Lunchtime Music

Maia Roberts flute/piccolo
Joanne Sealey piano

Amanda Harberg Piccolo Sonata
Sigried Karg-Elert Symfonische Kanzone Op.114

Jiayi Chen piano

Prokofiev Piano Sonata No.4 in C minor, Op.29
Debussy Feux d'artifice - from Préludes Book 2

Maia Roberts (pictured) is from South Cornwall, where she first heard the flute being performed by her soon-to-be flute teacher at the age of seven. She was immediately drawn to its unique sound and began lessons straight away. Since then, she has enjoyed improving as a musician and gaining many experiences such as performing Syrinx in the Hall for Cornwall aged 12, Il Gardellino in Truro Cathedral, and as part of the IMS Prussia Cove project. By the age of 13, she had completed her grade 8 with distinction. She gained much success in local competitions, including the Cornwall Music Festival where she won the Concerto class, grade 8 category, and the highest mark of the festival. She has been performing publicly since the age of ten in various charity concerts, raising money for organisations such as the Children’s Hospice, British Heart Foundation and Cornwall Air Ambulance.

Maia has been studying at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire for three years under Marie Christine-Zupancic, Andrew Lane, Helen Benson and Alena Walentin. She has been a member of the CBSO Youth orchestra since her first year, gained a place on the CBSO training scheme in her first and third years, and been awarded the Piccolo Prize in the British Flute Society Competition. Maia has participated in various Conservatoire projects including the Symphony Orchestra, Repertoire Orchestra, the CODA Festival and LEAP.

Maia has a passion for the ocean and enjoys spending her free time exploring the Cornish underwater world.

Jiayi Chen began to learn the piano at the age of six and started her professional music studies in Xinghai Conservatory, China in 2015. she was taught by associate professor Ying Long, Pengjie Sun, Jingsong Xian, Galyna Popova, Dengbing Gao, Aleksei Kostenko and Tatiana Kostenko.

Jiayi went on to commence her undergraduate studies at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where in her first year she studied with Jan Loeffler, and with Associate Head Of Keyboard Daniel Browell for the next three years. During her undergraduate study, Jiayi enjoyed working with other musicians, and successfully held a lunchtime concert in her final year. She successfully performed the Poulenc Double Piano Concerto with orchestra on 1 April 2022 as her BMus final project. In the same year, She also held her personal concert series called “Soundbites Concert”.

Jiayi is currently studying for the Advanced Postgraduate at RBC with Pascal Nemirovski (International Chair in Piano) and Daniel Browell.

Running time approx. one hour