Trio Meister Raro was formed in 2022, a natural extension of Rachel Roberts, Robert Plane and Tim Horton’s work together as members of Ensemble 360. The members of the trio are respected internationally as soloists and chamber musicians and come together in Trio Meister Raro to shed light on the classic and contemporary repertoire for clarinet, viola and piano.
Having explored works for this mellow combination instruments as part of Ensemble 360’s Music in the Round residency, their move to becoming an autonomous ensemble has allowed the Trio’s members to delve deeper into a rewarding selection of acknowledged masterpieces and fascinating curiosities. Much of the ensemble’s repertoire, from Schumann’s Märchenerzählungen, to Jorg Widmann’s 2015 tour de force ‘Es war einmal…’ (Once upon a time…) focuses on storytelling and fantasy, and this narrative element is reflected in many of Trio Meister Raro’s programme offerings. The Trio regularly appears at concert series across the UK, and in recent seasons has performed at the Huddersfield Music Society, Guiting Music Festival, Richmondshire Concerts and Church Stretton Arts Festival. Engagements in the current season include Bradfield Festival of Music and Oxford Chamber Music Society.
Trio Meister Raro draws its name from Schumann’s ability to witness, nurture, and facilitate the diversity of his genius. The first issue of ‘Neue (Leipziger) Zeitschrift fur Musik’ ( April 3rd 1834), was published by “a society of artists and friends of art” that included the 23-year old Robert Schumann. Within the publication, Schumann often signed his articles as either ‘Florestan’, ‘Eusebius’, or ‘Meister Raro’. The name ‘Florestan’ signified to Schumann the impulsive, impatient, decisive and effusive aspect of himself; ‘Eusebius’ denoted a more moderate, withdrawn, cautious or introverted part of his personality, whilst the mature, observant, nurturing, perhaps paternal part of his experience was referred to by Schumann as ‘Meister (or Master) Raro’. These names identify something of the inner world of Schumann’s creativity, and lay testament to the diverse and imaginative elements of his musicianship and personality.
Robert Plane’s career as a solo and chamber clarinettist is rich and varied. Concerto appearances in Europe, Asia and North America have included performances of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in Madrid with the City of London Sinfonia, in Beijing with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and in the USA with the Virginia Symphony. A champion of new music as well as the classics, he has given the world premieres of concertos by Judith Bingham, Diana Burrell, Piers Hellawell and Mark Boden.
Rob has tirelessly pursued a particular passion for British clarinet music in concert and on disc, his Gramophone Award-winning account of Finzi’s Concerto and Gramophone Award-shortlisted Bax Sonatas being just two of a large collection of recordings of works by the great English Romantics.
He has performed and recorded with the Gould Piano Trio for over thirty years, and their recording of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time to mark the composer’s centenary was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as the ‘finest modern recording’ of this epic masterpiece. They commissioned Huw Watkins to compose ‘Four Fables’ in 2018, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival which they direct together in Northumberland.
Rob has explored the clarinet quintet repertoire with a number of the finest string quartets, including the Škampa Quartet (Brahms live on BBC Radio 3 from St George’s, Bristol) and Elias Quartet (many appearances including Schwarzenberg and Wigmore Hall), as well as concerts with the Mandelring, Marmen, Castalian, Heath, Maggini, Brodsky, Carducci, Sacconi and Callino Quartets. Rob is clarinettist of Ensemble 360 and enjoys exploring chamber music of all kinds with them at their home in the Crucible, Sheffield and country-wide.
Always keen to take on a challenge, Rob has performed Boulez’s epic ‘Dialogue de l’ombre double’ at Belfast Sonorities Festival in 2018, Manchester’s Stoller Hall in 2019, Cardiff’s WhirlWinds Festival in 2022 and at the Sheffield Chamber Music Festival in 2025. Rob’s disc ‘Reawakened’ features concertos he himself unearthed by Iain Hamilton, Ruth Gipps and Richard Walthew, recorded with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and released in July 2020 by Champs Hill Records.
Rob’s solo album ‘Isotonic’ was released in July 2023 on Resonus Classics, and features four of his commissions from the past twenty-five years, including the clarinet concertos of Diana Burrell and Mark David Boden, recorded with the BBC Philharmonic. Before that, Rob released a disc of chamber music by Pamela Harrison (the subject of an ongoing research project) in February 2023, also on Resonus, which was selected as one of Gramophone Magazine’s “best new classical albums”. Releases in 2024 included ‘Pierrot Portraits’ with Ensemble 360 and soprano Claire Booth (“a Pierrot to cherish”) as well as a second volume of the chamber music and songs of Pamela Harrison. His most recent recording, ‘The Lily of Killarney’, features largely unknown English and Irish Fantasias for clarinet and piano, and was released in October 2025 to critical acclaim.
Rob was principal clarinet of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for over twenty years and has held the same position with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia. A respected teacher and educator, he holds the post of Head of Woodwind Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Rachel Roberts is one of Europe’s leading violists, performing internationally as a soloist and chamber musician in venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Toppan Hall in Japan, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Musikverein Vienna, the Philharmonie in Berlin and London’s Wigmore Hall.
As a soloist she has collaborated with conductors Christoph von Dohnanyi, Andras Schiff and Richard Hickox, performing concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Koln Kammerorchester, Kammerphilharmonie Graubunden in Switzerland and the Manchester Camerata Chamber Orchestra amongst others. She recorded Edward Gregson’s Viola Concerto ‘Three Goddesses’ with the BBC Philharmonic, which was released by Chandos Records in 2025.
Prizes and accolades for her chamber music recordings include thrice being awarded the coveted Diapason d’Or (2009, 2021, 2023), BBC Chamber Choice in BBC Music Magazine and CD of the month in Fonoforum magazine, Germany. She is a regular guest at international chamber music festivals such as Salzburg Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, Heimbach “Spannungen” and Mecklenburg Vorpommern. She has recorded chamber music for Hyperion, Champs Hill Records, Signum Classics, cAVI, Deutsche Rundfunk, Alpha Classics, Orchid Classics and BIS Records.
As a member of two award winning ensembles, the Wigmore Soloists and Ensemble 360, Rachel appears regularly at Wigmore Hall, the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, and right across the UK. She frequently performs and records with the Nash Ensemble and has also appeared with the Tetzlaff Quartett, among other celebrated ensembles.
Building on their highly successful collaboration at Wigmore Hall, in 2021 Rachel joined Christian Tetzlaff, Florian Donderer, Marie Elisabeth Hecker and Tanja Tetzlaff in Germany, to record and perform Schubert’s String Quintet in C major, D. 956. The resulting disc was released on the Alpha Classics label to critical acclaim.
Rachel is Professor of Viola at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Tim Horton is one of the UK’s leading pianists, equally at home in solo and chamber repertoire, and is regularly invited to perform at major festivals and series across the country.
Early in his career, and at the recommendation of the late Alfred Brendel who was indisposed, Tim performed Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle. Further concerto performances followed with orchestras such as the RLPO, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.
Tim gave his debut solo recital at Wigmore Hall in 2016, since which time he has appeared there regularly as both soloist and collaborative artist, and where he is currently presenting his Chopin Cycle.
Between 2011 and 2015 Tim presented a complete Beethoven Sonata cycle at Sheffield’s Crucible Studio for Music in the Round, who asked him to return for a cycle of Schubert Sonatas 2017-2019, and a Chopin cycle which he concluded in 2024.
Alongside his solo work Tim maintains a busy schedule with the Leonore Piano Trio and Ensemble 360, and is a founding member of both groups.
The Leonore Piano Trio has produced seven discs for Hyperion, including the complete Parry Trios and the Piano Quartet. They have also recorded the complete Piano Trios of David Matthews for Toccata Classics and Huw Watkins’ Piano Trios for Resonus. With Ensemble 360, a mixed group of strings, wind and piano that took up residency at the Crucible Studio in Sheffield in 2005, Tim has performed to great acclaim throughout the UK and abroad. In 2024 they released their critically acclaimed album ‘Pierrot Portraits’ with soprano Claire Booth.