MARCUS VINÍCIUS DE OLIVEIRA​ double bass
GEMMA BEESON piano

Double Bass recital by Marcus Vinícius De Oliveira​ at Edinburgh Music Society, on August 20th 2025 as part of the Heppleston Double Basses Soloist Project.

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: www.hepplestondoublebasses.co.uk/tickets

Programme

Jan Geissel
  Concertstuck, Op.24

F. Hertl
  Sonata, 1946

Edmundo Villani-Côrtes
  Praeludius Onnibus
  Choron
  Chorando

Amy Beach
  Romance for Double Bass and Piano, Op.23, 1893

The Soloist Project

The Soloist Project is an exciting new venture from Heppleston Double Basses.  Born from the limited opportunities for solo double bass performance, this new project has been designed to provide an exceptional double bassist with yearlong access to an outstanding, handcrafted Heppleston solo model double bass for use for the duration of the year.

The project also provides opportunities for the selected musician to perform a series of solo recitals around the UK and produce recordings to advance and develop their career.

Marcus Vinícius De Oliveira​

Member of the Latin Grammy’s Recording Academy, Marcus has been awarded several prestigious prizes, including the ABRSM Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Award and the RNCM Concerto Competition, for which he is the first Latin-American double bass prize-winner in the competition’s history. 

Last year, he became the first Brazilian double bassist to perform a concerto with the BBC Philharmonic, marking his professional debut as a soloist in the UK, performing the British premiere of Andrés Martin’s Double Bass Concerto No.1, recorded by BBC Radio 3.

Marcus frequently works with ensembles as tutti and principal double bass, including the BBC Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber, The Hallé and Royal Philharmonic orchestras.  He has performed at some of the most iconic venues across the globe, such as the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie, KKL Luzern, Usher Hall and Frankfurt Alte Oper. 

Marcus is also the founder and director of the Brasis Ensemble, a group that shares the passion to bring Brazilian music to wider audiences, as well as to change the perception of the double bass in western classical music, bringing it to the fore in concerto and chamber music contexts.

Gemma Beeson​

Pianist Gemma Beeson was born in Stockport to musical parents, where she took up the piano at the age of four. Having always enjoyed collaborative music making, much of Gemma’s formative musical experience was as a violinist, performing in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and leading several local youth orchestras and string groups in Manchester. At 18, Gemma entered the Royal Northern College of Music, where she studied piano with Carole Presland. She won numerous awards and prizes both in the college and in national competitions. After postgraduate studies and receiving a Young Artist’s Fellowship in Piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Gemma worked as an accompanist and coach in many of the UK’s leading music education institutions including Chetham’s School of Music and Wells Cathedral School. She is currently on the team of staff accompanists at the Royal Northern College of Music as well as on the piano teaching faculty at Chetham’s.

In addition to solo and duo recitals and concerto appearances, Gemma’s freelance playing work encompasses many genres of music. Gemma is a busy orchestral pianist, playing keyboard instruments ranging from the harpsichord to the synthesizer, with everything in between. She was a pianist-director in renowned multi-piano group Piano Circus for several years, and has performed new commissions and made several world premier recordings and live broadcasts with the BBC Singers and for the Hyperion, Naxos and Prima Facie record labels.