Rising Stars
Three to look out for…
Will Duerden Double-bassist
Born: Haywards Heath, UK Career highlight: The Young Classical Artists Trust finals in June 2023 were special. Performing in one of my favourite halls (the Wigmore) with pianist Svitlana Kosenko, a dear friend, and being surrounded by friends and family is an evening I won’t forget anytime soon.
Musical hero: The violinist Songha Choi, one of my closest friends, has taught me more than I could imagine over the years. Not from lessons or teaching – just growing up and performing together!
Dream concert: I’d love to perform Tubin’s Double Bass Concerto with the LSO at the Albert Hall, as well as Bottesini’s Gran Duo with Songha and some Edgar Meyer with violinist Claire Wells, another friend.
Aaron Pilsan Pianist
Born: Dornbirn, Austria Career highlight: Recording Bach’s Welltempered Clavier Book 1 with Alpha Classics, because Bach is the reason I’m a musician today. Musical heros: All the composers I perform, and the teachers and mentors I’ve had. They’ve supported me and taught me how to express myself in music. Dream concert: I want to reach people in very different settings, as we did in the ‘Bachathon for Ukraine’, a charity event last year for victims of the war. As for repertoire, it would again be the Well-tempered Clavier, which achieves perfect harmony across all its different tonalities and emotions.
Nikola Hillebrand Soprano
Born: Munich, Germany Career highlight: In opera, singing Sophie in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier alongside the legends Camilla Nylund, Sophie Koch and Peter Rose. In Lieder, singing Strauss at the Vienna Musikverein. Musical heros: Lucia Popp and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf: technical masters with a sheer beauty of timbre, who have made the most iconic recordings of my repertoire. Both make me cry when listening to them!
Dream concert: After last summer singing a Mozart programme in Salzburg, I would love to do a Mozart role in a new production at the Salzburger Festspiele. There’s something magical about Mozart in Salzburg.