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Edward and Craig have given over eighty performances together since meeting at the Montepulciano Music Festival in 2005. These have included recitals at the Schubert Festival, North Aldeburgh Festival, Cardiff Millennium Centre, and the duo recently performed as part of both the Leeds and North Wales International Concert Series. Edward and Craig also work for Live Music Now, for whom they have recently undertaken tours of Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Wales and Yorkshire.
Edward currently combines membership of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland with freelance orchestral, chamber and solo work in the UK. Engagements in 2009/2010 have so far included a performance of Brahms’ Double Concerto at the CBSO Centre (Birmingham) and the National Theatre’s recent productions of Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and All’s Well That End’s Well.
Edward’s performance of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in June 2003 was reviewed by the Birmingham Post as a ‘tour de force, with yearning cello passages, fine intonation and an expressive cadenza.’ Numerous concerto appearances have followed, including performances of Elgar’s Cello Concerto in London, Birmingham, Helsinki, Budapest and St Petersburg, and Hadyn’s Cello Concerto in C at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, directed from the cello. Chamber music projects have included recitals in Brussels and London with the Olive Piano Trio, and further performances at the Wigmore Hall, London, and in Anghiari, Tuscany.
Edward was awarded a first class honours degree in music from the University of Birmingham and a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music, from which he graduated in 2005. He was co-principal cellist with the Southbank Sinfonia in 2007, and his orchestral experiences have included side-by-side projects with the Academy of St Martin’s and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Edward currently plays a German cello made by August Riechers, ca. 1860.
Craig graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2007, where he completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Piano Accompaniment. At the Academy he held the Gilling Family Scholarship and studied with Michael Dussek and Diana Ketler, also receiving the Evelyn German and Daniel Kelly prizes. Craig previously gained a music degree at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, where he held the Répétiteur Scholarship with New Chamber Opera, also performing in their professional productions, more recently for Mozart's La Finta Semplice. Craig also worked for Oxford City Opera, Garsington Education Programme and Oxford Baroque Soloists, including performances of Bach's St John's Passion, Wolf's Italiensches Liederbuch, La Boheme and The Turn of the Screw.
At Oxford, Craig made regular appearances at the Holywell Music Room including a performance with the Allegri String Quartet for their Golden Jubilee Concert. Craig has attended festivals in Oxford, Oxenfoord and Montepulciano, receiving masterclasses from Marios Papadopoulos, Malcolm Martineau and Paul Hamburger. In May he took part in the first Repetiteur course at the prestigious Solti Accademy Recent international engagements have included performances at the BOZAR in Brussels and a tour of South Korea. This year Craig won the accompanist prize at the Thelma King Award, AESS Patricia Routledge Song Prize and the Great Elm awards at the Wigmore Hall. Craig is part of TangoDuo, an ensemble promoting the works of Astor Piazzola. He works at Junior Trinity College of Music as a staff accompanist and in September he began a Junior Fellowship in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music.