Tales & Tunes Family Concerts launches with Peer Gynt at St Michael's Church on 10 July
Tales & Tunes Family Concerts launches with Peer Gynt at St Michael's Church on 10 July
Read moreSTORIES WE TELL OURSELVES
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Schubert’s song cycle Die schöne Müllerin, singer-director Thomas Guthrie (Where have all the flowers gone? lockdown video) and Music and Theatre for All (MTFA) present STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES at the World Heart Beat on 26 April introduced by Classic FM presenter Alexander Armstrong. Developed with the Lewisham Creative Chorus, Thomas Guthrie and Vicky Olusanya have devised a new response to Schubert’s song cycle with Guthrie’s own arrangements for strings, guitar and percussion. Gwyneth Herbert, Lewisham Creative Chorus, Mind and Soul Choir of the Maudsley Hospital, the Outcry Ensemble and Vox Urbane will perform the hour-long STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES in London's most exciting new venue, the World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens. This will be followed by a second performance at the Fellowship Inn in Bellingham later the same evening.
Read moreFenella Humphreys embarks on ‘Lost Voices’ tour with Quartet author Leah Broad, and releases new disc showcasing lockdown commissions
BBC Music Magazine award-nominee Fenella Humphreys is to embark on her Lost Voices tour in collaboration with Leah Broad, author of the pioneering group biography of four trailblazing women composers, Quartet. The Barbican has confirmed that it will host the performance on 5 November, with further engagements at Harrogate International Festival and Snape Maltings to be announced later this spring. Lost voices, which explores forgotten and lost repertoire by female composers, has been devised to complement Leah Broad’s new book, which was published by Faber & Faber in March this year. The book explores the lives of Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Dorothy Howell and Doreen Carwithen — and has been described as ‘magnificent’ by writer Kate Mosse and ‘a blast of fresh air’ by Radio 3’s Kate Molleson.
Read moreBarokksolistene's Alehouse Sessions to broadcast on BBC Four
BBC Four brings The Alehouse Sessions to screens this April with the bad boys of baroque – Bjarte Eike’s Barokksolistene – to capture the sound world of rebellious London under Oliver Cromwell’s draconian laws prohibiting any excess and abolishing the capital’s lively arts scene. When 17th Century England went into lockdown and the Puritans closed playhouses and theatres, musicians and performers sought refuge in backrooms of taverns and alehouses to vent their anarchy. The Barokksolistene bring their trademark fleet-footed fiddling, devilish improvisation and intoxicating revelry to perform folk melodies, sea-shanties, bawdy ballads and cheeky ditties alongside ayres and dances by Purcell and Playford.
Read moreOrchestra of the Swan release the first single from their third pioneering mixtape album
Orchestra of the Swan’s third mixtape album Echoes follows on from the success of Timelapse and Labyrinths (7.5 million audio streams since January 2021 and shortlisted for a Gramophone Award) and features an eclectic mix of contemporary reworkings from Bach all the way to the present day. Featuring 14 tracks including orchestral arrangements of songs by Frank Zappa, The Velvet Underground and A Winged Victory for the Sullen alongside classical standards by J.S. Bach, Delius, Max Richter, Philip Glass and Finzi, the album will be preceded by the release of four singles.
Read moreAparté releases the first volume of Mozart Symphonies with conductor Maxim Emelyanychev and Il Pomo d’Oro
On 3 February, Aparté releases the first volume of Mozart Symphonies with conductor Maxim Emelyanychev and Il Pomo d’Oro. This album launches a new complete cycle for the 21st Century to be released in a series of 6 CDs and downloads. The first album entitled “The beginning and the end” features Mozart’s Symphonies No.1 and No.41. This “alpha and omega” approach will set the tone for the cycle, juxtaposing an early symphony alongside a later mature one to highlight the composer’s development. Emelyanychev also appears as soloist on fortepiano in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23. Each subsequent album will feature a guest soloist in a concerto.
Read moreOrchestra of the Swan moves to a full-time residency at Warwick Hall
In an unique example of a public-private partnership, Orchestra of the Swan moves its centre of operations from Stratford-upon-Avon to Warwick to take up a full-time residency at Warwick Hall.
Read moreOrchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg extends contract with conductor Aziz Shokhakimov
Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg has extended Aziz Shokhakimov’s contract as Music Director for a further 2 years, as the Orchestra expands its international reputation on disc, streaming on Medici.tv and on tour to Seoul and London.
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