The Art of Sound

O Cecilia! Light the Fire in my Heart!

ON Friday 22nd November composer Jenny Bliss will be at Wells Cathedral with a programme of baroque and contemporary works for St Cecilia’s Day. Her new compositions, Let there be light and O Cecilia, will be performed by some of the best known players on the baroque music scene, including Joanna Lawrence from the Orchestra of…

Read more...

Remembering at Yeovil

THE Armonico Consort and actor Julian Glover come to Westlands entertainments centre on Monday 11th November, the anniversary of the day that the guns fell silent in 1918. They Shall Grow Not Old, which begins at 7.30pm, is an inspiring and moving commemoration in music and words. The critically-acclaimed choir will perform poignant and much-loved…

Read more...

Making music with a spirit of adventure

A CHAMBER group of musician friends, who got together in a spirit of adventure to bring music to new audiences, come to Dorset and Somerset for the November series of Concerts in the West. The Berkeley Ensemble will be at Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 15th for the usual coffee concert, at 11.30am, and Ilminster…

Read more...

Singing her songs

BRIDPORT Lyric Theatre hosts a multi-arts event celebrating women’s lives, Hersong III, on Sunday 20th October from 6pm. Performers and artists living and working in the Bridport will be taking part in this show which celebrates women’s stories of their lived experiences about love, labour and loss, through spoken word, song, movement and theatre. Expect…

Read more...

Star soprano with Concerts in the West

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….

Read more...

Society’s 80th anniversary

BOURNEMOUTH Chamber Music Society celebrates its 80th anniversary in the 2024-25 season, opening with a recital by Jiaxin, the cellist wife of the celebrated cello virtuoso Julian Lloyd Webber, on 20th October at the usual time of 3pm at Kimmeridge House on the Bournemouth University Talbot campus. The society made its debut on the local…

Read more...

Mela Quartet open CIW season

CONCERTS in the West, the charity which brings rising stars of the chamber music scene to the West Country, opens the autumn season with four recitals by the Mela guitar quartet, bringing a “festival of music” to Bridport Arts Centre on Friday 6th September at 11.30am, for the shorter coffee concert, that evening at Ilminster…

Read more...

BSO’s Scarfe is Orchestra Manager of the Year

DOUGIE Scarfe, chief executive of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, will have been with the Poole-based regional orchestra for ten years this year – and the celebrations began in style when he was named Orchestra Manager of the Year at the ABO/Classical Music Awards in Leeds. This prestigious award recognises his work in championing inclusion and…

Read more...