Craig Ogden was born in Perth, Western Australia, and began studying the guitar at the age of seven. He completed his music degree with honours at the University of Western Australia before moving to the United Kingdom in 1990. Craig undertook two years of performance study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester from which he graduated in 1992 with the highest award possible for performance, the Professional Performance Diploma with distinction. He now teaches at the RNCM, of which he has recently been made a fellow.
In the United Kingdom, Craig has performed concertos with all the major orchestras.
He has recorded several CDs for Hyperion, Nimbus and Chandos. Craig's most recent concerto recording is of the Guitar Concertos by Lennox Berkeley and Malcolm Arnold (Chan 9963). He recorded for the soundtrack to the film Notting Hill. In April 2005, Craig made his debut at the Lincoln Centre in New York. His performances are broadcasted regularly on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM.
An accomplished chamber musician, Craig regularly appears with his wife, the mezzo-soprano Claire Bradshaw, and with several other musicians in various combinations.
Craig has appeared many times with Leeds Symphony Orchestra since 1994, playing the Concierto de Aranjuez and the Fantasie para un gentilhombre, both by Rodrigo, and the concertos by Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Malcolm Arnold.
Leeds Symphony Orchestra has commissioned two guitar concertos, both dedicated to Craig and Martin Binks, who gave the first performances. First was Arthur Butterworth's Guitar Concerto in 2000 and the second was Richard Kenwood-Herriott's Black Island concerto in 2006. Both concertos have been performed several times to great popular acclaim.
Marat Bisengaliev was born in Kazakhstan in 1962 and made his debut at the age of nine. He studied the violin at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow with Boris Belinky and Valery Klarnov. Marat's repertoire is vast, and a number of composers have written works especially for him to perform. In 1989, he founded the Kazakh Chamber Orchestra with which he toured as a soloist throughout Europe. In 1997, he was appointed as an Artistic Director of the Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra.
Marat settled in England in 1991 and has subsequently performed with most of the major orchestras in the United Kingdom. His performances are frequently broadcast on radio and television here and in the Republic of Ireland, Poland, Germany, Spain, Russia and France. Recently, he has been to Hong Kong with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Other recent highlights include his debuts at Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall.
Marat made his concerto debut in England playing Beethoven's concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Marat first appeared with Leeds Symphony Orchestra in 1999 when he played the first concerto of Max Bruch. Since then, he has played the concertos of Brahms, Sibelius, Saint-Saëns (No. 3) and Beethoven with the Orchestra. In May 2008, he returns to play the Khachaturian violin concerto.
Jamie Walton commenced his musical studies at Wells Cathedral School with Margaret Moncrieff. He graduated at the Royal Northern College of Music following which he gave numerous recitals and concert performances throughout Europe.
In July 1996 he gave his Wigmore Hall debut recital (Felix Aprahamian wrote that it was one of the most memorable concerts he had heard) and has since enjoyed further invitations to perform at this venue.
Recently he participated in the Royal Society of Musicians Jaqueline du Pre Memorial Concert.
Jamie has given recitals at various music festivals (including Harrogate and Cheltenham), with additional appearances at major orchestral concert venues in Birmingham, London, and Manchester. Last year he gave an acclaimed performance of the Haydn C Major cello concerto with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and appeared with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra in Sullivan's concerto at Symphony Hall, Birmingham
He plays on a 1765 Guadagnini cello.
Rustom Battiwalla was born in London and started playing the piano at the age of five. Whilst at school he studied both piano and double bass and spent several years as a member of the London Schools Symphony Orchestra. In 1987 he went to the Guildhall School of Music where he studied piano with Peter Bithell. In 1989 he was awarded an Associateship with Honours in piano performance by the Royal College of Music before graduating with a First Class degree from the Guildhall in 1990.
Since then Rustom has been very active as a performer. As a soloist he has a particular interest in the music of Haydn, Brahms and Rachmaninov, and he is also frequently involved in piano duet and duo recitals as well as working with a variety of other instrumentalists. Since 1996, Rustom has performed concertos by Mozart, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky in Yorkshire. He has performed Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto and Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini with Leeds Symphony Orchestra.
His other interests include railways, jazz, and the writings of P.G. Woodhouse.
Claire Bradshaw was born in Yorkshire and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and at The National Opera Studio in London. Whilst at the RNCM, she won most of the College's main vocal awards and was also a finalist in the 1992 Kathleen Ferrier Awards.
While still at the National Opera Studio, Claire made her debut with Scottish Opera as Cherubino in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. Since then, her roles have included Hansel in Hansel and Gretal and Maddalena in Rigoletto. Claire sings regularly with Welsh National Opera where her roles have been, amongst others, Suzuki in Madam Butterfly and Mercedes in Carmen. She returns to WNO next year as Suzuki and also as Emilia in Otello. She has sung in recent opera productions in France, Holland and Singapore as well as on the concert platform all over the UK. Claire was invited to sing at Buckingham Palace for the celebrations of the Prince of Wales' fiftieth birthday.
Claire is married to the guitarist Craig Ogden. Her debut with the Orchestra was in 2004 when she was the soloist in Elgar's Sea Pictures. This was followed in 2006 by performances of Berlioz' song cycle Les nuits d'été. In November 2007, Claire returned to sing Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen and arias from Mozart's Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro.