orchestras performing concertos by Barber, Dvořák, Elgar, Haydn, Walton and Shostakovich. In 2013 he performed Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante at the Barbican conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

A keen chamber musician, Michael is a member of the Trio Isimsiz who won 1st Prize in the 2015 Trondheim Competition and 2nd Prize in the 2017 Haydn Competition in Vienna and are currently Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

British pianist Alexander Ullman first came to international attention in 2011 after winning the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest. He studied at the Purcell School, the Curtis Institute and the Royal College of Music, completing his Artist Diploma as the Benjamin Britten Piano Fellow in 2017 (awarded by the Philip Loubser Foundation). He also won the 2017 International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht in October 2017.

Alexander has performed worldwide at venues such as Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing).

His subtle interpretations and refined technical mastery has impressed audiences and critics across the globe and he has been praised for his deep understanding of the scores he interprets, his elegant touch and crystalline phrasing.

Alexander has been featured in the Nottingham and Oxford international piano series, and on BBC Radio 3, France Musique and MDR Klassik. He has appeared with a number of the finest orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Oxford Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Budapest Radio Orchestra, as well as the New Jersey, Fort Worth and Montreal symphonies, and has worked with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Giancarlo Guerrero, Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Markus Stenz.

In 2018 he will be recording his first solo album, featuring Stravinky’s Petrushka and Firebird suites, Prokofiev’s Six Pieces from Cinderella and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker suite.

Catherine Maddocks, the founder and director of Concerts in the West, said: “We are delighted to welcome Michael and Alexander back to the depths of the West Country. They are both rising stars in their own right, being much in demand as soloists, as well as chamber musicians, performing worldwide to much acclaim. I can’t think of two better musicians to play the final concert of 2018."