The Celestine Trio (Michelle Hromin, Bertille Mas and Rieko Makita) was formed in 2021 by talented emerging musicians at the Royal College of Music. Most recently, they performed the magnificent Brahms Clarinet Trio for an evening performance at the Royal College of Music, held in January 2022. They will be performing the Brahms’ Clarinet Trio and the Beethoven’s Gassenhauer Trio in Chiswick at the St. Nicholas Church in March 2022.

The Trio was named after Celestine Mandy Truxa, Brahms’ close friend and landlady at the time when the Brahms Clarinet Trio was written in 1891.

Michelle Hromin is a Croatian-American multidisciplinary clarinetist specialising in classical and contemporary music. She recently collaborated with the Metropolitan Opera at the Brooklyn Museum. She was named the winner of the 2019 Sidney Forrest Clarinet Competition and was featured as a guest artist with Lisa Bielawa’s Broadcast from Here series. Michelle has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the Austrian Cultural Forum, and with groups such as the Explore Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, International Chamber Orchestra of America, and Fifth House Ensemble.

Bertille began her musical study in Paris and joined the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest in 2016-2020. She currently studies at Royal College of Music in London. Interested in both historical practices and modern cello she is currently finishing her degree at RCM. Teaching cello at the St Paul’s junior school and working as a freelance with various Orchestras and Ensembles both in London and Paris, she is passionate about early years practices as the 2021 LEYMN trainee. Bertille is a founding member of the OCCAM quartet. Her studies in England are kindly supported by the Eszterhazy family.

Rieko Makita is a Japanese-Australian pianist undertaking her Master of Performance as a Noswad Charity Award Holder under the tutelage of Sofya Gulyak and Dinara Klinton. Rieko is currently the piano fellow for the Philharmonia MMSF Instrumental Fellowship Programme and an ambassador for the Benedetti Foundation 2022. Rieko has performed across Australia, Japan, Italy, Germany, and Austria, performing in major venues including the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall and the City Recital Hall.