Coulsdon and Purley Festival Finalists
Nirvana Che-Lai – violin
Verity Burcombe – bassoon

The Programme

Yuyao Qu – piano
Melanie Jones – piano

Chaconne in G minor

Zigeunerweisen, Op 20

Fantasia No 7

Bassoon Sonata, Op 168
1. Allegro moderato
2. Allegro scherzando
3. Molto adagio – Allegro moderato

The Artists

Nirvana Che-Lai, 14, is a music scholar at Eltham College and studies at the Royal College of Music Junior Department. Learning the violin since the age of six, she has garnered numerous music festival accolades, including the Fritz Kreisler Cup (2021,2022,2023,2025) and the Founder’s cup (2023), leading to solo recitals.

In 2025 Nirvana won the Sevenoaks Young Musician of the Year, securing a concerto performance with the Lydian Orchestra. The youngest winner of Eltham College’s Concerto competition (2024), she performed Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’ at Blackheath Halls and the Royal Albert Hall. She plays an 18th C. Klotz Violin and Peccatte bow, on loan from the Cherubim Music Trust.

Verity Burcombe is a freelance bassoonist from Croydon and a recent postgraduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where she trained with Jonathan Davies, Angharad Thomas and Robin O’Neill. A 2023 graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she has performed with esteemed ensembles including the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jersey Chamber Orchestra and Waterperry Opera Festival. She has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Barbara Hannigan, Edward Gardner and John Wilson, performing in major venues including Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and the Barbican.

Verity won the Royal Academy Bassoon Prize in 2025, having previously received Guildhall’s equivalent prize in 2021. As a soloist she has performed Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto and Michael Daugherty’s ‘Dead Elvis’. This October she joins the Sinfonia Smith Square Fellowship Programme, performing regularly as a member of their orchestra. Verity plays a Heckel 7000 series bassoon, having transitioned from a Guntram Wolf instrument acquired with support from the Grinstead Fund in 2014.