Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne

Former BBC Young Musician of the year, Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne was also BBC Radio 2 Young Musician 2000 and second prizewinner in the Luxemburg International Violin Competition. Born in Poland, he studied with Wen Zhou Li at the Yehudi Menuhin School, at the Royal Northern College of Music in ster and subsequently in Vienna with Gerhard Schulz where he was also a scholar at the Herbert von Karajan Centre. His studies have been generously funded by various organisations including Ashurst Morris Crisp. As a soloist Rafal has performed with many of the major UK orchestras and at venues including the South Bank, Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Bridgewater Hall and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. He also worked on several occasions with Lord Menuhin as conductor.

In 2004 Rafal became solo violinist for the international Frankfurt-based contemporary music group Ensemble Modern, with regular performances in many of the world’s top venues and contemporary music festivals. He is a member of the Piano Trio DIMENSION with cellist Thomas Carroll and pianist Richard Joo, winners of the 2005 Parkhouse Award whose performances this year include Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Abroad Rafal has performed throughout Europe as well as in the Middle East, Korea, USA, South Africa and Zimbabwe. He performed Khatchaturian’s Violin Concerto for the composer’s centenary celebrations with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra in the Yerevan International Music Festival and in 2004 Rafal performed the Dvorak Concerto with the Brighton Philharmonic.

International festival appearances include performances in Davos, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Euro Musica Vitae (Sweden), Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, Banff Festival (Canada), Domaine Forget (Quebec), Paxos (Greece) and Lancut Festival (Poland). Rafal has broadcast on TV and Radio stations in Great Britain, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland and Spain. His first commercial recording was released on the EMI Debut Series featuring works by Szymanowski, Britten and Grieg together with pianist Carole Presland. 2005 sees performances of Szymanowski No 1 and Khatchaturian Concerto in the UK and South Africa and the Arutunian Concerto in Armenia. This summer Rafal will make his Salzburg Festival debut performing Terrain by Brian Ferneyhough.