This year, we welcome three students from the Conservatório Regional do Algarve Maria Campina at Faro. The programme opens with eleven year-old Richard Rait, a grade four student of Professora Oxana Anikeeva. Richard enrolled at a piano school in Switzerland at the age of eight, and has won prizes in the Canadian International Competition (2020); the French International online competition (2021) and the Sebastião Leiria Competition in Tavira (2022). Richard will play pieces by Bach, Chopin, Liszt and Schumann.

After the interval, twelve year-old Yi Rong Chen (known as Margarida) presents works by Haydn, Costa and Gliere. Now at grade three, Margarida has studied at the Conservatório for two years with Professora Irene Ainstein and has been a prize winner at the International Competition Santa Cecilia do Porto (in 2021) and also at this year´s Sebastião Leiria Competition in Tavira, She has also attended the masterclass run by Professor Álvaro Teixeira Lopes.

Our final student star will be sixteen year-old Angélica Ryzhak, whom we welcome back since she has performed at the previous years´ Student Concerts sponsored by the Association. She is a seventh grade student of Professora Oxana Anikeeva, and has won prizes at Tavira, Oeiras, Imola, in Turkey and at Faro itself. She has attended the masterclasses of Marlies van Gent and Maria Nemtsova, and has participated in piano festivals Viagem na minha Terra in Milan in both 2018 and 2019. She plays works by Haydn, Brandão and Titov.

It is the Association´s custom to make a donation to the Conservatório for use in sponsoring disadvantaged students, for example enabling youngsters to attend concerts which they might otherwise miss. The Student Concert is an appropriate time to show our support for the Conservatório, and Olga Cruz, secretary of the Administrative Council will represent the Conservatório at this event.

Tickets at €20 including snacks and drinks during the interval are available from Lynne by email at lynne.algarvehistory@gmail.com