As Ryan Wigglesworth steps down as chief conductor of BBC SSO, his replacement is announced as Antony Hermus, principal guest conductor of Opera North

Antony Hermus (Photo: Marco Borggreve)

Next year, Ryan Wigglesworth completes a remarkable five seasons as chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra [see my recent interview with Ryan focusing on his being Featured Artist at the Aldeburgh Festival]. It has now been announced that Dutch conductor Antony Hermus will take over as chief conductor of BBC SSO in September 2027.

Ryan Wigglesworth, commented: "It has been an immense privilege to serve as the BBC SSO’s Chief Conductor, and I thank all my wonderful colleagues for their support, commitment and remarkable musicianship throughout these past seasons. I send my warmest congratulations to Antony and wish him and the orchestra every possible success in their partnership over the years ahead. Stepping down in order to dedicate more time to other projects was always going to be an extremely difficult decision, but I feel very fortunate to have so many exciting collaborations with the BBC SSO still on the horizon."

Hermus completes his tenure as chief conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra this summer and then becomes conductor laureate. Hermus is also principal guest conductor with Opera North. He led the company's powerful concert staging of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra last year [see my review] and he conducts the company's new staging of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde next year.

Hermus made his debut with BBC SSO in 2018 with a programme that paired Ligeti’s avant-garde Mysteries of the Macabre with a 70-minute distillation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.  This autumn, Hermus leads the BBC SSO in performances of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony across Glasgow (8 Oct) and Perth (9 Oct), pairing it with Mors Aeterna a haunting meditation on loss, Mahler, and mortality by fellow Dutch composer Willem Jeths.

Across his career, Hermus has championed outside-the-box projects. He brought Ligeti to over 8,000 festival-goers at Holland’s adventurous outdoor cultural event Lowlands with the North Netherlands Orchestra (of which he is Honorary Conductor for Life), presented Mahler and Stravinsky through Symphonic Cinema at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, initiated the award-winning Scratch concerts bringing amateur voices onto the stage with a professional orchestra, and led Tweetfonie (52 world premieres in a single day) during his residency at the International Kurt Weill Festival in Germany. 

Full details from the BBC SSO website. 

Concertos for friends: Colin Currie in Tansy Davies, Tamsin Waley-Cohen in Freya Waley-Cohen with BBC National Orchestra of Wales & Kevin John Edusei at Aldeburgh Festival

Tansy Davies: Earthworks - Colin Currie, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kevin John Edusei (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Tansy Davies: Earthworks, Shostakovich: Symphony No.10; Colin Currie percussion, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, cond. Kevin John Edusei; Snape Maltings Concert Hall (Friday 19 June 7.30pm)

Rachmaninov: Romance (andante expressivo) from String Quartet No.1 in G minor, Freya Waley-Cohen: Dances, Songs and Hymns for Friendship, Ravel: String Quartet in F; Sacconi Quartet; Orford Church (Saturday 20th June 11am)

Elizabeth Ogonek: Sleep & Unremembrance, Freya Waley-Cohen: Violin Concerto for Tamsin Waley-Cohen, Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances; Tamsin Waley-Cohen, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, cond. Kevin John Edusei; Snape Maltings Concert Hall (Saturday 20 June 7.30pm)
Reviewed by Tony Cooper

A pair of high emotive concerts from BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the first high octane featuring Colin Currie in Tansy Davies' concerto, and the second more contemplative with Tamsin Waley-Cohen in concerto by her sister Freya, complemented by more Freya Waley-Cohen from the Sacconi Quartet

Opening a ‘noisy’ and high-octane Friday night concert at Snape Maltings as part of the 77th Aldeburgh Festival fell to the well-known minimalist work Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams. Although only lasting a mere four minutes, this bright and driving orchestral fanfare packs a punch like no other and is always exciting and refreshing to hear especially when played by the likes of an orchestra of the calibre as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Kevin John Edusei.

Specifically designed to capture the exhilarating and sometimes terrifying sensation of a high-speed ride in a sports car, I liken the piece to an F1 racing car on the starting grid. Comprising a relentless beat played by a woodblock imitating a metronomic engine, the orchestra weaves complex, overlapping rhythms round a constant percussive pulse with the rush of brass fanfares simulating the fast-paced shifting of gears and the building of speed. This frenzied pace continues without pause thereby creating an energetic and hypnotic wall of sound that Stan Kenton (the innovator of the ‘Wall of Sound’) would have been truly proud of.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kevin John Edusei (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

The percussive beat of this brilliant concert continued with Tansy Davies’ Earthworks, a 25-minute percussion concerto specifically written for the internationally renowned virtuoso percussionist, Colin Currie, the work drew heavily from vast geoglyphs and ancient monuments such as the Uffington White Horse in which Davies imagines these colossal shapes carved into the earth as a form of ancient language, a primal communication, say, between our ancestors and the future.

Allow yourself to be seduced: Tsinandali Festival features the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra at historic estate in Georgia

Tsinandali Festival amphitheatre

The current Foreign Office travel advice for Georgia is somewhat inconclusive, yet the country has long seduced European travellers. Friends of mine travelled to Tblisi last year and not only had a terrific time but would have no hesitation in returning.

Which means that I feel moderately comfortable about sharing information about the eight edition of the Tsinandali Festival which returns to the Tsinandali Estate in the centre of Georgia's wine country. The Tsinandali Estate is noted for the manor house and historic winery-estate which once belonged to Georgian poet Alexander Chavchavadze (1786–1846), and is now owned by one of the leading private investment groups active in the Caucasus and Central Asian region. They have restored the manor as a luxury hotel.

Festival performances are housed in two new buildings, an open amphitheatre with a retractable roof seating 1,200 people and the Chamber Concert Hall which seats 600 people. This year's festival runs from 3 to 13 September 2026.

The beating heart of the festival and perhaps a real reason for travelling there is the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra, which brings together young musicians from across the Caucasus countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The young musicians are given the opportunity to learn from internationally renowned conductors, coaches and soloists in a four-week residential training programme culminating in four performances under maestros Gianandrea Noseda, the Festival’s Music Director; Daniel Harding and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider.

The orchestra gives four concerts as part of this year's festival:

• 03 Sep: Gianandrea Noseda, Lisa Batiashvili & Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra — Szymanowski Violin Concerto No. 1; Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade 
• 06 Sep: Gianandrea Noseda, Pinchas Zukerman & Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra — Beethoven Violin Concerto; Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition 
• 09 Sep: Rafael Payare, Chen Reiss, Okka von der Damerau & Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra — Mahler Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’ 
• 13 Sep: Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Davit Khrikuli & Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra — Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2; Strauss Der Rosenkavalier Suite; Ravel La Valse 

Festival highlights also include the Sukhishvili National Ballet of Georgia, a Lisa Batiashvili Foundation Concert and Bizet’s La Tragédie de Carmen. 

The historic manor house on the Tsinandali Estate

Further details from the festival website. 

ECHO Rising Stars announced for 2027-28 including Laura van der Heijden, Junyan Chen, Fibonacci Quartet, Aaron Azunda Akugbo

The European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) has announced the artists selected for its 2027-28 ECHO Rising Stars season. As part of the ECHO Rising Stars programme, these artists will perform on the stages of leading concert halls across Europe throughout the 2027-28 concert season. In addition to their concert tours, they will take part in Education, Learning and Participation (ELP) activities, commission a new work by a composer of their choice, and engage in workshops and mentoring opportunities designed to support their artistic and professional growth.

• cellist Laura van der Heijden, nominated by The Glasshouse International Music Centre and Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam
• Laura has a longstanding relationship with Royal Northern Sinfonia, having won BBC Young Musician at The Glasshouse in 2012, performing Walton’s Cello Concerto with the orchestra conducted by Kirill Karabits. 
• On 26 July she joins the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Eva Thorarinsdottir for Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major as part of the Ryedale Festival's gala closing concert
• pianist Junyan Chen, nominated by Barbican Centre, Musikverein Wien and Wiener Konzerthaus
• Junyan was the winner of the inaugural Alexandra Dariescu Award at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2024, recognising outstanding performances of works by female composers
• She is joining Fantasia Orchestra and conductor Tom Featherstonhaugh on 27 June for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 as part of this summer's Proms at St Jude's 
• Fibonacci Quartet, nominated by Gulbenkian Foundation, Barbican Centre, Musikverein Wien and Kölner Philharmonie
• Formed at the Guildhall School, the quartet were winners at the 2024 Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International auditions 
• the quartet were recently appointed as Grand Résident ensemble at ProQuartet in Paris for seasons 2025-2027. The quartet is also featured at the 2026 St Magnus Festival
• trumpeter Aaron Azunda Akugbo, nominated by Palau de la Música Catalana, B:Music, Barbican Centre, Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, The Glasshouse International Music Centre
• in 2020 he made his London debut at the Royal Festival Hall playing Haydn's Trumpet Concerto with Chineke!
• he was performing in May with Fantasia Orchestra and Steven Osborne, and was at the Dublin International Chamber Music Festival earlier this month
• pianist Elia Cecino, nominated by Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Megaron - The Athens Concert Hall and Palau de la Musica Catalana
• clarinettist Arthur Stockel, nominated by Philharmonie du Luxembourg, NOSPR Katowice and Konzerthaus Dortmund

Powerful moments: Paul Wingfield directs Chelsea Opera Group in an impressive account of Mozart's Idomeneo with Andrew Henley & Eleanor Dennis

Mozart: Idomeneo  - Chelsea Opera Group, Paul Wingfield - Cadogan Hall

Mozart: Idomeneo; Andrew Henley, Eleanor Dennis, Lorena Paz Nieto, Frances Gregory, Sean Tester, Chelsea Opera Group, Paul Wingfield; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed 21 June 2026

Some powerful individual performances contribute to an account of the opera under conductor Paul Wingfield that developed into powerful music drama in Act Three

Having conducted Mozart's La clemenza di Tito with Chelsea Opera Group in 2023 [a performance that had 'plenty of style and lots to enjoy', see my review], Paul Wingfield returned to the company on 21 June 2026 for Mozart's other great mature opera seria, Idomeneo at Cadogan Hall. The cast featured Lorena Paz Nieto as Ilia, Frances Gregory as a mezzo-soprano Idamante (the work was performed in the original 1781 Munich version), Eleanor Dennis as Elettra, Sean Tester as Arbace and Andrew Henley as Idomeno, with Dafydd Allen as the High Priest, Emyr Wyn Jones as the Oracle and four students from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Phoebe Curcher, Laura Toomey, Justin Jacobs, William Swinnerton as the chorus soloists. Oliver John Ruthven provided forte-piano continuo.

Idomeneo remains something of a textual minefield. The original 1781 production was somewhat fraught with Mozart having to make cuts and changes due to the work's excessive length. He made adaptations for the 1786 Vienna performance with Idamante as a tenor, but never got the chance to create what he thought of as the definitive version. Evidently he wanted to revise the work to bring out the Gluckian elements. 

The libretto was adapted from the French by Giambattista Varesco who seems to have had some familiarity with the work of Gluck and Calzabigi. Part of the fascination of Idomeneo is the way the work looks in one direction to Gluck and French opera, with its choruses, marches and ballet music alongside structural links to opera such as Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride. Yet on the other hand, Mozart was writing arias for Italian-trained singers and his music is remarkably prescient in the way that he looks forward to his mature operas.

Chelsea Opera Group presented the opera in a version that ran for three hours including interval. The ballet music was reduced to a single movement, there were cuts, but Act Three was substantially complete (Elettra's final aria is sometimes a casualty) and Arbace had a single aria. The secco recitative was, I think, trimmed and certainly the balance tipped towards the accompanied recitative. It is this latter that makes the opera so distinctive, especially the way Mozart leans in to the fluidity in the drama. There is a modernity to these and the contrast with the stand-alone arias is notable.

Oliver John Ruthven provided admirably fluent continuo for secco recitatives which had a nice sense of impulse to them, whilst the whole performance seemed to lean into the accompanied recitatives. These provided some of the most powerful moments in the opera as singers, orchestra and conductor came together in the drama.

From Young Apollo to the Cello Symphony to the Poet's Echo to Phaedra: the range of Britten's composing career explored by Britten Sinfonia at Aldeburgh Festival alongside new works

Genevieve Lacey, Gemma New, Britten Sinfonia, Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Steve (Stelios) Adam: et døgn (one day), Lisa Illean/Binchois: Chansons, Lisa Illean: New works for recorder, strings and pre-recorded sounds, Brett Dean: Carlo, Britten: Cello Symphony; Genevieve Lacey recorder, Laura van der Heijden cello, Britten Sinfonia, cond. Gemma New; Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Britten: The Poet’s Echo, Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death, Ryan Wigglesworth: Till Dawning, Britten: Folksong arrangements on Moore’s Irish Melodies; Sophie Bevan soprano, Ryan Wigglesworth piano; Britten Studio, Snape Maltings.

Britten: Young Apollo, Haydn: Arianna a Naxos, Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, John Woolrich: Ulysses Awakes, Charpentier: 'Quel prix de mon amour' (from Médée), Britten: Phaedra; Britten Sinfonia, Zoë Beyers violin/director, Helen Charlston, mezzo-soprano; Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Reviewed by Tony Cooper (17 & 18 June 2026)

Two programmes curated by Britten Sinfonia featured grand performances of Brett Dean’s Carlo and Britten’s Cello Symphony, and the fresh and youthful mezzo voice of Helen Charlston in an illuminating and uplifting programme

Curated by the Britten Sinfonia, the concert on Wednesday 17 June at the Aldeburgh Festival featured an eclectic and inquisitive programme which opened with a relatively short seven-minute piece conceived by Australian futuristic composer, Steve (Stelios) Adam, who harbours a long-term fascination with music, sound and its associated technologies therefore electroacoustic composition and computer-generated music lies at the very heart of his creative output.

Scored for recorder and electroacoustic engineering, et døgn (one day), a delicately constructed work, created a hauntingly beautiful exploration and fusion of ‘live’ music and computer-generated sound witnessing virtuoso Australian recorderist, Genevieve Lacey, impeccable in her playing, employing the use of four recorders - bass, tenor, descant and treble, handmade by Joanne Saunders and Fred Morgan - which was captivating throughout the performance.

An Australian takeover, this enviable concert also projected a couple of works by Australian composer (now based in UK) Lisa Illean whose arrangement of Gilles Binchois, Chansons featured the fine strings of the Britten Sinfonia who, standing and gathered in a semicircle round their New Zealand conductor, Gemma New, created an intimate environment for what was an intimate and refreshing work originated by this well-loved composer of the 15th century renowned for his settings of secular chansons.

Lisa Illean’s second offering to this well-curated programme Swellsong received its UK première in the presence of the composer. Scored for recorder, strings and pre-recorded orchestral sounds, the mixing engineer on stage finely balanced the delicate acoustic output of the strings which were tenderly heard against a breathy subtle projection of the recorder.

A lovely, inspiring and thoughtful work, however, it incorporated the plainsong melody ‘Fulcite me floribus’ (Strengthen me with flowers), a liturgical text recollecting love and grief transfigured through faith who in Illean’s thought processes reimagines the text in relation to light, water and time thereby crafting a phantasy soundscape occupying another world!

Light & shade: Laurence Cummings, Academy of Ancient Music & a terrific cast make Handel's Serse into a captivating & engaging evening in the theatre

Handel: Serse - Paula Murrihy, Louise Alder - Academy of Ancient Music, the Barbican (Photo: Mark Allan)

Handel: Serse; Paula Murrihy, Louise Alder, Rachel Redmond, Rebecca Leggett, Claudia Huckle, Luca Tittoto, Thomas Chenhall, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings; Barbican Hall
Reviewed 19 June 2026

A lightly staged concert performance which wore scholarship and technical prowess lightly, bringing out the light and shade in Handel's opera and making a captivating and engaging evening

Perhaps because Nicholas Hytner's 1985 production at English National Opera cast such a long shadow (it was last revived in 2014 with Alice Coote and Sarah Tynan, see my review) stagings of Handel's Serse are not particularly common and recent London outings have been in concert. 

In concert, the performance can avoid taking too much of a stand on how funny the opera is. During Handel's lifetime performances would have been notable for the way the work wrong-footed audiences. Presented as an opera seria, it avoids many of the standard tropes: arias are often short, less than half the arias are da capo and the exit aria is rare. The whole opening scene has a fluidity that we now know looks forward to Handel's methods in oratorio, creating large structures from smaller segments. But after the hero's opening cavatina (here Serse's 'Ombra mai fui') audiences would have expected him to get a big aria and leave. Not a bit. And then the heroine's opening aria is variously done off-stage and interrupted! The result is a naturalism that modern audiences enjoy but which would have wrong-footed contemporary listeners and which means we can never really recapture the opera's original effect.

On Friday 19 June 2026, Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music chose to present Handel's Serse at the Barbican Centre with a very light dramatic touch in a concert staging blessedly free from concept and featuring a strong cast. Paula Murrihy was Serse with Louise Alder as Romilda, Rachel Redmond as Atalanta, Rebecca Leggett as Arsamene, Claudia Huckle as Amastre, Luca Tittoto as Ariodate and Thomas Chenhall as Elviro.

Handel: Serse - Rebecca Leggett, Rachel Redmond - Academy of Ancient Music, the Barbican (Photo: Mark Allan)

Handel's original cast featured a rather intriguing mix of gender bending. The title role was sung by a soprano castrato (Caffarelli) with Arsamene played 'en travestie' by a woman, then the (female) contralto playing Amastre actually spends most of the opera disguised as a man! Nowadays Serse is sung by female mezzo-sopranos though I have heard it sung by a countertenor (Jake Arditti sang it at Longborough in 2015, see my review) and the gender-fluid aspect of the piece does not seem to have been much explored. At the Barbican, Murrihy, Leggett and Huckle all presented as women dressed as men and the audience accepted it admirably with none of the titters that marred the recent performance of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito at The Grange Festival where some audience members seemed to find a female singer referring to herself as a male character as something innately funny. As Frankie Howerd might have said, 'titter ye not'.

Exploring Sullivan's range & experiencing how he evolves artistically: conductor John Andrews on his continuing exploration of the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan including a new disc of songs

John Andrews at recording sessions for his disc of Sullivan songs

When conductor John Andrews and I met up for a chat recently, it was the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan that was high on the agenda thanks to the release of John's new disc, Sir Arthur Sullivan: Songs for Tenor with tenor David Webb and the Academy of Ancient Music on Resonus Classics, and his recent recording of Sullivan's The Martyr of Antioch for Dutton.

Rather appropriately, a week before we met the news had come through that three deleted songs from Iolanthe had been found hiding in plain sight in the British Library. One song had been performed at the work's New York premiere but was then dropped and the others never made it at all. John points out that because of the Sullivan tradition continuing through the D'Oyley Carte Company, any music not part of the D'Oyley Carte canon effectively disappeared without trace. [Further details]

John raises the fascinating point that if Sullivan's music had disappeared after his death like that of his contemporaries such as Parry and Stanford, then when his music was being rediscovered in the later 20th century we might have chosen a different set of pieces to focus on. As it is, he was revered for one part of his output whilst the rest disappeared from consciousness.

For John's new Sullivan disc on Resonus Classics he is joined by tenor David Webb and the Academy of Ancient Music for a recital that mixes classic tenor arias from the Gilbert & Sullivan operas with numbers from Sullivan's oratorios - The Golden Legend, The Light of the World and The Prodigal Son - a number from The Rose of Persia (which Sullivan wrote with Basil Hood) and the song, The Lost Chord. The result is a mix of writing with Sullivan in comic, lyrical and serious mode spanning virtually the whole of the composer's vocal writing life from The Prodigal Son in 1869 (before his collaboration with Gilbert began) to The Rose of Persia in 1899 (after the collaboration with Gilbert ended). John feels that the programme enables us both to see Sullivan's range and to experience how he evolves artistically, as well as giving David Webb the chance to showcase his variety. Whereas Sullivan's oratorios were written for classically trained singers, his operas with Gilbert were written for singing actors and so the music requires lyricism but also attention to the nuance of meaning. And John adds that when recording this disc it was the first time that he was able to record music that he had been familiar with for decades!

When discussing the use of period instruments in the recording John's eyes lit up. He comments that late-19th century composers were concerned with the timbral quality of the music, exploring sounds and colours. With period instruments the orchestra is able to bring out a greater range of contrast so the gut strings give a transparency around the voice, the narrow bore brass are less dominant (and the instruments used include Gustav Holst's trombone) and there are contrasts in the wind colours. The result is more colourful with the instruments as characters in the drama. Also, John points out that you can enjoy the richness of Sullivan's inner part writing.

Living Voices: Whitehall Choir, Ian Tindale & Joanna Tomlinson to give premiere of Russell Hepplewhite's choral cycle setting contemporary poets' responses to the modern world

I first came across the composer Russell Hepplewhite in 2013 when English Touring Opera performed his opera Laika the Spacedog at the Science Museum in London [see my review]. Described as an opera in one act for young audiences, I was impressed by the way the piece mixed contemporary music, lively sing-along pieces which had been learned beforehand by the young attendees and science Q&As which chimed in with the National Curriculum. Oh, and a theremin which was played at various times by all members of the cast! The opera went on to win European awards, and Hepplewhite followed it up with Shackleton's Cat [see my review] , Borka: The Adventures of a Goose with no Feathers [see my review] and Silver Electra [see my review] all for English Touring Opera's family performances, and The Price [see my review] and Ever Young for W11 Children's Opera.  Most recently his opera for adults, The Crash was commissioned by Oldenburg State Theatre in Germany.

But Hepplewhite doesn't just write opera, and on Wednesday 24 June 2026, Whitehall Choir, conductor Joanna Tomlinson with Ian Tindale, piano, will give the first complete performance of Hepplewhite's Living Voices at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge. 

Living Voices is a collection of ten choral pieces with piano setting ten contemporary poems on inspiring subjects. Hepplewhite invited ten outstanding British poets to create poetic responses to our world today - Mona Arshi; Pam Ayres; Fiona Benson; Joseph Coelho; Wendy Cope; Jamila Gavin; Roger McGough; Andrew Motion; Alice Oswald; Michael Rosen.

The resulting pieces are diverse reflections cover birth and death, youth and age, sickness and health, and landscape and memory.

Whitehall Choir gave the premiere performance of Russell Hepplewhite’s setting of Alice Oswald’s poem Riddle last year. They were then asked if they would like to record the full 10 pieces in the Living Voices project. Following Wednesday's performance, Whitehall Choir will be recording the work in collaboration with the First Hand Records.

On Wednesday, the evening will also feature a further world premiere: two newly composed songs by Russell Hepplewhite based on poems by the UK Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage. These will be performed by baritone Marcus Farnsworth and pianist Ian Tindale. 

Full details from the Whitehall Choir's website. 

 

To encourage Birmingham’s young people to get involved with creative opportunities & training: Birmingham Opera Company's Voices of the Future

Almost 1 million young people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training. And in Birmingham, more than double the national average of young people are on Universal Credit and looking for work.  Birmingham Opera Company is launching its Voices of the Future programme to encourage Birmingham’s young people aged 16 to 24 to get involved with creative opportunities and training.

Birmingham Opera Company has been specially selected by Big Give to receive match funding for Voices of the Future. Through Big Give’s Small Charity week, 22nd-29th June, they’re aiming to raise £10,000 to provide opportunities for Birmingham’s young people.

Over the last year, Birmingham Opera Company has been out-and-about speaking to young people and creating networks with youth centres to deliver opportunities. [The company's website has more about this work including Sandwell Creates, and Four Hubs.]

Eager to play their part in building a healthy and creative future for the next generation of artists and creatives, the company is turning all of their resources towards supporting Birmingham’s young people via the Voices of the Future programme. They’ll deliver hands-on training and mentoring for young people, aiming to reduce isolation and disengagement, whilst increasing confidence and building skills.  

Visit birminghamopera.org.uk or BigGive.org to donate from 22 June 2026 at 12 noon to 29 June 2026 at 5pm to give and double your impact!

The Sixteen at St James's: a new partnership providing the choir with its first London home

Harry Christophers, The Sixteen & Genesis Sixteen alumni at St James's Piccadilly (Photo: Ian Jones Photography)

The Sixteen first collaborated with St James's Piccadilly back in 2019 when the church became the home for The Sixteen's annual celebration of things choral, Sounds Sublime, an event which focuses on young people and emerging talent. Since then there have been various other collaborative events.

This week the relationship was formalised as it was announced that The Sixteen and St James's Piccadilly are embarking on a five-year partnership supported by The Genesis Foundation. This will be the first time that The Sixteen (found back in 1976) have had a London home. The partnership takes place within the context of St James's ambitious Wren Project which is restoring and renewing the fabric of the church including restoring the organ (which has not been played for 45 years) within its historic organ case. This will require the partnership to decamp to St Pancras Church for two years, from 2027, whilst the St James's Church is closed.

The announcement took place within the context of an event this week at St James's when Harry Christophers conducted The Sixteen in a selection of music which reflected various aspects of the ensembles work. They began with Byrd's Civitas sancti tui which reflected the type of music the ensemble performed in its founding year. 

The Sixteen's residency will mean that the opening performance of the annual Choral Pilgrimage will take place at St James's (previously London performances of the Choral Pilgrimage programme have varied between Croydon Minster, Kings Place and the Old Royal Naval College Chapel in Greenwich). Begun in 2000, the Choral Pilgrimage sees The Sixteen setting off on some 25 performances around the country, mainly to cathedrals and collegiate churches. That first tour began in York and ended in Canterbury, but in the future each will begin at St James's. The repertoire involves both the well-known and the lesser known. 

We heard The Sixteen perform Morir no puo il mio core by Maddalena Casulana, the 16th century composer the discovery of whose work has been an important factor in recent years. In complete contrast was Kerensa Briggs' Lead, kindly light, written for this year's Choral Pilgrimage [see my review] and performed at St James's by The Sixteen along with eight Genesis Sixteen alumni.

Also, from December 2027 the Sixteen's annual performance of Handel's Messiah will take place at St James's.

The partnership will involve the wider Sixteen family as well. Sounds Sublime will continue at St James's whilst during the year there will be four choral evensongs sung by The Sixteen, Genesis Sixteen and Genesis Sixteen Alumni ensembles. Genesis Sixteen, the ensemble's young artists programme, continues to provide fully funded places for 22 young singers annually, thanks to the Genesis Foundation. In addition to the year of training (which involves two week-long courses and two weekend courses) the programme helps the young singers develop relationships and many of the young ensembles performing in Sounds Sublime arose because of friendships made in Genesis Sixteen.

And the church will continue to be a home for new choral music commissions performed by The Sixteen and Genesis Sixteen. These commissions have included an impressive 33 works commissioned for The Sixteen by the Genesis Foundation.

St James's will also support The Sixteen's Learning and Participation Programme, Ignite, with a programme of activity within the parish. Plans for Ignite include a new, free digital schools pack and during the evening we heard three works, by Will Todd, Bob Chilcott and Lucy Walker which The Sixteen have recorded as part of this digital pack. And there are plans for a choral academy for 16 to 18-year-olds.

The final two performances at St James's showcased both the new and the old. Another rediscovery was 16th-century Franco-Flemish composer Jean Guyot de Chatelet's Benedicta es caelorum Regina where he had added six extra parts to an existing Josquin motet to remarkable and wonderfully rich effect. The evening ended with James MacMillan's Nothing in Vain, his setting of words by John Henry Newman, commissioned by the Genesis Foundation in 2021 for the canonisation of John Henry Newman and performed at St James's by The Sixteen and the eight Genesis Sixteen alumni, a truly remarkable piece which I first heard at the Choral Pilgrimage earlier this year and really benefits from multiple hearings.

 Further details from St James's Piccadilly's website.

American themes at Aldeburgh: Tony Cooper enjoys a quartet by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson & an absorbing orchestral programme highlighting Elizabeth Ogonek.

Sphinx Piano Quintet: Nathan Amaral, Elena Urioste, Celia Hatton, Sterling Elliott, Amiri Harewood - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: BPA)

Perkinson: String Quartet No.1 ‘Calvary’, Vaughan Williams: Rondo for Piano, Still: Suite for Cello and Piano, arr. Randall Goosby, Cassie Kinoshi: Songs of Kinship, Bridge: Phantasie Piano Quartet, Price: Piano Quintet No.1; Sphinx Piano Quintet (Nathan Amaral, Elena Urioste, Celia Hatton, Sterling Elliott, Amiri Harewood); Britten Studio, Snape Maltings

Elizabeth Ogonek: All These Lighted Things, Ravel: Piano Concerto in G, Ryan Wigglesworth: Piano Concerto, Ravel: La Valse; Steven Osborne, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ryan Wigglesworth; Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 14 June 2026 

In the afternoon at the Aldeburgh Festival, the first quartet by black American composer, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, proved a revelation particularly with its fusion of classical-based music tinged with the genre of jazz and blues.  An absorbing and exciting evening programme came from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra highlighting the music of American contemporary composer, Elizabeth Ogonek. 

I was more than interested to learn more about 1932-born black American composer, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, who was on the bill for the Sphinx Piano Quintet’s concert at the Britten Studio, Snape Maltings. Specifically named in honour of the celebrated Afro-British composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) reflected his parents’ admiration for black excellence in classical music. 

He wrote a couple of string quartets in quick succession and his first quartet entitled ‘Calvary’ was the first item on an excellent programme curated by the Sphinx Piano Quintet, a dynamic artist-driven chamber ensemble formed under the acclaimed Sphinx Organization established in Detroit by Aaron P. Dworkin in 1996. A social justice and educational enterprise, Sphinx is dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts with a specific mission to champion exceptionally talented black and Latinx classical musicians. 

Both men were trailblazers of their day bridging classical music with their respective black heritage. Samuel was a renowned composer in late 19th-century London while Perkinson was a highly-versatile American composer whose work, although based on the classical idiom, also employed the genre of jazz and blues. Therefore, Perkinson’s first quartet, a three-movement work written in 1956, blends a traditional classical-based format with elements of jazz, blues and spirituals.  

Launch of UK Choir of the Year with applications open from 25 June

A new national competition is aiming to celebrate choral excellence. UK Choir of the Year is inviting amateur choirs in all genres from across the UK to compete with a final at Milton Court on 10 April 2026.

Founded by BAFTA judge and sound editor Lucy Mitchell, UK Choir of the Year aims to celebrate the breadth and quality of amateur choral singing across the UK. From 25 June, choirs are invited to apply. Following a preliminary video audition round, 18 selected finalists in three categories will perform live at Milton Court for the final.

The judges are composer Will Todd, conductor and vocal specialist Dan Ludford-Thomas, conductor and gospel specialist Karen Gibson and West End performer Alice Fearn.

Founder Lucy Mitchell commented, "There are thousands of amateur singers across the UK achieving remarkable things every week. We created UK Choir of the Year to celebrate that talent and provide choirs with a national platform on which to share their work." 

Dan Ludford-Thomas rehearsing for the UK Choir of the Year launch concert at Cadogan Hall (Photo: Jon Webber )

Full details from the UK Choir of the Year website. 

Bringers of Dreams: BREMF Emerging Artists announced for the 2026 festival

This year's Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF), Bringers of Dreams, runs from 2 to 25 October 2026 with events focused on the four weekends. 

The BREMF Emerging Artist scheme is an important part of the Festival. As well as offering offering performance opportunities in the Festival, BREMF Emerging Artists are supported with advice, mentoring and training opportunities as well as a 4-day residency at Hawkwood College in Gloucestershire, offering the opportunity for development and growth. Alumni of the scheme are very much part of the BREMF ‘family’ and continue to be supported with references, opportunities and collaborations.

This year's BREMF Emerging Artist ensembles are the five-part early music vocal ensemble Bruegel Consort, Les Acolytes, an ensemble specialising in French music of the 17th and 18th centuries, the instrumental ensemble Themelion, and Thow Cornwall Duo. All will be appearing at the BREMF Emerging Artists ensembles showcase and clubnight on Saturday 10 October at St Paul's Church.

This year's BREMF Emerging Artist vocalists are sopranos Ruby Skilbeck and Emma Warner, contralto Laura Toomey, and tenor Hugo Williamson. All will be involved in the performance of Purcell's The Fairy Queen with the London Handel Players on Friday 9 October 2026.

Other highlights of the festival include City of Dreams: a Florentine extravaganza with the Monteverdi String Band, BREMF Consort of Voices and The Royal Sackbut Collective (2025 BREMF Emerging Artists), Spiritato's The Planets (Pre-imagined): an orchestral journey through the 17th-century solar system, The Fine Hand in a programme of European and North American Ballads, and Lassus's Lamentations with Utopia Ensemble.

Dowland Day will feature a lunchtime concert with tenor Kieran White [see my review of his recent disc of Dowland and Danyel] and The Republic of Viols, an early evening concert with Dowland’s Foundry and a late night concert by soprano Ruby Hughes and lutenist Jonas Nordberg.

Full details from the BREMF website. 

Truly captivating: bass baritone Nicola Alaimo & pianist Carlo Rizzi celebrate Opera Rara's Donizetti Song Project with songs by Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini & Mercadante

Carlo Rizzi & Nicola Alaimo at Wigmore Hall (Photo: Russell Duncan)

Donizetti & Friends: Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini, Mercadante; Nicola Alaimo, Carlo Rizzi, Hetty Snell; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 16 June 2026

Superb bel canto technique & brilliant comic timing make Nicola Alaimo's contribution to this concert of early 19th century Italian song something rather special, delightful & captivating.

Opera Rara is celebrating the completion of its Donizetti Song Project, eight discs of songs covering the whole of Donizetti's song output allied to a new edition of the solo songs created by Roger Parker and Ian Schofield. The eighth and final volume of songs, from bass baritone Nicola Alaimo and pianist Carlo Rizzi, has just been released [see Opera Rara website]. To celebrate Nicola Alaimo joined Carlo Rizzi and cellist Hetty Snell at Wigmore Hall on Tuesday 16 June 2026 for a lunchtime recital pairing Donizetti's songs with those of Rossini, Bellini and Mercadante.

I remember talking to a singer about Italian songs from later in the 19th century, particularly those of Tosti. The singer said that the songs were a challenge because they took for granted the singer's technique! This thought came back to me during Nicola Alaimo's recital as I realised that to make these songs work you needed a firm bel canto technique.

Most of the songs in the recital were based around an expressive melody over some sort of flowing piano accompaniment. They were all about the voice, and the way you used the melody for expressive purposes. Whether they were serious and intense or simply comic, Alaimo projected each song with maximum expressivity whilst always ensuring the primacy of expressive line. Yet his diction was admirable throughout, his lyric technique was no barrier to making the words count too. Unlike some opera singers, Alaimo seemed comfortable on the concert platform and proved a delightful companion and guide through the songs.

Breaking new ground: Ruth Gipps's Goblin Market, her important setting of Christina Rossetti's iconic poem to be brought to life by upper-voice ensemble Corra Sound

Christina Rossetti's 1862 poem Goblin Market tells the story of sisters Laura and Lizzie, who are tempted with fruit by goblin merchants. The poem is interpreted frequently as having features of remarkably sexual imagery, and has been viewed as an expression of Rossetti's feminist and homosexual politics.

In 1954 the English composer Ruth Gipps set her own adaptation of Goblin Market for two soprano solos, female chorus and string orchestra. 

Mary Arsenau of University of Ottawa's Department of English comments "Gipps’s score and adapted libretto convey significant and innovative perspectives on Goblin Market that arguably make her composition a prescient innovation in the critical history of this poem. Specifically, Gipps's decidedly female musical perspective on Rossetti's poem breaks new interpretative ground that anticipates the feminist literary interpretations of Rossetti's work that really only began their strong emergence in literary critical history in the 1970s."

Amazingly, Gipps important score has not been heard for 70 years!

All this is about to change as Corra Sound, a professional upper-voice ensemble to bringing the works of female composers out of the shadows, plans to perform and record the work. The performance takes place on 3 July 2026 at Holy Trinity Church, Guildford with Corra Sound, Great Little Orchestra, conductor Amy Bebbington, with a recording of the work taking place the following week to be issued by Convivium Records in 2027.

The concert will be preceded by a pre-concert conversation between daughter-in-law Dr Victoria Rowe and writer Jessica Duchen.

Corra Sound has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the project. Further information about the concert from EventBrite.

Latvian Music Information Centre launches a new online store with sheet music by Latvian composers

The Latvian Music Information Centre (LMIC) has launched an online sheet music store on its website offering a growing selection of previously unpublished works by Latvian composers. The LMIC sheet music store currently offers nearly one hundred scores by both celebrated Latvian classical composers and contemporary creators, and the list keeps growing week by week.

The Latvian Music Information Centre collects, organises, and disseminates information about Latvian composers, their creative work, and developments within Latvia’s music scene. It maintains the largest online database of Latvian music and musicians, serving as a comprehensive resource for professionals and audiences alike.

Commenting on the LMIC’s new initiative, composer Rolands Kronlaks, Chairman of the Board of the Latvian Composers’ Union said: "The launch of the sheet music sales platform marks an important step in improving the accessibility and visibility of Latvian music. It also provides a structured framework for cataloguing Latvian composers’ scores and encourages composers to organise, update, and preserve their sheet music materials."

Further information from the LMIC website.

A day at Aldeburgh: Lise Davidsen's Aldeburgh Festival début in Schubert and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande semi-staged

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande - Myrna Tennant, Camilla Seale, Phoebe Rayner - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Schubert: Gretchen am Spinnrade; Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister; Der Tod und das Mädchen; Erlkönig; Lise Davidsen soprano, James Baillieu piano; Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande; Jacques Imbrailo (Pelléas), Sophie Bevan (Mélisande), Gordon Bintner (Golaud), Sarah Connolly (Geneviève), Nicolas Testé (Arkël), Beth Stirling (Yniold); dir: Rory Kinnear, set/costume designer Vicki Mortimer, lighting designers Paule Constable/Imogen Clark; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, cond. Ryan Wigglesworth; Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 13 June 2026

Making her Aldeburgh Festival début, Lise Davidsen delivered a memorable afternoon recital of Schubert Lieder brilliantly accompanied by the pianist, James Baillieu. In the evening, the semi-staged performance of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande highlighted the brilliance of the orchestral playing from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Wigglesworth and the conversational clarity of the singers with Sophie Bevan and Jacques Imbrailo in the title roles. 

[Elsewhere on Planet Hugill, Robert chats to James Baillieu about his new role on the Britten Pears Arts Young Artist Programme and to Ryan Wigglesworth about being Featured Artist at this year's festival]

I was more than proud being a member of the audience when Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen made her Bayreuth Festival début in 2019 as Elisabeth in Tobias Kratzer’s outstanding but unconventional modern staging of Tannhäuser. [see Tony's review] The show featured an odd assortment of characters up to no good either riding a battered old Citroën Type-H van (Venusberg on wheels), nicking burgers from Burger King or siphoning off petrol - and the rest! Get the picture?

Her Bayreuth performance was immaculate, catapulting her into the upper echelons of the opera world while cementing her status as one of the world’s leading Wagnerians. Her Aldeburgh début follows suit. I found it satisfying being in the cosy, comfortable and spartan space of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall harbouring acoustics, I feel, perfect for voice and piano and so ideal for Davidsen singing Schubert Lieder.

James Baillieu, Lise Davidsen - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Admirably accompanied by James Baillieu on piano, Davidsen opened with such glowing and accurate accounts of Gretchen am Spinnrade and Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister, a couple of acclaimed art-songs that Schubert set to texts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Celebrating with a flourish: York Early Music Festival celebrates its 50th edition with a new fanfare from composer Sam Meredith

This July, York Early Music Festival celebrates its 50th edition, running from 3 to 11 July 2026 under the title Beyond Borders, and featuring some of the UK’s most extraordinary medieval churches, historic buildings and the world-famous Minster.

To mark this special occasion has commissioned the majestic York Fanfare, Flourish at 50 to be played during the opening weekend. The fanfare has been created by composer Sam Meredith and will be played by the all female German ensemble [hanse] Pfeyffery. Wakefield born Meredith was finalist in the 2023 NCEM Young Composers Award, Meredith was selected from a strong line up of applicants, all alumni from the Young Composers Award, to be this year’s Commission Composer for the York Early Music Festival.  

The York Fanfare will open this year’s festival on Friday 3 July outside The Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at the University of York at 6.20pm before the opening concert by I Fagiolini, and also outside York Minster before the concert by The Sixteen on Saturday 4 July at 6.45pm, 7.00pm, and 7.15pm. 

The festival opens with Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers presented by I Fagiolini with the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble and closes with Solomon’s Knot in Bruhns’s St Mark Passion. Also appearing are: The Sixteen; B’Rock Orchestra & Vocal Consort; Imago Mundi; Paul Agnew, Helen Charlston with Sergio Bucheli and Steven Devine. The festival also marks John Dowland's 400th anniversary with Dowland Day, a whole day devoted to his works including concerts by lutenist Thomas Dunford; the Rose Consort of Viols; and Flanders based Imago Mundi, directed by Sofie Vanden Eynde. 

This year features two young European ensembles Anacronía from Spain, and the Franco/American medievalists Contre le temps, along with the York International Young Artists Competition with finalists I Mastricelli; Il Parrasio; La Mandorle; Lagrime; Nari Baroque Ensemble; Ossian’s Dream; Quarterino; The Lyons Mouth; and Tra Noi.

Full details from the festival website. 

Zelenka, a focus on India, new & old seasons: 2026 Viljandi Early Music Festival, Estonia's oldest festival in one of the countries most attractive historic towns

Viljandi is an historic town in southern Estonia, founded in 1283, situated on the north-western shore of Lake Viljandi and surrounded by forest. The town is notable for its ruined castle and collection of historic town buildings, along with green spaces, cultural attractions and culinary delights. We had a pleasant few days there in 2024 on our way to Tartu for a performance of my music.

Amongst the town's cultural attractions is the Viljandi Early Music Festival, the oldest festival in Estonia.  The 41st edition of the festival runs from 15 to 17 July 2026, this year under the joint directorship of Andres Mustonen (who founded the Estonian early music group Hortus Musicus in 1972) and Heili Vaus-Tamm (whom I first met in 2016 when she was part of the team presenting the Brigitta Festival in the ruins of the Pirita Convent in Tallinn, see my review)

The festival opens with Andres Mustonen conducting the Hortus Musicus Baroque Orchestra and Moran Singers Ensemble in Zelenka's Missa Votiva (Thanksgiving Mass). Zelenka wrote this festive mass for Dresden in 1739 where Zelenka had worked at the Saxon court since 1719. 

A new festival tradition is a focus on a particular country, this year India with an evening of Indian ragas and artists from India including Mukesh Sharma (sarod) and Moumala Nayak (Kathak dance) being joined from Estonia are tabla player Arno Kalbus and festival director Andres Mustonen.

Andres Mustonen directs Hortus Musicus Baroque Orchestra a programme focusing on the seasons pairing Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, in a version for cello and orchestra by Marcel Johannes Kits (who plays the solo), with The Seasons, a 12-part cycle by the Ukrainian composer, Leonid Desyatnikov. In 2006 a ballet based on Desyatnikov's The Seasons was premiered in New York by the New York City Ballet. There is a visual element to the concert too as audiovisual artist Iiris-Minda Paemurru will be creating a projection design inspired by the paintings of the artist Navitrolla.

Alongside these concerts are a lively programme of workshops including Indian raga and Kathak dance, craft events, a tour of Viljandi with live music, stage and theatrical workshops as well as archery and shooting!

Full details from the festival website. 

 

Vocal fireworks & extreme emotions: Franco Fagioli & the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles in music written for the castrato Velluti

Franco Fagioli with the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles & Stefan Plewniak in Divonne-les-Bains in April 2026 (Photo: Jean-Christophe Cassagnes.)

The Last Castrato: Arias for Velluti - Rossini, Nicolini, Bonfichi, Rode, Zingarelli, Mercadante; Franco Fagioli, Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles, Stefan Plewniak; St Martin in the Fields
Reviewed 13 June 2026

Making its UK debut, the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles is joined by countertenor Franco Fagioli for an evening of early 19th century Italian vocal fireworks exploring repertoire originally written for the castrato Velluti

The castrato Giovanni Battista Velluti (1780-1861) is known for what he was rather than what he sang. Velluti is renowned as the last great operatic castrato, for whom Rossini and Meyerbeer wrote roles. Velluti came at a time when opera itself was changing: many of the composers whose work he sang wrote in a style which still looked back, Rossini and his operatic revolutions would ensure that opera changed and indeed left castrati behind. The title of The Last Castrato realistically goes to Alessandro Moreschi and those castrati who survived in the Papal choir and were recorded in early years of the 20th century. But in terms of operatic castrati, Velluti is definitely the last.

Under the title The Last Castrato: arias for Velluti, countertenor Franco Fagioli has been exploring this repertoire for a while with the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles and conductor Stefan Plewniak. They issued a disc on the Château de Versailles Spectacles label early last year and have been touring the programme. On Saturday 13 June 2026, Franco Fagioli, the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles and Stefan Plewniak presented The Last Castrato: arias for Velluti at St Martin-in-the Fields. Fagioli sang arias from Giuseppe Nicolini's Traiano in Dacia and Carlo Magno, Paolo Bonfichi's Attila, Rossini's Aureliano in Palmira and Mercadante's Andronico, and there was orchestral music by Rossini, Pierre Rode and Niccolo Antonio Zingarelli.

A portal into how we reflect the world around us now: violinist Violetta Suvini on bringing three world premieres to Cheltenham Music Festival

Violetta Suvini (Photo: Marleen Annema)

On 10 July 2026 at Pittville Pump Room in Cheltenham, violinist Violetta Suvini is joined by friends, Hana Mizuta-Spencer (violin), Dominic Stokes (viola) and Nina Kiva (cello) for Violetta Suvini and Friends as part of the Cheltenham Music Festival. The concert features the premieres of works commissioned from Jasmine Morris, Ben Nobuto and Imogen Davey, along with a performance of Britten's String Quartet No. 2. New York-based Jasmine Morris won BBC Young Composer in 2020 and has since written for the Viktoria Mullova Ensemble and Solem Quartet. Ben Nobuto made waves when his Hallelujah Sim, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and BBC Singers, opened the 2024 BBC Proms [see my review of National Youth Choir's Young Composers 4 disc on NMC which features Nobuto's Sol and The nearness of things]. Imogen Davey’s compositions have been premiered as far afield as Seoul, Berlin, Barcelona, Helsinki and Melbourne, often using electronic, acoustic and visual elements in her work.

The Cheltenham project is the brainchild of Violetta, a violinist whose practice covers a remarkably wide range. Violetta met viola player Dominic Stokes whilst they were both at the Guildhall School, and they worked together including playing in Serenity 2.0, Ben Nobuto's work for string quartet, percussion and electronics that won a Royal Philharmonic Society award in 2023, as well as playing Jasmine Morris's SO-ŌN for string quartet, field recordings and found sounds at the Venice Biennale in 2025. Violetta had commissioned a work from Imogen Davey, Naegleria Fowleri for violin and electronics which premiered in 2023 [The name refers to a pathogenic microorganism, commonly referred to as the ‘brain-eating amoeba’, that can cause fatal brain infection!]

There is only a sparse repertoire for violin and viola, so the idea developed to commission new works. These would be able to include electronics because, as Violetta comments, this both reflects the time we are in and speaks to the younger generation. The three commissions in the concert provide a rich showcase for the combination of violin and viola, showing what it can do. When I spoke to Violetta she had recently spoken to all three composers and been reassured that their pieces were on track.