Daniel Tong
George IV’S Grand Piano by Nannette Streicher, Vienna, 1823. Loaned by H.M. The King to the Cobbe Collection Trust

The programme will include the two Op. 27 Sonatas by Beethoven, the second of which is the ‘Moonlight’.

Daniel Tong was born in Cornwall and studied in London. His musical life is spent performing as soloist and chamber musician, writing and teaching. Outside the UK he has recently performed in France, Belgium and Portugal. After his first solo CD of works by Schubert, Gramophone magazine described him as “an extraordinarily sympathetic Schubertian.” He has performed concertos at St Martin-in-the-Fields and Kings Place in London, and this season is soloist in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (London) and Shostakovich No. 2 (Birmingham). He has recorded the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven on period instruments with Robin Michael for Resonus Classics, and his first solo release on fortepiano (2022), the Op. 10 Beethoven Sonatas, has gathered considerable attention.

Praised by The Guardian for his ‘masterly pianism’, Daniel has collaborated with the Elias, Navarra, Heath, Callino, Dante, Carducci and Allegri quartets as well as singers Ivan Ludlow, James Gilchrist, Mary Bevan, Stephan Loges and Paul Agnew. Daniel’s London Bridge Trio have been regular visitors to London’s Wigmore Hall and BBC Radio 3 for twenty years, with a substantial discography that includes a shortlisting for the Gramophone Chamber Music Award (Frank Bridge Chamber Works Vol. II on Dutton). Each year Daniel plays with an array of wonderful individual artists, often at his own chamber festival: founded in 1999, the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival attracts many renowned chamber musicians to spend ten days making music in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Daniel’s Beethoven Plus project has been a vibrant addition to his life over recent years. Alongside Krysia Osostowicz, he commissioned ten new works to partner the Beethoven Sonatas for Piano and Violin, premiering all during 2015. The duo went on to perform the cycle numerous times across the UK, culminating at Cedars Hall, Wells, where they recorded all twenty works for SOMM Recordings. The cycle became the subject of Daniel’s PhD and he is currently writing a book on Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas for publication in 2024.

Daniel is Head of Piano in Chamber Music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Head of Performance at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music. For seven years he has directed a summer course for talented young musicians as part of the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival.