SOPRANO Hilary Cronin comes Dorset and Somerset for the October series of Concerts in the West on 4th and 5th October. Hilary, who was selected by BBC Music Magazine as a Rising Star of 2022, having won both first prize and the audience award at the 2021 Handel Singing Competition, is accompanied by Asako Ozawa.

The three-venue tour starts at Bridport Arts Centre, on Friday 4th, for the regular coffee concert at 11.30am, continues that evening at Ilminster Arts Centre at 7.30pm, and concludes at Crewkerne Dance House on Saturday at 7.30.

Hilary has been a regular soloist with The Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. On the concert platform, she has appeared as soloist with many groups and orchestras including The English Concert, The Sixteen, Solomon’s Knot, Florilegium, London Mozart Players, Oxford Bach Soloists, English Chamber Orchestra, London Handel Players, Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Asako Ogawa is one of today’s most versatile performers on keyboard instruments, playing a wide historic range, from virginals, harpsichord and fortepiano to modern piano. Her wide repertoire covers all periods both on harpsichord and modern piano. She has been performing as a soloist, as an accompanist and as a continuo player in the UK, Europe and Japan.

Hilary and Asako will perform a programme that reflects their wide repertoire, with works by Handel, Schumann, Wolf and Liszt.