Lunchtime Music

Matthew Pandya baritone
Bianca Vancea piano

Holst Creation from Hymns from the Rig Veda
Brahms Vier ernste Gesänge (Four Serious Songs)

RBC Saxophone Octet
Conductor Evie Ingles

Soprano saxophones
Andrey Fjeldstad, Junyu Zhou
Alto saxophones
Evie Cooper, Lily King
Tenor saxophones
Hannah Kermode, Kara Woods
Baritone saxophones
Florence Ryan, Tom Winter

Michael Wolters Four Attempts to Connect with the person who I think I used to be
Rodney Skeaping Cries, Bells, Chants and Whispers
Evie Ingles missing […]

Matthew Pandya is a baritone based in Birmingham. Originally from Coventry, Matthew graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2023 with a degree in French and Music, before completing an MMus in Vocal Performance at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he performed operatic roles including Pandolfe in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Sid in Britten’s Albert Herring and King in Smyth’s Fête galante. Matthew also has a growing repertoire as a concert soloist, including performances of Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs, Brahms’s Ein Deutches Requiem and Haydn’s 'Nelson’ Mass.

A versatile singer, Matthew equally has a wide range of choral experience, having sung with some of the UK’s top choirs, including Ex Cathedra and The Sixteen. He is a current Ex Cathedra Scholar as well as a graduate of the renowned Genesis Sixteen programme, and has performed at venues such as Symphony Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and Monte Carlo’s Grimaldi Forum.

Outside of classical singing, Matthew is a vocal tutor, a choir director, an avid sports fan and a national and international barbershop medalist with Ami Quartet.

Bianca Vancea is a Romanian pianist based in Birmingham. She completed her bachelor's degree with First Class Honours at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and is currently enrolled on a Personal Study Programme under John Thwaites and Margaret Fingerhut. A dedicated collaborative pianist, Bianca is a joint winner of the John Ireland Prize and recipient of the Edward Brooks English Song Accompanist Prize, the Edward Brooks Lieder Accompanist Prize, and the Gordon Clinton Prize for English Song Pianist.

She has performed solo and ensemble recitals across the West Midlands, and recently released Echoes of Our Island, an album of twentieth-century English songs with soprano Maria Willsher.

In May 2025, she performed as a soloist with the Romantic Revival Orchestra at the CBSO Centre for the premiere of For Every Round You’ve Walked, a new work for piano and orchestra by composer James Sharif. Bianca is also a piano tutor and regularly takes part in outreach projects. Upcoming engagements include a performance in the Pre-CBSO Showcase at Symphony Hall in April 2026, alongside Matthew Pandya.

The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Saxophone Ensemble and Octet perform throughout each academic year, both at the Conservatoire and beyond. Since 2008, their projects have included Crossing Paths: New Music of Johannesburg, JTV: Cloud Cuckooland, Hello, Mr Sax!, The Sounding Image, Viva Vivaldi, Less is More, The Night the Buses Died, Hoe Down, Elise Hall – We Thank You!, Fjord Fantasia: Norwegian Music for Saxophone, and many more. Like many saxophone ensembles, their performances often feature premieres of new works alongside established repertoire and transcriptions.

The ensemble and octet have appeared at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Newport Music Festival, and Stafford Music Festival. In summer 2018, they premiered new works at the World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb, Croatia, and in 2019 they performed at Chetham’s School of Music to celebrate 125 years of Adolphe Sax.

Running time approx. 55 minutes