The Full Works Concert – Wednesday 22 May: Rising Stars

Jane Jones presents the third of this week's concerts which focus on classical music's rising stars.

All this week on the Full Works Concert, Jane Jones is showcasing some of the most in-demand classical musicians of today.

34 year old trumpeter Alison Balsom, pictured above, studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Conservatoire de Paris. In 2006, she won 'Young British Classical Performer' at the Classical BRIT Awards and was awarded the 'Classic FM Listeners' Choice Award' at the Classic FM Gramophone Awards. She went on to win 'Female Artist of the Year' at the 2009 and 2011 Classical BRITs. Tonight she performs an oboe concerto by Marcello, transcribed for trumpet.

Anton Rubinstein's Piano Concerto No.4 in D minor is played by one of today's most exciting young pianists, Joseph Moog. As well as performing extensively throughout Europe, this young pianist has made numerous recordings and has been described as a "frighteningly intelligent and powerful master of the instrument..."

Born in Beijing, but now based in the UK, Xue Fei Yang was the first ever guitarist in China to launch an international professional career. Her first public appearance - aged 10 - at the China International Guitar Festival received such acclaim that the Spanish Ambassador to China presented her with a concert guitar. The composer Rodrigo attended her debut concert in Madrid when she was 14 and in 1995, when the guitarist John Williams went to Beijing, he was so impressed with her playing that he gave two of his own guitars to her Conservatory for Fei and other top students to play. Tonight she plays Johann Sebastian Bach's Violin Concerto in E major, arranged for guitar and string quartet.

Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas performs John Rutter's Come Down, O Love Divine. She won a choral scholarship to Clare College in Cambridge University, where she gained a starred first in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, and completed an MPhil. After auditioning to Sir John Eliot Gardiner she joined the Monteverdi Choir and in the year 2000 sang much of the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage. In 2001 she moved to pursue postgraduate vocal studies at the Royal College of Music in London. She performed Handel’s cantata "Eternal Source of Light Divine" during the 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony in London.

Tonight's concert ends with Chopin's Cello Sonata in G minor, played by Jamie Walton. He was born in Germany before moving back to the UK at an early age. His great teacher William Pleeth said of him: “He is a cellist of outstanding performance ability. Combining warmth of tone with a technical command that reaches dazzling proportions, he leaves little doubt as to the success that lies ahead of him - he is a musician of great integrity whose performance gives great pleasure."

Alessandro Marcello: Oboe Concerto in C minor (transcribed into D minor for trumpet)
Trumpet: Alison Balsom 
Scottish Ensemble 

Anton Rubinstein: Piano Concerto No.4 in D minor
Piano: Joseph Moog
Nicholas Milton conducts the German Philharmonic Orchestra of Rheinland-Pfaltz

Johann Sebastian Bach: Violin Concerto in E major (arranged for guitar and string quartet)
Guitar: Xue Fei Yang
Elias String Quartet

John Rutter: Come Down, O Love Divine
Soprano: Elin Manahan Thomas
John Rutter conducts the Cambridge Singers

Frederic Chopin: Cello Sonata in G minor
Cello: Jamie Walton
Piano: Charles Owen