About this Event
Today's Hanover Square Lunchtime Concert is given by Guy Johnston, cello, and Mishka Rushdie Momen, piano, who will perform the following programme:
Britten - Cello Sonata Op. 65
Grieg - Cello Sonata in A minor Op. 36
As always admission is free with a retiring collection
Guy Johnston is a renowned British cellist, celebrated for his exceptional skill and artistry. His early successes included winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year, and significant awards, notably the Shell London Symphony Orchestra Gerald MacDonald Award, Suggia Gift Award and a Young British Classical Performer Brit Award.
He has performed with many leading international orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, and St Petersburg Symphony. Recent seasons have included a BBC Prom with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, concertos with The Hallé, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, and Orchestra of The Swan. Most recently, he has been the featured soloist of Taverner’s ‘The Protecting Veil’ for Britten Sinfonia’s 2024 UK and Ireland tour receiving critical acclaim in The Guardian and the Arts Desk. Guy was also involved in four further performances of ‘The Protecting Veil’ with Britten Sinfonia in October 2025; at Hatfield House Music Festival, Cambridge Music Festival, and two performances at St Sophia’s Orthodox Church in London which will be recorded with Signum records.
Performances and recordings with eminent conductors have included collaborations with Alexander Dmitriev, Andrew Manze, Sir Andrew Davis, Daniele Gatti, Ilan Volkov, Leonard Slatkin, Mark Wigglesworth, Robin Ticciati, Sir Roger Norrington, Sakari Oramo, Vassily Sinaisky, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Yuri Simonov.
Guy is a passionate advocate for chamber music and recitals as founding Artistic Director of the Hatfield House Music Festival, Music at Minterne, and performs regularly at prestigious venues and festivals across Europe including Wigmore Hall, Louvre Museum, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and Three Choirs Festival, collaborating with instrumentalists such as Anthony Marwood, Brett Dean, Huw Watkins, Janine Jansen, Kathy Stott, Lawrence Power, Melvyn Tan, Mishka Rushdie Momen, Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Tom Poster.
A prolific recording artist often championing contemporary British composers, Guy’s recent releases include Dobrinka Tabakova’s Cello Concerto with The Hallé and Rebecca Dale’s ‘Night Seasons’ with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Other recordings include a premiere of Herbert Howells’ completed Cello Concerto with the Britten Sinfonia, a celebration disc of the tricentenary of his David Tecchler cello with commissions by Charlotte Bray, David Matthews, Mark Simpson and a collaboration with the acclaimed Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where the cello was made. In July 2025, Guy’s recent recording of the Bliss Cello Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra was released, coinciding with Bliss’ 50th anniversary year. Future releases also include Guy’s latest recording of Xiaogang Ye’s My Faraway Nanjing with the RLPO.
He gave the premiere of Charlotte Bray’s ‘Falling in the Fire’ at the BBC Proms and Joseph Phibbs ‘Cello Sonata’ at Wigmore Hall and most recently, gave the World Premiere of Donnacha Dennehy’s ‘Woven’, a duo for Cello and Marimba, commissioned by Westport Festival in September 2025. Other premières include two works by Matthew Kaner: Sonatina Scordatura for solo cello, a world premiere at Hatfield House Music Festival in October 2025, and a new Sonata set to premiere at Wigmore Hall in May 2026. 2026 will also see the world premiere of Joseph Phibbs’ Cello Concerto for Guy and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to a busy and versatile career as an international soloist, chamber musician and guest principal, Guy is an inspiring leader of young musicians. He was an Associate Professor of Cello at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York (2018 – 2024). He is the President of the European String Teachers Association and a Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music from September 2025. Guy is patron of several charities which promote music education for school children and young people including Music First and Future Talent. He is also a board member of the Pierre Fournier Award for young cellists.
Guy Johnston plays the 1692 Antonio Stradivari cello known as the “Segelman, ex Hart” kindly loaned to him through the Beare’s International Violin Society by a generous patron. He is a Larsen Strings Artist.
Cover photograph © Frances Marshall
Hailed as “one of the most thoughtful and sensitive of British pianists” (The Times), Mishka Rushdie Momen captivates audiences with her expressive playing.
Mishka Rushdie Momen’s wide repertoire focuses on Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, whilst reaching back to Gibbons and Rameau. Also committed to performing new music, Mishka Rushdie Momen has commissioned works by Nico Muhly and Vijay Iyer, and premiered An Inviting Object by Héloïse Werner at the Lucerne Summer Festival.
Recent and upcoming concerto highlights include debuts with Hiroshima Symphony, Royal Danish Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and Mannheim Chamber Orchestra. Further orchestral engagements to date include City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, Orchestre Nationale d’Île de France, Britten Sinfonia and play/ directing Mozart with Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, working with Dinis Sousa, Anu Tali, Christoph Koncz, Case Scaglione and Natalia Ponomarchuk.
Rushdie Momen’s last release Reformation (Hyperion, 2024) presents the works of William Byrd, John Bull, Orlando Gibbons and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, performed on the modern piano. The album was described in The Times’ selection of the best releases of 2024 as “a triumph”, as “quietly beguiling” (The Guardian), “performed with thrilling exuberance and subtlety” (The Spectator), topped the Classical Charts in July 2024 and chosen to be as a Classic FMDiscovery of the Week. Her debut solo recording, Variations, was released in October 2019 by SOMM Recordings, featuring works by Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms, and Mendelssohn.
Cover photograph © Benjamin Ealovega
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
St George's Hanover Square, St George Street, W1, St George's Hanover Square, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
