Mozart Sonata for piano and violin in E minor
Fauré Berceuse for Violin and Piano Op. 16
Busoni Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor Op. 36a

Foyle-Štšura Duo
Michael Foyle violin
Maksim Štšura piano

Praised for ‘playing of compelling conviction’ (The Daily Telegraph) and ‘astonishing mutual feeling, understanding and responsiveness’ (Seen and Heard International), Foyle-Štšura Duo formed in 2012 and became City Music Foundation artists in 2014. They won the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Duo Competition and the Salieri-Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition in 2015.

Since then, the Duo has performed in Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Buckingham Palace, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, Usher Hall in Edinburgh, The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, as well as for the St. Magnus International Festival, Grachtenfestival Amsterdam, New York Chamber Music Festival, Cervantino Festival in Mexico and Evgeny Mravinsky Festival in Tallinn and St. Petersburg. Their performances have been broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, NPO Klassiek and Estonian Klassikaraadio.  

In 2020, the Duo recorded Beethoven’s complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin to mark the composer’s 250th anniversary, receiving five star reviews in BBC Music Magazine – ‘more Classically contained than Kremer and Argerich, better musically balanced than Menuhin and Kempff and less interventionist than Faust and Melnikov …The result is an engaging set of performances that cast fresh light on this much-recorded area of the repertoire.’

Previously released were The Great War Centenary: Janáček, Debussy and Respighi Sonatas and Lutosławski and Penderecki: Complete Violin and Piano Works, both to critical acclaim (‘delivered by both artists in sweeping style’– BBC Music Magazine, ‘richly detailed and impassioned performances’ – The Daily Telegraph, ‘the duo delivers a dream debut, 10/10’ – Luister, ’an extraordinary release, played phenomenally’ – Stretto). 

Michael launched his career by winning The Netherlands Violin Competition 2016. Recent concerto appearances include with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Polish Baltic Philharmonic and Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra. In 2016 he became Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London (the youngest appointed in the institution’s 200-year history) and, in 2021, at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne. 

Maksim won the 7th Estonian Piano Competition (2008) and the BPSE Intercollegiate Beethoven Piano Competition (2013). He received his Doctor of Music degree from the Royal College of Music for a research project titled ‘Translating twenty first-century orchestral scores for the piano: transcription, reduction and performability.’ In 2020 he was appointed Lecturer in Piano, Chamber Music, and Music History at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn. He is a Trustee of the Mills Williams Foundation.