Young Artists Platform: Duo Cantelina

IGF’s Young Artists Platform (YAP) helps young artists in the critical phase between the final stages of music education and the start of a professional career. The Platform provides much needed concert opportunities as well as a comprehensive training programme. A unique feature is the chance to work with a composer and premiere a new work commissioned especially by IGF.

This is a shared concert with Duo Cantelina and a new awardee for 2025-2026 to be selected at auditions in July 2025. Each act will play for 25 minutes and there will be no interval.

Praised as ‘such an amazing talent’, Cantelina are a dynamic vocal and guitar duo comprising mezzo-soprano Sophie Clarke and classical guitarist Ravi Nathwani. They have just completed their masters at the Royal Northern College of Music and during their time at the RNCM they received First Place in the Bessie Cronshaw/Frost Brownson Song Cycle Competition. Cantelina perform in a selection of concerts all over the UK and last October they were invited to perform by the Consul of Spain for the National Day of Spain. Other performances include a recital for Buxton Opera House & Pavilion Arts Centre and pre-concert and post-concert recitals for BBC Philharmonic and The Hallé, both at Bridgewater Hall and a recital at Westminster Music Library and Archives in the heart of London’s West End.

The duo also recorded a selection of music from Spanish art song to crossover arrangements for commercial release and have amassed several thousand loyal listeners across digital music platforms. Most recently, they performed their classical crossover arrangement of Billy Joel’s ‘And So It Goes’ live on BBC Radio Merseyside.

As individuals, Ravi and Sophie have both had continued success as soloists. Sophie was the Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition Winner and has performed as a soloist in various concert halls including the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall and St. George’s Hanover Square in London’s West End. Ravi has been the recipient of Help Musicians UK Postgraduate Awards and has been awarded the Julian Bream Career Development Award from the Royal Northern College of Music. During his time at the RNCM, Ravi was invited to play at the Wigmore Hall on two occasions, performing there in 2022 and 2024.