Ensemble Mirage
About Ensemble Mirage
Ensemble Mirage evolved from the award winning ensemble Trio Mirage, which formed in early 2014; with British clarinettist Matthew Scott, Hungarian violinist Júlia Pusker and Romanian pianist Alexandra Vaduva. Having met earlier in their studies at the Royal Academy of Music, they began exploring the diverse range of repertoire their trio setting offered. They soon won the Academy’s Harold Craxton Prize and were awarded a 2015/16 Chamber Music Fellowship, during which they worked with Academy composers to produce new works for the ensemble alongside chamber recitals.
To explore larger repertoire Trio Mirage began collaborating with other musicians, resulting in Ensemble Mirage. Individually all members are award winning artists in their own right, active across all areas of the profession including solo, chamber, orchestral and outreach work. Through schemes including the Countess of Munster Musical Trust Recital Scheme and Making Music’s Award for Young Concert Artists, the ensemble has performed in various flexes for Music Societies and Festivals throughout the UK. Highlights include performances at The Lantern Colston Hall, The Two Moors Festival, China Exchange, and the Norfolk and Norwich Festival.
Ensemble Mirage provided a sparkling and varied programme. They began with Mozart’s charming Kegelstatt trio for this then new clarinet, viola and piano combination, and concluded with Jean Francaix’s trio of just over two hundred years later, in which he pays tribute to its predecessor. In between, one of Bruch’s Eight Pieces for the format and Schumann’s Fairy Tales provided lyrical delights and soloistic opportunities for the viola and clarinet. However, opinion among the audience seemed to give Alfred Uhl’s Kleines Konzert, which closed the first half with zing, inventiveness and some startling key changes, top billing. I suspect hardly any of us had heard of him before the concert and most of us will be delighted to hear him again. All-in-all, we enjoyed a very successful and well-attended concert.