Praised as an “eloquent trumpet soloist” (The Times), Matilda Lloyd captivates audiences with her artistry, communication, and musicality. Casta Diva, her debut album for Chandos Records was BBC Music Magazine’s Recording of the Month in June 2023, with a five-star review describing it as an “album full of delights… Lloyd plays with intense expression and immense warmth.” Nominated by the Barbican Centre London and Konserthuset Stockholm, Matilda will be a European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) Rising Star for the 2024/25 season, performing on some of Europe’s most prestigious stages.

In the 2023/24 season, Matilda returns to the UK to perform with Ulster Orchestra and joins BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for Shostakovich’s Concerto No.1 with Federico Colli and Sir Mark Elder. She performs the same concerto for her Italian debut with Lucas Debargue and the orchestra of the Teatro San Carlo under the baton of Marco Armiliato.

Invitations from orchestras all over Europe will lead her to the Orchestre National de Lille with Ben Glassberg, Georgisches Kammerorchester Ingolstadt with Killian Farrell, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz with Paweł Kapuła, Prague Royal Philharmonic, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen. This coming season also sees Matilda embark on three recording projects for Chandos Records, including a concerti disc with London Symphony Orchestra and a trumpet and organ disc.

Robin Haigh is currently writing a new concerto for Matilda, co-commissioned by Britten Pears Arts and Ulster Orchestra, with the world premiere taking place in June 2024. Ongoing chamber music collaborators next season include the Gesualdo Six vocal consort, pianists Martin Cousin and Kunal Lahiry, organist Richard Gowers, and the Solus Trumpet Ensemble, which she founded. She also forms a new duo with guitarist Alexandra Whittingham, touring Ireland together in April 2024.

Recent highlights include a series of launch concerts for Casta Diva, with Oulu Sinfonia under Rumon Gamba and with Britten Sinfonia at Wigmore Hall. Concerto appearances include her Polish debut with Pomeranian Philharmonic, a UK tour with Bath Festival Orchestra, and performances with Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Sinfonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, Manchester Camerata and Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern.

Music education and the wellbeing of musicians are very important to Matilda. She is a London Mozart Players’ Education Ambassador and gives regular masterclasses and talks in the UK and abroad, including at the International Trumpet Guild Conference in Minneapolis in June 2023. She also joins the faculty of the Bjersted Brass Festival in Norway in September 2023. Matilda has her own podcast, Musical Roots, on which she interviews guests from all over the classical music industry about their journeys, successes and challenges. From September 2023, Matilda is proud to be an Ambassador for the charity Brass for Africa, and is looking forward to her trip to Uganda in February 2024.

A graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, Matilda went on to study under Håkan Hardenberger at the Malmö Academy of Music. In 2014, Matilda won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Brass Final and made her BBC Proms solo debut two years later with Alpesh Chauhan and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Matilda has won many prizes at international competitions, including First Prize at the Eric Aubier International Trumpet Competition in Rouen, France in 2017. Matilda is a Yamaha Artist. 

Instagram: @matildalloydtrumpet / www.matildalloyd.com

After studying classical guitar, piano, jazz guitar and composition at Chetham’s School of Music for seven years, Alexandra Whittingham gained a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Having been awarded first class honours and the Timothy Gilson Guitar Prize in 2019, she returned to the Royal Academy the following year to complete her master's degree. She graduated with a distinction, a Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music (awarded for an outstanding performance in a final recital) and the Regency Award for distinguished studentship.

In May 2021 Alexandra released her debut studio album My European Journey, which explores the guitar’s great coming of age in nineteenthcentury Europe. The album reached No.1 on the iTunes Classical Chart as well as taking first place on The Presto Chart solely through preorders before its release. In the following year Alexandra was named as one of Classic FM’s ‘Rising Stars’, who also described her as 'a young artist with huge potential to shape the classical world’.

Maintaining an active online presence, Alexandra has gained over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube during recent years, where videos of her performances have collectively surpassed 48 million views. Her audience online has lead to live performances all over the world including at the Cayman Islands Arts Festival, Texas’ South by Southwest Festival and the British Embassy in Paris. She also

played a twenty-seven date tour throughout Germany, Holland and Austria in 2022.

Closer to home Alexandra has performed at London's Abbey Road Studios, County Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall, the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and Wells Cathedral. She has also appeared as a concerto soloist with Gorton Philharmonic Orchestra, Dorset Chamber Orchestra and Orquestra Vigo 430 with whom she performed three concerts in Spain in 2021.

She is delighted to be an Augustine Strings artist, using their Regal Blue range, and plays a 2011 Christopher Dean guitar.

The Irish composer Greg Caffrey read music at Queen’s University Belfast, studying composition under Prof. Piers Hellawell and complexist composer James Clarke, completing a PhD in 2002. His music is commissioned and performed internationally and available on 13 record labels.

Numerous awards for composition include: First Prize at the Concorso Counterpoint, Italy in May 2012, finalist in the ISME- IVME 2nd International Composition Contest in Brussels in 2008; Taukay Edizioni Musicali International Composition Prize in 2012, and the Musica Domani International Composition Prize (USA).

His orchestral work A Terrible Beauty was designated a “recommended work” in the 4th Uuno Klami International Composition Prize by a jury which included Magnus Lindberg and Erkki-Sven Tüür. Environments II, for guitar and orchestra was a prizewinning work in the chamber orchestra music category of the International Conductors Union Composition Contest, Ukraine in 2021.

He was selected to represent Ireland at ISCM World Music Days in China 2021. Recently he was awarded the Major Individual Award. This award is the highest value honour bestowed by ACNI on artists. Greg was additionally the recipient of the prestigious PRSf 2022 Composers Award.

Greg was founder of Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble and served as their Artistic Director for 10 years.