Milena Simovic & George Fu

Milena Simovic (viola)

George Fu (piano)

Hindemith

Sonata for viola and piano, Op.11 No.4

Prokofiev

Romeo & Juliet Op.64

INTERVAL

Schubert

Arpeggione Sonata D. 821

York Bowen

Rhapsody in G minor (1955)

Milena Simovic was born in Belgrade. Presented as a "musician with innate musicality" by critics in Great Britain, and equally at home as violinist and violist, Milena enjoys a versatile career as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, North and South America. Milena’s concerts have been broadcasted live on BBC Radio 3, Medici TV, Rai Uno in Italy, Arte etc. and her performances praised as “...exceptionally delivered performance, charged with brilliant combination of operatic quality, which was jaw-dropping at times”, “seductive and exciting…with rare artistic sensibility” in the press. Milena holds a professorship at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London and is a resident viola and a chamber music coach at the Culture Festival in Sardinian town of Santulussurgiu, taking place in August every year, which enjoys versatility of students from all continents. Milena is also a regular member jury for professional and masters studies at the Royal Academy in London.

As a soloist and passionate chamber musician, Milena performed in famous halls around the world, Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Royal Albert Hall, Purcell Room in London, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hall in Hamburg, Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Opera House in Tel Aviv. As a chamber musician, Milena collaborated with Ivri Gitlis, Vadim Repin, Antoni Menezes, Julian Rahlin, Itamar Golan, Roman Simović, Gordan Nikolić, . She collaborated with numerous conductors including Sir Colin Davis, Sir Simone Rattle, Gianandrea Noseda, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Harding, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Pablo Gonzalez, Maksim Vengerov and François Xavier Rot. Milena was Nigel Kennedy's "recording artist" between 2015 and 2017, with whom she recorded 3 CDs, while this season she is releasing a disc with a concerto for viola and choir by Muhamed Feriuz, released for the famous house Signum.

Milena Simović received Bachelor and Masters of Music in violin from the Belgrade University of Arts Faculty of Music, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. After this she continued her studies with viola and has completed Advanced Studies at the Zurich University of the Arts as well as Introduction in Psychology at the Yale University. Milena Simović plays a Paolo Antonio Testore viola from 1740.

American pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu is “one of the most exciting pianists of our time… a deep thinker, thoroughly in command” (The Arts Desk). The winner of BBC Music Magazine’s 2024 Newcomer Award, he is garnering international acclaim as a fearless and probing interpreter of a wide array of music. Highlights for Fu’s 2025-26 season include his solo debut at the Frick Collection in New York City, playing the entire cycle of Oliver Messiaen’ Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus; as well as a new solo piano commission he is writing for his recital at Wigmore Hall in London. He also appears at the Concertgebuow and with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia with his ensemble, Trio Zimbalist, comprised of violinist Josef Špaček and cellist Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin.

Fu has appeared at major venues around the world such as Carnegie Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Kennedy Center, St Martin In the Fields, Southbank Centre, and Kings Place. He appears regularly at festivals worldwide such as the Aldeburgh, Ryedale, Presteigne, Tanglewood, Smetanova Litomyšl, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals. His performances and interviews have been featured on broadcasts around the world, ranging from BBC Radio 3 and National Public Radio, to appearances on PBS/American Public Television and On Stage At Curtis in Philadelphia. In addition to his Trio Zimbalist, Fu enjoys fruitful collaborations with a wide variety of artists such as Roberto Díaz (viola), Dmitri Sitkovetsky (violin), Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin), Mika Sasaki (piano), Liv Redpath (soprano), and Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano).

As an emerging composer, Fu’s growing catalogue of original works and arrangements exhibits fresh imagination and virtuosity, all the while drawing from a lifetime of studying a vast repertoire spanning several centuries. Fu’s second studio album, Colouring Book, was released with Platoon Classical in March 2025 to international acclaim, with Gramophone Magazine hailing it as one of the best classical releases of the year. His first solo album, MIRRORS (Platoon), won BBC Music Magazine’s 2024 Newcomer Award for best debut release. Fu made his concerto debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center at the age of 17. After earning a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University, Fu studied with Jonathan Biss and Meng-Chieh Liu at the Curtis Institute of Music, and then with Christopher Elton and the Dame Myra Hess Chair of Piano Joanna MacGregor at the Royal Academy of Music. Additional mentors have included David Ludwig and Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

He lives in London.