Coffee Concert Series - Christopher Horner and Giordano Ferla
The Coffee Concert Series is generously supported by The 1910 Trust.
Saturday 8th March 2025
11:00am | Llandaff Parish Hall | Free
Join us for a hot drink, piece cake and an hour of live music!
Perfect for those who enjoy live music, those who feel isolated and those in need of a warm place. Throughout the concert, audiences will enjoy delightful live music along with tea and cakes.
Our Coffee Concerts Series started as a Songs and Scones Concert during last summers Festival. These concerts are truly heart-warming experiences which bring families and friends together, offer new experiences, and allow many to re-visit memories from the past. These concerts are fully accessible and also suitable for people living with Dementia and their carers.
Salon pieces, Vignettes and Lollipops is the title for our Coffee Concert of 8th March 2025, a colourful and diverse programme performed by Christopher Horner, violin and Giordano Ferla, piano. The programme of well known and lesser known short pieces and miniatures includes works by Kreisler,Tchaikovsky and Falla.
Christopher Horner was born in London and studied violin under Deryck Wareing, Henry Rubin and Eva Graubin at the Centre for Young Musicians and Royal Academy of Music, London, Surrey University, and as a postgraduate in Barcelona. He has played as recitalist, chamber musician and freelancer throughout the UK, Europe, Asia and South Africa, including recent recitals in St. David’s Hall, Cardiff and Barcelona. Broadcasts include BBC Radio 3 and South African TV. He has worked extensively as a member of many chamber and symphony orchestras with chamber ensembles including the PM Ensemble Cardiff and the chamber group Soundwaves, Durban, South Africa.
His wide repertoire ranges from Bach to Roxburgh and he has given the UK premières of the works for violin and piano by the Lithuanian composer Juozas Gruodis (1884-1948). His Gruodis performances in Lithuania have received plaudits from authorities on the composer. His Gruodis CD with pianist John Lenehan on the Discovery label has been praised for its “warmth and virtuosity.” For some years he was Deputy Head of Strings at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and now combines performing with teaching violin at Howell’s School, Cardiff, Monmouth School and privately. He has wide international experience as a Jury member in competitions, as an adjudicator, and is an Examiner for Trinity College London. He plays a violin by the Barcelona luthier David Bagué, which is a copy of the 1744 ‘Ole Bull’ Guarnerius del Gesù.
“A very fine violinist and musician… performances of intelligence and musical integrity.”
Hugh Bean CBE
Giordano Ferla was born in Rome, Italy. He began playing piano at an early age with Michele Massaro. He gained a place at the ‘S. Cecilia’ Conservatoire in Rome at the age of 10 and graduated with honours from the ‘A. Casella’ conservatoire in l’Aquila under Maria Mosca. He graduated from the Royal College of Music in London studying with Ashley Wass and Sofya Gulyak, completed his postgraduate studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music with Graham Caskie, generously supported by the ‘Mary Rees’ Scholarship and continued his studies in Cardiff with Alison Bowring.
He has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist in Italy, Germany, the UK, Isle of Man and Romania and has performed L. v Beethoven’s concerto no. 3 in C minor for piano and Orchestra in London and F. Chopin concerto no.1 in E minor with the Repco symphony orchestra.
A prize-winner in National and International competitions, his interest in contemporary music has led to regular collaborations, giving the first performance of Mario Riberio’s concerto for piano, saxophone and string orchestra with the Vision Ensemble in the Dora Stouzker Hall. In November 2019 he performed in Cardiff University Concert Hall together with the Mavron quartet, LUDWIG, composed by Charlie Barber, the project was later repeated at the Three Choirs Festival in 2021.
Giordano was accepted onto the Live Music Now scheme and is the Musical Director of Serenata Singers. He worked as a piano and chamber music tutor at the RWCMD Junior Conservatoire and regularly collaborates with the Senior Department.
