Upcoming, recent or regular performers at the Vera Fletcher Hall include:

The Rivoli Quartet

The gorgeous quartet comprising Emma Wragg (violin), Helen Tonge (violin), Amy Wein (viola), Helen Downham (cello). Winners of the Prix Ravel at the Academie Internationale de Musique Maurice Ravel.

The Rivoli Quartet was formed in 1999 at the Manchester University Music Department, where the players met and studied both individually and as an ensemble with the Lindsay String Quartet. The name derives from the converted 'Rivoli' theatre in which the music department was housed.

They went on to complete Postgraduate Diplomas in Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music where they met their current violist. Awarded prizes in regional chamber music competitions, they went on to be finalists in the 2006 Royal Overseas League Competition and recently won the Ravel Prize at the Académie Internationale de Musique Maurice Ravel. They were invited to participate in the masterclass series at the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove 2006 and the 28th International ’Masterclasses for String Quartets’ course at the Britten-Pears School.

Donald Maxwell

Baritone noted for his portrayal of Falstaff. Has performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and elsewhere in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Milan and Vienna. Biography

Sagi Hartov

Israeli-born cellist Sagi Hartov commenced his cello studies at the age of ten. At the age of fifteen he performed with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra and in 1996 was elected to the 'Outstanding Musician' programme as a member of the Israeli Forces String Quartet. From 1995 to 1999 Sagi studied with the distinguished professor Uzi Wiezel, first at Tel Aviv University and then at the Sydney Conservatorium. Sagi came to the UK in September 2000 to study at the Royal Academy of Music. He graduated in 2002 with a Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction and was also awarded an LRAM teaching qualification. Sagi Sagi won several major awards from the Royal Academy of Music, Ferdinand Beck Fund, American-Israel Foundation, Muriel Taylor National Competition for Cello and many others. While at the Academy Sagi represented the String Department in the final of the prestigious RAM Club Prize, where he achieved a distinction as well as opened the new David Josefowitz Recital Hall. He was also a finalist of the Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris in 2001.

Sagi's past performances include concerts at Wigmore Hall, a solo recital with Benjamin Frith, the Ginastera Festival with Alberto Portugheise, the Broomhill Festival, the Ghent Festival (Belgium), opening a new recital hall in the Israel Museum (Jerusalem), St. James' Piccadilly for the Beethoven Society of Europe, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Steinway Hall, the Pump Room in Bath and other venues in the UK, Israel, Belgium, Germany and Australia. He appeared in master classes with such famous cellists as Aldo Parisot, Janos Starker, Zara Nelsova, Robert Cohen and Colin Carr. His outstanding talent was rewarded by the lifetime gift of a Macatel 1849 cello by a benefactor.

Benjamin Frith

Benjamin Frith was born in South Yorkshire in 1957 and from the age of ten studied with Fanny Waterman. He came to attention when at the age of fourteen he won the National Concerto Competition. This was followed by a Mozart Memorial Prize, the award for Young Concert Artists promoted by the National Federation of Music Societies (1986) and recitals in Italy. His international career expanded further after the award of a Gold Medal at the 1989 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Israel, where he also picked up the award for chamber music. Ben has appeared with many of the finest orchestras and has performed under such conductors as Mehta, Skrowaczewski, Hurst, Bugaj, Wordsworth, Bamert and Vasary. He has won golden opinions for his recordings of Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Weber and Arnold and appears at International Festivals such as Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Kfar-Blum and Kuhmo and every year at the Lindsay Quartet's Music in the Round in Sheffield.

Rodney Bewes

Rodney Bewes is probably best known for playing the lovable Bob Ferris in the classic BBC sitcom The Likely Lads and its sequel. He got his break in the early 1960s with appearances in shows such as Z Cars and Dixon of Dock Green, as well as the movie version of Billy Liar. In between his two stints as a 'Likely Lad' in the 1960s and 1970s, he also appeared in Man in a Suitcase, Father Dear Father and starred in his own ITV sitcom. An example of his talent as a serious actor was in the made-for-TV film adaptation of John Ford's play, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.

Some of his later film and television roles include Jabberwocky (1977), The Spaceman and King Arthur (1979), The Wildcats of St. Trinian's (1980) and the 1984 Doctor Who serial Resurrection of the Daleks. His autobiography, A Likely Story, was published in September 2005.

Tatiana (Tanya) Ursova

Tanya studied piano at the Prokofiev Conservatory in her home city of Donetsk in Ukraine. She won prizes in international competitions in Paris in 1997 and Athens in 1998. From 2000 to 2002 she studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and was then invited to join the Academy's research staff. She is also pursuing a PhD at Goldsmiths College on the contemporary Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk. Tatiana has performed in Ukraine, Sweden, Italy, France, Greece, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, where she is a regular performer at the Vera Fletcher Hall.