Benaud Duo

Benaud Duo on CD

2008-07-19T02:28:00.000-07:00

Our live performance of Matthew Shlomowitz's "Deirdre's Threat" at the University of California at Davis has been released on the "Music from Stanford" CD on the INNOVA label. Click here for details and to hear it.

Biographies of Kirsten and Roderick

2008-07-17T07:36:00.000-07:00

Australian violinist Kirsten Le Strange moved to London in 1998 to do post graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music studying with Lydia Mordkovich, for which she received a DipRAM. Kirsten was a prize winner and finalist of the Australian Young Performer of the Year Award and the Tibor Varga (Switzerland) competitions and has performed as a soloist with Sydney and Melbourne Symphony orchestras, Baden Baden Philharmonie, Oxford Sinfonia and the orchestras of the Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Royal Academy music schools.

Kirsten has been guest concert master of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra and as Principal Second of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed contemporary music extensively with the IXION and Plus Minus new music ensembles. Since 2006 she has been a member of the Royal Covent Garden Opera and Ballet Orchestra.

English pianist Roderick Chadwick was born in Manchester in 1974, and studied at St Catharine’s College Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. Widely active as a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed at many of Britain’s most prominent venues, including the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, Wigmore Hall, and the Aldeburgh, Buxton, Brighton and Huddersfield Festivals. He made his London South Bank debut playing the Tippett Piano Concerto at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. A devotee of contemporary repertoire, he has given world premieres of numerous works, and performs regularly with ensembles such as CHROMA, New Music Players and Plus-Minus. He made the first of many broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 at the age of 14, and has also broadcast in France, Japan and South Korea, amongst other countries.

Roderick Chadwick collaborates regularly with violinists Chloë Hanslip and Narimichi Kawabata, with whom he has performed at venues such as Seoul Arts Centre, Auditorium du Louvre, Schloss Elmau and Tokyo Opera City. He has recently featured on releases made by Guild Records, Innova (US) and Victor (Japan). Roderick lives in London is a member of the teaching staff at the Royal Academy of Music.

Repertoire we have performed

2008-07-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

The Benaud Duo performs mainstream 19C repertoire, and especially love to play the sonatas of Beethoven and Brahms.

Fritz Kreisler is our favourite violin show-off music composer and we have played many of his charming pieces. In this vain we have also played:

Ravel -- Tzigane
Saint-Saens -- Introduction, Rondo and Capriccio
Weiniawski -- Fantasy on themes from Gonoud' "Faust"

We are also keen on much music from the early twentieth century and have performed pieces such as:

Bartok -- 6 Romanian Dances
Bax -- Legend
Debussy -- Violin Sonata
Ives -- Fourth Sonata ("Children's Day at the Camp Meeting")
Janacek -- Violin Sonata
Prokofiev -- First Sonata, Second Sonata & Five melodies
Satie -- Choses vues à droite et à gauche; sans lunettes

Here is the contemporary music we have played. We were proud to play these two Finnissy pieces at the Finnissy Weekend Festival that celebrated his sixtieth birthday and was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Feldman -- Spring of Chosroes
Finnissy -- Mississippi Hornpipes
Finnissy -- Seterjentens Fridag
Lutoslawski -- Subito
Shlomowitz -- Deirdre's Threat

About the Benaud Duo

2008-07-17T07:07:00.000-07:00

Formed in 2000, the Benaud Duo features Australian violinist Kirsten Le Strange and English pianist Roderick Chadwick. Based in London, the Benaud Duo perform neglected and contemporary music alongside mainstream repertoire.

The Benaud Duo takes its name from Richie Benaud, the Australian cricketer who played in the 1950s and 1960s and since his retirement as a player has become the world's preeminent cricketing commentator. We won't try to make any spurious connections between cricket and music; we choose the name as we both love cricket, both love Richie, and we try to emulate the high standards in chamber music as he did on the field and with a microphone!

The Benaud Duo has performed at the:
Bath Pump Room
University of California, Davis
Stanford University
Brunel University
Glenilla Arts Foundation
Oslo Ny Musik
Royal Academy of Music, London