Mithras Trio win CAVATINA Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition

Congratulations to the Mithras Trio, who won first prize at the annual CAVATINA Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition. The Mithras Trio are violinist Ionel Manciu (Artist Diploma Violin), cellist Leo Popplewell (Guildhall Artist Masters Cello) and pianist Dominic Degavino (Guildhall Artist Masters Piano)

Piano trios from five UK music colleges and conservatoires performed Beethoven's Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11 in front of judges from the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust, with the Guildhall ensemble selected as the competition winners by this year’s judge Erica Jeal, classical music critic for The Guardian and deputy editor of Opera Magazine.

This is the second year in a row that Guildhall musicians have won the competition. The Accendo Quartet were winners in 2018, performing Beethoven’s Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4. The Accendo Quartet are violinst Sabine Sergejeva (BMus Violin), violinist Juliette Roos (Fellow, Violin), violist Alexander McFarlane (Fellow, Viola) and cellist Daniel Benn (Cello 2014).

The competition alternates annually between string quartets and piano trios, and is funded by the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust, with second prize endowed by the Elias Fawcett Trust.

The origins of the present intercollegiate chamber music competition go back to the Heller Quartet Prize, founded and endowed in 1961 by Rosemary Rapaport in memory of her husband, Gerard Heller. The competition was given a fresh endowment by the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust in 2012.