BBC National Orchestra of Wales
gave its first performance in April 1928 and occupies a special role as both a broadcast orchestra and the national symphony orchestra of Wales. The Orchestra is supported by the Arts Council of Wales. The Orchestra is based at BBC Hoddinott Hall, which is named after Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott, and is part of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. The Orchestra presents an annual season at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, where it is Orchestra-in-Residence, as well as concerts in venues across Wales and beyond; including annual performances at the BBC Proms and biannually at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.

Grant Llewellyn
Music Director of the North Carolina Symphony and Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne in France, Grant Llewellyn is renowned for his exceptional charisma, energy and easy authority in music of all styles and periods. Born in Tenby, South Wales, Llewellyn won a Conducting Fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts in 1985 where he worked with Bernstein, Ozawa, Masur and Previn. As Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the early 1990s he conducted concerts at the Tanglewood Festival, the Boston Subscription Series and in the “Boston Pops”. Grant Llewellyn has conducted many orchestras in North America, most notably the symphonies of Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Milwaukee, Montreal, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Toronto. As Music Director of the Handel and Haydn Society, America’s leading period orchestra, Llewellyn gained a reputation as a formidable interpreter of music of the Baroque and classical periods.

Oliver Coates
is a cellist, composer and producer based in London. In the past year he has performed solo shows in China, Russia, Brazil, Egypt and Australia, and made his New York debut at Le Poisson Rouge. He was the first cellist to be awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award, in 2011, following previous winners including Gustavo Dudamel and Colin Currie, and is an Artist in Residence at the Southbank Centre. He made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2009 playing Britten, Rachmaninoff and Beethoven with Danny Driver, and has performed in a cello-piano recital partnership with Driver for 16 years. In the last few seasons, he has performed concertos with Britten Sinfonia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Neojiba Youth Orchestra of Bahia in Brazil, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra and London Contemporary Orchestra. He has played as principal cello with Aurora Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Contemporary Orchestra, and currently devotes all of his time to solo and chamber music, and to writing all kinds of music. He has released records on Prah Recordings and Slip, and collaborates with Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead (on The Master and There Will Be Blood), Mica Levi (on Under the Skin) and the visual artist Lawrence Lek (on the award-winning video piece Unreal Estate). With Lek, he presented the world premiere of a new work, QE3, at the Glasgow International festival in April. His new LP, Upstepping, came out on Prah in May, and he has programmed the Southbank Centre’s DEEP∞MINIMALISM festival taking place in June. In the autumn he will release a collaborative record with Levi on Slip/Warp. His playing has been described as “world class” (the Guardian), “virtuosity in the extreme” (Seen & Heard), “remarkable...reminiscent of a young Tortelier or Rostropovich” (broadcaster Henry Kelly) and “mind-blowing...masterly in every way” (composer Anthony Gilbert).

Hyeyoon Park
has emerged as one of the most promising violinists of her generation. In 2012 she received the London Music Masters Award, which brought her to prominent venues in the UK. Passionate about music education, this award has also provided her with a platform to bring her music and performance into London’s schools, many in underprivileged areas. She was previously awarded the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2011 and she was the youngest ever first prize winner of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Hyeyoon Park made her orchestra debut at the age of nine with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then, she has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, hr Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Mariinsky Theatre St. Petersburg, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Tokyo and Hong Kong Sinfonietta.

Julian Warburton
has acquired an international reputation as Percussion Soloist and Chamber Musician. His rise to prominence came early, whilst still a student in 1996 he was asked to perform MacMillan’s Veni Veni Emmanuel at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. The following year he won the final of the prestigious YCAT competition at the Wigmore Hall and under their management went on to perform as a soloist throughout the UK, Europe, South America, India and China. He made his solo debut at the BBC Proms in 2001 performing Rebonds by Iannis Xenakis to huge critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the RPS Instrumentalist Award shortly after. Julian has a passion for Chamber Music and for the past twelve years has been a principal player with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, where he has performed countless world premieres and developed a close working relationship with many Composer/Conductors, notably Thomas Adès and Oliver Knussen.