About the show

mark rylance

Ignaz Semmelweis

Mark Rylance has imagined a play about Dr Semmelweis ever since reading Celine’s surrealist novel on the good doctor, over ten years ago. Tom Morris has made it a reality. With Stephen Brown and the help of all the actors, dancers, musicians and other creatives, the play lives.

Giles Havergal and The Glasgow Citizens Theatre gave Rylance his first professional job in 1980. In the eighties and nineties, Rylance worked with many theatre companies; The RSC, where he played Hamlet, Romeo and a number of other roles. He founded his own cooperative theatre company, Phoebus Cart, and toured sacred sites such as The Rollright Stones. Other theatres include The National Theatre; The Bush; The Tricycle; TFANA (New York), A.R.T. (Boston), The Guthrie (Minneapolis).

The work of Mike Alfreds, and his company Shared Experience was particularly inspiring and transformative.

In 1996, at age 36, Rylance became the first artistic director of Sam Wanamaker’s project to rebuild Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Throughout his career, he has acted in more than 50 productions by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. He is a trustee of The Shakespearean Authorship Trust and friend of The Francis Bacon Research Trust.

After leaving the Globe in 2006, Sonia Friedman became his angel. With her company and associates she has supported Rylance in seven productions, Boeing Boeing, La Bete, Jerusalem, Twelfth Night, Richard III, Farinelli and the King and Nice Fish. She is also a key producer of Dr Semmelweis of which Rylance is a co-author. Rylance has written two other plays, “I Am Shakespeare” and Nice Fish which he co-wrote with the poet Louis Jenkins.

Film work includes three films with Steven Spielberg,  Bridge of Spies, The BFG , and Ready Player One. Other films include, The Outfit, Don’t Look Up, The Phantom of the Open, Bones and All, Waiting for the Barbarians, Dunkirk, The Institute Benjamenta.

His television appearances include three series with Peter Kosminsky; The Government Inspector, The Undeclared War and Wolf Hall.

Rylance is an honourary bencher of the Middle Temple Hall in London. He is also a founding patron of the London-based charity Peace Direct, which supports local peace-builders in areas of conflict. Lately his work has focused on Intermission Youth Theatre and The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. He will always be a patron of Survival, the International movement for Tribal Peoples.

In 2017 he was knighted for services to the Theatre.

Roseanna Anderson

Marja Seidel / Baroness Maria-Teresa

Theatre includes : Dr Semmelweis (Bristol Old Vic), I, Joan (Globe),  Venus (Wilton’s Music Hall), BAAL (British Council tour to Indonesia 2019), Sexbox (Edinburgh Showcase) and Da-Da-Darling (Ugly Duck).

Work as choreographer and director includes: Cosmic Yoghurt (Messums Wiltshire), Lady Blackshirt (Bristol Old Vic, Sydney Opera House), Beacons of Resistance (Jasmina Cibic), Empty Stage (Carlos Acosta), The Ballet of The Nations (British Art Studies), Blast (BBC Four), Park Wanderings (Southwark Park Galleries), Elver (BBC Arts), Shining Intimacy (Tom Marshman) and The Travelling Companion (Opera by Charles Stanford).

Since 2011, she has co-run IMPERMANENCE, which was nominated for Best Independent Company at the 2022 National Dance Awards. The company makes work for cabaret, stage and film, touring nationally and internationally to critical acclaim.

Zoe Arshamian

Annalisa Rósza

Training : The Royal Ballet School and Central School of Ballet.

Theatre credits include: An American in Paris (Dominion Theatre, West End), The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre, West End), Cinderella, The Nutcracker and Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote (all with Birmingham Royal Ballet), Swan Lake (Copeland Park & Bussey Building), Vanara The Musical (workshop), On The Town (Hyogo Performing Arts Centre & Tokyo Bunka Kaikan), Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker (all with The Royal Ballet Company), Swan Lake (Northern Ballet), Scherezarde, Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker and Carmen (all with The National Ballet of Ireland).

Television / Film includes: Bowland Beth (Feature Film) and House of Dragons.

Joshua Ben-Tovim

Hospital Porter / Death

Training: Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance and Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

Theatre includes: VENUS (Wilton’s Music Hall), The Major Arcana (Mayfest), Late Last Minute (The Mount Without), Numerous Turns (Duckie), Dr. Semmelweis (Original cast – Bristol Old Vic), BAAL (Jakarta Theatre Platform), SEXBOX (British Council Edinburgh Showcase), Da Da Darling (Ugly Duck), Trying It On (Lea Anderson, Bristol Museum).

Film includes: Lady Blackshirt, Nada, State of Illusion, BLAST, The Ballet of the Nations.

Other work includes: for the last decade Josh has run IMPERMANENCE, an award-winning dance theatre company based in Bristol with Roseanna Anderson, creating critically acclaimed work for stage and screen.

Ewan Black

Franz Arneth

Training: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Theatre includes: The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (The Royal Lyceum and National Theatre of Scotland, Edinburgh/US Tour/Off-Broadway, New York), James IV: Queen of the Fight (National Theatre of Scotland), Dr Semmelweis, A Christmas Carol, and Sleeping Beauty, (Bristol Old Vic Theatre), The Grinning Man Musical (Bristol Old Vic, Trafalgar Studios), Signal Fires: Nat-Die 2020 (Fuel Theatre, Eden Court), Romeo and Juliet (Bath Theatre Royal), Treats (Tobacco Factory, Brewery), The Comedy of Errors (Tour, Edinburgh Fringe-Assembly).

Television includes: Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, The Sound of Musicals and The Crown.

Film includes:  Matilda the Musical and The Grinning Man AR Motion Capture.

Chrissy Brooke

Lisa Elstein

Training: Young Dancers Academy and Laine Theatre Arts.

Theatre includes: Wicked (Original UK Tour), Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre), An American in Paris (Dominion Theatre), Strictly Ballroom (Piccadilly Theatre), Carousel (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), Wait For Me (Sam Cassidy & Ainsley Ricketts) and Dirty Dancing (Dominion Theatre).

Film includes: Cats, Disenchanted and Snow White.

Music videos include: Medicine (Lisa Canny), Party Like a Russian and Heavy Entertainment Show (Robbie Williams) and These are the Special Times (Jonathan Antoine).

Megumi Eda

Aiko Eda

Theatre/Dance includes: Dr. Semmelweis (Bristol Old Vic) Agon (Royal Festival Hall/Armitage Gone! Dance) Blackbird, Living Toys, The Parades Gone By, Ground Level Overlay (Sadler’s Wells/Rambert Dance Company) Odyssey, Swan Lake, Othello, St. Matthew’s Passion, Nutcracker (Hamburg Staatsoper) Theme and Variation, Violin Concerto, Symphony in C, A Million Kisses To My Skin, Access All Areas, In the Upper Room, Les Noces, and Artifact (Dutch National Ballet), Connoisseurs of Chaos, Time is the Echo of an Axe Within a Wood, Ligeti Essays, In This Dream That Dogs Me, Summer of Love, The Watteau Duets, Drastic Classicism, Made in Naples, Itutu, Three Theories, Gaga-Gaku, Mechanics of the Dance Machine, Three Theories, You Took a Part of Me (Armitage Gone! Dance Company). Bessie Award winner 2004 for Best Solo Performance (Joyce Theater, NYC).

Suzy Halstead

Violet-May Blackledge

Training: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and  Northern Ballet School.

Theatre includes: Dr Semmelweis (Bristol Old Vic), MSC Magnifica (world tour) and MSC Bellissima (Mediterranean), Phantom of the Opera (Stockholm and world tour)

Other credits include: Ballet Dancer in VAC Live, Semmelweis (workshop/National Theatre)

Ballet includes: Scottish Ballet (Artist), National Ballet of Ireland (Artist), VAC Live (Whitechapel Gallery).

Music videos include: One Last Song (Sam Smith).

Felix Hayes

Ferdinand von Hebra

Felix is a writer, director and actor.

Theatre includes: A Christmas Carol, Jane Eyre, and A Monster Calls (The Old Vic in association with Bristol Old Vic), Vice Versa, The Tempest, Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, City Madam and Cardenio (RSC), Peter Pan and Jane Eyre (National Theatre/Bristol Old Vic), One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and  A Christmas Carol (Tobacco Factory), Romeo and Juliet (Rose Theatre Kingston), The Unsinkable Clerk and The Pickled King (Network of Stuff).

Television includes: Three Girls,  A Gert Lush Christmas, Drunk Histories and Friday Night Dinner.

Pauline McLynn

Anna Müller

Theatre includes: Doctor Faustus, The Knight Of The Burning Pestle and Cymbeline (Globe), Mother Courage And Her Children (Red Ladder), Daisy Pulls It Off (Park Theatre), East Is East (UK tour), Happy Days (Sheffield Crucible), The Trojan Women, Comedy of Errors, Yerma and Antigone (Abbey Theatre), The Double Dealer, Tartuffe, Absurd Person Singular and School For Scandal (Gate Theatre Dublin), The Taming Of The Shrew, Our Country’s Good, The Tempest, Top Girls and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Rough Magic).

Television includes: Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything, Holding, Doctor Who, Inside No. 9, Silent Witness, The Young Offenders, Gameface, Trollied, Dave Allen At Peace, Drop Dead Weird, Eastenders, Father Figure, Threesome, Shameless, The Bleak Old Shop Of Stuff, Pramface, Jam and Jerusalem, Bremner, Bird And Fortune, High Hopes, French and Saunders, TV To Go, Family, Aristocrats, The Inheritance, and Father Ted. 

Jude Owusu

Jakob Kolletschka / Levy

Theatre includes: To Kill a Mockingbird (Gielgud), The Comedy of Errors (National), The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Bartholomew Fair (Shakespeare’s Globe), Tamburlaine, I Cinna, and Julius Caesar (RSC), The Cherry Orchard (Bristol Old Vic), A Tale of Two Cities (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Jeramee, Hartleby and Ooglemoore (Unicorn), Othello (Malachite Theatre), Africker (Hoxton Hall), Wayne (Etcetera) and The Robbers (New Diorama).

Television includes: Father Brown and The Hollow Crown: Wars of the Roses – Richard III.

Oxana Panchenko

Polina Nagy

Training: Kyiv State Ballet School.

Dance includes: English National Ballet (Royal Festival Hall and Coliseum), Bayerishes Staatsballett (Munich Opera House), K Ballet (Touring Japan), Balletboyz (Sadler’s Wells Theatre and touring nationally and internationally), Mathew Bourne’s Swan Lake (Sadler’s Wells Theatre and Tour of Japan and USA), Michael Clark Company (Barbican, Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, Whitney Biennial in New York, Pyramid Stage at Glastonburry and touring North America, South America, Europe and Australia), Yourke Dance Company (Royal Opera House).

Theatre includes: Falling Man by Dane Hurst and Tom Rowland (Wilton’s Music Hall), Thick and Tight’s Short & Sweet (Barbican) and Tits &Teeth (Shoreditch Town Hall), Venus by Impermanence (Bristol Old Week and Wilton’s Music Hall).

Other credits include: Time Out Live Award for ‘Outstanding Performance’, ‘Outstanding Female Classical Artist Award’ at the Critic’s Circle National Awards; Akram Khan’s Giselle (Workshop); danced in music videos for Elton John, Pet Shop Boys, Anna Calvi, Fabio D’Andrea, Kier and in Fashion shows for Pringle of Scotland, Gucci and Charles Jeffrey.

Millie Thomas

Beatrix Pfieller

Training: Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance

Theatre includes: Dr Semmelweis (Bristol Old Vic) and Emergence (UK tour).

Max Westwell

Hospital Porter / Death

Theatre includes: An American in Paris (The Dominion Theatre).

Ballet includes: Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (UK Tour).

Television / Film includes: Agony and Ecstasy Part Two, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Angela, Bridgerton Season 2, History of a Pleasure Seeker and The Windsors.

As Assistant Choreographer, Television includes: Greatest Days, Bridgerton Season 3 and Queen Charlotte.

Amanda Wilkin

Maria Semmelweis

Training: Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

Theatre includes: Shedding A Skin (Soho Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Gabriel, The Tempest (Shakespeare’s Globe), Emilia (Vaudeville Theatre), The Little Sob (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), White Teeth (Kiln Theatre), La Ronde (The Bunker Theatre), The 306: Day (National Theatre of Scotland), The Grinning Man (Trafalgar Studios), Pilgrims (Theatre Clwyd/HighTide Festival/The Yard Theatre), Hopelessly Devoted (Paines Plough & Birmingham REP), Arabian Nights (Watermill Theatre), Blood Wedding and The Bacchae (Royal and Derngate), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Marat/Sade (RSC).

Television includes: Delia, Am I Being Unreasonable, High End Homeless, The Split, The Girlfriend Experience, Finding Alice, Unforgotten 4, Berlin Station, Doctors and Gavin and Stacey.

Film includes: Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!

Radio includes: Folk, Killer, The Musical Life… Boudicca, The Portal and 24 Kildare Road.

Writing includes: Shedding A Skin (Verity Bargate Award winner).

Alan Williams

Johann Klein

Theatre includes: Jerusalem (Apollo Theatre), Dr Semmelweis (Bristol Old Vic), Faith, Hope and Charity, As You Like It, Light Shining In Buckinghamshire, War Horse (West End), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Here We Go ( National Theatre), Gundog, Mint, The President Has Come To See You, Talk Show, Stoning Mary, Lucky Dog, Terrorism, Under The Whaleback, Local and Crave (Royal Court), Three Sisters and The Jew of Malta (Almeida), The Crucible (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Krapp’s Last Tape, Mean Streaks, Bed Of Roses, Bridget’s House, The Weekend After Next and The Cockroach Trilogy (Hull Truck), Mary Barnes (Birmingham Rep), A Thousand Stars Explode In The Sky (Lyric Hammersmith), The Birthday Party (Lyric), Comfort Me With Apples (Hampstead Theatre), The Scarlet Letter and The Sea (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Inland Sea (Oxford Stage Co), Kiss The Sky (Bush Theatre), The Rib Cage and In The Chicago Abyss (Manchester Royal Exchange), A Tale Of Two Cities and Having A Ball (Liverpool Playhouse) and work at the Tarragon Theatre, Magnus Theatre, Arts Club and Theatre Pass Muraille in Canada.

Television includes: Beyond Paradise, Without Sin, Inside Man, The Long Call, Grantchester, Cold Feet, Father Brown, The Capture, Chernobyl, The Crown, Endeavour, The Starlings, Utopia, Doc Martin, Luther, Shameless, Crimson Petal, Vera, Mutual Friends, Spooks, The Innocence Project, Rome, The Virgin Queen, Life Begins, Charles II, Wire In The Blood, Sirens, Badger, Coronation Street, Love In A Cold Climate, The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Always And Everyone, Getting Hurt, The Scold’s Bridle, Touching Evil and Wycliffe.

Film includes: Sometimes Always Never, Peterloo, Ich War Zuhause Aber/I Was At Home But, Trespass Against Us, War Horse, London Boulevard, Grow Your Own, Vera Drake, Bright Young Things, All Or Nothing, Heartlands, Elephant Juice, Among Giants, and The Cockroach That Ate Cincinatti.

Daniel York Loh

Karl von Rokitansky

As an actor theatre includes: The Merchant of Venice, The Country Wife, Moby Dick, Snow in Midsummer, Dido Queen of Carthage (Royal Shakespeare Company), Porcelain, Pah-La (Royal Court), Welcome Home Captain Fox! (Donmar Warehouse), The World of Extreme Happiness (National Theatre), The Shadow Factory (Nuffield, Southampton), LOVE (A Zeldin Company/L’Odeon Paris European Tour), Dr Semmelweis (Bristol Old Vic), No Particular Order (Theatre 503), Dmitry (Marylebone Theatre), Caceroleo (Vault Festival), Our American Cousin, We Know Where You Live, P’yongyang (Finborough), Une Tempete (Gate), The Magic Fundoshi (Lyric, Hammersmith), Hamlet (Riverside Studios), Sun is Shining (King’s Head/BAC/59E59 NYC), The Changeling (Southwark Playhouse), Turandot (Hampstead Theatre), The Tempest (National Theatre/Tour), Measure for Measure (Manchester Library), Nativity (Birmingham Rep), King Lear (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre/UK tour), The Good Woman Of Setzuan (Leicester Haymarket), In the Bag (Edinburgh Traverse), Tartuffe, Romeo & Juliet (Basingstoke Haymarket) as well as extensively in Singapore.

Television includes: Whitechapel, Moving On, Waking the Dead, Casualty, Peggy Su!, Chambers, The Bill, Supper at Emmaus, A Fish Named Tao, Hollyoaks, and Strangers.

Film includes: Scarborough, The Receptionist, Rogue Trader, The Beach, Faraway, Act of Grace, Doom, and Casting Fu Manchu.

Daniel is Associate Artistic Director of Kakilang who whom he wrote and performed the award-winning every dollar is a soldier/with money you’re a dragon, online and at Two Temple Place.

As writer, theatre includes: The Fu Manchu Complex (Ovalhouse/Moongate), Forgotten 遗忘 (Moongate/New Earth/Arcola/Plymouth Theatre Royal). Daniel is also featured in the best-selling essay collection The Good Immigrant. His short films have played in festivals internationally where they garnered awards.

Patricia Zhou

Antoinette Du Boisson

Training: Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington D.C.

Theatre includes: Romeo and Juliet (Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood Bowl), Linear Sympathy (L.A. Dance Project, Vocal Warehouse).

Ballet includes: Jewels and Herrumbre (Schiller Theatre), Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness (Komische Oper), Glass/Handel (Printworks), Petit Mort ( Deutsche Oper), Secus (Deutsche Oper), White Darkness (Schiller Theatre), Bach Studies (LUMA Arles), Kinaesonata (Theatre des Champs Elysees), Erde (Komische Oper), Giselle (Schiller Theatre), The Nights (Deutsche Oper), Homeward (Hauser & Wirth), Nutcracker (Deutsche Oper), Sleeping Beauty (Deutsche Oper), Ballet Imperial (Deutsche Oper), Altro Canto (Deutsche Oper), Onegin (Schiller Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Deutsche Oper), Swan Lake (Deutsche Oper), La Bayadere ( Deutsche Oper), Don Juan (Komische Oper), Daphnis and Chloe (Deutsche Oper), Namouna (Schiller Theatre), Maskenball (Deutsche Oper), Tchaikovsky (Schiller Theatre), Ring um den Ring (Deutsche Oper), La Peri (Schiller Theatre), Nutcracker (Royal Opera House), Sleeping Beauty (Royal Opera House), Manon (Royal Opera House), La Fille Mal Gardee (Royal Opera House), Romeo and Juliet (Royal Opera House), Prince of the Pagodas (Royal Opera House).

Television includes: Dancing with The Stars (Spotlight performance).

Helen Belbin

Midwife Caroline Flint / Understudy

Theatre includes: To Kill a Mockingbird (Gielgud Theatre), Wuthering Heights (Oxford Shakespeare Co), Market Boy (Union Theatre), A Haunting (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry), About Last Night (Arcola Theatre), The History Club (Old Red Lion), Kings (Vaults Festival), The Non Stop Connolly Show, Flouers O’ Edinburgh and Northern Star (Finborough Theatre) and Verdict (UK tour).

Television includes: The Outlaws, Holby City, Silent Witness, Call The Midwife and Wolfblood.

Film includes: Mad To Be Normal, Waterboys and Always In The Present.

Radio includes: Kira, HR, Saturday Review and Front Row.

Jason Hogan

Understudy

Training: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Theatre includes: Merchant of Venice, Wuthering Heights and Consensual (National Youth Theatre).

Film includes: Cost of Living, Do I Even Know You (Short).Audio Drama includes: Dark Season, The War Master.

Audio Drama includes: Dark Season, The War Master.

Jason is thrilled to be making his West End debut in Dr Semmelweis.

Andrew McDonald

Scanzoni / Understudy

Training: LAMDA.

Theatre includes: Dead Lies (national tour), Ghost Stories (Ambassadors Theatre and tour), The Night of the Iguana (Noel Coward), The Height of the Storm, Heroes and Art (Wyndham’s), Farinelli and the King, Ink and Bedroom Farce (Duke of York’s),  Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace), The Vote (Donmar), This House, The Alchemist, The Royal Hunt of the Sun and Tartuffe (NT), The Entertainer (Old Vic), The Alchemist, Julius Caesar and Columbus and the Discovery of Japan (RSC).

Television includes: Murder Not Proven, The Bill and Eastenders.

Haim Choi

Suk Hee Apfelbaum (Music Director / Violin 1)

German-born South Korean violinist Haim studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music, obtaining BMus (1st Class Hons), MPerf (Distinction) and Artist Diploma in Performance, as an Orpheus Scholar.

Haim was awarded the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal presented by King Charles III, and is a laureate of numerous international competitions.

Haim has appeared as a soloist with the Oxford Sinfonia, Thames Philharmonia, LGT Young Soloists and RCM Orchestras, and was recently invited to perform at Buckingham Palace.

As a passionate and sought-after chamber musician, Haim enjoys collaborating with like-minded musicians and ensembles of all sizes, both across the UK and internationally. She is often found leading & directing various chamber projects, and is also the founding member and 1st violinist of the Salomé Quartet.

Also an avid orchestral player, Haim regularly performs with UK’s most prominent orchestras such as the London Symphony, Philharmonia, Aurora, English National Opera and BBC Orchestras amongst others, and as a principal player with the Glyndebourne Tour Opera (co-leader), Sinfonia Cymru (leader & co-leader), Bath Festival (principal 2nd violin) and London Chamber (guest principal) Orchestras.

She has previously been awarded places in the LSO String Experience, BBC SO Pathway, Glyndebourne Pit Perfect, ENO Evolve and Philharmonia MMSF schemes.

Haim was appointed Cultural Ambassador of UNESCO Korea, and has enjoyed teaching violin and viola at the Yehudi Menuhin School, her alma mater, as well as Eton College.

Coco Inman

Sarah Schmidt (Violin 2)

British-Japanese violinist, Coco, started her musical studies at Cheltham’s School of Music and later a bachelor and masters at the Royal College of Music, London.

As a collaborative musician, Coco engages in a variety of styles and ensembles ranging from baroque to contemporary and pop music. She joined the Salomé quartet as their new second violinist last year and alongside this partnership she plays in many other ensembles including Her Ensemble, the UK’s first women and non-binary free form group, shining a light on female composers, the Listening Project, a vibrant multi-instrumental chamber ensemble demystifying contemporary music and newly formed band pencil. The orchestral setting is also a core component to Coco’s music making and she works in both symphony and chamber orchestras across the UK with Philharmonia, CBSO, the Hallé, Britten Sinfonia and Manchester Camerata.

Shizuku Tatsuno

Oshizu Yukimura (Cello)

Japanese cellist Shizuku Tatsuno is a versatile soloist, orchestral and chamber musician based in the UK. Winner of the Royal College of Music concerto competition in 2022, she performed Saint-Saens Cello Concerto no. 1 with RCM Symphony Orchestra led by world renowned conductor Vasily Petrenko. Her professional orchestral experiences are including at Pit Perfect in Glyndebourne Tour, Chineke! Orchestra, Fidelio Orchestra and Prince Consort Orchestra.

Besides her performing career in the UK, she composes her own music and performs with her band ‘BIG LOVE’ in Japan. They have recorded two albums with her compositions and have concert tours every year.

After studying the cello from the age of five under Hiroshi Ishigaki, Hirohisa Miyata and Ryoichi Fujimori in Japan, Shizuku graduated from Yehudi Menuhi School, U. K. in July 2016. Then she completed her Undergraduate and Postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music under the guidance of Thomas Carroll, Raphael Wallfisch and Richard Lester. She recently finished her Artist Diploma program at the RCM under Richard Lester with a full scholarship.

Kasia Zimińska

Eszter Horowitz (Viola)

Kasia Ziminska is a versatile violinist and violist committed to exploring repertoire ranging from early to contemporary experimental music. She completed her Bachelor studies at the Guildhall School of Music, London; received guidance from celebrated pedagogues Pavel Vernikov and Svetlana Makarova at the Accademmia Santa Cecilia, Bergamo, and has recently completed her Masters degree at the Royal College of Music, London. Kasia has performed in a series of masterclasses for the legendary violinist Maxim Vengerov. Her recent solo highlights include Vivaldi Four Seasons appearance with the Silk Street Sinfonia and Shostakovich Viola Sonata at the Milton Court. Kasia is passionate about historical performance and classical improvisation and likes to write her own concerto cadenzas. An avid chamber musician she is a founding member of the prizewinning Salomé Quartet and Ensemble Kopernikus whose first disc was released last year. Kasia’s debut in the iconic Kammer Klang new music series led to her collaboration with acclaimed UK contemporary ensembles, the Distractfold and the Plus-Minus Ensemble, as well as the Danish ensemble Scenatet. She has performed in concert hall in Europe and Asia and her performances have been broadcasted on television and radio including BBC Radio 3, WQXR New York, and Classical Planet.