Category Archives: Uncategorized

Madame Farrenc Goes to the Revolution – Saturday 31 May – Pond Square Chapel, London 7pm

The music of Louise Farrenc, composer, concert pianist, scholar, professor, set in the three days of the February Revolution in Paris 1848

Sat, 31 May 2025 19:00 – 21:30 BST. Doors at 6:30pm

Pond Square Chapel, South Grove, London N6 6BA

With Tekla Arts and the Marcel Chamber Ensemble
Featuring: Sarabande Foundation artist, Darcey Fleming
Pianist Andrew Campling, Soprano Elinor Chapman and readers John Fleming, Chris Cole, Theia Galena Charles

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/madame-farrenc-goes-to-the-revolution-tickets-1288169863739

JAM: Music of Our Time, Wednesday 26 March, 7 pm, St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, London

On Wednesday 26 March, 7pm, JAM celebrates its 25th anniversary at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, London for a joyous evening of British music.

Recognising how difficult it was for emerging UK composers to have their music commissioned and heard, JAM launched in 2000 to nurture, promote and enable new classical music. Since its inception JAM has annually commissioned inspirational British composers and run a Call for Music to support the next generation. A combination of works from these Calls and commissions have opened its season since 2002.

The programme for the 26th March will take our audience on a captivating journey from JAM’s first ever commission, Timothy Jackson’s No Answer capturing fear and oppression of captivity, to the world premiere of our latest, by Joseph Phibbs Seven Songs of Nature setting seven short choral songs responding to the natural world, from mystical to playful and earthy.

Also included is our most recognised commission, Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal by Paul Mealor, which became Ubi Caritas and was broadcast worldwide for the wedding of the now Prince and Princes of Wales. The programme will feature music submitted to JAM’s annual Call for Music.

The outstanding programme will be performed by Onyx Brass, The Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge, Simon Hogan (organ) and conducted by Sarah MacDonald.

Many commissioned and submitted composers from across the years will join us at St Bride’s for JAM@25. The evening will be a real celebration of inspirational music, emerging and established talent.

Further Information about the first 25 years of JAM

JAM has commissioned some of the most important composers in the UK, influencing the classical music repertoire nationally and around the world. JAM has commissioned captivating works from the likes of Judith Bingham, Jonathan Dove, Thea Musgrave, Gabriel Jackson, Hannah Kendall, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Paul Mealor. Its commissions have won awards, enjoyed broadcasts and multiple performances worldwide. JAM has helped over 2,500 early-career composers through commissions and performances, publishing contracts and greater media and general public awareness.

JAM’s Composers’ Resource provides free online videos with valuable tips helping to improve composers’ writing for choir, brass quintet, string quartet and organ. These highly informative videos have been watched worldwide by over 35,000 to date.

Imminently, JAM will announce details of its annual 2-week Composers’ Residency, which takes part during JAM on the Marsh, its vibrant festival every July on the Kent coast. During the residency, composers will receive daily tutoring from internationally renowned composers, culminating in world premieres in the last weekend of the festival. One of the composers will be awarded the President’s Commission for 2026.

“For over 25 years now JAM has been putting on fascinating concerts, has commissioned a substantial body of new work and given countless opportunities to emerging composers through their submissions scheme. Without them, the world would be a much duller place! (Gabriel Jackson)
…/…
“We thrive on organisations like JAM and need you. Thank you and keep doing what you do so well. As an audience member you allow for new music to be presented in a way for people to discover it without making it elitist.” (Submitted composer)

“JAM has made a huge difference to me. I have come to new classical music late in my life and I just love hearing the variety of compositions, the wonderful voices. Onyx Brass has opened my eyes to the sensitivity of brass. A highlight of this was the exquisite playing of the solo organ piece. (Audience)

EVENT DETAILS

JAM: Music of Our Time
Wednesday 26 March, 7.00pm
St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, London EC4Y 8AU

The Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge
Onyx Brass | Simon Hogan, organ | Sarah MacDonald, conductor

PROGRAMME:

No Answer (JAM Commission 2002)
Choir, Brass, Organ
Timothy Jackson

Brother, Sun, Sister Moon (SATB) – London Premiere
Sarah MacDonald

The Cats Are Crowding Us (SSAA) – World Premiere
Alan Bullard

Chrome – brass quintet– London Premiere
Laura Heneghan

In the Timbrels and Dances – organ– World Premiere
Eoghan Desmond

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal – SATB (JAM Commission 2011)
Paul Mealor

Seven Songs of Nature – world premiere (JAM Commission 2025)
Choir, Brass, Organ
Joseph Phibbs

Tickets: £20 | £15 | under 18s free
Now on sale via www.jamconcert.org or 0800 988 7984

For further information and images, please contact Sarah Armitage:
sarah@jamconcert.org / 07771 782 890

Please see www.jamconcert.org for more details about JAM.

In Conversation With Caribbean Composer Dominique Le Gendre – Wednesday 5th March 2025, London, 7pm

Come and hear about the life and work of this pioneering woman who has changed the face of classical music through her Caribbean heritage.

Dominique Le Gendre, born in Trinidad and Tobago and living in London since the late 1980s, is a groundbreaking composer who went from playing in church and composing calypsos as a teen to training as a classical guitarist in Paris. 

Dominique has worked with theatre companies and film collectives and, with her arts charity StrongBack Productions, combines literature and music in innovative projects. Her music commissions read like an international Who’s Who of organisations, from writing pieces for the BBC Radio 3 Proms to Canterbury Cathedral, from the Ensemble Du Monde (USA) to the Coro De Madrigalistas (Mexico). 

She has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including directors Adjoa Andoh and Lynette Linton at Shakespeare’s Globe. In 2022, she co-wrote the music and lyrics for Birmingham Rep’s reboot of Mustapha Matura’s play The Playboy of the West Indies, hailed by the Guardian as a ‘bright calypso musical’ with ‘sweet duets’.

Dominique will be in conversation with literary activist and creative entrepreneur Joy Francis, co-founder of Words of Colour.

***

Tickets:               £5.00, available to book at: 

https://bit.ly/DomLeGendreWSV

Venue:            

198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, 198 Railton Road, London SE24 0JT, located at the junction btw Railton Road and Hurst Street

Train:               

Herne Hill (3-minute walk)

Tube:               

Brixton

Buses:              

3, 37, 68, 196, 201, 322, 468 to Herne Hill 

Parking

There are two parking bays less than 10 metres from the building on Hurst Street, provided for the disabled. There is pay and display parking on the surrounding streets. The building is accessible to wheelchair users with disabled and baby changing facilities.

These conversations are part of a wider project: Women Speak Volumes Between Generations. Produced in collaboration by Speaking Volumes, Words of Colour and the George Padmore Institute, in association with 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning and the University of Coastal Carolina. This is the first of seven conversations running from 19 February to 14 May which will throw the spotlight on the work of pioneering creative older black women whose stories need to be shared. The Women Speak Volumes project is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

PRISM  – Royal Birmingham Conservatoire – 26 Jan 2025 4pm

PRISM

Composer/Sound Design Chloe Knibbs
Composer Marie Jaëll
Melissa Morris piano
Lighting Design Joe Price

https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/prism-26-01-2025

A reimagining and exploration of Marie Jaëll’s piano work Prisme (1888) for solo piano, spatial audio and immersive lighting.

Part of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s French Concert Series, Prism is a 40-minute theatrical work for solo pianist and electronics, that is a musical conversation between French composer and pianist Marie Jaëll (1846 – 1925) and Chloe Knibbs.

26 Jan 2025 4pm – 4.40pm

Book Now

Location

Recital Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR

Price

£8
£5 Over 60, under 16
Free 
students

Soul of Women – a reading-concert of works by Female composers – 27 December, 7.30pm, Pimlico, London

https://www.stgabrielspimlico.org.uk/event-list/linkhttps/wwwticketsource-couk/londonao-h6frb-eth87-2bbg8-d9le3-m2zxw

“SOUL OF WOMEN”

This reading-concert, from the “Soul of Women” project, features piano works by women composers through the ages. The pianist and scholar Maggie S. Lorelli brings the programme to London after previous performances around Italy. Our narrator for the evening is Fiona T. Frank, who will also play the violin in one of her own pieces. The event will include works by Cécile Chaminade, Clara Schumann, Lili and Nadia Boulanger, Mel Bonis, Fanny Mendelssohn, Fiona T. Frank, Gaby Kapps and other composers from all eras of musical history, from the Baroque to the contemporary.

St Gabriel’s Church, Warwick Square, Pimlico, London SW1V 2AD

Fri 27 December 2024- Concert begins at 7:30; free entry, retiring collection

Illuminate Women’s Music Scotland ​2024-2025

Soprano Stephanie Lamprea and cellist Jessica Kerr, will be performing works by women from the past and present including works by Marie Dare, Hildegard von Bingen, Babara Strozzi, Emily Doolittle and Gemma McGregor. The programmes will also include five new Illuminate commissions from composers Sonia Allori, Simone Seales, Kate Sagovsky and composers in residence Ruta Vitkauskaite and Angela Elizabeth Slater.

https://www.illuminatewomensmusic.co.uk/illuminate-scotland-tour.html

https://www.illuminatewomensmusic.co.uk/illuminate-scotland-artists.html

ILLUMINATE GLASGOW
Wednesday 11 December 2024
1pm – 3pm Livestreamed workshop at Scottish Music Centre, Glasgow. Online. FREE.
3.30 – 4.30 pm Livestreamed artist talk and Q&A. Online. FREE. Email illuminatewomensmusic@outlook.com to reserve an in-person spot.


Thursday 12 December 2024
7.30pm – 9pm Concert and post-concert talk. Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Alexander Gibson Opera Studio (AGOS), 100 Renfrew St, Glasgow, G2 3DB. Tickets: students and under 18s go free, standard £12.50, concessions £5.


ILLUMINATE ABERDEEN
Thursday 30 January 2025
1pm – 2pm Concert. University of Aberdeen, Kings College Chapel, College Bounds, Aberdeen AB24 3FX.
Tickets £10, free for students, children welcome.

ILLUMINATE DUNDEE
Saturday 1 February 2025
7.30pm-9pm Concert (pre-concert talk 6.45pm – 7.15pm) University of Dundee, The Chaplaincy Centre, Cross Row, Dundee DD1 4HN. Free pre-booked tickets. Pay what you can afford on the door.

​ILLUMINATE EDINBURGH
Saturday 8 February 2025
7pm – 9pm Concert. (Doors 6pm) Fruitmarket, Edinburgh (45 Market St, Edinburgh EH1 1DF).
Tickets £5 – £20. Pre-booked and tickets on door.

​ILLUMINATE KINLOCHARD
Sunday 16 February 2025
11am – 1pm Workshop with Stephanie Lamprea (voice), all levels and ages welcome. Kinlochard Village Hall, Kinlochard, Stirling FK8 3TL. FREE.
2.30pm – 4pm Concert. Kinlochard Village Hall, Kinlochard, Stirling FK8 3TL. Under 18s – FREE, tickets £12.50

​ILLUMINATE PAISLEY
Monday 17th of February 2025
1pm – 3pm. Family friendly workshop and informal concert, open for all ages. Paisley Library, 22 High St, Paisley PA1 2BS. FREE, pre-booked tickets.

Sony’s childcare policy wins Music Week Women In Music Award, and is helping to diversify the music industry

This is an inspiring story published in Music Week in October. Congratulations to all those involved in bringing about and implementing this policy. Sony has won a Music Week Women In Music Award. You can find the full article here https://www.musicweek.com/interviews/read/women-in-music-awards-2024-jason-iley-liz-jeffery-on-sony-music-s-award-winning-childcare-policy/090641

For full news of the Music Week Women In Music Awards https://www.mw-womeninmusic.com/

London New Wind Festival – Brand New Music for Chamber Orchestra – 21st November, 7.30pm, Waterloo

London New Wind Festival Brand New Music for Chamber Orchestra
21st November 2024
Thursday at 7.30pm
The Warehouse Waterloo,
13 Theed Street, London SE1 8ST
Conductor: David Sutton-Anderson
Artistic Director: Catherine Pluygers

Stephen Barchan – ‘Ice Floes at Twilight’ from Three Forms of Water [world première]
Giorgio Coslovich – Tyche [world première]
Drew Hammond – Boyajian Star Music [world première]
Douglas Hedwig (USA) – Movable Borders (excerpt) [UK première]
Catherine Pluygers – Musical Chairs [world première]
Colin Riley – Frieze Frame [London première]
Susannah Self – ‘Harbour’ from Night Sea Journey [world première]
(Orpheus Leander Papafilippou, solo violin)
Michiko Shimanuki – Si vous apparaissiez dans mes rêves [world première]
Petra Stump-Linshalm (Austria) – AS YOU LIKE IT [UK première]
Edgard Varèse – Density 21.5
Edgard Varèse – Octandre

Tickets £20 (£12)
online via
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/london-new-wind-festival/t-pqvdmla
or on the door.

27th London New Wind Festival – 25 October, 7.30 pm, Hampstead

27th London New Wind Festival
Birthday Composers and Friends
Tickets £15 (£8)

Burgh House, New End Square,
Hampstead,
London NW3 1LT

Friday 25th October 2024 at 7.30pm


Online via: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/london-new-wind-festival/t-gamolrz
Or on the door.
http://www.londonnewwindfestival.co.uk/

Programme includes:
Amelia Brey – Sonata for piano
Peter Copley – Proskien’s Soliloquy (horn and piano)
Vincent David – Lune (clarinet solo)
James Iliff – Syzygy (oboe and piano)
Justine Koontz – People House (flute and bassoon)
George Nicholson – Summer Music (wind quintet)
Catherine Pluygers – “Shall We Dance?” (instruction score for full ensemble)
Arnold Schoenberg – ‘Rondo’ (from the Wind Quintet, op.26)
Michiko Shimanuki – Aries, Leo Minor and Libra (piano solo)
Angela Elizabeth Slater – Echoed (for solo flute with glissando headjoint)
Andrew M. Wilson – Burlesco (wind quintet)