Music club to host piano duo

A PIANO duo is performing at Hinckley Music Club.

Cecilia Xi and Darren Leaper will begin their recital as Piano Four-Hands with the Petite Suite by Claude Debussy.

Cecilia and Darren said: “In the centenary year of Debussy’s death it seems fitting to programme this most beloved of works for piano duet”.

They will also be performing works by Mozart, Schubert, Ravel and Samuel Barber.

Cecilia trained at Shanghai and Tianjin Conservatories in China and at Birmingham Conservatoire and Royal Northern College of Music in the UK.

She graduated from all institutions with distinction, winning scholarships and prizes, and performs across the UK, Asia and Europe and has played as a concerto soloist with several orchestras.

Her Haydn recordings have been issued on CD by the BBC, alongside the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, while her live performances are regularly broad- cast on Chinese national television.

She now teaches at Warwick School and King’s High School and has adjudicated piano competitions in the UK and China.

Darren studied at Birmingham Conservatoire winning the college’s ‘David Brookes Piano Prize’ and recording for BBC Radio 3’s ‘Discovering Music’.

He went on to gain a Master’s Degree in Music Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Darren teaches piano at several institutions and is a Trinity College examiner.

The two musicians formed a piano duet when meeting as fellow students at music college and have recently performed duet recitals at the Hindhead Music Centre, CBSO centre and at Mallorca Piano Festival.

The recital is at Holy Trinity Church on Saturday October 13, starting at 7.30pm.

Admission on the door is £12 for adults, £5 for students and no charge for accompanied children.