artists
Thomas Mathias
Artistic director
Welsh violinist Thomas Mathias has been broadcast live as a soloist on S4C Television and BBC Radio Cymru, and has given recitals across Europe and North America. Thomas is an Associate Artist of the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) and Countess of Munster Trust. He won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Julius Isserlis Scholarship and is a Hattori Foundation prize winner.
Thomas has performed as a soloist with orchestras in the UK and USA. Season highlights include The Lark Ascending with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and the world premiere of Kian Ravaei’s violin concerto with Sinfonia Cymru. In 2023, Thomas gave the UK premiere of Tessa Lark’s Ysaye Shuffle.
As a chamber musician, Thomas has shared the stage with Steven Isserlis, Lawrence Power, Atar Arad, and Kyung Sun Lee. He is regularly invited to appear at IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music. Thomas joined the acclaimed Mithras Trio in 2026, kindly supported by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, and has served as Concertmaster of Ballet Indiana Orchestra since 2022.
Thomas completed an Artist Diploma at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying with Mauricio Fuks and Alex Kerr. Previous teachers include So-Ock Kim, Alexander Stikovetsky, and Leland Chen at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Northern College of Music. For four years, Thomas served as teaching assistant to Professor Mauricio Fuks at Indiana University. An avid researcher into violin practice, Thomas has been invited to give presentations at conferences across the world, including in Japan, Poland, and the USA. He was awarded a Presser Foundation award for his work, and was published in the Journal of Research in Music Education and Sage Journals in 2025.
Thomas is Artistic Director of the Tenby International Music Festival in Wales, United Kingdom. Thomas plays a Carlo Tononi violin kindly loaned to him through the J&A Beare Cultural Trust, as well as a Lucchi bow from the Maestro Foundation.
Dominic Ciccotti
Artistic director
Dominic Ciccotti is a Welsh pianist and teacher based in Manchester, England. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the UK and internationally.
Alongside his performing career, Dominic is the founder of Piano Tuition Manchester and Piano Mentoring, where he helps pianists develop confidence, musical understanding and effective practice through structured teaching and personalised mentoring.
Dominic is Co-Artistic Director of the Tenby International Music Festival, an annual chamber music festival celebrating international artists, emerging talent and contemporary music. He also performs as part of a piano duo with Japanese pianist Yuki Minami.
He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Frank Wibaut and Dr Murray McLachlan, before completing a Master of Music with Distinction at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, where he studied with Mei Yi Foo.
Yuki Minami
Born in Osaka, Japan, Yuki Minami spent part of her childhood in Boston, where she began her musical studies at the Longy School of Music. She later graduated from Osaka College of Music before moving to the United Kingdom to study with Mei Yi Foo at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and with Kathryn Stott at the Royal Northern College of Music, graduating with distinction from both institutions.
Yuki has performed at venues including Wigmore Hall and Steinway Hall in London, St David’s Hall in Cardiff, and Izumi Hall in Osaka, and has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Brazil.
Her recent awards include an Honourable Award at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Asia, Second Prize at the European International Piano Competition in Japan, First Prize in the Eric Hodges Memorial Prize, First Prize in the RWCMD Concerto Competition, and First Prize in the RNCM Beethoven Competition.
Kian ravaei
Composer Kian Ravaei (b. 1999) takes tone painting to a new level, synthesizing diverse inspirations into evocative musical portraits. Whether he is composing a string quartet inspired by wonders of the natural world, electronic music that evokes the pulsating energy of late-night dance clubs, or a symphonic poem that draws from the Iranian music of his ancestral heritage, he takes listeners on a spellbinding tour of humanity’s most deeply felt emotions.
From Carnegie Hall to the Concertgebouw, musicians such as Grammy Award winner Fleur Barron, Performance Today Classical Woman of the Year Lara Downes, and New York Philharmonic clarinetist Anthony McGill have brought Ravaei’s music to global stages. His works have been commissioned by prominent chamber music organizations—among them Seattle Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music Northwest—as well as the American Composers Orchestra, where he is currently a resident CoLABoratory Fellow. Notable honors include a Copland House CULTIVATE Fellowship, a Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Composer Teaching Artist Fellowship, and commissioning grants from Chamber Music America, New Music USA, and the Barlow Endowment.
Born to Iranian immigrants, Ravaei maintains close ties to the Iranian community in his hometown of Los Angeles. He wrote about his intercultural composition process for The Strad, and was a featured lecturer at the UCLA Iranian Music Lecture Series. With nearly a dozen commercial recordings, Ravaei has earned critical acclaim from outlets including Gramophone, Bandcamp Daily, and I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. Millions of classical radio listeners have heard his music on the airwaves, featured in award-winning programs such as APM’s Performance Today and WNYC’s New Sounds.
Ravaei counts celebrated composers Valerie Coleman, John Corigliano, and Richard Danielpour among his teachers, and holds degrees in composition from UCLA and Indiana University. He is currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at The Juilliard School.
Hana Mizuta-spencer
Hana Mizuta-Spencer is a British violinist based in Basel, Switzerland. She performs regularly across the UK and Europe, appearing at venues including Wigmore Hall, LSO St Luke’s, and St John’s Smith Square. She is generously supported in her studies by the DOMS Stiftung.
Inspired to take up the violin at the age of seven after attending performances by Vadim Repin and Sarah Chang, Hana went on to develop a particular love for chamber music at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music, where she won the John McAslan Violin Prize at Junior, Intermediate and Senior level. After completing a degree in History at University College London, she pursued a Masters in Violin Performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Professor David Takeno, graduating with a Concert Recital Diploma in recognition of her exceptional final recital. She held a Junior Fellowship at the Guildhall in 2021, before completing a Soloist Masters with Barbara Doll at the Hochschule für Musik Basel in 2025.
As a soloist, Hana has appeared with the North London Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Symphony Orchestra, Camden Symphony Orchestra, and the Piccadilly Sinfonietta, among others. In May 2025, she performed the Glazunov Violin Concerto with the Sinfonieorchester Basel under conductor Samy Rachid. She has received masterclasses from Philippe Graffin, Igor Ozim, and Leonidas Kavakos, and in September 2023 won the inaugural Prix Pasquier alongside two further awards at the Ravel Festival.
An enthusiastic chamber musician, Hana has performed with the Esbjerg Ensemble and Ensemble Modern, and attended festivals including Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove, the Frinton Festival, and Mendelssohn on Mull. She is a founding member of the Talos Quartet, with whom she is a Tunnell Trust Award winner, and a member of the contemporary music collective Mad Song. In 2024, she co-led the Fantasia Orchestra at the BBC Proms. Hana plays on a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin, Guarneri del Gesù model.
gordon cervoni
Zachary Owen
Katie jenkins
The Tenby International Music Festival is built on community and the belief that music brings people together across cultures, backgrounds, and generations. With artists from as far as the United States, Australia, and Japan, alongside Welsh musicians and traditions, we’re working to introduce Tenby to a diverse range of musical voices.
By becoming a supporter, you’ll contribute to something lasting—helping classical music thrive in Tenby and ensuring it remains accessible to all.