Jonathan Rees and Amadej Herzog perform a cello and accordion recital featuring Rachmaninov Vocalise

Bach Gamba Sonata in G major
Gubaidulina In Croce
Rachmaninov Vocalise
Bloch Prayer
Piazzolla Le Grand Tango

Royal Academy of Music
Jonathan Rees - cello
Amadej Herzog - accordion

Jonathan Rees currently holds a scholarship as a post-graduate student at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studies with Mats Lidstrom. He makes regular appearances as a soloist, particularly in his home town Bristol, and in Cambridge, where he studied French and German (at Gonville and Caius College), graduating in June 2008 with a I*. Whilst at University he held a Cambridge University instrumental award, played for three years in a piano-cello duo and performed the Haydn D major and Ibert cello concertos. He has also appeared as a soloist in performances of the Shostakovich, Elgar and Haydn C major concertos. He is the cellist in the Cavell quartet, which performed in October 2008 in the opening week of the new concert venue, King’s Place and participated in the 2008 Trondheim Chamber Academy, in Norway.

In his first term at the Academy he was principal cellist of the Academy Symphony Orchestra and the Manson Ensemble, presenting works by Grisey in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the London Sinfonietta. He is principal cellist in the Orion Symphony orchestra, which has recently performed in St John’s, Smith Square and the Royal Festival Hall. He was previously principal cellist in the National Youth Orchestra, and was awarded the Bulgin medal for outstanding contribution to the orchestra. He also enjoys playing baroque cello, and owns an electric cello, on which he gave in 2004 what may well have been the first ever performance in Uganda of Cassado’s solo suite for cello.

Amadej Herzog was born in Slovenia. He is currently studying the Classical Accordion for an MA in Performance at the Royal Academy of Music, London with renowned Professor Owen Murray. Amadej is a first prizewinner at several international music competitions including Italy, Croatia, Germany and Slovenia. In 2008 he graduated with BMus in Classical Accordion from the University of Pula, Croatia after his studies with Slavko Magdic and Borut Zagoranski. At the same time he was honored with a diploma for artistic efforts and outstanding contribution to the promotion of the classical accordion in the university.

In Slovenia Amadej won the Competition of Young Musicians, including a special prize for achieving the maximum 100 points. In 2003 he received the Diploma of Dr Roman Klasinc for the special achievements in Slovenian culture. He has a special music scholarship from the Ministry of Culture, Republic of Slovenia, which is awarded only to the most talented musicians. In 2008 he was also awarded the Larry Adler Scholarship.

Amadej has given many recitals internationally, most notably in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Belgium. He has also participated in masterclasses with Friedrich Lips, Matti Rantanen and Elsbeth Moser.

Amadej has taken part in several festivals: the Histria Festival (Croatia), the DAM-Fest (International Festival of Young Musicians, Serbia), Musical September (Slovenia), Musical Tribune (Croatia) and RE-Musica Prishtina (Serbia). In 2009 he gave the world premiere of “Primavera”, by Mario Ferraro.

Amadej Herzog has also recorded for Slovenian national radio and television.

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