LUNCHTIME RECITAL

Alionor Trio

Tuesday 4th November, 2025, at 1:15 pm

FREE ADMITTANCE
Retiring Collection

The Programme

Alan Thomas – cello
Ioana Voicu-Arnautoiu – violin
Norman MacSween – piano

Joseph Haydn

Piano trio in G major, Hob XV: 15
Andante
Allegro

Frank Bridge

Phantasie Trio in C minor

The Artists

Alan Thomas studied the cello, from the age of 13, for five years with Philip Kent at Cardiff College of Music and Drama (now the Royal Welsh College). He was principal cellist of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and a freelance player while studying Mathematics at Swansea University, making his professional debut in 1965 at Cardiff’s New Theatre in the musical, Peter Pan, with Sylvia Syms in the title role. Since coming to London in 1969 he has played in a variety of orchestras in London and the South-East, and in various chamber ensembles. He is currently principal cellist of Epsom Symphony Orchestra and a member of Surrey Mozart Players and Saffron Walden Opera Group Orchestra.

Ioana Voicu-Arnautoiu studied the violin at the Bucharest Conservatoire and attended Piero Farulli’s quartet classes at the Fiesole Conservatoire. She was awarded a PhD on the Violin Sonata from Debussy to Enescu. Ioana played for 18 years in the National Orchestra in Bucharest, taught chamber music at the Conservatoire while also performing in duo and trio recitals in Romania, England, Italy and Germany. In 2015 she moved to London and has played in various chamber music groups, including the Alionor Piano Trio. Ioana takes a keen interest in the history of Romania under communism. She has documented the persecution of some of the Romanian’s greatest musicians, including the legendary BSO conductor Constantin Silvestri. (Available on http://muzicieni-in-arhive.ro).

Norman MacSween studied piano in Edinburgh and Vienna, and is active as a pianist in chamber music ensembles in and around London. On the harpsichord, he has been a regular keyboard continuo player for the Belsize and Linden Baroque Orchestras. He combines his performing commitments with a musicological interest in historical keyboards, and has published research on English piano makers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

congregation sitting for service

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