Wye Valley Music is starting its 2026 season of monthly concerts with a special treat!

“Mishka Rushdie Momen plays the piano extraordinarily well, but it is the purity and depth of her musical feeling that impress me most. She has the rare ability to communicate the essential meaning of whatever she plays.” (Richard Goode)

​”One of the most thoughtful and sensitive of British pianists, Mishka Rushdie Momen captivates audiences with her refined and expressive playing” (The Times)

We are extraordinarily fortunate to have established close relationships with some of the UK’s most gifted pianists, including Clare Hammond and Daniel Tong. Mishka Rushdie Momen has played for us at St Briavels four or five times since the early stages of her professional career.

She now returns as the 2025 winner of the prestigious Critics’ Circle Music Award for piano,
held at the London Coliseum, a ceremony that honours musicians who made an outstanding contribution in 2024 on the basis of hearing the widest range of performances across the UK and Ireland.

For her last recital for WVM, Mishka played sonatas by Schubert. For her January performance she is treating us to an all-Beethoven programme including some of the composer’s greatest compositions for piano.

Sonata op. 10 no. 2
Sonata op. 90
Sonata op. 27 no. 2 (Moonlight) 
Sonata op. 101 
Sonata op. 109

It would be difficult to list all the accolades Mishka has received for her playing in recent years. Her recital highlights include performances at Wigmore Hall, Leeds Piano Competition, Carnegie Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, and the re-opening festival of the Frick Collection in New York. Equally at home as a chamber musician, her partners include Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, Joshua Bell, Midori, Angela Hewitt and Steven Isserlis, Rushdie Momen’s latest CD release Reformation (Hyperion, 2024) presenting the works of William Byrd, John Bull, Orlando Gibbons and their 16 th century contemporaries was described in The Times’ selection of the best releases of 2024 as “a triumph”, as “quietly beguiling” (The Guardian), “performed with thrilling exuberance and subtlety” (The Spectator), topped the Classical Charts in July 2024 and was chosen as a Classic FM Discovery of the Week!  

Mishka was The Times Arts critics’ chosen nominee in the field of classical music for their 2021 Breakthrough Award, given by Sky Arts and The South Bank Show, who profiled her for an episode of the programme broadcast in July 2021. She studied with, among others, Imogen Cooper at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She also studied periodically with Richard Goode, and with Sir András Schiff, who has presented her in recital and
orchestral dates across the USA and Europe.

What more can one say? We are privileged and excited to welcome Mishka back to St Briavels and look forward to another memorable and immensely rewarding performance. Do get the date in your diary and book early to avoid disappointment!