After a week of excellent performances at the Bromsgrove International Musicians Competition, congratulations to Madeleine Brown (piano) on her success in winning the competition and to Iohan Coman (violin) and Jamie Cochrane (piano) for their success in reaching the final.

Madeleine Brown studied the piano with Helen Krizos at Chetham’s School of Music before reading music at Trinity College, Cambridge. She previously studied with Dina Parakhina, Charles Owen and Lora Dimitrova. She is now a postgraduate student at the Royal Northern College of Music as she begins her career as a pianist. She has performed in prestigious venues such as London’s Steinway Hall, King’s Place, Kettles Yard in Cambridge and for the Oxford Piano Festival. She has received masterclasses from disitinguished pianists including Stephen Kovacevich, Richard Goode, Marios Papadopoulos, Sir Stephen Hough and Peter Donohoe.

Madeleine’s programmes in the BIMC comprised Haydn’s Sonata in B minor and Debussy’s L’Isle Joyeuse in the second round, Rameau’s Suite in D and Rachmaninov’s Moment Musicaux Op 16, 1 and 4 in the semifinal and Kazimierz Serocki’s Suite of Preludes and Scriabin’s 4th Sonata in the final.

Jamie Cochrane studied at Merton College, Oxford before going on the the Royal Academy of Music for a Master’s degree studying with William Fong and Michael Dussek. He has subesequently held a Graduate Musician Residence position at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. He was the pianist in the Oxford-based contemporary music Ensemble ISIS where he worked with composers Shirley Thompson and Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

Jamie’s programmes in the BIMC comprised Marc-André Hamelin’s Suite à l’ancienne, the Bach-Siloti Prelude in B minor and Chopin’s Barcarolle in round 2, Schubert’s Impromptu in Eb and Rachmaninov’s Prelude in B minor in the semifinal and Enrique Granados’ Los requiebros from Goyescas, Stephen Hough’s Sonata Vida Breve and the Trenet/Weissenberg En Avril à Paris in the final.

Iohan Coman was born in Paris and studied at the Conservatoire Rachmaninov before moving to London in 2018 as a student of So-Ock Kim at the Royal Academy of Music. He has participated in masterclasses with Hilary Hahn, Anthony Marwood and Luke Hsu and played with leading conductors including Trevor Pinnock, Sir Simon Rattle, Semyon Bychkov and John Wilson.

Iohan’s programmes for BIMC comprised The Sarabande from Bach’s D minor Partita and Ysayë’s Ballade from Sonata 3 in round 2, the Andantino from Schubert’s Sonata Op 162 and Ysayë’s Poème Elégiaque in the semifinal and Schubert’s A major Sonata D514 and the Ysayë Poème Elégiaque in the final.

Congratulations, too, to six further semifinalists, Cherry Ge (piano), Kosta Popovic (cello), Adrian Henke (piano), Alexandra Peel (violin), Nathan Perry (double bass) and Julia Blachuta (violin) all of whom gave highly enjoyable performances in a wide range of repertoire.

Madeleine Brown, piano

Iohan Coman, violin

Jamie Cochrane, piano