Benjamin Baker: The Last Rose of Summer

Classic FM Drive Featured Album, 20 April 2015, after 6pm

Born in 1990 in New Zealand, violinist Benjamin Baker moved to the UK in 1998 with his family so that he could study at the Yehudi Menuhin School, on the recommendation of Nigel Kennedy.

Today, Baker is rapidly making a name for himself as a very exciting young talent. He graduated from the Royal College of Music last year with a Masters and was awarded the prestigious Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Rose Bowl.

When he was 15, his first solo CD Arcadian Strings won the Classic FM Next Big Thing Competition. This new album - his third - shows off his virtuosity in favourite pieces by Beethoven, Kreisler and Strauss.

Baker brings to every track here an attractive, sonorous quality of tone and expression, demonstrating an impressive talent and huge promise for the future.