Welcome to the Lewis Eady Emerging Artists Series in collaboration with CLEF | Chiron Lewis Eady Foundation.

Recital with Abhinath Berry
7.30pm, Friday 29 September
Lewis Eady Steinway NZ Showroom

Abhinath Berry is a pianist and composer from Dunedin, New Zealand.

He began self-study of the piano at the age of 15, and has been studying piano with Blair Professor Terence Dennis since 2019. He attained a Bachelor of Music with first-class Honours in Performance and Composition from the University of Otago’s School of Performing Arts in 2022. Abhinath has recently been named the winner of Creative New Zealand’s Jack McGill Scholarship, and a Dame Malvina Major Foundation Arts Excellence Award. Since 2019, he has been awarded all possible prizes from the School of Performing Arts in performance, composition, and academic music. In his final year, he was awarded the Victor Galway Medal, Simon Gibson Memorial Prize, Charles Begg Prize, Prestige Scholarship in Music, and the Ida G. White Memorial Prize.

Abhinath was awarded a Young Artists’ Award from the Wagner Society of New Zealand and has recently presented a second national recital tour featuring works of Liszt and Wagner-Liszt. In 2021, he was awarded a FAME Emerging Practitioner Award, and the coveted Graduates’ Association award for Outstanding Contribution to Arts and Culture.

Abhinath is also a composer, and was the winner of the 2022 Lilburn Prize for his Sonata-Fantasie for solo piano, and in 2021 for his String Quartet No. 2. His work Prologue from Metamorphoses was selected for the Todd Corporation Young Composers' Award, and was performed and recorded by the NZSO. At present, Abhinath is continuing to present recitals across New Zealand, and is exploring options for postgraduate study abroad.

Welcome to the Lewis Eady Emerging Artists Series in collaboration with CLEF | Chiron Lewis Eady Foundation.

Recital with Charles Coop
2.30pm, Sunday 30 July
Lewis Eady Steinway NZ Showroom

Charles Coop, a French pianist with close family links to New Zealand and New Zealand nationality, started studying piano at the age of six under the guidance of Françoise Lepape, then with Michel Wiggers at the Uccle Music Academy. 

At the age of 15 Charles was admitted to the class of Aleksandar Madzar at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels through the “Young Talents” programme. 

He has participated in numerous masterclasses with renowned artists such as Shai Wosner, Vitaly Samoshko, Mateusz Borowiak, Jura Margulis, Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort, Boyan Vodenitcharov, Pascal Godart, Andrea Luchessini and Kyoko Hashimoto.

Charles was awarded the 2nd prize at the Liège piano competition in 2018, and the 2nd prize at the Forte International competition in Brussels in 2022.  He has performed the Grieg piano concerto with the Leuven Student Orchestra and a Beethoven piano concerto with the KCB Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Wouter Versavel. 

Charles is a member of Duo Athenaeum, a piano duo created with Romanian pianist Antonia Tudose, currently exploring 4-hand repertoire by French and Romanian composers.