Beyond the concert hall: NYCOS Singing Time launches in primary schools & NYCOS BSL Youth Choir makes debut at opening ceremony of Scottish Parliament

Primary Fours in West Primary School, Paisley with NYCOS Artistic Director and Founder Christopher Bell (with the hat), NYCOS Singing Time presenter Holly Clelland (with the red hair) and acclaimed Scottish tenor Nicky Spence (with the red tie)

This year the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS) celebrated its 30th anniverary, the choir launched a variety of intiatives that go well beyond the concert all.

As NYCOS Singing Time launched in primary schools across Scotland from September, providing free access to songs, singing games and teaching resources designed to bring the joy of singing into classrooms nationwide, NYCOS Artistic Director and Founder Christopher Bell, NYCOS Singing Time presenter Holly Clelland and Scottish tenor Nicky Spence joined Primary Fours in West Primary School, Paisley to celebrate the launch.

Created as the centrepiece of NYCOS's 30th anniversary celebrations, the initiative brings together three decades of expertise in youth singing, musicianship and music education. Featuring 15 songs and accompanying singing games, the resource is designed to help children experience the joy of singing while developing musical understanding through play. The films were directed and edited by Lewis Landini and feature three young presenters – Connor Going, Holly Clelland, and Tawana Maramba.

The launch comes at a time when many teachers report feeling less confident about teaching singing and music in the classroom, while opportunities for young people to sing together have declined. NYCOS Singing Time aims to remove those barriers by providing a free, easy-to-use resource that can be accessed by any primary school, regardless of musical experience or budget.

Primary Fours in West Primary School, Paisley with NYCOS Artistic Director and Founder Christopher Bell (with the hat), NYCOS Singing Time presenter Holly Clelland (with the red hair) and acclaimed Scottish tenor Nicky Spence (with the red tie)

Based on the Kodály principles that have shaped NYCOS's educational approach for three decades, the resource uses games, movement and age-appropriate repertoire to help children absorb musical concepts naturally and joyfully. The songs span a range of traditions and languages, including English, Scots and Gaelic, reflecting both Scotland's cultural heritage and NYCOS's belief that singing should be open and accessible to all.

On 16 September, NYCOS launched a new Glasgow Regional Choir, expanding its network of regional choirs and creating opportunities for even more young people to sing regularly in their local communities.

Earlier this year, the organisation launched the NYCOS BSL Youth Choir bringing together Deaf and hearing young people from across Scotland in what is believed to be the first ensemble of its kind in Scotland. Developed in partnership with leading accessible music practitioner Paul Whittaker OBE, the choir enables young British Sign Language users aged 14-18 to experience the creativity, connection and shared expression of choral performance through sign language. The ensemble made its debut at the Opening Ceremony of the Scottish Parliament on 27th June 2026.

NYCOS BSL Youth Choir in a landmark performance at the Opening Ceremony of the Scottish Parliament on Saturday 27 June 2026 (Photo: Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament, © Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body)

The celebrations culminated with NYCOS's 30th anniversary tour and a landmark gala performance at Edinburgh's Usher Hall on 13th September. At the heart of the programme was Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, a work that holds a special place in NYCOS history as the first major piece performed by the choir when it was founded in 1996, then comprised of only 60 singers. In August 2026, the choir performed the work in Paisley, Aberdeen and Perth alongside regional choirs from across the country. The gala performance at Usher Hall will bring together 170 young singers with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Between Breath and Brass: Hearing the Sheng in Contemporary London

Julia Luo playing the sheng at the
London International Chinese Music Festival

The sheng is mouth-blown reed instrument that is one of the oldest Chinese instruments with images of it dating back to 1100BCE.

It is an instrument that can look deceptively still. Held vertically in front of the player, its pipes rise from a small wind chamber; the hands move, but often without the immediately visible physical drama of a string player’s bow or a percussionist’s attack. Yet the sound it produces is anything but static. It breathes, bends, overlaps and changes colour with remarkably small adjustments from the player.

For Julia Luo, a Chinese musician now developing her performance practice in London, learning to hear those details has involved moving between two rather different instrumental worlds.

Luo originally trained as a euphonium player at Xinghai Conservatory of Music before completing postgraduate study in music education in Britain. The sheng entered her musical life alongside that Western brass training, rather than replacing it. She studied the instrument with Luo Qixuan, a representative inheritor of Guangdong Han music, and over time the two instruments began to shape the way she approached one another.

At first sight, the pairing seems improbable. The euphonium belongs comfortably within the architecture of the Western wind band and brass tradition: long melodic lines, controlled projection, blended ensemble sound and a highly standardised relationship between notation and execution. The sheng, one of China’s oldest free-reed instruments, carries a different history of sound and musical gesture.

But both begin with breath.

London Opera Company returns to Smith Square with full-scale performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde

Wagner's Die Walküre - The London Opera Company at Smith Square Hall in 2023

Following sold out performances of Götterdammerung, Die Walküre [see my review] and Siegfried [see Tony's review], the London Opera Company is back at Smith Square Hall on Sunday 18 October 2026 for a performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. The cast includes Neal Cooper as Tristan, Cara McHardy as Isolde, Simon Thorpe as King Marke, Harriet Williams as Brangäne and Ronald Samm as Melot. 

Peter Selwyn conducts. Selwyn conducted Der fliegende Holländer at Opera Holland Park last year [see my review] which featured Neal Cooper (London Opera Company's Tristan) as Erik. Cooper also sang the title role in Siegfried in Grimeborn Festival's production of Wagner's opera in 2022 [see my review]. Cara McHardy who sings Isolde, has performed Brünnhilde and Isolde for London Opera Company.

The cast will be joined by an orchestra led by Katherine Shave made up of a core of professionals playing alongside the best post-graduates from London’s top music colleges, and passionate Wagner-loving players from London’s top amateur orchestras. The 25-strong chorus also mixes professionals and amateurs, with Lindsay Bramley as chorus director.

Full details from the Sinfonia Smith Square website.

OutLoud! a new company amplifying queer stories launches with fun, campy production of Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel

Mae Heydorn as the Witch (Photo: Julian Guidera)

A new opera company is presenting its inaugural production at the Cockpit in Marylebone next month. OutLoud! is performing Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October. The family friendly production is reduced to 60 minutes duration (interval free) and sung in English. Hansel and Gretel is directed by William Byram and the musical director is Adam Dickson, with designs by Jackie Crier.

The production features Rozanna Madylus as Hansel, Anna Gregg as Gretel and Mae Heydorn in the triple role of Mother, Witch and Sandman. There will also be 11 young artists from BWA Performing Arts, a South London dance school. The result is planned to be a 'fun, campy production'!

This production marks the launch of a new opera company that aims to amplify queer stories through reworkings of the canon and the performance and commission of new works by LGBTQ+ composers, writers, and creative teams. 

Full details from the Cockpit's website.

Fogli d'album: Anna Bonitatibus & Adele d'Aronzo explore the barely tapped wealth of Rossini's occasional pieces

Rossini - Fogli d'album; Anna Bonitatibus, Adele d'Aronzo; Prospero  
Reviewed 22 September 2026

Rossini's occasional pieces, each dedicated to a friend and patron, brought together in a wonderfully fulfilling recital that wears its learning lightly

Rossini's Guillaume Tell premiered at the Paris Opera in 1829. The effort of composing it left him exhausted but within a year he was planning an operatic treatment of the Faust story. However, the revolution of July 1830 ushered in a new regime under Louis Philippe I and Rossini's lifetime annuity was cut. Any thought of new opera was on hold. This combined with persistent ill-health meant he never returned to large-scale operatic composition.

His years of retirement in Paris with his new mistress,  Olympe Pélissier, left Rossini's wife, Isabella Colbran in Italy where she ended up living with Rossini's father and dying in 1845.

Rossini's didn't give up large compositions altogether and we have the Stabat Mater (begun in 1831 and completed in 1841), and the Petite Messe Solennelle (from 1864), plus his cantata Giovanna d'Arco (written in 1832 for Olympe and revised in 1859). But his main compositional activity was smaller pieces, collected together in Les soirées musicales (1830-1835) and Péchés de vieillesse, an astonishing collection of some 150 vocal, chamber and solo piano pieces.

Though the late 1830s and 1840s were something of a fallow period, compositionally, it seems that he never really lost the habit of composition. In addition to the above there are a myriad of other pieces, largely songs and piano works, often quite short.

This new album from mezzo-soprano Anna Bonitatibus and pianist Adele d'Aronzo on Prospero, Rossini - Fogli d'album explores the barely tapped wealth of Rossini's occasional pieces. The disc draws together some 34 pieces, largely vocal and some very short, which Rossini dedicated to musicians, friends, politicians, artists, noblemen and noblewomen. Some 26 of the pieces are first recordings, and the performers aimed to be faithful to the autograph source or earliest printed source available.

Unassuming charm & surprising sophistication: Bampton Classical Opera in the Italian version of Grétry's take on Beauty & the Beast

Grétry: Zemira e Azor - Gwilym Bowen (Azor), Ffion Edwards (Zemira) - Bampton Classical Opera

Grétry, Holzbauer, Jomelli: Zemira e Azor; Ffion Edwards, Gwilym Bowen, Samuel Pantcheff, Andrew Irwin, Sian Dicker, Rachel Roper, director: Jeremy Gray, CHROMA, conductor: Andrew Griffiths; Bampton Classical Opera at Smith Square Hall
Reviewed 18 September 2026

A rare opportunity to experience one of Grétry's best known operas in an even rare version, with Bampton's young cast bringing out the work's charm and melodic felicity in an engaging and imaginative production

Born in Liège in 1741, André Ernest Modeste Grétry made his career in opera in Paris, writing mainly opéras comiques. He wrote over 50 operas from his first success in 1768 through to his final opera in 1803 (he died in 1813). Though successful in the Ancien régime and despite losing property during the Revolution, he endured. The republic made him an inspector of the conservatoire amd Napoleon granted him the Légion d'honneur and a pension.

His best known operas are Zémire et Azor (from 1771) and Richard Coeur-de-lion (from 1784). Based on a text by Jean-François Marmontel, Zémire et Azor was enormously successful (over 120 performances during its first year) and remained in the French repertory until at least 1820. As with later French operas with spoken dialogue, the work underwent modifications when performed abroad. For performances in 1776 at the court of the Elector in Mannheim, the work was Italianised. The poet Mattia Verazi provided a new libretto, with recitatives by the Elector's kapellmeister, Ignaz Holzbauer. Verazi had been a friend and collaborator of the composer Niccolo Jommelli (who had died in 1774) and presumably at his suggestion two arias by Jomelli were added to the mix. Zemira e Azor was performed at the Elector's summer court theatre in Schwetzingen.

Grétry: Zemira e Azor - Ffion Edwards (Zemira) - Bampton Classical Opera

Mozart owned a score of the work, and his sister-in-law, Aloysia Weber, performed the role of Zémire in Vienna in 1784. The French version was a favourite with Sir Thomas Beecham, but the last UK performance seems to have been at the Camden Fetival in 1980! The 1776 Italian version seems to have languished until it was revived at the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele in 2023.

It was the 1776 Italian version of Grétry's Zemira e Azor that Bampton Classical Opera chose for their 2026 production, sung in a new English translation by Gilly French and Jeremy Gray. Having performed the work in Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds this summer, the production was brought to Smith Square Hall on Friday 18 September 2026. The director was Jeremy Gray, and Andrew Griffiths conducted CHROMA, with the ensemble placed at the back of the stage. Costumes were by Pauline Smith and Anne Baldwin with visuals (including two electronic screens) by David Hudd and Keith Farr.

Samuel Pantcheff was the merchant Sandro with Andrew Irwin as Sandro's servant Ali. Ffion Edwards, Siân Dicker and Rachel Roper were Sandro's daughters Zemira (Beauty), Fatima and Lesbia. Gwilym Bowen was Azor (the Beast). The harpsichord continuo was played by Alex Norton.

Grétry: Zemira e Azor - Gwilym Bowen (Azor), Ffion Edwards (Zemira), with Samuel Pantcheff (Sandro), Rachel Roper (Lesbia), Sian Dicker (Fatima) in the 'magic mirror' - Bampton Classical Opera

Manfred Honeck to become Philharmonia Orchestra's seventh principal conductor following on from Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Manfred Honeck (Photo: Todd Rosenberg)

The Philharmonia Orchestra has announced that Manfred Honeck will be its next principal conductor. Honeck will take up the post from September 2028, following on from Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who has been principal conductor since 2021. Manfred Honeck is music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra where he is now in his 19th season and his contract was recently extended through the 2032–2033 season. 

Born in Austria in 1958, Manfred Honeck completed his musical training at the Academy of Music in Vienna. His many years as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra have had a lasting influence on his work as a conductor. He began his conducting career as an assistant to Claudio Abbado and was subsequently engaged by the Zurich Opera House. He maintains a distinguished profile as an opera conductor: most recently, he returned to the Salzburg Festival in summer 2026, conducting Ersan Mondtag's new production Ariadne auf Naxos with the Vienna Philharmonic where the musical values were the best thing about the evening. [see my review]

He will become the seventh principal conductor the Philharmonia Orchestra and it is planned that the appointment will become his artistic anchor in Europe whilst he maintains strong links with Pittsburgh.

His appointment marks a shift in the Philharmonia Orchestra's artistic leadership, coming as it does after two Finnish conductors, Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Esa-Pekka Salonen, perhaps returning to the Austro-German style of Christoph von Dohnányi (who preceded Salonen as principal conductor). And Honeck's tenure from 2028 coincides with Paavo Järvi taking over from Edward Gardner as chief conductor and artistic advisor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, meaning significant artistic change at the Southbank Centre. Rouvali remains principal conductor for the next two seasons, with a substantial programme of performances in London and beyond, and his close relationship with the Philharmonia will continue beyond the conclusion of his tenure. 

Honeck’s next performance with the Philharmonia comes this November, when he returns to the Royal Festival Hall with his longstanding musical collaborator, pianist Emanuel Ax, for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25. The programme also includes Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus Overture and Honeck’s own arrangement of the symphonic suite from Richard Strauss’s Elektra.

Manfred Honeck commented: "It is an honour for me to contribute to shaping the Philharmonia’s unique sound identity and to share it with audiences globally at major international venues, as well as in local communities. London is a capital of classical music and a melting pot of cultures. I look forward to playing my part in enticing audiences to experience the full spectrum of traditional and innovative orchestral music we can offer."

Further information from the orchestra's website. 

 

Rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite: Handel Hendrix House's new exhibition celebrates Handel's Brook Street residence

Ledger of subscribers to Handel's Twelve Grand Concertos from 1740 (Handel Hendrix House)

Hallelujah House: Inside Handel's HQ: Handel Hendrix House
Reviewed 17 September 2026

A fascinating & thought-provoking exhibition celebrating both 25 years since Handel's house in Brook Street opened to the public and the way the house was central to Handel's musical life

It is 25 since Handel's house in Brook Street opened to the public and to celebrate Handel Hendrix House has opened a new exhibition, Hallelujah House: Inside Handel’s HQ which runs until 14 March 2027. Handel lived at Brook Street from 1732 until 1759 and the house was central to his music, both the writing of works and the production of them. It was his rehearsal studio, study, office, entertaining suite and much more.

How to reflect this?  Exhibition curator Olwen Foulkes has brought together objects from the museums collection and from loans which tell the story of the remarkable extent to which Handel's music spread across London, and the varied uses to which the house was put. The exhibition is not a single room of objects but more of a trail around the whole of Handel's house, making you view the spaces somewhat differently. But this isn't simply an exhibition about objects, each object evokes a story and these are told not via extensive captions but via online resources (via Bloomberg Connects).

She explains:  "Handel was not just a creative genius, but someone who could organise, entertain, network and work ferociously hard to produce his brilliant music. The story of a creative entrepreneur working hard from home feels very relevant to today, and we are thrilled to be bringing together so many inspiring works of art and objects from museums and our own collections to bring this story vividly to life."

Kazuki Yamada & CBSO launch 2026/27 season with Mahler's Resurrection Symphony celebrating the CBSO Chorus's 1000th performance

CBSO Chorus (Photo: Andrew Fox)

Tonight (17 September 2026), the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by music director Kazuki Yamada launches their 2026/2027 season at Symphony Hall in Birmingham with a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 'Resurrection' with soprano Anna Patalong. The performance is part of Yamada and the orchestra's ongoing Mahler cycle which continues with Mahler's Symphony No. 3 in June 2027 [see my article on the CBSO's 2026/27 season]

Tonight is notable also for it being the CBSO Chorus's 1000th performance. Founded in 1973, the 180-strong choir made up of singers from Birmingham and the Midlands, 18 years and above, whose day-jobs range from students to nurses, teachers and pilots. The choir has been led by chorus director Simon Halsey since 1983. They performed Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the opening of the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival in 2000. Later the year they celebrated the centenary of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius which premiered at the Birmingham Music Festival on 3 October 1900 in Birmingham Town Hall. In June 2007 the chorus took part in the 150th Anniversary of Edward Elgar's birth by performing The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles and The Kingdom over three days with Sakari Oramo and the CBSO, going on to perform The Apostles at the BBC Proms that year.

To mark Britten's centenary in 2013, the CBSO and CBSO Chorus performed The War Requiem in Coventry Cathedral. On Remembrance Day 2026, Remembrance Day, Kazuki Yamada conducts Britten's War Requiem at Coventry Cathedral where the work premiered in 1952. The soloists are tenor Andrew Staples, soprano Irina Lungu and baritone Christian Gerhaher with the CBSO Chorus, CBSO Youth Chorus and Trinity Boys Choir in a performance that also marks 50 years since Britten's death

Further details from the CBSO website. 

Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan: composer Will Todd on his experiences collaborating with the Soochow University Alumni Chorus in Taiwan

Will Todd & Soochow University Alumni Chorus

Composer Will Todd has been collaborating with a choir in Taiwan, the Soochow University Alumni Chorus, first performing his Mass in Blue in 2024 then writing a commission for them and then creating what he considers his third jazz oratorio (after Mass in Blue and Passion Music). Todd and the choir performed it me twice in Taiwan and again in the summer touring to Japan. In this article, Will Todd talks about his experiences being in Taiwan, Taiwanese choral music and his new Christmas-themed oratorio, The Promise written for the Soochow University Alumni Chorus.

Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan with beautiful performances of Western music and excellent newer compositions from contemporary Taiwanese composers. There are choirs all over the country and several top class choral conducting and singing programmes at Taiwanese Universities. I know this because I have experienced it first hand having had the good fortune to work there over the past three years. Beginning with an invitation from Soochow University Alumni Chorus to perform my jazz choral work Mass in Blue I travelled there in 2024 where the choir gave a brilliant performance, with guest jazz musicians at the National Concert Hall of Taipei. And it was packed out with nearly 2000 concert goers! Also on the programme were works by Taiwanese composers some of whom had been commissioned by Soochow University Alumni Chorus. Among these modern compositions, sometimes reflecting Chinese folk music traditions as well as skilfully weaving in more lyrical western harmonic elements and setting Chinese and Taiwanese texts, we heard, among others music by Weng Ching-hsi, Tianhao Ran, Shen-Hsien Liu and Yu Chung-yuan. I also visited the Soochow University and was privileged to direct a masterclass with a group of excellent up and coming young composers, their emerging styles often blending pop and classical genres and showing a real enthusiasm for choral music.

Takemitsu, Ravel & The Blue Guitar: Music@Malling opens ten days of music in historic venues in Kent

Marc Chagall's East or Memorial Window for Sarah d'Avigdor Goldsmid, 
at All Saints' Church, Tudeley
By Ian Alexander - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Music@Malling brings outstanding musicians to historic venues in and around West Malling in Kent. The festival opens tomorrow, Friday 18 September and runs until 27 September, this year featuring the music of Tōru Takemitsu alongside that of Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Messiaen and Miles Davis. Another feature of the festival is the juxtaposition of old and new. New music is set alongside older composers, Dowland to Huw Watkins; Purcell to Deborah Pritchard and Mendelssohn to Radiohead. All performed in historic venues including Malling Abbey - founded in 1090; Pilsdon - a medieval tythe barn; Ightham Mote - an 800 year old manor house;  St.Mary’s Church, West Malling built by Gundulf of Rochester in the 11th century. A particular feature is All Saints’ Church, Tudeley with its stunning series of Marc Chagall windows.

The festival opens with pianist Peter Donohoe in Ravel and Debussy, then the following evening James Pearson, artistic director of Ronnie Scott's, puts a jazz spin on classical pieces from across the festival programme. There is more Ravel from the Sacconi Quartet and they are joined by horn player Ben Goldscheider for a new work by Huw Watkins, and the Fidelio Trio present Ravel's Piano Trio and Debussy's La Mer in an arrangement by Sally Beamish alongside Tōru Takemitsu. 

The Smith Quartet perform a programme inspired by minimalism with music by Phillip Glass, Gavin Bryars and Arvo Pärt, alongside Stravinsky's Three Pieces was inspired by the famous music hall star, Little Tich who grew up in Cudham, Kent and performed in many local pubs. Cello and piano duo Cloud Chamber perform music by Gavin Greenaway alongside film music from Takemitsu, Morricone, Hans Zimmer, and more.

The festival's artistic director, Thomas Kemp directs his ensemble Chamber Domaine in a programme of English music highlighting the influence of early music on composers such as Britten,Tippett, Ades and Warlock, plus the premiere of a piece by Iran-born, UK-based composer Atifeh Einali. Whilst Intesa Duo mix 17th century music with Radiohead, the Beatles, the Killers and more. 

Guitarist Craig Ogden plays Tippett's The Blue Guitar, Takemitsu, Leo Brower and Walton, all alongside the Chagall windows at Tudeley.

Cellist Guy Johnston and pianist Melvyn Tan explore the music of siblings Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn alongside Beethoven and Schubert. Both Mendelssohns' music features also in a programme from soprano Ruby Hughes, pianist Huw Watkins and violinist Thomas Kemp, alongside Haydn, Schumann, Schubert and Brian Elias. But perhaps the real draw of this concert is that it is in the Drawing Room at Ightam Mote and Watkins will be playing the room's 1830 Stodart piano.

The singers and lutenist of Dowland's Foundry commemorate the 400th anniversary of Dowland's death with a programme of his songs. Period instrument ensemble Apollo's Cabinet present Apollo's Jukebox where the audience chooses the music from a menu of 18th century tunes!

The Marian Consort joins Chamber Domaine for a programme mixing sacred music by Arvo Pärt with contemporary voices from Deborah Pritchard and Rosemary Shapes. Thomas Kemp then conducts the London Sinfonietta in a programme putting Takemitsu alongside Debussy, Cage and Webern. And the festival ends with James Pearson leading a tribute to Miles Davis.

Alongside this there is Inside Colour, an immersive exhibition of Music Maps by composer and artist Deborah Pritchard at Ightham Mote, and talks including ones on poetry and music in the 19th Century drawing room, and spying for Queen Elizabeth I.

Outreach includes a series of workshops, informal concerts and playlists for Spadework - a local charity that supports adults with mental and physical disabilities, dementia and mental health issues; Side-by-Side with Chamber Domaine and The Marian Consort; Music@Malling Scratch Orchestra; creating Music Maps at Ightham Mote with local primary and secondary schools. 

Full details from Music@Malling's website. 

Be still, and know that I am God: Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Motets from Phoenix Consort & Adam Whitmore on Convivium Records

Choral Contemplations - Sacred Introits & Motets: Peter Blumson, John-Paul Bowman, Rosemary Broadbent, David Fletcher, David Goymour, Adrian Green, Bruce Ramell, Derek Saunders, Noel Skinner; Phoenix Consort, Adam Whitmore; Convivium Records
Reviewed 14 September 2026

Music that arises from Christian contemplation on a disc bringing together music written by musicians who would never have considered themselves professional or 'trained' composers to create a disc that by turns encourages contemplation and exploration

Choral Contemplations: Sacred Introits & Motets from the Phoenix Consort, conductor Adam Whitmore, on Convivium Records. The nineteen pieces on the disc, written by nine contemporary composers, have a distinct musical aim. Adrian Green, managing director of Convivium Records and one of the composers featured on the disc, explains, first quoting the Benedictine monk, Cyprian Smith:

"'Everything which lies between' poses a philosophical question and is the subject of being present in life and being ourselves. In some ways it is the most natural thing in the world to be present, but to do this as a creative artist means letting go of all the thoughts and ideas and feelings which take up our mental mindscape, so that there can be space for music to arise from within us which isn’t about our ego."

Chromatica Orchestra returns for third season at Battersea Arts Centre with newly appointed principal conductor, Oliver Cope

Oliver Cope (Photo: Amanda Protidou  / TSSO)

When Chromatica Orchestra opens its 2026/27 season at Battersea Arts Centre (its third season at the venue) they will be conducted by the young (age 27) British conductor Oliver Cope who has been appointed the orchestra's first ever principal conductor.

Cope is a First Prize winner of both the Koussevitzky International Conducting Competition and the International Athens Conducting Competition, and took a prize at the 2026 Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition. He has already conducted the Hallé, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Bamberger Symphoniker, and returns to Bamberg this season for a studio recording with BR-KLASSIK.

He has conducted Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with Hampstead Garden Opera (HGO), and this summer conducted British Youth Opera in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress at Battersea Arts Centre.

Cope's first concert as principal conductor with Chromatica Orchestra features Bernard Herrmann's suite from Psycho (1960), Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9 (1945), and Korngold's Violin Concerto (1945) with South Korean violinist Sarang Seohyun Kim, the youngest ever winner of the Tibor Varga International Competition. Further ahead, concerts feature music by Golijov, Poulenc and Daniel Soley's Accordion Concerto with Ryan Corbett, who premiered the work, in November and then a Christmas concert in December and a family concert in February 2027.

Chromatica Emerging Conductor Tess Jackson and Leader Maren Bosma perform Carnival of the Animals at Battersea Arts Centre February 2025 (Photo: Monika Jakubowska)

Founded by Peter Manning in 2024, Chromatica Orchestra made its debut at Battersea Arts Centre. The orchestra is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of musical talent, bringing together outstanding emerging orchestral players with brilliant soloists. Players who have worked with Chromatica Orchestra have gone on to win positions with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.  

Support for young musicians runs through established partnerships with the Music in Secondary Schools Trust (MiSST) and Bobby Moore Academy, and new collaborations with several South London music hubs. The orchestra's work in this field is centred around empowering secondary school-age musicians and giving them autonomy over their own musical experiences, with a particular focus on conducting opportunities for students from a range of backgrounds. Activities will include side-by-side opportunities, conducting workshops and coaching, family concerts, and creative composition sessions.

Full details from Chromatica Orchestra's website.

Darbar Festival: bringing the depth, discipline and sheer emotional power of Indian classical music to the widest possible audience

Performers at Darbar Festival, Barbican Centre

A major UK celebration of Indian classical music, Darbar Festival returns to the Barbican Centre from 28 October to 1 November, bringing together some of the world's most revered Hindustani and Carnatic musicians. The five-day programme takes place across Barbican Hall and Milton Court featuring concerts, talks, wellbeing sessions and family-friendly events. This year the festival's theme, The Shock of the New, spotlights artists who have never before performed at the festival, and the festival will feature Darbar's first-ever late-night concert.

Performers include sarod duo, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, vocalist, Sandeep Narayan, and sitar maestro, Ustad Irshad Khan alongside Pandit Prasad Khaparde, along with rising stars and genre-crossing collaborations, including Jasdeep Singh Degun with Sukhvinder Singh Pinky, a rare dhrupad performance from Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar, and new pairings such as Debanjan Bhattacharjee with Spoorthi Rao, and Sunanda Sharma with tabla soloist, Ustad Shahbaz Hussain. Midnight Ragas, will feature a late-night concert from violinist, Kala Ramnath, and veena player, Jayanthi Kumaresh.

 Beyond the concert stage the Festival aims to make Indian classical music accessible to new audiences with an Indian Classical Music Appreciation Course for newcomers, artist talks including A Voice Without Borders with Sandeep Narayan and The Benaras Gharana with Sunanda Sharma, and a screening of the documentary India's Vanishing Voice. 

And beyond music, there is also a dedicated Yoga and Wellbeing strand featuring live-music yoga sessions, raga meditation and breathwork classes.

Sandeep Virdee speaking to the crowd in Barbican Hall at Darbar Festival (Photo: Rehmat Rayatt)

The festival's artistic director, Sandeep Virdee says, "Darbar Festival exists to bring the depth, discipline and sheer emotional power of Indian classical music to the widest possible audience," says Sandeep Virdee, artistic director of Darbar, "This year, under the banner of 'The Shock of the New', we're introducing UK audiences to extraordinary artists they will never have heard perform before, and pushing the festival itself into new territory with our first-ever midnight concert. It's a programme that reflects both the tradition's rich heritage and its constantly evolving present, with performances that will resonate with lifelong connoisseurs and first-time listeners alike."

Born in Nakuru, Kenya, Sandeep Virdee grew up to the sounds of his teacher and father, Bhai Gurmit Singh Virdee playing the tabla. The family moved to London in 1975 where hearing his first Indian classical concert ignited Sandeep Virdee's passion for Indian classical music. In 2005, his father passed on and Sandeep Virdee organised a tribute concert to celebrate his father's passion for Indian classical music. This became the Darbar Festival which in 2026 marks its 21st year,  having grown from a local Leicester gathering into what is widely described as the largest festival of Indian classical music outside India. Alongside the festival, Darbar runs a music education project teaching 8–11-year-olds in Leicester schools, the same city where his father taught tabla as a peripatetic teacher for 22 years. 

Darbar Festival - Barbican Centre

Further information from the festival website.

The Bernstein Beat: a community weekend in the Lake District celebrating the music and work of Bernstein

From Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November, Lake District Music will take over Sedbergh School for The Bernstein Beat, a community weekend celebrating the music and work of Leonard Bernstein. There will be a community orchestra and performances by emerging artists all culminating in a final celebratory performance, The Bernstein Beat: What makes music dance.

Musicians of all ages are invited to join a community orchestra that will be conducted by Stephen Threllfall, artistic director of Lake District Music, and led by violinist Louise Latham. The orchestra will rehearse over the weekend with music by Bernstein.

On Saturday, three emerging pianists will perform Bernstein's 29 Anniversaries, a set of miniatures that Bernstein dedicated to friends and family. These will be framed by anecdotes from Bernstein's life with an introduction by his youngest daughter, Nina. She will introduce a screening of the film A Total Embrace, her personal tribute to Bernstein that explores his contribution to education through his children's concerts. 

The weekend culminates in a performance of The Bernstein Beat: What Makes Music Dance by Lake District Music's community orchestra performing music from On The Town, Trouble in Tahiti, Candide and West Side Story.

Formed in 1985, Lake District Music presents a Summer Festival and Spring Series as well as championing emerging talent and nurturing some of the most exciting musicians of their generation combining summer festival performances with training from leading international artists, all set against the inspiring backdrop of the Lake District. 

Full details from Lake District Music's website.

War Requiem & Northern Lights: Tony Cooper looks forward to Norwich Philharmonic Society's forthcoming season

The Norwich Philharmonic Society plays a vital role in the musical life of the fine city of Norwich and its wider area offering performances of a consistently high standard and attracting strong support from local music-lovers. 

And to kick off the new season (Saturday, 7th November, St Andrew’s Hall, 7.30pm), the Norwich Phil will salute and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Benjamin Britten with the combined forces of the Norwich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norwich Philharmonic Chorus and the Choristers of Norwich Cathedral Choir coming together for a grand performance of his deeply moving work, War Requiem, conducted by Matthew Andrews and Ashley Grote. 

A major figure in 20th-century British musical life, Edward Benjamin Britten (he dropped his first name early in life) was born a Suffolk lad on 22nd November 1913 (which happens to be St Cecilia’s Day, the patron saint of music) at 21 Kirkley Cliff Road, Lowestoft. His father practiced as a dentist; his mother, an amateur choral singer.  

But practically forgotten about nowadays is to the fact that Britten forged his early musical talents in Norfolk and, especially, in Norwich. From the tender age of 10, he regularly visited the city for viola lessons with Mrs Audrey Alston, a good friend of his mother and a member of the Norwich String Quartet.  

She was heavily involved with classical music in Norwich and practically knew everyone in the business including the eminent Brighton-born composer, Frank Bridge, who studied at the Royal College of Music from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford. He lodged with Mrs Alston while attending meetings of the Norfolk & Norwich Triennial Festival held at St Andrew’s Hall.     

What could well be said to be an important part of Britten’s musical education occurred at St Andrew’s Hall on 30th October 1924 when he witnessed Frank Bridge conducting his suite for orchestra, The Sea, while three years later, on 27th October 1927, Mrs Alston urged Bridge (who was in the city conducting the première of his latest work, Enter Spring) to meet the young, aspiring and talented composer. He felt reluctant at first but following an inspection of Britten’s music, Bridge heartily accepted him as one of his very few composition pupils. The rest is history! 

Another important aspect relating to Britten’s connection with Norwich came in 1963 when he was invited by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of East Anglia, Frank Thistlethwaite, to offer advice about setting up a music department. 

National Youth Choir of Scotland celebrates 30 years by expanding its nationwide network of regional choirs to Glasgow

National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS)

A new choir starts rehearsing this week in Glasgow as the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS) is expanding its nationwide network of regional choirs with the launch of a brand-new regional choir in Glasgow. The NYCOS Glasgow Choir will hold its first rehearsal on 16 September and is open to young people aged 8-18, welcoming both experienced singers and those who may never have sung in a choir before

As NYCOS celebrates its 30th anniversary year, it looks to inspire the next generation of young singers and ensure that even more children across Scotland can experience the benefits of making music together. 

Alongside weekly choir rehearsals, the Glasogow choir will offer singers musicianship training rooted in the Kodály approach, a child-centred method that develops musical understanding through singing, listening, movement and games. Rather than focusing solely on learning repertoire, young people are encouraged to develop a deep understanding of music itself, strengthening skills such as rhythm, pitch, listening and inner hearing in a fun and engaging environment.

Christopher Bell, Founder and Artistic Director of NYCOS, said:

"For 30 years, NYCOS has been passionate about giving young people the opportunity to sing together and experience all the musical and personal benefits that come from that. The launch of a new Glasgow Choir is an exciting step forward in that mission."

The NYCOS Glasgow Choir begins rehearsals on 16 September 2026. Young people aged 8-18 can find out more and register their interest at NYCOS website. 

Seeing & hearing: Ben Goldscheider plays Brian Elias's Touching the Quick as part of Anish Kapoor exhibition at Hayward Gallery

Brian Elias: Touching the Quick - Ben Goldscheider at the Anish Kapoor exhibition, Hayward Gallery

Brian Elias: Touching the Quick; Ben Goldscheider; Anish Kapoor exhibition at Hayward Gallery
Reviewed 12 September 2026

Brian Elias's music for solo horn, written in response to Anish Kapoor's artworks and played by Ben Goldscheider amidst the exhibition, creating a remarkable sonic visual mix

Classical music and the visual arts do not mingle as much as they ought to, we tend to listen and look in isolation. As part of Anish Kapoor's exhibition at Southbank Centre's Hayward Gallery [referred to as 'gobsmacking' by The Guardian], horn player Ben Goldscheider is playing Brian Elias's Touching the Quick, a cycle of pieces for unaccompanied horn. Each one of the pieces responds to different parts of the exhibition and Goldscheider responds to this by playing each in a different room.

We gathered at 6pm on Saturday 12 September for a performance (Goldscheider was doing a second at 7pm, and there are further performances on Saturday 3 October), with a heartening number of people not only listening but following Goldscheider around on his perambulation.

We began in the room with Kapoor's black pieces including his experiments with the light-swallowing nanomaterial Vantablack. Goldscheider's quiet, low, sustained notes rather evoked Das Rheingold for me. And the way Elias gradually developed a motif as the music speeded up and rose in pitch brought fanciful ideas of sleeping dragons awaking. But even though more of a melodic line developed, each not felt considered, carefully placed. And ultimately it wound down, back to the beginning.

The belief that music, at its most vital, knows no borders: Icelandic record label/collective Bedroom Community is 20

Nico Muhly, Valgeir Sigurðsson, & Ben Frost in Reykjavík in 2007 (Photo: Bedroom Community)

Icelandic record label/collective Bedroom Community is 20 this year. Founded in Reykjavík in 2006 by Icelandic composer and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, together with American composer Nico Muhly and Australian-Icelandic producer Ben Frost, it reminagined how could be created, recorded, and shared with the world.

Valgeir Sigurðsson spent eight years as the studio right-hand to Iceland’s art-pop icon Björk. Ben Frost describes how he "spent unholy amounts of time alone in a bedroom in Australia making highly questionable music when I met Valgeir in the year 2000." Starting with just a laptop and headphones, exploratory spirit and experimental process led to a desire to dissolve the borders between classical and electronic, tradition and technology, the concert hall and the bedroom.

"The record that opened the room" was Nico Muhly's Speaks Volumes, seven pieces produced and mixed by Valgeir Sigurðsson. Close-miked strings, piano, electronics and charged silence.

Since then the label has nurtured works by Daníel Bjarnason, Sam Amidon, Lyra Pramuk, Nadia Sirota, Manchester Collective, aYia, Emily Hall, Liam Byrne, 404.zero, James McVinnie, Sam Slater, Gabriella Smith, Isabelle Lewis and Daniel Pioro among others [see website for more].

Read more on Bedroom Community's website. Listen to Nico Muhly's Speaks Volumes on BandCamp.

Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued - tenor Nick Pritchard & pianist Ian Tindale on their love for a composer whose work has followed them since their early collaboration at college

Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued, recording session - Nick Pritchard, Ian Tindale [Photo: Jan Capinski]

Gerald Finzi is a composer whose music has followed tenor Nick Pritchard from his teens. Having performed as a duo with pianist Ian Tindale since the two met in college, and having included Finzi's music in their programmes from early on, it was perhaps inevitable that for their second disc together that they should turn to Finzi.

2026 is something of a double Gerald Finzi anniversary, marking both the anniversary of his birth in 1901, and death in 1956. And it was partly in reflection of this and partly because the composer is dear to them that Nick Pritchard and Ian Tindale recorded an album of Finzi's songs.

Their disc, Gerald Finzi: The Dance Continued comes out on Signum Records on 25 September 2026 and features three of Finzi's song cycles, A Young Man’s Exhortation, Op. 14, Till Earth Outwears, Op. 19a, and Oh Fair to See, Op. 13b, along with a selection of Finzi's unpublished songs.

A Young Man's Exhortation, written between 1926 and 1929, is Finzi's only true song cycle, consisting of ten songs setting Thomas Hardy. Finzi was in the practice of not publishing single songs because he thought an individual song might be overlooked by the public and critics. He typically waited until he had a group of ten that were somehow related. During his last year Finzi had a remarkable burst of songwriting, and though, at the time of his death, none of the sets was completed, some two dozen songs were left ready for publication. Some of these were edited into song cycles by Finzi's friend, the composer Howard Ferguson, Finzi's wife, Joy and son, Christopher.

BBC Proms: Bach's Mass writ large as Arcangelo give us choral bravura at Royal Albert Hall

Bach: Mass in B Minor - Arcangelo - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Bach: Mass in B minor; Jeanine De Bique, Eva Zaïcik, Hugh Cutting, Nick Pritchard, Florian Störtz, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 10 September 2026

Bach write large as Arcangelo fills the Royal Albert Hall with sound without compromising on technique or choral bravura

The Baroque era was often intensely pragmatic when it came to performance, presenting opera in large outdoor venues where we must imagine it was the visual spectacle that counted, or scaling up Handel's music for large-scale commemorations in Westminster Abbey. We have to assume that Bach, ever a practical musician, would have taken such a similar view face with the opportunity to perform his music to a large audience (something that never happened, alas). 

Performing a work like Bach's Mass in B minor in the Royal Albert Hall presents similar challenges. There is a 1929 recording of Walter Widdop applying his heroic tenor tones to the Benedictus from the Mass in B minor (from the work's first complete recording). The style is not what we appreciate nowadays but the style and amplitude probably represent what might work best in the Albert Hall!

It is in this spirit that we must approach Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo's performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday 10 September 2026 as part of the BBC Proms. The ensemble has been performing the Mass in B minor this summer with the usual smaller forces, but for the Royal Albert Hall, Cohen went large with forces that looked all set for Beethoven's Choral Symphony. There were 50 choral singers (both male and female altos) and an orchestra of 25 strings plus four flutes, four oboes and two bassoons, with only a lone organ and Cohen himself (intermittently) on harpsichord. They were joined by soloists Jeanine De Bique (soprano), Eva Zaïcik (mezzo-soprano), Hugh Cutting (counter-tenor), Nick Pritchard (tenor) and Florian Störtz (bass-baritone).

Bach: Mass in B Minor - Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Not everything worked by a long chalk. Neither continuo keyboard (organ and harpsichord) made a significant contribution to the sound in any but the quietest passages. The soloists were variable in their ability to project fully into the auditorium, though this might be down to whether they had previous experience of the hall. But my biggest issue was the discrepancy between choir and orchestra, as soon as the choir entered in the first Kyrie fugue, the balance favoured the singers and what we heard became a choral work rather than the collaborative exercise that it should be. When the choir was going full pelt, it was simply impossible to hear any of the detail in the string writing, though thankfully the instrumental bass line was impressively strong. The passages where we heard the orchestra alone were thus even more treasured.

The engaging Mr Polly: tenor Robin Bailey shines in the title role of Edward Longstaff's new opera based on H.G. Wells at Tête à Tête

Edward Longstaff: The History of Mr. Polly: Part One - Robin Bailey - Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival at the Cockpit (Photo Claire Shovelton)

Edward Longstaff: The History of Mr. Polly: Part One; Robin Bailey, Laurie Slavin, Jack Holton, Maya Kumana, Elizabeth Lynch, Emily McCarthy, Sophia Jin, Hailey West, director: Stuart Barker, piano: John Longstaff; Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival at the Cockpit
Reviewed 9 September 2026

The first half of a work in progress, an ambitious opera based on H.G. Wells's comic novel, benefits from Robin Bailey's easy charm in the title role in a workshop performance that proved wonderfully engaging

H.G. Wells's picaresque comic novel The History of Mr. Polly is not the most obvious subject for an opera. Wells tells the story with almost Dickensian relish, but the central character is a bumbling anti-hero and achieves his goal despite himself. He is lacking in self-confidence and education, his most distinctive characteristic is verbal, his invention of descriptive words. Wells's book has been adapted as film and TV series multiple times, but this seems to be the first operatic adaptation. Though the musical Half a Sixpence was based on Wells's 1905 book Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul.

As part of Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival at the Cockpit, composer Edward Longstaff presented The History of Mr. Polly: Part One with piano accompaniment by John Longstaff. There will be a Part Two, and the work will be orchestrated. At the Cockpit we saw a production directed by Stuart Barker with designes by Valassia Barbouti and Maria J Damia Patino. Robin Bailey played Mr Polly, with Laurie Slavin as Parsons, Jack Holton as Mr Johnson, Maya Kumana as Mrs Johnson, Elizabeth Lynch as Ma Larkins, Emily McCarthy as Annie, Sophia Jin as Miriam and Hailey West as Christabel.

Edward Longstaff studied at Royal Holloway and Goldsmiths. He spent 31 years teaching at the Purcell School and now writes full-time. The History of Mr. Polly is his second opera. His first opera, Iphigenia was written for young voices and premiered at the Purcell School.

Edward Longstaff: The History of Mr. Polly: Part One - Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival at the Cockpit (Photo Claire Shovelton)

The opera preserved the book's structure, beginning in media res with Polly unhappy with his lot and planning to set fire to the shop and kill himself. Then things jumped back to the beginning, and Part One of the opera finished with the fire, only for Polly to turn into an accidental hero. Wells's book has a lot of plot and despite Longstaff's clever excisions and compressions (he wrote his own libretto), there was still a lot of plot and significant number of characters.