The London-based Marsyas Trio, formed of graduates of the Royal Academy of Music - Australian flautist Helen Vidovich, Canadian cellist Valerie Welbanks and Belarusian pianist Olga Stezhko - is one of the UK's foremost mixed chamber ensembles
For over a decade , the Marsyas Trio has been championing the vast body of repertoire for flute, cello and piano, and instrumental combination which originated in the Classical era with Haydn and Clementi.
The medium continued to evolve in tandem with the progress of instrument making, to the modern day where the musical possibilities have never been greater. The Trio continues to develop this tradition through commissioning, and through our commitment to presenting a balanced range of works by historic and living composers, offering audiences an interesting perspective on gender, societal and political themes.
Recent concert highlights include performances at Kettle’s Yard, Conway Hall, the Red House Aldeburgh for Britten-Pears Arts and a Northern tour, taking in two full-house concerts at Skipton Town Hall and the King’s Hall in Ilkley. The Trio also premiered a family show 'Three Little Mammoths' in Glasgow featuring comedian Janey Godley, with the subsequent performance taking place at the Three Choirs Festival, with Ed Balls as narrator.
Their latest album ‘Alternative Readings’ featuring vocal & chamber music by Michael Finnissy was released on the Métier | Divine Art Recordings label in March 2024, in collaboration with award-winning mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean. The Trio’s previous CD ‘In the Theatre of Air’ (NMC Recordings 2018) celebrated the centenary of women’s suffrage in Britain and debuted at No. 7 on the classical charts.
The Trio are passionate cross-art collaborators and educators with a portfolio including multimedia projects with the Smoking Apples puppeteers and filmmaker Julian Hand, and various outreach projects for children and teenagers across the UK.
The Marsyas Trio are the current Artist By-Fellows at Churchill College, University of Cambridge and FUAM Ensemble in Residence at the University of Leeds.
The ensemble takes its name from Greek mythology: inspired by the bold, spirited passion of Marsyas, the celebrated pipe-playing satyr who dared to defeat Apollo in a musical contest.
“Thanks to the sensitive and musical playing of pianist Olga Stezhko…we were able to enjoy the ravishing sound of Helen Vidovich’s flute in its lowest register and the velvet tone of Val Welbanks’ cello, as well as the subtle contrast and interplay between the three instruments. The varied programme showed off to perfection the possibilities of this combination.”
Marsyas Trio is generously supported by:
Australian flautist Helen Vidovich works as a freelance orchestral and chamber musician throughout the UK and internationally. As an orchestral player she has performed at venues including the Sydney Opera House and Royal Albert Hall in London. Recent career highlights include work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Helen auditioned successfully as an extra player for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Welsh National Opera, and in Australia has appeared on several occasions as a soloist with the Sydney Chamber Orchestra, including performances of Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto with harpist Marshall McGuire.
Helen completed postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music, London, following a Master’s degree at the Sydney Conservatorium. In 2006 she received an Australian Bicentennial Scholarship from King’s College London to assist her postgraduate studies in London. Her teachers have included Michael Cox (BBC Symphony Orchestra) and Sharon Williams (LSO). She has performed in masterclasses throughout Europe with international soloists including Jacques Zoon, Peter-Lukas Graf, Peter Lloyd, Philipe Bernold and William Bennett. Helen has a keen interest in contemporary music and regularly works with composers both as a soloist and within an orchestral context. As a founding member of the Marsyas Trio, Helen has taken a leading role in curating the ensemble’s projects.
Olga Stezhko is an award-winning concert pianist and critically acclaimed recording artist. Her striking and idiosyncratic programmes often explore hidden connections between music, science, and history across the past four centuries.
Acclaimed by Classical Source in a Wigmore Hall review as ‘a supremely delicate master of her instrument’ who possesses ‘an extraordinary presence’, Olga has performed worldwide from the Barbican Hall in London to Salle Cortot in Paris to the Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Recent highlights include performances in Bridgewater Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Palermo Classica Festival, the Ulverston International Music Festival and a tour in Norway where Olga premiered her multimedia project ‘Red, Green, Blue’ and a new work for piano, chamber orchestra and narrator ‘Blooming’ by Kari Beate Tandberg, based on the book ‘The Unwomanly Face of War’ by Belarusian Nobel Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich.
Olga is the winner of many international competitions and awards including the Grand Prix at the ‘Halina Czerny-Stefanska In Memoriam’ International Piano Competition in Poland and the First Prize at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition in France.
Born in Minsk, Olga was educated in Belarus, Italy and the UK where she completed her Bachelor's and Master’s degrees with distinction at the Royal Academy of Music.
Olga’s debut album ‘Eta Carinae’ (Luminum Records) combined her passion for astronomy with music by Scriabin and Busoni and was hailed by the Gramophone Magazine as ‘an outstanding debut’ and ‘not a record for the faint-hearted but rather for those who enjoy dark and menacing regions of the mind’. Her second all-Debussy album ‘Et la lune descend’ (Palermo Classica) received unanimous critical acclaim in the publications including International Piano Magazine and BBC Music Magazine. www.olgastezhko.com
Canadian-born Val Welbanks leads a busy chamber music career in London as the cellist of both the Marsyas Trio and the Ligeti Quartet, who are currently resident ensemble Goldsmiths, University of London and Nottingham High School. Val is regularly invited as guest cellist of various chamber groups in the UK and in Canada, and has recorded various discs with the Longbow and G-Plus ensembles for Métier, Naxos, and Real World Records. She has greatly enjoyed performing as soloist over the years, performing several times the Dvořák and Lutoslawski Cello Concertos, and Gubaidulina’s Sonnengesang.
Val completed her PhD in 2016, having submitted a thesis codifying modern techniques for the cello, under the supervision of composer Roger Redgate, and previously the late cellist Alexander Ivashkin. During this time, she undertook studies with Natalia Pavlutskaya. In 2008, she obtained a Masters in Music Performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London, graduating with distinction from Philip Sheppard’s class. Her passion for cross-disciplinary arts sees her often performing in plays, operas, dance productions, and sound installations.
“...these fine artists weaving some tremendous sounds around each other. They give this work a terrific performance finding out all of its depth and emotion. ”
“Premiere recordings of the captivating, profound music of Elena Firsova...performed with devoted insight and sensitivity by the Marsyas Trio. ”
“The adventurous programming and the committed playing of the Trio made this a rewarding evening of music making.”