The Pelléas Ensemble was formed at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2011. Playing with “verve and polish” (The Times), they won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Henderson Chamber Ensemble Award in 2018, and the 2017 Elias Fawcett Award for Outstanding Chamber Ensemble at the Royal Overseas League competition. In 2016 they won both the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize in the St Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Music Competition, and were awarded a place on the prestigious Tillett Trust Young Artists’ Programme. In 2015 they won First Prize at the British Harp Chamber Music Competition.
Their Wigmore Hall debut was praised for its “captivating vitality” and “effortlessness and delicacy” (Seen and Heard International). They have appeared live on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’, and have given numerous recitals in London and around the UK. They have been praised for creating an immediate and intimate connection with their audiences, and perform much of their repertoire from memory.
They are dedicated to performing new music, and have had four pieces written for their ensemble. Their debut album was released on Linn Records in June 2021.
Luba Tunnicliffe
Viola
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Luba has performed solo recitals at London’s Royal Festival Hall and St John's Smith Square, and made her debut as concerto soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra in June 2016. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with David Takeno and Pavlo Beznosiuk, and at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin with Simone Jandl.
Luba enjoys a busy schedule as a chamber musician playing a wide range of repertoire including new commissions. Her flute, viola & harp trio, the Pelléas Ensemble, released their critically acclaimed debut album ‘Nature and the Imagination’ on Linn Records in June 2021. Since their formation in 2011 they have performed extensively around the UK, received numerous awards and carried out much educational work in schools.
As a member of the Ruisi Quartet, Luba has participated in the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition, IMS Prussia Cove, and performed in major London venues. In late 2022 the quartet will release their debut album, containing a work especially commissioned for the ensemble by composer Oliver Leith, and also give the première of a new work by Thomas Adès in the Wigmore Hall.
Luba has performed at the BBC Proms, the Barbican, and the Wigmore Hall as Principal Viola of the 12 Ensemble, and collaborated with artists such as Jonny Greenwood, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, and Laura Marling.
Luba will be starting a job as principal viola of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra in April 2022. She has played as a guest associate principal with the Britten Sinfonia and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, as well as freelancing with groups such as the Aurora Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
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Henry Roberts
Flute
Henry studied as an undergraduate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Sarah Newbold, after which, he moved on to the postgraduate Orchestral Artistry programme, in association with the London Symphony Orchestra. During this time he was generously sponsored by the Leverhulme Arts Trust as a Guildhall School scholar.
As an award-winning chamber musician, Henry has appeared a number of times on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’ and has played in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Buckingham Palace. He regularly works with orchestras including the Hallé, Sinfonia Cymru and 12 Ensemble and recently recorded the solo flute parts for Trevor Jones’ (Notting Hill, Labyrinth) new film score for To Tokyo at Abbey Road Studios. As a soloist, he has performed Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G with the Horsham Symphony Orchestra and Mozart's Flute Quartets at Concerts in the West.
His solo recording of Debussy’s Syrinx, described as ‘a languorous performance’, (Gramophone) was released on Linn Records in 2021 and has been praised as ‘a superbly liquid performance…seductive yet with an edge to it too.’ (Planet Hugill).
Alongside performing, Henry is a passionate educator and has taught the flute at Merton Music Foundation’s Saturday music school for eight years. He has given masterclasses at York and Chichester Universities and is a member of the Kidenza orchestra, with whom he toured South East England with Peter and the Wolf in 2019. He has delivered school workshops across the UK with the Pelléas Ensemble, and regularly coaches flute choirs, wind bands and youth orchestras.
Oliver Wass
Harp
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Oliver Wass studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Imogen Barford. He graduated from the University of York with a First Class Honours degree in Chemistry.
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He recently won the Suoni d’Arpa International Competition in Italy, and will record a CD with the Tactus Label early next year. In May 2016, he became the first harpist ever to win the Guildhall Gold Medal, the Guildhall’s most prestigious prize. Previous winners of the competition include Jacqueline du Pré, Bryn Terfel and Tasmin Little. He has performed all the major harp concertos, including directing the Handel Harp Concerto in the Barbican Hall. He has also performed concertos at the London Handel Festival, the City of London Festival, with the Oxford Sinfonia, and with the World Chamber Orchestra. He won the Andrea Vigh Jury Prize at the 4th International Harp Competition Szeged. He is a Musicians’ Company Yeoman, and will give his Purcell Room debut in 2018. He is very grateful for support from the Hattori Foundation.
He made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2016, where he was praised for his “tremendous dynamism” and "remarkable range of timbres and warmth of tone” (Seen and Heard International).
