Thomas Isaac

Following a year of tuition at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen from internationally renowned cellist, Alexander Baillie, Thomas is currently a postgraduate student with Christoph Richter at the Royal Academy of Music, supported by the Guilhermina Suggia Scholarship.

Thomas has won numerous prizes and competitions, including the North London Festival Cello Prize, the Norfolk Young Musician competition and the Herbert Walenn Cello Prize at the Academy for a performance of Bach’s Cello Suite No.2 in D minor. He was awarded the Moir Carnegie Prize at the Royal Academy for his undergraduate final recital. He has participated in masterclasses with Steven Isserlis, Marc Coppey, Steven Doane, Philippe Muller and Menahem Pressler, the legendary pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio.

As a soloist, recent performances include Schumann’s Cello Concerto at the Musique en Re Festival, Haydn’s Concerto No. 2 in D major with the Academy of St Thomas, Dvorak Concerto with the Sudbury Symphony, Penderecki’s ‘Per Slava’ at the Shanghai International Cello Festival, concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall and the Tivoli Festival Copenhagen with Rachel Podger, and chamber music by Colin Matthews at the BBC Proms, broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

As an orchestral musician Thomas has played principal cello with the City of Birmingham and Bournemouth Symphony orchestras, and has appeared regularly in the 2017-18 season with the LSO as part of their string experience scheme. Also a proficient baroque cellist, Thomas has played continuo in the Royal Academy/Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata Series.

Future plans include concerts at St James Piccadilly, Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations in London and recording a CD featuring repertoire for unaccompanied cello. Thomas’s horizons stretch far beyond classical music: he plays trombone with Moriah, a band broadly based on Jewish Klezmer, which featured in 2012 as Band of the Month in Outline Magazine.

Thomas is extremely grateful for the support of his studies and career development from the Michael Badminton Young Musicians Trust, the Countess of Munster Trust, the Leverhulme Trust and Clive & Chris Bolton.