Sholto Kynoch and Kaoru Yamada began playing together on their first day as students at the Royal Academy of Music in 2002, since which time they have given countless recitals together. In April 2006 they made their debut at London’s Wigmore Hall, supported by the Kirckman Concert Society, and they appeared there again in December 2008. As recipients of a Tunnell Trust Award, they have toured extensively in Scotland. Other recent performances have taken them to the Chichester Festivities and the Maldon Festival, and they gave two concerts as part of a cycle of the complete Beethoven violin sonatas in London and Oxford. Forthcoming projects include their debut recording and a return to Wigmore Hall.
"This was idiomatic playing, vibrant and warm. Most impressive though, was the fluid interaction between the pair, reflecting the ebb and flow so central to the piece."
Seen and Heard / review of Wigmore Hall recital
Kaoru Yamada was born in Shizuoka, Japan, beginning her violin studies there at the age of three. Following her studies with Namiko Umezu and Koichiro Harada at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, she gained a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music as a post-graduate where she studied with Richard Deakin, completed with Dip RAM in 2004. During this time, she has performed regularly in Tokyo and has been playing in the Seiji Ozawa Opera Project and Saito Kinen Festival in Japan. She has just completed her study with Detlef Hahn at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Kaoru enjoys varied career as soloist, chamber musician and orchestra player. She has performed Haydn C major Concerto with the Elgar Chamber Orchestra and Berg Chamber Concerto with the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra at the St John's Smith Square.
She has worked with several orchestras in UK such as Northern Sinfonia, Hallé Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Glyndebourne Touring Orchestra. She had a debut recital at Wigmore Hall with her duo partner Sholto Kynoch in April 2006 awarded by the Kirckman Concert Society and they were invited back there in 2008 and 2009. They had recital tours in Scotland as winner of the 2005/2006 Tunnell Trust Award and had appeared in Chichester Festivities and Maldon Arts Festival.
Kaoru currently lives in London and she has been appointed sub-principal 1st violin of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Sholto Kynoch was born and lives in London (his name is of Scottish origin). He is in demand as a chamber musician and song accompanist and has performed in both capacities around the UK and abroad, regularly partnering many outstanding singers and instrumentalists. Sholto is the founder and director of the Oxford Lieder Festival, where he has accompanied some fifty song recitals over the past eight years, working with singers including Kate Royal, Mark Stone, Jonathan Lemalu and Henry Herford. Elsewhere, he has performed with tenor Ian Partridge (Winterreise at the Chelsea Schubert Festival) and soprano Joan Rodgers.
In recent seasons, he has appeared at the St Endellion, Chichester, Buxton, Cambridge Summer Music and Perth Festivals, the Chelsea Schubert Festival (with the Doric String Quartet) and Wigmore Hall, as well as a series of concerts in Sweden with violist Ylvali Zilliacus and a recital at the Berliner Konzerthaus with soprano Olja Dakic. Between January and May 2009 he performed the complete Beethoven violin sonatas in Oxford and London. Forthcoming engagements include several recording projects and concerts in Singapore (the Victoria Concert Hall) and Berlin (the Philharmonie).
Sholto read Music at Worcester College, Oxford, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His teachers have included Michael Dussek, Graham Johnson, Malcolm Martineau, Ronan O'Hora and Vanessa Latarche