Lunchtime Music

Elissa Street soprano
Ruimei Huang piano

Sibelius
Den första kyssen
Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte
Säf, säf, susa
Var det en drom?

Dvořák
Song to the Moon

Strauss
Schlagende Herzen
Die Nacht
Zueignung
Morgen!

Jinhe Huang viola
Jiayi Chen piano

Rubinstein Viola Sonata in F minor - i. Moderato, ii. Andante
Vaughan Williams Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra - Group 1

Elissa ‘Eli’ Street is a British soprano drawn to emotionally complex characters and twentieth-century performance practice. In 2025, they were a National Opera Studio Academy singer and the winner of the RBC Singing Prize.

Recent roles include Dido (Dido and Aeneas), described as “hugely confident in the role, delivering a heart-rending lament… there is a regality to [their] performance” (What's On Birmingham), and Lady Billows (Albert Herring), where “the slightest twitch of [their] haughty features instilled fear” (Opera Magazine).

Eli holds master's degrees with Distinction from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (MMus) and the University of Birmingham (MA), where they developed a strong foundation in performance and musicological study. They have also performed extensively in opera outreach programmes, including with Birmingham Opera Company and Opera Anywhere.

Eli continues to study at RBC as a Headley Trust scholar and Help Musicians Postgraduate Award holder for the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma under the tutelage of Louise Crane.

Violist Jinhe Huang is a postgraduate student at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire studying with Elliott Perks and Lucy Nolan, has been praised for his expressive artistry and refined sound. He came to international attention with third prize at the 2014 Hong Kong International String Competition and later with an award-winning performance in Russia (2018).

In 2025 he received the Gwyn Williams Viola Prize, Ambache Prize, and Gold Award at the Fenix International Music Competition. That June, his performance of the Bliss Viola Sonata was recorded and featured by the Bliss Society.

Jinhe has appeared at Wigmore Hall and St. James’s Piccadilly, and was invited to perform at the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival. In October 2025, he toured China, performing in Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Chengdu.

Jiayi Chen is a young Chinese pianist based in the UK. Her performances have been featured by Global Musicians' League, Artron, Malvern Gazette, Worcester News, Visit the Malvern, Elgar Festival 2025, and St Wulstan’s Catholic Church.

In April 2022, she performed Francis Poulenc’s Piano Concerto with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra, earning high praise from Graham Scott, Head of Keyboard at the Royal Northern College of Music, as well as from the public. In 2024, she was granted the UK Global Talent Visa in recognition of her artistic achievements.

Running time approx. 55 minutes