Prisma Health Presents Andy & Friends #5

Johann Sebastian Bach
Prelude and Fugue in A minor, “The Great,” BWV 543

Johannes Brahms
Clarinet Sonata in F minor, Opus 102, No. 1

Phil Cunningham
Loch Katrine’s Lady, arr. Ryan Corbett

Vladislav Zolotaryov
Rondo Capriccioso for accordion

Sergei Taneyev
Canzone, arr. for Clarinet and Accordion

A sort of Pictures at an Exhibition, for piano solo
Prelude, by Julia Perry
Dark Horseman, by William Grant Still
Prelude Opus 57, No. 1 by Anatoly Lyadov
Etude, Opus 8, No. 12, by Alexander Scriabin

Srul Irving Glick
The Klezmer’s Wedding, arr. Corbett

Praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Australia Canada, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic.

Andrew’s orchestral engagements across the globe have encompassed a vast repertoire of more than 60 concertos with orchestra as well as solo recitals and in chamber music concerts at festivals around the globe.

This 2025-26 season, Andrew will perform Grazyna Bacewicz’s Piano Concerto and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto both with the South Carolina Philharmonic.  This October 2025, Andrew launches the first presentation of his Tuscan Music Festival, October 11-19.  Throughout calendar year 2026, Andrew joins longtime friend and duo partner, Two-Time Grammy Winning violinist James Ehnes in a cross-country tour across Canada, playing in each capital, province, and territory. Back in the States, year-round, Andrew directs and hosts six thriving chamber music series. Three of them are in South Carolina – in Beaufort (USCB Chamber Music), in Columbia (SC Philharmonic’s Andy & Friends), and in Greenville (Sigal Music Museum presents Andy & Friends, a combination of evening chamber music concerts and daytime workshops with students at the remarkable public arts high school, the Fine Arts Center).  He also directs New Canaan Chamber Music in Connecticut, Fabbri Chamber Concerts in NYC at Fabbri Mansion’s 1609 Italian Renaissance Library, a rare, intimate jewel with only 80 seats, and A Little Night Music at Tuckerman Hall in Worcester, MA, the vibrant city where Andrew lives happily with his wife Esty, their three children Jack (19), Elise (14), and Gabriel (8), and their dog Dooker.

BBC New Generation artist, Royal Over-Seas League Gold medallist and Classic FM Rising Star, Ryan Corbett is an accordionist hailed by Sir James MacMillan as “one of the most astonishing and surprising newcomers in Scottish music.” A leading exponent of his instrument, he has given over eight hours of radio broadcasts and a televised performance at the Scottish Coronation of HM King Charles III. Corbett has enlarged the repertoire by creating hundreds of new arrangements for accordion, but no matter how strong his passion for the instrument, it is his dedication to musical integrity that takes precedence.

Recent seasons have seen recitals across Europe at venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, he has also performed in the USA, Mexico, and China. In the UK Corbett frequents major festivals including Bath, Beaminster, Beaumaris, Budleigh, Buxton, Cambridge Summer Music, Chipping Campden, Cumnock Tryst, Deal, Edinburgh, Lake District, Lammermuir, Lichfield, St Magnus, Norfolk & Norwich, Oxford Song, Paxton, Perth, Ryedale, Southrepps, and the Keyboard Festival at St George’s Bristol. He makes his debut at London’s Wigmore Hall this year.

Passionate about collaboration, Corbett regularly performs with soloists and ensembles alike. He has performed with BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, Red Note Ensemble, Maxwell Quartet, singers Nicholas Mulroy, Ben Johnson and Lotte Betts-Dean, cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia, violinist Geneva Lewis, and trumpeter Aaron Akugbo. Together with his accordion teacher Djordje Gajic, Corbett performs his own arrangements of Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Bach’s ‘St Anne’ Prelude and Fugue which was described as "musically unified and utterly compelling" (Seen and Heard International). He also works with composers to create new music for the accordion. This year he gave the premiere of Daniel Soley’s accordion concerto with Britten Sinfonia, and he will give the UK premiere of Mikhail Pletnev’s accordion concerto this August.

Ryan Corbett won first prize at the 2022 Bromsgrove International Musicians’ competition and is a prize winner of international accordion competitions in Italy, Germany, and China. He was nominated in the Young Artist category of the 2024 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards and has been listed as ‘one to watch’ by BBC Music Magazine, Interlude HK, The Scotsman and Scala Radio. Corbett was a Tillet Trust and Munster Trust recital scheme artist and is the first accordionist to be part of the prestigious BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist scheme since its launch in 1999. He has also performed at private events for Sir Jackie Stewart and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Born in Glasgow in 1999, Corbett studied at the Music School of Douglas Academy, St Mary’s Music School, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He was introduced to the accordion aged eleven, when his grandmother bought a small instrument for him and his brother to try. As the instrument wasn’t airtight, the only way to play it was like a piano, while the other pulled the bellows across the floor. It was soon fixed, and Corbett would spend hours playing Scottish folk music on it rather than practising the piano or violin on which he was receiving lessons. He continued to teach himself accordion until the age of fourteen, when he began studying with Djordje Gajic. These studies were supported by Cross Trust, Drake Calleja Trust, Countess of Munster Musical Trust, RCS Scholarship Fund and Help Musicians UK.

Ryan Corbett plays a Bugari Spectrum classical piano accordion made in Castelfidardo, Italy. This was made possible by private sponsors, the John Mather Trust, and Dewar Arts Awards. 

“There’s never any doubt about the technical skill on show here. Corbett with his quiet manner, and witty knowledgeable commentary is a splendid ambassador for the accordion. What a revelation this concert has been!” - Kate Calder, Edinburgh Music Review

Hailed by The New York Times for her "inexhaustible virtuosity", clarinetist Yoonah Kim is an artist of uncommon musical depth and versatility. She enjoys a diverse career as solo clarinetist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and educator. Yoonah has given recitals at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts series, Washington Performing Arts’ Music in the Country series, Chamber Music Society of Little Rock and Union County Performing Arts Center.  She has also appeared as concerto soloist with the Maui Chamber Orchestra, New England Philharmonic, Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, New York Classical Players, DuPage Symphony Orchestra,  Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Chesapeake Youth Symphony.