On the streets and in the sky: works by Jonathan Dove; Philippe Sly, Sacconi Quartet, Charles Owen & Katya Apekisheva; SIGNUM CLASSICS Reviewed 19 March 2025
A diverse selection of Jonathan Dove's music which celebrates friendships and collaboration with the powerful and moving performance by baritone Philippe Sly at the centre in the song cycle written for him
In fact, the album could easily have been called Between Friends as it celebrates friendships and collaborations. Both Charles Owen and the Sacconi Quartet have recorded Dove's music before as both were on Signum's disc In Damascus [see my review] and the music on this disc creates an extended network of close links.
Come Bargain with Uncanny Things - Virtually Opera, COLAB Tower (Photo: Claire Shovelton)
In September last year I interviewed director and writer Leo Doulton [see my interview] and one of the topics we touched on was his interest in interactive storytelling including The Uncanny Things Trilogy which was then a work in progress. Now Virtually Opera are presenting all three interactive operas at COLAB Tower during March.
Come Bargain with Uncanny Things Virtually Opera, COLAB Tower (Photo: Claire Shovelton)
Described as the world’s only interactive immersive operas, with rich lore, total audience freedom, and a commitment to creating communities with audiences, at each performance the audience’s choices will develop the ongoing world of the show, forming a uniquely growing experience.
The three shows share the same setting one where supernatural creatures still flicker in the corner of your eye, giving gifts and sickness, able to bind and be bound.
The audience-community decide how to change their lives by mastering rituals, crafting offerings, and negotiating with these beings. The fully-improvised music shifts and changes as the audience change the world, making their magic feel real.
In Come Bargain With Uncanny Things, a ritualistic gathering tries to solve local problems.
In the comedic Come Worship Our Uncanny King, people brought into an Uncanny Thing’s court try to win favour.
The trilogy closes with the tragic Come Murder An Uncanny Thing, the community deciding what justice looks like for a captive, dangerous, and powerful being.
The trilogy has been evolving since 2022, and this is the first time it has been presented complete.
Come Worship Our Uncanny King - Virtually Opera, COLAB Tower (Photo: Claire Shovelton)
The trilogy has been created by Leo Doulton, with designs by Charley Ipsen and with Erika Gundesen as music advisor. The performers are CN Lester, Sarah Griffin, Amy Kearsley, Hestor Dart, and Maggie Vaz Neto. Virtually Opera is presenting The Uncanny Things Trilogy at COLAB Tower, 22 Southwark Bridge Road, London until 30 March 2025.
Come Murder An Uncanny Thing - Virtually Opera, COLAB Tower (Photo: Claire Shovelton)
A caricature of a performance of Handel's Flavio (from 1723) featuring Senesino and Francesca Cuzzoni with Berenstadt (far right)
Handel's opera Rodelinda was premiered 300 years ago this year, on 13 February 1725 at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket (the original King's Theatre burned down in 1789 and His Majesty's Theatre is currently on the site). Celebrations to mark the anniversary include an exhibition at the Handel Hendrix House which features a rarely seen portrait of castrato Senesino in the role of Bertarido from Rodelinda by John Vandenbank (see my article) and Garsington Opera's new production of the opera, directed by Ruth Knight with Lucy Crowe as Rodelinda, Tim Mead as Bertarido and Peter Whelan conducting the English Concert.
Rodelinda was successful during Handel's lifetime, with 14 performances that season and the opera was revived the following season and in 1731. It was also presented under Telemann's auspices at the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg. The revival of the opera in 1920 in Göttingen by Handel enthusiast Oskar Hagen represented an important step in the modern revival of Handel's operas.
Handel had a strong team of singers for the 1724/1725 season of the Royal Academy of Music and his operas for the company that season represent him at his peak, Tamerlano which premiered on 31 October 1724, then Rodelinda (with the same cast) on 13 February 1725. And just to show that he was on a roll, he had already premiered Giulio Cesare in February 1724.
His cast featured castrato Senesino as Bertarido. Senesino first sang for Handel in 1720, in a revival of Radamisto and he would go on to create 17 leading roles for the composer. Rodelinda was sung by soprano Francesca Cuzzoni, who first sang Teofane in Ottone for Handel in 1723, going on to create nine roles for Handel. Horace Walpole famously described her thus, in Rodelinda:
"She was short and squat, with a doughy cross face, but fine complexion; was not a good actress; dressed ill; and was silly and fantastical. And yet on her appearing in this opera, in a brown silk gown trimmed with silver, with the vulgarity and indecorum of which all the old ladies were much scandalised, the young adopted it as a fashion, so universally, that it seemed a national uniform for youth and beauty."
What gives Rodelinda (and Tamerlano) their distinctive cast in the Handel opera canon is that during the 1724/25 season, Handel's team also included the distinguished tenor Francesco Borosini. Not only did Borosini create the roles of Bajazet in Tamerlano and Grimoaldo in Rodelinda, but Handel rewrote the soprano castrato role of Sesto in Giulio Cesare for him, creating significant amounts of new material.
The libretto for Rodelinda is by Nicola Haym, a London-based Italian who was a composer, cellist (one of Handel's continuo cellists), poet and general man of all work. Rodelinda is one of around eight librettos that Haym adapted for Handel. It was based on an earlier one, originally set by Giacomo Antonio Perti in 1710 which in turn was based on Pierre Corneille's tragedy Pertharite, roi des Lombards (1652), with Pertharite becoming Bertarido. As was usual for London, Haym's libretto cuts significant amounts of recitative and concentrates on the two leading characters, Rodelinda and Bertarido.
The combination of the theme of marital love and fidelity with a strong libretto and Handel at his peak have ensured that the opera has been frequently revived, and it is thought that the marital fidelity theme was instrumental in persuading Hagen to revive the opera in 1920.
Garsington Opera's production of Handel's Rodelinda opens on 13 June 2025. Directed by Ruth Knight and designed by Leslie Travers, the cast includes Lucy Crowe as Rodelinda, Tim Mead as Bertarido, Ed Lyon as Grimoaldo, Marvic Monreal as Eduige, Hugh Cutting as Unulfo and Brandon Cedel as Garibaldo. Peter Whelan conducts the English Concert.
Further information from the Garsington Opera website.
The full programme for this year's Edinburgh International Festival has been released, the third festival under Nicola Benedetti's artistic directorship. This year celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus with performances of Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the closing concert. The opening concert of the festival features the Edinburgh Festival Chorus alongside the Monteverdi Choir and the National Youth Choir of Scotland in a rare complete performance of John Tavener's The Veil of the Temple, which will only be the second time the work has been performed complete in the UK.
In celebration of the UK/Poland 2025 season, NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra will be one of the festival's resident orchestras, and there will be Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, VOŁOSI, Piotr Anderszewski, Bomsori Kim to 2024’s BBC Young Musician of the Year, Ryan Wang.
Opera Queensland bring their staging of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice with Iestyn Davies and Samantha Clarke, in a staging that brings together acrobatics and video projections, with Australian contemporary circus company Circa joining with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a chorus from Scottish Opera. A cross-genre stage work, Book of Mountains and Seas fuses opera with puppetry, composed by Huang Ruo, one of the most exciting figures of contemporary opera, with the Danish choir Ars Nova Copenhagen, joined by an ensemble of percussionists and puppeteers.
Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra are resident at the festival, giving three concerts including a concert performance of Puccini's Suor Angelica. Maxim Emelyanychev and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra continue their exploration of Mozart operas with La Clemenza di Tito and a cast including Tara Erraught and Angela Brower.
Also resident at the festival will be Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra 2, and other visitors include the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and the NCPA Orchestra from Beijing. Aurora Orchestra makes its International Festival debut with Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, in the 50th anniversary of the composer's death. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment will be combining hip hop with Bach in Breaking Bach with choreographer Kim Brandstrup.
Scottish Ballet will be presenting a new full-length dance work from choreographer Sophie Laplane and director James Bonas, Mary, Queen of Scots will feature music by Mikael Karlsson & Michael P Atkinson performed by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra. The Scottish premiere of Figures in Extinction sees Nederlands Dans Theater in collaborating with choreographer Crystal Pite and theatremaker Simon McBurney.
Over 50,000 tickets (more than half of all tickets available for the 2025 International Festival) are priced at £30 or under. Thousands of free tickets are available for young musicians, NHS staff and community groups, and £10 Affordable Tickets are available for all performances for anyone who needs them.
This year, for the first time, a Dementia-Friendly concert will be presented for people living with dementia, their caregivers, family and friends. The wider 2025 programme features 33 accessible performances, including nine audio described performances, seven BSL interpreted performances, thirteen captioned performances and four relaxed performances.
Pegasus Opera's mentoring programme with Danielle de Niese in 2024
Pegasus Opera launched its opera mentoring programme in 2020 in response to the continued underrepresentation of classical artists of global majority heritage on the UK opera stages. Now run annually, the programme pairs each mentee with established global majority mentors who are seasoned opera professionals delivering one to one coaching on repertoire, vocal technique and career advice. Last year all mentees performed in a masterclass with Danielle de Niese, as well as in a showcase for leading industry figures.
Artists invited to be on the programme will also receive a £350 bursary to ensure there are no barriers in attending the programme.
The programme is once again open for applications and continues to work in partnership with Glyndebourne Opera House. Applications will close on Sunday 23 March, shortlisted applicant auditions will be held in London on Monday 31 March and successful applicants will be notified by Monday 14 April. More information can be found on the Pegasus Opera website.
Weber: Der Freischütz - The Wolf's Glen Scene - Ilker Arcayürek, Manuel Winckhler - Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (Photo: Annemie Augustijns)
Weber: Der Freischütz; Louise Kemény, Ilker Arcayürek, Rosemary Hardy, Thomas Jesatko, director: Christoph Marthaler, conductor: Stephan Zilias, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen; Opera Antwerpen Reviewed 16 March 2025
A missed opportunity; strong musical performances redeemed the Swiss director's self-indulgent staging, more theatrical event conceived by Marthaler based on Weber rather than a production of the opera itself.
Weber's Der Freischütz remains a relative rarity on stages in the UK, despite the work's iconic status. Its combination of Gothic romance with folk-inspired setting, so popular and influential at the time, renders the work tricky on modern stages, even before you consider the challenge of spoken dialogue. In German speaking countries the work has another reputation, as the first national opera, an important precursor at a time when the German nation as such did not exist. In Antwerp the opera, in Dutch translation, was the first work performed by the newly formed Flemish Opera in 1893, a company dedicated to countering the French-language programming prevalent in the city.
This is the somewhat complex history behind the staging of Weber's Der Freischütz directed by Swiss theatre director Christoph Marthaler, a co-production between Theater Basel and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. The production debuted in Basel in 2022 and arrived in Ghent and Antwerp earlier this year, we caught the performance in Antwerp on Sunday 16 March 2025.
Weber: Der Freischütz - Louise Kemény, Rosemary Hardy & stage band - Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (Photo: Annemie Augustijns)
Marthaler's explicit intention was to investigate the work's iconic status. He was not interested in any of the Gothic romantic elements. When the curtain went up on part two, which began with the Wolf's Glen Scene (which closes Act Two), we heard the orchestra singing the huntsmen's chorus, then as the scene proper began the chorus on stage mimed playing violins. Effectively announcing the world turned topsy turvy, Marthaler's theme for the second part of the evening.
Rebecca Meltzer, Bertie Baigent & Guy Verrall-Withers with the Waterperry Opera Festival team in 2024
The arts administration world is relatively compact, which means that whenever someone moves there is a domino effect. The Grange Festival, riding on a high with record ticket sales, has announced that Guy Verrall-Withers is joining in a new role, Director of Audiences & Impact. Which of course, means that Waterperry Opera Festival, which Verrall-Withers co-founded, is now seeking a new CEO.
The aim of Verrall-Withers' new role at The Grange Festival is to take 'strategic approach to audience development and public engagement, spearheading initiatives to expand the audience base and extend the Festival's reach'. 2025 is The Grange Festival's first season under new chief executive Tyler Stoops and the festival's diverse approach to programming, moving away from simply being an opera festival, has led to record ticket sales.
Guy Verrall-Withers is currently artistic director and CEO of Waterperry Opera Festival, and he will remain in that role until after Waterperry's 2025 season, joining The Grange Festival on a part-time basis until late August. Verrall-Withers co-founded Waterperry Opera Festival in 2017 with conductor Bertie Baigent and director Rebecca Meltzer, and both Baigent and Meltzer remain in place. Now in its 8th edition, performances take place outdoors in locations across the beautiful Waterperry Gardens and Waterperry has welcomed over 22,500 attendees since 2017, creating 36 productions while employing 600 artists.
The Grange Festival features new productions of La traviata and Die Fledermaus; the UK premiere of a new staging of Rameau’s Les Indes galantes; the return of Ballet Black in a double bill of contemporary ballet; concerts including Summertime Swing, Bernstein on Broadway, Queen at the Opera and a gala event in aid of The Meath Epilepsy Charity. The Grange Festival runs from 4 June to 6 July
Waterperry Opera Festival features new productions of Don Giovanni and Semele, Juliana Hall's A World Turned Upside Down: The Diary of Ann Frank, Winnie the Pooh's Songbook with the music of Harold Fraser-Simpson, Mozart's Gran Partita in concert, and a last night gala. Waterperry Opera Festival runs from 8-17 August 2025.
Established in 1945 in the months following the Second World War, the Cheltenham Music Festival is celebrating 80 years this year. The festival was part of a post-war arts festival movement that also saw the launch of the Festival of Britain and Edinburgh International Festival. This year's Music Festival runs from 4 to 12 July 2025, but there is also the Jazz Festival (30 April to 5 May), Science Festival (3 to 8 June) and Literature Festival (10 to 19 October).
The Festivals’ parent charity, Cheltenham Festivals – responsible for all four festival and their associated learning and outreach programmes – is celebrating its 80th birthday by pledging to give 80,000 children access to the arts throughout the year. 2025’s Cheltenham Music Festival will focus more than ever on transformative musical experiences, reaching new and bigger audiences, and enthusing and engaging the next generation of children. This year's programme includes Elgar's Enigma Variations that featured in those first concerts, plus and Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes which premiered at the first festival, and Malcolm Arnold's Symphony No. 5 which premiered at the 1961 festival
The season is the first to be programmed by the Music Festival’s new Artistic Director, Jack Bazalgette (co-founder of through the noise).
Alongside the formal concerts there will be two Concerts for Schools, including one specifically designed for pupils with special and educational development needs (SEND) pupils, and a Relaxed Concert for Families with additional needs, all audiences of every age will be made welcome. New for this 80th year is and ensemble formed from existing local groups, the Cheltenham Festival Orchestra, which will perform with tenor James Gilchrist and the Cheltenham Bach Choir, with David Crown conducting in Mozart’s Requiem. And the local South Cotswold Big Sing Group will be taking part in Berlioz’s Te Deum at at Gloucester Cathedral with British Sinfonietta and mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly.
New commissions include a new octet from Deborah Pritchard to be performed on the first day of the festival by Britten Sinfonia alongside Mendelssohn's Octet, and a new piece by Anna Semple for BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Songs for the Earth, an ensemble led by violinist Bridget O’Donnell and bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado, that fuses folk, jazz and classical music will be performing specially written pieces at Cheltenham a part of a meditation on music and nature.
Rising stars performing at the festival include violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason, cellist Hadewych van Gent and guitarist Plínio Fernandes in Bloch and Bach, guitarist Alexandra Whittingham, trumpeter Aaron Akugbo and pianist Zeynep Özsuca. There are recitals from three BBC New Generation Artists - pianist Giorgi Gigashvili, tenor Santiago Sanchez and accordionist Ryan Corbett.
Major names at this year's festival include Imogen Cooper in Beethoven piano sonatas, Pavel Kolesnikov in Bach's Goldberg Variations, the Gesualdo Six and the Chelys Consort of Viols in Orlando Gibbons, the Vision Quartet performing Weber, Ravel and Dvorak from memory, plus pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, and baritone Gerald Finley in recital.
Relaxed performance - Cheltenham Music Festival 2023
Conway Hall Ethical Award: recipient Vivien Connacher and members of Songhaven with Conway Hall's Carmen D'Cruz
Last week (6 March 2025) Conway Hall presented its 2025 Ethical Gala, the annual celebration of their mission to Make Ethics Matter. The evening mixed speeches, conversation and performances, showcasing the range of their programme and partnerships, along with the presentation of their 2025 Ethical Award.
We began we a talk from Conway Hall's CEO, Dr Jim Walsh, which drew in Magritte, Velasquez, Manet, Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollock and more in a wide-ranging discussion about what Ethics actually is. This was followed by performances from artists from the London Performing Academy of Music, an independent London-based music conservatoire, whose work supporting the education and development of young musicians is supported by Conway Hall. We heard two Ukrainian musicians, part of a programme where the Academy brings young Ukrainian performers to the UK for study. Pianist Anastasiia Rud, a third year undergraduate, played a Chopin impromptu, Then tenor Grigore Riciu (who took part in the Academy's Opera Studio performance of Puccini's Turandot at Conway Hall) performed 'Nessun Dorma' from Turandot with the Academy's founder, Stefania Passamonte on piano.
The first half ended with a discussion between Holly Elson, Conway Hall's Head of Programmes and Rosemary Richards, Director of the Bloomsbury Festival, which returns in October 2025. Rosemary explained that the festival encompasses 40 to 50 venues in the area and celebrates Bloomsbury's creativity along with supporting young artists. It aims to celebrate the diversity of such a small area, being a place-based festival that involves the community, but business support is also important. The core of the festival's support is its relationships with business and universities, and with Londoners themselves.
After the interval, Carmen D'Cruz, Chair of the Trustees of Conway Hall presented the 2025 Ethical Award to Vivien Conacher, founder and director of Songhaven which provides a space where people living with dementia (including carers and companions) can come together and enjoy professional afternoon concerts in a joyous and welcoming atmosphere, as well as giving classically-trained artists paid performance opportunities that are relaxed, fun, and will expand their skills and repertoire.
The organisation was founded by Vivien in 2017 when, as a performer (she is a mezzo-soprano) she discovered the power of music for people living with dementia. She was a music student at the time and roped her friends in to give dementia friendly concerts. Since COVID, they have developed Songhaven at Home, a FREE online collection of 30 minute concert films (with accompanying printable programmes) recorded at Songhaven’s live concert events. But there are also live concerts too, see their website.
We ended with a solo performance by flautist Daniel Shao who presented a Daniel Shao and friends concert at Conway Hall last month. He began with Debussy's Syrinx, then the 'Sarabande' from Bach's Flute Partita and finally Alison Loggins-Hull's Homeland.
Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes - Iván Fischer & Budapest Festival Orchestra - Southbank Centre (Photo: Pete Woodhead for the Southbank Centre)
Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes; Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor; selection from Cinderella Suites; Igor Levit, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer; Royal Festival Hall Reviewed 11 March 2025
The Hungarian orchestra on top form in a compelling all-Prokofiev programme featuring Igor Levit's account of the second piano concerto combining astonishing technical skill with power and poetry
Pianist Igor Levit joined Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall on 11 March 2025, for an all-Prokofiev concert that demonstrated music's power to transcend political boundaries. The programme featured the three Prokofievs, the man living in Imperial Russia, the exile and the feted returnee, confounding our one size fits all view of Russian music in the present climate, allied to an orchestra (founded in 1983) that also seeks to reach across Hungary's notable musical history.
The Budapest Festival Orchestra is having something of a Prokofiev Festival this month. In Budapest, Vienna and Heidelberg, Igor Levit will be playing all five Prokofiev piano concertos across three days. Lucky them. In London, we heard just one of the programmes, beginning with Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes, then Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor and finally a selection from the Cinderella Suites.
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 - Iván Fischer, Igor Levit & Budapest Festival Orchestra - Southbank Centre (Photo: Pete Woodhead for the Southbank Centre)
Composer, interdisciplinary artist and writer Zygmund de Somogyi (Zyggy) is one of eight composers on the 2025 Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Composers programme. Each composer on the programme gets a paid commission and premiere with a noted ensemble, venue or festival, along with dedicated mentoring, and professional support.
Zyggy's time at on the programme culminates in a concert co-created with the trio, Temporal Harmonies Inc (Lydia Walquist, flute, Xiaowen Shang, piano, Mikolaj Piszczorowicz, cello) at Wigmore Hall on 19 April 2025. Music for the Quarter-Life Crisis feature's the premiere of Zyggy's music for the quarter-life crisis (synth étude), and IN THE EVENT THAT YOU STAY: Trio for flute, cello, and piano, no. 1 (RPS commission), along with music by Caroline Shaw, Kaija Saariaho, Lowell Liebermann, and London Sinfonietta 'Writing the Future' composer Ashkan Layegh.
They describe the programme thus, "We’re aiming to capture a musical distillation of 21st-Century repertoire reflective of today's cultural zeitgeist as experienced by many of our peers: a playful-sincere exploration of satire and resistance, and attempt to find groundedness in the precarious feeling that maybe, just maybe, there’s hope at the end of it all."
Nine days of masterclasses and performances by renowned pianists, the Oxford Piano Festival returns from 26 July to 3 August 2025. The festival aims to inspire, support and encourage music-making at the piano of the highest quality. The Festival provides gifted young players with a rare opportunity to work alongside and learn from some of the world’s finest pianists and teachers, to perform and to learn new repertoire, as part of a dedicated community of artists which encourages exchange over competition.
There are masterclasses at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building in St Hilda's College, Oxford, with pianists including Kathryn Stott, Stephen Hough, Nikolai Lugansky, Stephen Kovacevich and Ashley Wass. The festival concert programme begins with Isata Kanneh-Mason joining the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and festival founder, Marios Papadopoulos for Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 at the Sheldonian Theatre. Other concerts include Vikingur Olafsson in Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert, Nicolai Lugansky in Merton College Chapel in an extraordinary programme of Beethoven, Schumann, Wagner and Liszt, and Stephen Hough in Christ Church Cathedral playing Chaminade, Liszt, Schumann and music from Mary Poppins! Andrey Gugnin's all-Russian programme includes Michael Pletnev's dazzling arrangements from Tchaikovsky's ballets and Stravinsky's own bravura take on Petrushka, and the festival concludes with Akiko Ebi making her festival debut playing Faure, Ravel and Chopin.
EMPOWER: Female Musical Icons is an evening of performances and conversation, celebrating the breadth and diversity of female music, at Kings Place on Friday 21 March 2025 at 7pm.
There will be musical performances from chamber ensembles, and the premiere of the inaugural OpusHER commission, plus panel discussion.
Here co-founder, Sinéad Walsh, introduces EMPOWER and their 2025 London event.
EMPOWER: Women Changing Music is an initiative dedicated to promoting fairness and gender equality in the music industry. By spotlighting female composers and musicians, EMPOWER creates an environment that celebrates women, broadening the historically male-dominated canon, and is an outlet for positive change. Centred on live events, EMPOWER offers performance opportunities to emerging artists and provides a space for dynamic, thought-provoking discussions.
EMPOWER was founded by myself, Sinéad Walsh, and Hannah Seymour, in late 2021, whilst in our final year at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. As two young female musicians coming out of the pandemic, we felt it was our obligation to make a positive impact on the industry we were about to graduate into.
And then EMPOWER was born, on the couch in our flat. Being students at the time, with no performance opportunities, we wanted to create a platform that showcased emerging artists, just like us, but playing music solely by women, from brand new works to underrepresented pieces. We held our first event in March 2022, and here we are three years on, having showcased over 150 performers, premiered 20 new pieces of female music, and created a community of over 1000 followers. We have since moved to London, where we are scholars at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music. EMPOWER has now established itself as a platform for innovative, boundary-pushing performances that attract diverse and curious audiences, with March events at King’s Place London, the Royal Albert Hall, the Whyte Recital Hall in Dublin, and the Anthony Burgess Foundation Manchester.
Centred on live events, EMPOWER offers performance opportunities to emerging artists and provides a space for dynamic, thought-provoking discussions. EMPOWER has given a platform for female composers to premiere new works at their events, which otherwise may not have made it to the stage. These events are informal, and are a safe and inclusive space for everyone to learn, share, and ultimately empower each other to want to make a positive difference to society, through the sharing of music and experiences. The programmes consist of short musical performances, ranging from string quartets, to jazz band, to voice and electronics, showcasing a wide variety of music solely by female composers, both old and new. Composers and performers apply to be a part of the events, and the programme is curated around the breadth of music that EMPOWERs community of followers are passionate about.
We are ecstatic to be hosting our 2025 London event at Kings Place. It’s only our second annual event in London and to host it at such a prestigious venue truly is a dream come true. We were connected with the Artistic Director at Kings Place, Sam McShane, when she was a panellist at our Manchester event last year. She was extremely impressed with us and our work, and has been the greatest support through the whole process of organising the King’s Place event.
Performers apply to play at our events, and demand increases year on year. This year, 65 ensembles applied to perform at the London event, and only 5 could be selected. The quality, creativity, and enthusiasm of our successful applicants is incredible, and we can’t wait to hear them perform. We have a saxophone quartet, string quartet plus voice, a flute viola harp trio, a contemporary chamber ensemble, a string ‘band’, plus the London premiere of our inaugural OpusHER commission, an award for emerging female composers that we launched in September.
Our panel discussion is always a highlight of the evening. Our panellists are unbelievably generous with their time, by sharing their experiences and impacting wisdom in a beautifully vulnerable and honest way. It is always an honour to have the esteem and calibre of the women involved on the stage together, and this line up of women is no different. We are incredibly grateful to have the following panellists involved in our King’s Place event:
Errollyn Wallen CBE - Composer and Master of the Kings Music
Jess Gillam MBE - Saxophone Soloist and Presenter
Héloïse Werner - Soprano, Composer, and Founding Member of the Hermes Experiment
Dr. Leah Broad - Music Writer, Historian, and Author of ‘Quartet’
We are passionate about advocating for equity in the music industry. Through sharing music of the highest quality, our ultimate aim is to be a pivotal part in creating an industry that is accessible, diverse and welcoming to all, and to empower future industry trailblazers to have the confidence to make their voices heard, both musically and personally. Our goal is to inspire and support young people to make positive change, and we believe that the platform we are providing to emerging performers and composers will have an impact on the shape of the industry going forward.
I hope that people will leave our London event feeling positive, having learned something new, and ultimately empowered, in whatever way that resonates with them. You don’t have to be a woman or a musician to enjoy EMPOWER, and we can’t wait to welcome you into our community!
Music has the power for change and we, as EMPOWER, invite you to be a part of this movement.
EMPOWER: Female Musical Icons is at Kings Place on Friday 21 March 2025, further details from Kings Place website.
Buxton Opera House festival time. Credit Buxton International Festival
Having launched in 1979 with a production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in a version, rare at the time, that undid traditional cuts and transposition, the Buxton Festival returned in 1980 with Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet with Thomas Allen in the title role.
For 2025, the Buxton International Festival is returning to its roots with a new production of Thomas' Hamlet, directed by Jack Furness. The festival's artistic director, Adrian Kelly, will conduct the Orchestra of Opera North. The young American baritone Gregory Feldmann makes his role debut as Hamlet; Feldman was a member of Opernhaus Zürich's International Opera Studio from 2022-24 and his roles in Zürich include Mercutio in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. Singing opposite him as Ophélie is one of Feldmann's colleagues from Zürich, Europe-based South Korean soprano Yewon Han. Also in the cast are Alistair Miles, Allison Cooke, Richard Woodall and Joshua Baxter.
le vase brisé: Hahn, Augusta Holmès, Liszt, Duparc, Lili Boulanger, Sir Paulo Tosti, Clemence de Grandval, Pauline Viardot, Bellini; Thomas Elwin, Lana Bode; VOCES8 Records Reviewed 26 February 2025
A debut recital that combines an imaginative programme, undeservedly neglected repertoire and strong performances in challenging music such as Liszt's Petrarch Sonnets. A fine achievement indeed.
Tenor Thomas Elwin and pianist Lana Bode's new disc, le vase brisé on Voces8 Records, takes as its title a song by the French composer Clemence de Grandval. But the image of a broken vase ultimately offers, however, the promise of healing, or of repair and the artists' thoughts evidently turned to the Japanese art of kintsugi, the practice of repairing the cracks in broken pottery with gold (or silver, or platinum) in order that the repair is both obvious and beautiful. As such, the item is not ruined – or compromised – but actually improved. And the booklet article by Dr Lucy Walker is headed by a quote from Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (the ‘Kotzker Rebbe’) - "There is nothing so whole as a broken heart".
The disc is notable for the imaginative selection of song encompassed with works by Reynaldo Hahn, Augusta Holmès, Liszt, Duparc, Lili Boulanger, Sir Paulo Tosti, Clemence de Grandval, Pauline Viardot, and Bellini. The composers’ lives straddle nearly the whole of the 1800s; the earliest song is Bellini’s La Ricordanza (1834), the latest Hahn’s A Chloris (1916).
Thomas Elwin is best known recently for his operatic work, he was a fine Gennaro in English Touring Opera's production of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia in 2023 [see my review, I missed his Rodolfo in La Boheme with them, alas] and Alfredo in a filmed production of La Traviata with Opera Glass Works. Plus he was artistic director for West Green House Opera's 2024 season [see my review of Rossini's The Barber of Seville]. This disc is his debut recital disc, and represents a remarkable engagement with the art of song, going beyond the traditional opera singer's song repertoire and including some real rarities.
Harry Christophers & The Sixteen in rehearsal - 2024 (Photo: Johnny Millar)
Harry Christophers and The Sixteen embark on their 25th Choral Pilgrimage, Angel of Peace, this month. Starting in Croydon Minster on Monday 17 March 2025, this sees them touring 21 venues across England, Scotland and Ireland including Dublin and Belfast, performing a programme that includes music by Hildegard of Bingen, John Taverner, Arvo Pärt, Will Todd and Anna Clyne. The tour takes its title from words by Cardinal Newman, set to music by Will Todd, ‘Let me be an angel of peace’.
Harry Christophers (Photo: Johnny Millar)
The Pilgrimage remains very much a Sixteen thing, the ensemble's own concerts across the breadth of the country, and when I chat to Harry Christophers about this year's tour he comments that everyone in the group feels strongly about it. After all, if they miss places off then some parts of the country lose out. But there is no doubt that it is getting economically harder; there is no problem with audiences, and they keep ticket prices low, but the other expenses such as hotels and travel have been increasing. And of course, the venues are UK cathedrals and churches, buildings that are often struggling economically and having to put up their prices.
He describes the Choral Pilgrimage as a burden the group has taken on, but it is a good burden, and the Pilgrimage remains important to audiences all over. The tour is launched in Croydon Minster, which is a prime example of what the tour is about, a gorgeous venue yet in an area of London that deserves more arts coverage. This year they are visiting Edinburgh, Dublin and Belfast, but some venues have been lost due to sheer economics, but there is hope to reintroduce them in the future. But Harry emphasises that no-one is to blame, simply costs have risen, it is the state of the arts in general. He comments that whilst there has been a tendency to judge arts organisations on how they dealt with the pandemic, but it is the last few years that the group has found difficult. They are, however, lucky to have wonderful patrons though he then adds, with a smile, that like most arts organisations, they could do with more.
This year’s programme began with John Taverner's two large-scale Antiphons, Gaude plurimum and O splendor gloriae. Back in the days of LPs, Harry and the group recorded the Taverner, though at that time they followed the fashion of performing the music up a minor third. Now they are, as Harry describes it, grown up and plan to perform them at the correct pitch. Harry calls the two antiphons stonking pieces, each ten to fifteen minutes long, so he needed some very different music for contrast. Some years ago, they did a programme that mixed the music of Arvo Pärt with Renaissance music, which worked well so this year they are doing Arvo Pärt's Tribute to Caesar, Da pacem Domine and Magnificat, recognising his 90th birthday.
Mozart: The Magic Flute - Matthew Kellett - Charles Court Opera (Photo: Bill Knight)
Mozart: The Magic Flute; Matthew Kellett, Alison Langer, Martins Smaukstelis, Peter Lidbetter, Eleri Gwilym, director: John Savournin/James Hurley, music director: David Eaton; Charles Court Opera at Wilton's Music Hall Reviewed 5 March 2025
A hard-working cast of nine in a chamber version that combined lively wit with a real sense of engagement along with a reworking of a plot made satisfyingly coherent, achieving a remarkable amount on a shoe string
Mozart: The Magic Flute - Martins Smaukstelis, Alison Langer Charles Court Opera (Photo: Bill Knight)
There was no overture, we plunged straight in. We were in a tropical rainforest in Peru with vines everywhere and fragments of ancient stonework. The Peruvian setting arose out of the original designer, Simon Bejer's visit to Peru, and Papageno and Papagena (Matthew Kellett and Sara Prestwidge) were in traditional Peruvian dress. The three Ladies (Sarah Prestwidge, Martha Jones and Meriel Cunningham) were a bit more exotic and not a little glam, whilst there was something distinctly feral Goth about Eleri Gwilym's Queen of the Night. Sarastro (Peter Lidbetter) and his cohorts wore cowled robes with hoods that made them look like exotic birds. Martins Smaukstelis' Tamino was an explorer whilst Joe Ashmore's Monostatos had a distinctly British Colonial feel to him.
This was a small scale performance, using a hard-working cast of just nine, but the stage at Wilton's is not huge and they filled it admirably. This was a lively and entertaining version of the opera, sung in English (the translation was uncredited), but certainly no pantomime. The three boys were dispensed with, and their music reallocated (though still sung by Sarah Prestwidge, Martha Jones and Meriel Cunningham). Peter Lidbetter's Sarastro had more presence in the trials, and it was clear that this Sarastro was a force for good and not the sinister figure that the opera can sometimes project. Enough thought had gone into refocusing the drama, particularly in Act Two, that though this remained The Magic Flute, the dramaturgy was somewhat more coherent with a greater point to be made.
David Butt Philip, Alison Langer, St Paul's Opera chorus at the David Butt Philip & Friends gala in 2024 St Paul's Church (Photo: Craig Fuller Photography)
My local opera company, St Paul's Opera will be welcoming tenor David Butt Philip back for the third year running for a fundraising gala, David Butt Philip and Friends at St Paul’s Church, Rectory Grove, SW4 0DZ on Friday 28 March 2025.
This year's gala will featured soprano Alison Langer, mezzo-soprano Clare Presland and bass William Thomas alongside David Butt Philip, accompanied by Ed Batting and Nicholas Ansdell-Evans.
This year David Butt Philip's performances include Beethoven's Fidelio at the Met in New York, and Wagner's Lohengrin in Vienna, but he will be performing in the UK on 5 April for Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in Huddersfield with Huddersfield Choral Society and the Orchestra of Opera North, conductor Martyn Brabbins [further details]. On 23 May he joins Mark Elder, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Alice Coote for Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde at the Barbican [further details]. And on 15 June there is a chance to get up close and personal as he and pianist James Baillieu are in recital at Wigmore Hall [further details].
Alison Langer returns as Violetta in Verdi's La traviata at Opera Holland Park this Summer have made such a memorable stir in the 2018 Young Artists Production [see my review] and she is also singing in the Royal Opera's revival of its recent production of Bizet's Carmen. Clare Presland was recently singing in the premiere performances of Mark Antony Turnage's Festen at the Royal Opera. She too is getting up close and personal, joining tenor Nicky Spence and pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen at Wigmore Hall on 20 June [further details] and in August she will be in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in Japan. William Thomas has been singing Colline in Puccini's La Boheme at the Bavarian State Opera and will be in Bach's St John Passion at Carnegie Hall, New York next month.
Last year, the gala featured arias and duets from operas by Bizet, Gounod, Mozart, Verdi, Beethoven, Korngold and Puccini, and from music theatre works by Bernstein and Rogers & Hamerstein, [see my article] so we are going to be for a treat this year.
St Paul's Opera's Summer performance this year will be Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore from 3 to 5 July 2025
Cherubini: Médée - Lila Dufy, Joyce El-Khoury in Act One - Opéra Comique (Photo: Stefan Brion)
Juliet, Jenůfa, Médée & Mary, Queen of Scots
February on Planet Hugill, our monthly digest of interviews and reviews has just come out. If you don't already subscribe, get it at MailChimp.
Welcome to February on Planet Hugill, a month that includes rare performances of Cherubini's Médée and Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots and the start of English Touring Opera's Spring tour, not forgetting Schubert's birthday at Wigmore Hall.
Interviews this month include composer Jay Capperauld on Bruckner's obsession with death, George Petrou artistic director of the Göttingen International Handel Festival on this year's festival, composer Michael Zev Gordon on writing A Kind of Haunting, his new piece inspired by his family's experience of the Holocaust and Peter Mallinson on exploring the surprisingly fertile ground of music for two violas.
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The German YMCA in London has a lively programme of events including regular music related talks and performances, and their March programme includes a recital from violinist Madeleine Mitchell and pianist Nigel Clayton.
As part of the regular Peter's Music slot at the German YMCA in London, I will be talking next week on Wednesday 12 March 2025 (at 2pm). The venue is at 35 Craven Terrace, W2 3EL not far from Lancaster Gate Tube.
The talk is called Behind the Music. Unusually I will be talking about music in relation to myself and my activities as composer and writer, and its subtitle is perhaps Music in my life & my life in music.
There will be a chance for questions after the talk, so do please come along and say hello.
Further details from the German YMCA in London's website
Bringing music and the arts to the three most northerly Yorkshire Dales notably Swaledale, Wensleydale and Arkengarthdale, the Swaledale Festival comes round in May.
Under the patronage of writer, lecturer and arts advocate Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason and antiques expert Ronnie Archer-Morgan, the Swaledale Festival is an annual festival of music and arts based in the three most northerly Yorkshire Dales - Swaledale, Wensleydale and Arkengarthdale - a large rural area of outstanding natural beauty. Founded in 1972, this year’s festival runs from Saturday 24 May to Saturday 7 June offering 60-plus music, arts and walking events to inspire, transport and exhilarate one in the spectacular northern Yorkshire Dales.
Fraser Wilson, appointed Artistic Director of Swaledale Festival in December 2024
A host of festival venues are used ranging from tiny chapels seating fewer than 90 people to halls seating several hundred. Many are charming village churches, too, but there are also heritage sites such as Richmond’s Georgian Theatre Royal while in the past few years the festival has utilised the 600-seater Tennant’s Garden Rooms in Leyburn as a new venue.
The programme includes a core of classical music concerts as well as folk, brass bands, jazz and world music while poetry, film, dance, drama, comedy, workshops, masterclasses, exhibitions, family events, talks and themed guided walks run in parallel to the main programme.
There are usually a few surprises too (think steam-train trips, bat watches, archaeology projects and astronomy sessions!). There’s also a focus on the extraordinary landscape, the history, the legends and the characters that shape the northern Yorkshire Dales.
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