Formed in 2021, the Elgar Ensemble is a collective of players who celebrate British music and champion the unsung heroes of the 19th and 20th century British repertoire. Taking inspiration from the Worcestershire titan, Sir Edward Elgar, it is their mission to showcase the breadth and romantic scope of the music of his time and how this fits into the repertoire timeline. Partly due to Britain’s lack of an individualistic style, much of the pre-Elgarian repertoire has been lost or forgotten and it is Elgar Ensemble’s mission to revive these works and bring them into mainstream concert programmes.
Elgar Ensemble were 2021-22 Junior Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where they were mentored by Professors Carole Presland, Jacqueline Ross and members of the Endellion String Quartet, who were of particular inspiration. In 2022 and again in 2025, Elgar Ensemble was invited to participate in the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival Summer Residencies where they enjoyed working closely with, among others, members of the London Bridge Trio and Brodsky and Lindsay Strings Quartets.
The Ensemble gives regular recitals across Worcestershire and London.
CHARLIE BROOKES • VIOLIN
Malvern-born violinist Charlie Brookes has been fortunate to study with some of the UK’s finest violinists, including Lucy Gould (Gould Piano Trio) and Itzhak Rashkovsky at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Joshua Fisher and Alexander Sitkovetsky during his Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At both RWCMD and the Academy, Charlie was selected as a member of their respective String Soloist ensembles where he closely collaborated with artists including Henning Kraggerud, Adrian Brendel and Clio Gould for events at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Buckingham Palace. Throughout his studies, Charlie was generously supported by the Elmley Foundation, Winship Foundation, Clive and Sylvia Richards Charity, EMI Music Sound Foundation and the Royal Philharmonic Society.
Charlie is currently pursuing a Professional Diploma at the Royal Academy of Music under the guidance of Alex Redington (Doric Quartet) and Sini Simonen (Castalian Quartet).
Charlie enjoys a varied career of teaching and freelancing with ensembles including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, English National Ballet, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Ulster Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and English Symphony Orchestra.
Charlie is the founder of Elgar Ensemble and plays an Italian violin by Antonio Pelizon made in Gorizia in 1810.
Daryl Giuliano • CELLO
Canadian cellist Daryl Giuliano performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. She is known for her expressive playing through which she embodies the music. Daryl specialises in Romantic and Modern repertoire and has worked with many contemporary composers. She also enjoys improvising as part of her performance. Daryl searches to find ways to bring colour and energy to her work through inspiration and collaboration with literature and visual art.
Daryl has won prizes with World Vision Music Contest and Virtuoso & Belcanto Music Festival. She is a member of Elgar Ensemble with whom she performed at Wye Valley Festival summer 2025. Daryl is a founding member of Trio Sonorité with whom she has recorded an album and toured internationally, appearing on radio and television in Lithuania and the UK. She has given recitals throughout the UK, Europe, and North America. As a member of Celia Quartet, she has recorded on the album playing outside for composer Anthony Esland and performed for the Harrow Festival in September 2024.
Recent appearances include a performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto with Hounslow Symphony in London, UK, duo and solo performances at the World Culture Festival in Karachi, Pakistan, as well as a performance as part of the more than 26-hour continuous concert for a Guinness World Record of longest performance of works entirely be female composers through the Donne Foundation.
Daryl has had the pleasure to work in masterclasses with renowned cellists including Alain Meunier, Adrian Brendel, Maria Kliegel, Robert Cohen, Michel Strauss, Valérie Aimard, Andres Diaz, and Manuel Fischer-Dieskau amongst others at the Royal Academy of Music, Conservatoire de Bourg-la-Reine, Orford Music Festival in Québec, Canada, and Virtuoso&Belcanto Festival in Lucca, Italy.
She began her studies at the piano before starting cello at the age of twelve with Glenn Fischbach in the United States. In 2005, Daryl won the Armstrong Atlantic Youth Orchestra’s Concerto Competition and performed as soloist with them the following spring. Since that time, she has also appeared as soloist with the Amici Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Bourg-la-Reine/Sceaux.
Her passion for music brought her to Paris, France to study with Étienne Cardoze and then to London where she received her Master of Music degree in the studio of Felix Schmidt at the Royal Academy of Music. She plays an unknown German cello from 1890.
Website: darylgiuliano.com
YouTube: Daryl Giuliano
Instagram: @Darylgiuliano
Fionnuala Ward • PIANO
A graduate of the Royal College of Music studying with Ashley Wass, Irish pianist Fionnuala Ward enjoys a diverse musical career, and is in demand across London as a chamber musician, accompanist and orchestral pianist. Recent solo performances include Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Laganside Sinfonia, performances as part of the RCM Rush Hour Recital series and the RCM Keyboard Festival, and in 2018 she made her debut at St John’s Smith Square performing Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F. With a strong affinity for orchestral piano, she was selected for the London Philharmonic Foyle Future Firsts scheme in 2020, and has since freelanced with orchestras including the LPO, Philharmonia, RSNO, London Mozart Players, English National Ballet Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra and Sinfonia Smith Square, with whom she was delighted to make her BBC Proms debut in 2024. She was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra as principal pianist from 2018-2020, including a performance at the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day in Paris for world leaders, including President Macron. In 2021 she was invited to the inaugural Grafenegg Academy pioneered by Colin Currie and Hakan Hardenberger, and returned for a second year in 2022, performing Bartok’s ‘Music for Strings Percussion and Celeste’ to be broadcast on German radio. Her orchestral career has allowed her to work under conductors including Gianandrea Noseda, Manfred Honeck, Vasily Petrenko, Ed Gardner and Karina Canellakis, performing in esteemed and venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Köln Philharmonie, Royal Concertgebouw, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, London Coliseum, Royal Festival Hall and Snape Maltings. Her collaborative work has included playing for various institutions and conservatoire’s entrance and orchestral auditions, workshopping new compositions with Hard Rain Ensemble at Queen’s University in Belfast, and depping on keys for the national tours of My Fair Lady and Wicked.
Before moving to London, Fionnuala received a First Class Honours degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, studying under Korean pianist, Sinae Lee. Born in Co. Derry, she began playing piano at the age of 4, under tuition from Irish concert pianist Ruth McGinley. She was requested to perform for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at 15, and has also performed live on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Ulster. During her time at the RCS, she won the Peter Lindsay Miller Prize for piano duo, and received Highly Commended in the Governors’ Recital Prize. Performance highlights in Scotland include a solo recital at the Edinburgh Fringe, collaborating with the Red Note Ensemble conducted by Garry Walker, performing at the Aberdeen International Festival and working extensively with Les Sirenes Female Chamber Choir, which she accompanied for five years. Named Choir of the Year in 2012, Fionnuala recorded two commercial albums with the ensemble for Albion Records and Nimbus Records, and performed frequently throughout the UK, including at Glasgow Cathedral, Bridgewater Hall and the Royal Festival Hall. In 2013, she spent a semester abroad studying at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Poland with Zbigniew Raubo and Piotr Banasik, and in 2015 she was invited to attend the Young Artists Programme at the Clandeboye Festival, receiving private lessons with Barry Douglas. In the same year she competed in the City of Cantu International Concerto Competition in Italy, and in 2016 she was selected as the first recipient of the Peter Rankin pianist internship for Northern Ireland Opera’s Festival of Voice, receiving coaching from Iain Burnside. Other masterclasses include Peter Donohoe, John O’Conor, Roy Howat, Pascal Roge, Barry Douglas, Richard Goode, Philip Kawin and Malcolm Martineau.
Fionnuala is also an accomplished violinist, which has greatly added to the versatility of her career in London, affording her the opportunity to perform with many orchestras, including concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, at the Barbican with Street Orchestra Live, freelance recording at Abbey Road, and touring Prague as a principal with Imperial College Symphony Orchestra. Outside of the traditional concert hall, Fionnuala has over the years performed in primary school Christmas shows, prisons, care homes, train stations, on cruise ships, in a tango band, a chemotherapy ward, supermarkets, a skate park, ballet studios, housing estates, nightclubs, Italian piazzas, and countless churches and cathedrals. In her free time, she enjoys drinking too much coffee, petting stray cats, and watching as many iterations of Drag Race as possible.