About this Event
This concert promises to be a breathtaking exploration of the piano trio, with the iconic Brahms B major Piano Trio opus 8 at its centre. Two bookends almost 600 hundred years apart complete the programme: Dufay's 1436 motet , Nuper Rosarum Flores, written to consecrate that marvel of Renaissance architecture, Brunelleschi's dome of the Florence Cathedral, and Darren Bloom's 2025 work commissioned by the Cambridge Camerata On Memory and Resonance.
Bloom's composistion was conceived for the three musicians premiering it, violinist Freya Goldmark, cellist Graham Walker and pianist Patrick Hemmerlé, and uses the Brahms piano trio as its framework. The arrangement of Dufay's densely canonic work - supposedly mirroring the proportions of Bruneschilli dome - for piano trio is also Bloom's, thereby weaving a common compositional thread through the evening's music.
Dufay Nuper Rosarum Flores
Bloom On Memory and Resonance (world premiere)
Brahms Piano Trio no 1 in B major op 8
Freya Goldmark violin
Freya Goldmark is a British violinist celebrated for her dynamic career as a soloist, chamber musician, and artistic director. Known for her passion, artistry, and adventurous programming, she performs widely across the UK, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. A Classic FM Rising Star 2025, the past two years have been a defining chapter in Freya’s career. In 2024 she made both her solo debut with the BBC Philharmonic and her Barbican concerto debut. In September 2025 she made her solo commercial recording debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, recording a new concerto written for her, to be released in 2026. Upcoming concerto appearances include Kevin Puts’ Contact with the London Pico Players and the world premiere of Dawn Chorus by Erland Cooper with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow this autumn.
Since 2022, Freya has been first violinist of the Ligeti Quartet, one of Europe’s leading voices in contemporary music. Since joining the quartet, highlights have included performances in China, Bang on a Can’s Long Play Festival in New York, a tour to Bogotá, Colombia, and collaborations with more than 100 composers. As both a soloist and chamber musician, she has appeared at many of the UK’s leading venues, including the Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Kings Place, Snape Maltings, and the Royal Albert Hall, as well as internationally at venues and festivals across Europe, North and South America, and Asia. In summer 2026, Freya was appointed Principal Second Violin of London Sinfonietta, one of the world’s leading contemporary music ensembles. She also regularly performs and tours with Scottish Ensemble. Alongside her performing career, Freya has worked with young instrumentalists and composers at institutions including the Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Royal Academy of Music, Chetham’s School of Music, The Glenn Gould School, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Xinghai Conservatory of Music, the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and McGill University.
Graham Walker cello
Graham Walker is an award-winning cellist and conductor who combines an active career directing choirs and orchestras with solo and chamber cello playing around the world. As a cellist, Graham has performed across Europe and North and South America. Graham is a highly respected choral conductor, and directs several choirs and orchestras; his first recording as a conductor, made when he was just 22, featured the music of Jean Mouton, a 16th-century Flemish composer, much of whose music was being recorded for the first time. Graham’s discography as a cellist and conductor reflects his wide musical interests. His most recent album with his Latin-American group Classico Latino (“Havana Classic”) was warmly received by critics, concert-goers and salsa nightclub DJs alike. His first two CDs with Karolos, of chamber music by Stephen Dodgson, were released in 2018 on the Naxos label to rave reviews in the critical press; their third disc, featuring Mozart’s E Flat Divertimento K563, is currently in post-production.
Graham is Director of Music at Emmanuel College Cambridge and Director of Cambridge University Schola Cantorum.
Patrick Hemmerlé piano
Patrick Hemmerlé is one of Europe’s foremost and most enigmatic pianists. Refusing to follow musical traditional conventions, he has forged a unique path in the musical world which leaves him free to immerse himself with singular dedication into the repertoire and musical expression resonating with his profoundest convictions. The results are interpretations of startling insight and originality. By dauntlessly performing all 24 Chopin Etudes or 24 of Bach’s Preludes and Fugues in a single concert, as well as championing lesser-known composers he feels a deep affinity for, he has developed a reputation as an original with something out of the ordinary to say.
A charismatic speaker, he is able to elucidate the musical concepts close to his heart with unapologetic candour in a manner that both mirrors and complements his piano playing. Not comfortable with compromise, he engages with his audience from the keyboard with an energy and integrity that leaves no-one in the room in doubt as to his musical intentions.
French born and trained at the Conservatoire de Paris under Billy Eidi, and laureate of many international piano competitions, he now lives in Cambridge, England, where he has built up a staunchly loyal following. He also performs all over the world and recent engagements have taken him to New York, Berlin, Paris, Vienna and Prague and China. He has published 5 CDs. Patrick is a member of Clare Hall, where he is in charge of the concert programme.
Darren Bloom
Described in The Times as a composer whose music is ‘almost mystical… a genuine frisson’, Darren Bloom is a London Symphony Orchestra Soundhub alumnus and was commissioned by the Orchestra to write his chamber symphony, Dr Glaser’s Experiment. He received the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize in 2016 and a commission from the Cheltenham Music Festival for his string quartet Five Brief Lessons on Physics the following year. He recently composed New Eyes for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and was commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra and Culture Mile to write Rising for a project featuring film and dance.
Darren completed a PhD in composition funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Councilat the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Richard Causton. Prior to this, he studied at the Royal College of Music with Edwin Roxburgh, the Royal Academy of Music with Brian Elias, the Dartington International Summer School with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. He co-founded and conducts the Ossian Ensemble, and has regularly conducted the London Symphony Orchestra’s new music events and recordings since 2014. Darren teaches composition and orchestration at the University of Cambridge and is Head Lead Tutor at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire Junior Department.
Event venue & nearby stays
Queens Building, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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