Matthew Shiel
Artistic Director and PianistMatthew Shiel is a British pianist who performs 200+ performances every year across UK, USA and Australia in partnership with the Edinburgh, Brighton, Adelaide, Melbourne and Hollywood Fringe Festivals.
In 2025, Matthew Shiel made history by performing the world’s first piano recital of music composed by artificial intelligence at the Edinburgh Festival; his performance was subsequently commissioned by Dame Wendy Hall’s Web Science Institute (University of Southampton) and broadcast on Al Jazeera.
He has notably performed at Usher Hall and The National Portrait Gallery of Scotland (Edinburgh), The Glasshouse International Centre for Music (Newcastle), Glasgow City Halls and has performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (broadcast on BBC Radio 3) and The Band of His Majesty’s Royal Marine Band Scotland.
Matthew has received multiple 5-star reviews in the press:
“a most enchanting concert” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Edinburgh Guide
“masters of their crafts” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Binge Fringe
“profound” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Corr Blimey
Matthew is an Usher Hall and Live Music Now Scotland artist, artistic director of Fringe Classics and a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Emma Yitong Shen
Set Designer and Stage ManagerEmma Yitong Shen is a Chinese visual artist from Shanghai who has been exhibited internationally and has collaborated with the most powerful brands in the industry including Walt Disney, Volkswagen, P&G, Lancôme Paris, Coach, Olay and Ferrero Rocher. She was a set designer at Edinburgh, Brighton and Melbourne Festival Fringes 2025 and has painted several paintings inspired by her stage collaborations with Fringe Classics. She is an art graduate of the State University of New York (USA).
Alastair Sim
Playwright, Novelist and ActorAlastair is the acclaimed author of two internationally published novels: ‘Rosslyn Blood,’ and ‘The Unbelievers.’ Alastair is a graduate of the Universities of Oxford, Delaware and Glasgow and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. He follows in the acting footsteps of his uncle and Hollywood icon Alastair Sim - who famously played Ebeneezer Scrooge in the original A Christmas Carol (1951). Alastair Sim played the role of the Ludwig van Beethoven at Edinburgh Festival 2024 in Fringe Classics’ successful production of Maestro.
Magesh Magesh
DrummerMagesh Magesh is from Melbourne, Australia and has collaborated with Rihanna, Lionel Richie, Ricky Martin and The Pussycat Dolls. He was voted one of the greatest drummers in the world by Drumscene magazine. His most notable performance was performing with Vanessa Amorosi at the Australian Football League Grand Final to an audience 100,000 people. He frequently collaborates with Fringe Classics on our show – ‘Rhapsody in Blue – Jazz Sessions by Candlelight.’
Isla Ratcliff
Violinist and Scots SingerIsla Ratcliff is a protégé of the Scottish classical icon Nicola Benedetti CBE, having played a duet with her in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall at the age of only 13. Isla was a Semi-Finalist in the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2022 competition, and she was nominated for Up-and-Coming Artist of the Year 2022 at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards. She has performed at festivals including Celtic Connections, Cambridge Folk Festival and the BBC Proms. Isla’s second album, The Scottish Four Seasons, her Scottish traditional reimagining of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was released in 2025.
Patricia Hammond
SingerDescribed by the Sunday Times as “a leading lady of the retro party scene”, Patricia Hammond is a singer who can go from Cathedral to cocktail bar, and change from Handel to hot jazz in the same night.
Her album of Belle Epoque French Salon songs was chosen by the editor of American Record Guide as one of his favourite classical vocal albums of 2007, and in 2011 Sir Michael Parkinson praised her CD of 1920s, 30s and 40s pop songs as “a music-box of vintage treasures, beautifully sung by a remarkable woman.”
Since then, she has headed up candlelit vintage evenings at Covent Garden Concerts in 2022/23, been a soloist alongside Dame Emma Kirkby and Helen Charlston for Voces8’s Live From London series in 2021, featured on BBC4 making a wax cylinder and an Edison Tone Test in 2018, in the Fox/Searchlight movie “Tolkien” in 2017, and in the Bundestag in Berlin for Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron for the centenary of the end of the First World War.
Patricia has been featured on BBC Radio 2, Radio 3, and Radio 4’s “Midweek” with Libby Purves.
Jack Hinks
Photographer and FilmmakerJack Hinks is a UK-based professional musician, poet, and freelance photographer & videographer. Having documented and shot with countless bands, spoken word poets, award-winning public-funded corporations and arts collectives, music festivals, corporate events, world-class flamenco dancers and even professional wrestlers, Jack is no stranger to the art of performance. His experience as a touring musician gives him a unique understanding of both sides of the lens, and how best to capture the energy of his subjects.
Ailsa Aitkenhead
PianistAn official Fever Candlelight Concert Artist, pianist Ailsa Aitkenhead has performed at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Usher Hall at St Giles Cathedral (Edinburgh). She regularly performs with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and is the official piano accompanist of the University of St Andrews. She graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with distinction and received the Alex Menzies prize for outstanding piano accompanist. She performed at Edinburgh Festival 2025 in Fringe Classics’ successful production of Cirque du Piano.
Kathy Chow
PianistKathy Chow is an award‑winning Australian pianist whose international career has taken her to major venues and festivals across Europe, the UK, the US, Asia, and Australia. She is a first‑prize winner of the Birmingham International Piano Competition 2018 and the Phillip Crawshaw Memorial Prize for an Outstanding Musician from Overseas at the Royal Overseas League Music Competition 2019. She is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London). She performed at Edinburgh Festival 2025 in Fringe Classics’ successful production of Cirque du Piano.
Dr Alfredo Caponnetto
ComposerAlfredo Caponnetto notably composed the film score for Gregory Crosbie’s horror film ‘In Extremis’ (2014) and was the co-founder of the publisher Europa Edition. He has lectured at The University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier University and was director and chairman of the Edinburgh Contemporary Music Ensemble. Alfredo was recognised as one of the UK’s most promising emerging artists by the Society for the Promotion of New Music and has been honoured with a Dewar Arts Award. Alfredo Caponnetto was awarded a PhD in music composition from the University of Edinburgh.