Putting choral music at the centre of contemporary culture: conductor George Parris on the Carice Singers' An Ode to Our Planet collaborating with cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, celebrating Arvo Pärt & their debut at hcmf

George Parris & the Carice Singers (Photo: Lidia Crisafulli)

Conductor George Parris and the Carice Singers have been exploring Arvo Pärt's music alongside that of other Estonian composers, most recently (8 November) at St Giles Cripplegate where they performed music by Arvo Pärt, Evelin Seppar and Galina Grigorjeva [see the review on TheArtsDesk website]. The choir was founded in 2011 by George Parris and named for Elgar's daughter. Their repertoire spreads widely, and whilst the music of Nordic region and the Baltic looms large, George enjoys exploring further.

On 13 December 2025, they will be joining cellist Nicolas Altstaedt at Kings Place for An Ode to Our Planet as part of the Earth Unwrapped season. The concert features Bach's unaccompanied cello suites, two new pieces for cello and choir by French-British composer Josephine Stephenson, and Spanish composer Raquel García-Tomás, and two unaccompanied works by Ben Nobuto and Dobrinka Tabakova.

After the pandemic, George wanted the group to become more collaborative so the idea to perform with cellist Nicolas Altstaedt was most welcome. The idea for the concert originally came from Helen Wallace, the previous artistic director at King's Place, who was herself a cellist. The concert features new music for choir and cello, which is something they were looking to do. Josephine Stephenson’s work, Fire, river, garden, which has been commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, will be a world premiere. Raquel Garcia-Tomas’s work, Vols brisés , which has been commissioned by Palau de la Musica Catalana and Kings Place, will be the UK premiere. Vols brisés was premiered in May this year by Nicolas Altstaedt with Cor de Cambra del Palau and Júlia Sesé at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona.

George Parris and the Carice Singers at the Cheltenham Music Festival, 2021

Ben Nobuto's work Sol, for eight unaccompanied solo voices and written in 2022 for the National Youth Choir Fellowship, is a playful ode to the sun and the energy that sustains life, while Dobrinka Tabakova’s Turn our Captivity, O Lord, which was written for The Sixteen, offers a serene plea for renewal and hope.

Style, engagement & joy: Handel's Partenope returns to ENO with a terrific young cast

Handel: Partenope - English National Opera (Photo: Lloyd Winters)

Handel: Partenope; Nardus Williams, Hugh Cutting, Ru Charlesworth, Jake Ingbar, Katie Bray, William Thomas, director: Christopher Alden, conductor: William Cole, English National Opera; London Coliseum
Reviewed 26 November 2025

1920s Paris-set production returns with director Christopher Alden back at the helm and a team of superb young soloists who sing stylishly and enter into the concept with a will

Part of the fun of Handel's Partenope is the games it plays with gender and perceived roles. Arsace is the notional hero, Handel wrote the role for a distinguished castrato, but rather than being a moral example the character is weak having ditched one woman for another. The secondary male lead, Armindo was played by a woman en travestie and the character is timid, taking nearly half the opera to admit his love to Partenope. But the woman that Arsace ditched, Rosmira, appears dressed as a man and the big reveal in Act Three is when Arsace insists that he and Rosmira's male incarnation perform their duel bare-chested. The work's comedy thus comes from this play with the original audience's expectations.

English National Opera's production of Partenope directed by Christopher Alden has played extra games with the audience since its debut in 2008. At the 2017 revival [see my review] Arsace was himself played by a woman (Patricia Bardon) and the production has never, I think, used a woman for Armindo as Handel did.

For ENO's latest revival which we saw on 26 November 2025, casting is firmly based on the characters' gender with a cast of young singers bringing new energy to the production. For this revival Christopher Alden returned to direct and Christian Curnyn, the original conductor, was due to be in the pit though his illness meant that William Cole was in charge. Nardus Williams was Partenope, with Hugh Cutting as Arsace, Ru Charlesworth as Emilio, Jake Ingbar as Armindo, Katie Bray as Rosmira and William Thomas as Ormonte.

Handel: Partenope - Nardus Williams, Jake Ingbar, Ru Charlesworth - English National Opera (Photo: Lloyd Winters)

Alden and designers Andrew Lieberman (sets) and Jon Morrell (costumes) set the opera at a salon in Paris in the 1920s with all the men flitting around Nardus Williams' stylish hostess, Partenope. Whilst I have enjoyed the production over the years, the setting and Alden's approach still does not quite convince. The 'battle' at the opening of Act Two remains unconvincing, but then HGO's 2019 beachside Victorian production had a similar problem [see my review]. From the middle of Act Two to the end of the opera, Alden seems to progressively abandon his own dramatic logic and by the middle of Act Three, when Jake Ingbar's Armindo did a tap dance during his aria and William Thomas's Ormonte oversaw the duet in extravagant 18th century drag, you felt that Alden was simply throwing everything at the piece to keep the audience entertained.

Delizie, contente: The Bellot Ensemble explore love in all its forms in 17th century Italy for Cupid's Ground Bass on FHR

Cupid's Ground Bass: Strozzi, uccelini, Farina, Cavalli, Kapsberger, Biber, Monteverdi; Lucine Musaelian, Kieran White, The Bellot Ensemble; FHR Records
Reviewed 26 November 2025

A young ensemble in one of those intelligently put together programmes where the engaging performances draw you in and with many of the items on the disc I thought 'I'd like to hear more of that!'

The Bellot Ensemble is a young period instrument ensemble that in October 2025 began a two-year term s the New Generation Baroque Ensemble with BBC Radio 3. For their debut disc on FHR (First Hand Records), Cupid's Ground Bass the group explores the sound world of 17th-century Italy through the twin mirrors of love and the ground bass. Both popular subjects for 17th-century Italian music, the disc casts its net widely with arias by Barbara Strozzi, Francesco Cavalli and Claudio Monteverdi along with instrumental music by Marco Uccellini, Carlo Farina, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, and Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. 

For the disc, the ensemble features Lucine Musaelian (soprano, viola da gamba), Kieran White (tenor), Olivia Petryszak (recorder), Edmund Taylor and Maxim Del Mar (violin), Jacob Garside (cello), Nathan Giorgetti (viola da gamba), Daniel Murphy (theorbo, baroque guitar), and Matthew Brown (harpsichord, organ). We caught Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgetti, as Intesa Duo at the Handel Hendrix House back in 2023 [see my review]

What the disc is really exploring is the way that 17th-century Italian music expanded its range and freedom, yet the forms often remained. Dances and ground basses were very much the norm, yet focusing on the ground bass can be something of a challenge with a danger of everything seeming to come out of the same mould. The Bellot Ensemble's selection is both ingratiating and canny.

Eleven artists were honoured as this year’s winners of the Aga Khan Music Awards which were held in London for the first time

Qalali Folk Band at Aga Khan Music Awards 2025 (Photo: Joao Peixoto)

Eleven artists were honoured at the weekend as this year’s winners of the Aga Khan Music Awards in a ceremony in the Southbank Centre, London. The Awards brought together the world’s music industry in a global celebration of cultural heritage in partnership with EFG London Jazz Festival, marking the first time the Awards have been held in the United Kingdom. 

Winners came from Morocco, Türkiye, Bahrain, Iran, Lebanon, India, Mali, Palestine, Greece, Pakistan and Senegal with a special Patron’s Award celebratomg two remarkable musical lineages of the great poet, composer, musician and Sufi saint Amir Khusrau (1253–1325), who was instrumental in shaping a large part of the music and cultural history of South Asia. 

At the ceremony, audiences enjoyed performances from winners Qalali Folk Band, Kamilya Jubran, Senny Camara, Farah Kaddour, Derya Türkan, Kyriakos Kalaitzidis, and Jordi Savall, David Mayoral, Yurdal Tokcan, and Hamid El Kasri and Gnawa Kouyous, alongside Karim Ziad. 

Farah Kaddour, Senny Camara, Kamilya Jubran at Aga Khan Music Awards 2025 (Photo: Joao Peixoto)

Full List of Winners of the 2025 Aga Khan Music Awards  

• Sahba Aminikia (Iran/USA) – Composer and social innovator Sahba Aminikia is the founder and artistic director of the Flying Carpet Festival.  
• Mariam Bagayoko (Mali) – Singer, dancer, and instrumentalist. Through her mentorship of women and girls, she has played a vital role in sustaining Mali’s musical and dance traditions.   
• Senny Camara (Senegal) – A kora player, singer, and songwriter, she  offers a luminous and distinctly feminine voice within Senegal’s musical landscape. 
• Kamilya Jubran (Palestine/France) – A pioneering voice in contemporary Arabic music, she draws on her Palestinian roots to explore new creative directions and adventurous cross-cultural collaborations. 
• Farah Kaddour (Lebanon) – Composer, performer, and scholar. She has expanded the expressive potential of the buzuq, a long-necked fretted lute with ancient Middle Eastern origins. 
• Kyriakos Kalaitzidis (Greece) – An oud player, composer, and scholar, he illuminates the deep connections between Islamic and Euro-Mediterranean musical traditions, and has championed research and performance of music from the Levant.  
• Hamid El Kasri (Morocco) –  A singer, guembri player and maâlem (master musician) in the Gnawa tradition, he is dedicated to preserving and renewing Morocco’s musical heritage. 
• Qalali Folk Band (Bahrain) – Established over a century ago, the Band is dedicated to performing and preserving Bahrain’s rich seafaring musical heritage. The ensemble is renowned for its renditions of sawt—a popular urban musical genre—and fijri, the traditional music of Bahrain’s pearl divers.
• Ustad Naseeruddin Saami (Pakistan) – A torchbearer of the Delhi gharana (hereditary lineage) of Hindustani music, Ustad Naseeruddin Saami traces his artistic lineage to Amir Khusrau. 
• Derya Türkan (Türkiye) – A classical kemençe player, composer, and educator, he has brought Turkish classical and folk music to audiences worldwide. He is known for blending Turkish traditions with jazz and European classical idioms. 
• Naseer and Nazeer Ahmed Khan Warsi (India) – Leading exponents of qawwali, the devotional Sufi music of South Asia, brothers belong to a family lineage tracing back to the Qawaal Bachhey (children of qawwali)—the singers and musicians trained by Amir Khusrau (1253-1325), the founder of qawwali. 

His Late Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV (1936-2025) was the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and the founder of the Aga Khan Development Network. One manifestation of his hereditary responsibilities was a deep engagement with development spanning more than sixty years. He established the Aga Khan Music Programme in 2000. 

Full details from the Aga Khan Development Network website.

Pitting the cello, as lone climber, against the heavens-touching vastness of mountains, Belfast-based composer Anselm McDonnell's new cello concerto premieres in Dublin

Anselm McDonnell

Belfast-based composer Anselm McDonnell appeared on these pages earlier this year with my review of his third album, Politics of the Imagination, featuring music where political commentary and sheer playfulness combine with a serious purpose. Now there is a chance to hear a major new work of his live, when his Cello Concerto No. 1 'Hostile Summits' is premiered by cellist Martin Johnson with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (NSOI), conductor Ryan McAdams at National Concert Hall, Dublin, on 30 January 2026.

The concerto is a commission from the NSOI. Martin Johnson is a long-time collaborator of Anselm McDonnell's, with Johnson appearing on McDonnell's debut album Light of Shore in 2021 [see my review]. 

McDonnell is a keen hiker and for him the concerto 'explores different aspects of our relationship with mountains, from their might and terrifying beauty to their symbolism as places of divine power'. The work pits the cello, as lone climber, against the 'heavens-touching vastness of mountains, their forbidding majesty', whilst the final movement references Christ's Transfiguration, descending from the heights to heal a sick child.

McDonnell describes the work as having a huge amount of drama in it, along with some unusual uses of the orchestra.

Anselm McDonnell's Cello Concerto No. 1 'Hostile Summits'  is premiered by Martin Johnson, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and Ryan McAdams along with music by Wagner and Tchaikovsky at National Concert Hall, Dublin, on 30 January 2026. Full details from the concert hall's website.    

York-based music charity, the Richard Shephard Music Foundation celebrates its most successful year to date.

The Richard Shephard Music Foundation (RSMF), the York-based music charity founded in 2021 to bring 'the experience and enjoyment of music to children and young people in Yorkshire and beyond’ is celebrating its most successful year to date. Over 8,685 children received weekly music lessons through partnerships with 34 schools across Yorkshire and Tees Valley, which marks significant progress in the Foundation's goal to teach 10,000 children every week by 2026 - a target that will mean almost one in seven primary-aged children in the region will have regular access to high-quality music education.

Key Highlights from the Foundation’s 2024–25 Impact Report:

• 8,685 children received weekly music lessons, totalling 8,250 hours of high-quality music education.
• 34 partner schools participated – including new additions in East Yorkshire, Saltburn, Darlington, Richmond, and Selby.
• 450 children joined the Foundation’s biggest-ever Make Music Day, celebrating creativity and collaboration through live workshops and performances.
• 10 free “Music Explorers” holiday clubs reached 263 children, with an average of 57% eligible for Free School Meals – rising to 85% in Scarborough.
• 1,943 children took part in Foundation-led events, concerts, and community performance

Independent evaluations and teacher feedback revealed transformative results:

• 99% of staff reported improved confidence among pupils.
• 97% saw enhanced musical knowledge.
• 92% observed improvements in wellbeing.
• 94% said their school’s standard of music teaching had improved.

The recent Child of the North report from N8 Research Partnership [see the report] found that 93% of children are being excluded from arts and cultural education due to a lack of funding in state schools, with almost half (42%) of secondary schools no longer entering pupils for GCSE Music.

Full details of the Richard Shephard Music Foundation's from their website.

Battleship Potemkin: The Pit Orchestra celebrates the film's centenary with its own innovative score

Sergei Eisenstein: Battleship Potemkin (Photo supplied by BFI)

Sergei Eisenstein’s legendary 1925 silent film, Battleship Potemkin is widely considered a masterpiece in early cinema.  It was inspired by the failed 1905 Russian Revolution and its iconic climactic scene - a fictional massacre of civilians on the iconic Odessa steps in Ukraine - is widely studied for its editing and pioneering use of montage. Later in his career Eisenstein would famously collaborate with composer Sergei Prokoviev for two projects, Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible. 

In 2017, a new score for the film was commissioned and performed by The Pit Orchestra. The score was composed collectively by The Pit Orchestra members under the guidance of lead composers Tom Richardson, Chris Muirhead and Chris Bailey. Now, for the film's 2025 centenary, The Pit Orchestra is bringing back Battleship Potemkin with a new version of the score reimagined by Tom Richardson with technical guidance from composer Simon Dobson.

For one night only on 13 December, University of Plymouth’s The House performing arts centre will journey audiences to a Russian Imperial Navy battleship on the Black Sea when a mutinous uprising by the ship's crew against their ruthless officers, sparked by spoiled meat, becomes a violent clash and one of the most famous closing scenes in cinema history.

The event continues The Pit Orchestra’s mission to breathe new life into classic cinema through live performance. Twelve musicians will perform this moving revival, many of whom will play multiple instruments while also forming a dynamic choir. 

The Pit Orchestra is a freely evolving ensemble of trained and untrained musicians who mix classical and modern instruments and transform with every performance. They write original scores, soundtracks and musical accompaniments in collaboration with filmmakers and artists, and are inspired by a wide variety of musical genres including rock, folk, electro, jazz, ambient and classical. The orchestra formed in 2013 (as The Imperfect Orchestra) and has consistently maintained principles of collaboration, artistic expression, diversity, inclusivity and, perhaps most importantly, celebration of the amateur. 

The Ukrainian Singers of Plymouth will open the event with a performance of traditional and contemporary Ukrainian music.

Full details from The Pit Orchestra's website. 

Calling young conductors: 18th Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition in London & 6th Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition at CBSO in Birmingham

Donatella Flick and HRH The Duke of Kent announce Nicolò Foron as winner of 17th Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in 2023 © Mark Allan

Calling young conductors. Two international conducting competitions take place over the next year. The sixth edition of the Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition (CBSO) is to be held in Birmingham in September 2026 presented in partnership with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, music director Kazuki Yamada. The 18th Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition is coming next month and the 20 competitors have been announced.

The Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition is international and itinerant, having previously been held in Luxembourg, Montpellier, Paris (twice) and Monte-Carlo. The 2026 edition, travelling to Birmingham for the first time, offers young conductors the opportunity to work with the CBSO.

The artistic direction of the Competition is led by René Koering, former music director of Radio France and founder of the Radio France International Music Festival in Montpellier, and the jury will be chaired by conductor Bertrand de Billy. Since 2007, the Svetlanov Competition has welcomed more than 90 young conductors from around the globe. Each edition selects 18 participants from an average of 350 applications representing over 50 countries. Remarkably, over 80 percent of past participants have gone on to enjoy international careers, confirming the competition’s reputation as one of the most effective springboards for emerging conductors worldwide.

Thee competition runs from 3 to 6 September 2026 with the semi-finals and final open to the public. The competition will be broadcast on Medici TV. Applications for the 2026 edition will be open from 1 March to 15 April 2026. Further details from the website.

Now in its 35th year and internationally recognised as one of the world’s leading conducting competitions, the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition will see the conductors compete for the £15,000 prize awarded by Donatella Flick and for the opportunity to become Assistant Conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra for up to one year. For the first time, the Competition will be filmed for Sky Arts.

The finalists announced come from nine countries: Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The competitors are drawn from the best conductors aged 30 or under who are citizens of the UK; countries having full membership of the European Union; and Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein or Switzerland.

The chosen finalists are:

Felix Benati - French,  Sieva Borzak - Italian,  Jooyoung Chang - Austrian,  Giovanni Conti - Italian,  Riley Court-Wood - British,  Matteo Dal Maso - Italian,  Nina Haug - Swiss,  Daniel Hogan - British,  Piotr Jaworski - Polish,  Maria Keller - German,  Leonhard Kreutzmann - German,  Julia Kurzydlak - Polish,  Kingsley Lin - British,  Jacob Niemann - German,  Alison Norris - British,  Friedrich Praetorius - German,  Roman Reshetkin - French,  Matthew Rhodes - British,  Konstantinos Terzakis - Greek,  Andreas van Tol - Swedish

Full biographical details from the Competition website, 

The competition is at LSO St Lukes from 2 to 4 December 2025, and further information is available from the website.

Ode to Pity: Penelope Appleyard & Jonathan Delbridge take Jane Austen celebrations into song with music by Donna McKevitt

The 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth is on 16 December 2025. Musical celebrations, however, seem somewhat sparse and Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park apart, there seem to be few occasions where Austen's text has found its way into music. Yet Austen and her family loved music and their music books survive. Last year I chatted to academic Gillian Dooley about her book on Jane Austen and music [see my interview, 'She played and sang']

In celebration of the anniversary, soprano Penelope Appleyard commissioned composer Donna McKevitt to create a new Jane Austen setting. The result is Ode to Pity for soprano and square piano, setting one of Austen's early works using the sort of keyboard instrument that she would have been familiar with.

The song has been recorded by Appleyard and pianist Jonathan Delbridge (the duo, The Little Song Party) along with two other songs that Jane Austen knew, Song from Burns (as Their Groves of Sweet Myrtle was known in the Austen family), setting poetry by Robert Burns, and Robin Adair, an Irish tune which is the only song mentioned by name in Austen's novels. The three songs are available as an EP from VOCES8 Records.

The songs feature in Sense and Musicality, The Little Song Party's recital programme that features music that Jane Austen knew and played, along with composers alluded to in her novels.

You can catch up with The Little Song Party's performance schedule at their website, and they are presenting Jane Austen’s Christmas Gaiety with narrator Zeb Soanes as part of VOCES8's LIVE from London Festival (8 December to 6 January 2026), see website. 

This lively, engaging production drew us in with little sense of the artificial: Opera North revives Phyllida Lloyd's 1993 production of Puccini's La Boheme

Puccini: La Boheme - Opera North (Photo: Richard H Smith)

Puccini: La boheme; Joshua Blue, Isabela Diaz, Katie Bird, Josef Jeongmeen Ahn, Han Kim, Sean Boylan, director: Phyllida Lloyd/James Hurley, conductor Catriona Beveridge; Opera North at Theatre Royal Nottingham
Reviewed 22 November 2025

Still in vibrant health, Phyllida Lloyd's 1950s Paris-set production eschews artifice for directness and a young cast bring the opera to life in a lively and engaging manner

When Phyllida Lloyd and designer Anthony Ward created their production of Puccini's La boheme for Opera North in 1993, their setting of Paris in the 1950s was easily within living memory, just 40 years away.  But now, some 32 years after the production's premier, the time period slips into historical memory. In the programme book for Opera North's latest revival of the production, Phyllida Lloyd explains that her and Ward's intention was not to create a 1950s Paris version of the opera but simply to strip down the story to its essentials/

Yet 32 years is a long period in the life of a theatre production. Perhaps its stripped-back nature means that there is space for the cast of each revival to make it their own yet, my-grandfather's-axe-like, it remains Phyllida Lloyd's. We caught the final performance of Opera North's latest revival of the production and certainly it seemed in vibrant health.

We saw Phyllida Lloyd's production of Puccini's La boheme at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham on Saturday 22 November 2025. Catriona Beveridge conducted (taking over from Garry Walker who conducted the majority of the 16-date run)/ Sets and costumes were by Anthony Ward, and the revival director was James Hurley. Some roles were double cast and we caught Josef Jeongmeen Ahn as Marcello, Joshua Blue as Rodolfo, Han Kim as Colline, Sean Boylan as Schaunard, Isabela Diaz as Mimi, Katie Bird as Musetta and Jeremy Peaker (who was retiring after 37 years service in the Opera North chorus) as Benoit and Alcindoro.

Puccini: La Boheme - Opera North (Photo: Richard H Smith)

Beyond the 1950s setting, complete with Marcello's motorbike, the production had several imaginative touches. It was deliberately artful, each act was viewed through a frame as if seeing snapshot. At the end of Act One, for 'O soave fanciulla', a black curtain came down, then Joshua Blue and Isabela Diaz sang their duet in front of a projection of the moon. Artful yet practical so at the end of the act the cafe Momus scene flowed immediately. Here there was simply a mobile banquette of seats and much of the atmosphere relied on the chorus, sounding and looking vivid, and the children of the Opera North Youth Company. The banquette reappeared in Act Three for the bar were Marcello and Musetta were working, now a club called 'Reve', seen in occasional glimpses through the backdrop.

From oratorio to remarkable dance drama: Handel's Susanna from Opera North & Phoenix Dance Theatre with Anna Dennis & James Hall

Handel: Susanna - Anna Dennis - Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Photo: Tristram Kenton)

Handel: Susanna; Anna Dennis, James Hall, Matthew Brook, Claire Lees, Colin Judson, Karl Haml, Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre, director: Olivia Fuchs, choreographer: Marcus Jarrell Willis, conductor: Johanna Soller; Opera North at Theatre Royal Nottingham
Reviewed 21 November 2025

Handel's oratorio turned into a remarkable dance drama, integrating opera and movement with a performance of remarkable focused intensity from Anna Dennis in the title role

Dance has been an integral part of opera since the early Baroque, though quite how the two have integrated has varied over time and place. The French Baroque style of almost synthesis not being followed in other countries, and the UK still seems wary of the operas of Lully and Rameau, unwilling or unable to combine movement and singing in an expressive way.

In France, as the 19th century progressed the integration was more formalised less seamless whilst in Italy opera was not devoid of dance as evenings often contained ballets alongside the opera. This separation has rather continued. So much so that productions like the Royal Opera's recent performance of Verdi's Les vêpres siciliennes happily removed the ballet [see my review] whilst Wexford Festival Opera's recent production of Verdi's Le Trouvère provided a rare outing for Verdi's ballet music for the opera. [see my review]

Modern times have seen dance incorporated into drama in works like Britten's Death in Venice but you are just as likely to see music subservient to dance as in Mark Morris' version of Handel's L'Allegro. In 2024, Olivia Fuchs directed Britten's Death in Venice at Welsh National Opera in a production featuring an innovative collaboration with NoFitState circus, almost redefining the drama in that opera. [see my review]

Handel: Susanna - Anna Dennis, James Hall with Yasmina Patel and Teige Bisnought from Phoenix Dance Theatre - Opera North, Phoenix Dance Theatre (Photo: Tristram Kenton)

So, Opera North's decision to renew its collaboration with Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre via a production of Handel's Susanna, directed by Olivia Fuchs was an intriguing prospect. We caught the final performance of the tour, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham on Friday 21 November 2025. The opera was directed by Olivia Fuchs, conducted by Johanna Soller with designs by Zahra Mansouri. Choreography was by Marcus Jarrell Willis, artistic director of Phoenix Dance Theatre. 

James Hall was Joacim and Anna Dennis was Susanna with Matthew Brook as Chelsias, Colin Judson and Karl Huml as the Elders, Amy Freston as Susanna's attendant, Claire Lees as Daniel and Dean Robinson as Judge. There were seven dancers (a further two were unfortunately ill) who performed alongside the soloists and chorus. The orchestra featured the modern instruments of the Orchestra of Opera North along with theorbo and two harpsichords (one played by Johanna Soller).

Upstairs at Ronnie’s: I chat to James Pearson & Lizzie Ball about the new regular classical nights at Ronnie Scott's new venue

James Pearson & Lizzie Ball (Photo: Monika C Jakubowska)

In February 2026, the upstairs space at Ronnie Scott's will reopen as Upstairs at Ronnie’s, a newly reimagined 140-capacity music venue following a significant refurbishment. The launch includes the club’s first-ever regular weekly classical night, taking place every Monday with early and late showings, as part of a programming schedule that will run seven days a week. The new Monday classical series at Upstairs at Ronnie’s will be curated jointly by violinist, vocalist and producer, Lizzie Ball and Ronnie Scott’s Artistic Director and pianist, James Pearson. I recently caught up with Lizzie and James to find out more about what we can expect.

The new classical night is aimed at classical music lovers and those jazz fans who like their horizons broadened. Lizzie emphasises that people who go to Ronnie Scott's go for a real experience. The newly reimagined upstairs space will be more like a salon with food and drink available, a relaxed atmosphere, and fabulous music. The size and layout of the new venue will encourage the connection between audience and artist.

Lizzie first ran her Classical Kicks evening at Ronnie Scott's in 2012, but this was in the old upstairs venue. This had never been designed as a stage venue and was rather challenging. But the evening did well, attracting an interesting crowd, both stalwarts and younger audience members, so Classical Kicks was presented at Ronnie Scott's until 2019. But James pointed out that Ronnie Scott's first put on classical music in the 1970s when the guitarist John Williams performed there, on the main stage. Nigel Kennedy also appeared mixing jazz with Bach and Bartok (and Kennedy is back with his trio next year), and also the Kronos Quartet.

Lizzie Ball's Classical Kicks (Photo: Tom Maine)

Libby Croad's Rivers released by The Dionysius Ensemble alongside photos from the project's Slough-wide Jubilee River photography competition

When I spoke to composer Libby Croad earlier this year [see my interview, 'Something juicy that you can get your teeth into'] she was just starting work on a new piece for the Dionysius Ensemble. This has now come to fruition and has been released. The work, Rivers is for string quartet, clarinet and harp, and the ensemble recorded it earlier this year in Slough.

The accompanying video includes river photos taken as part of the project's Slough wide Jubilee River photography competition, whose winner was Talvin Singh Deeks. 

The video is available on YouTube, and you can stream Rivers on various platforms [LinkTree]

Letter from Florida: Let us take a stand together hand in hand, Hans Krasa's Brundibar from Sarasota Opera

Hans Krasa: Brundibar - Kayla Farrell (Brundibar) - Sarasota Opera (Sarasota Youth Opera)

Raise up your voice: Intolerance through the voices of children: Prologue created by Martha Collins and Jesse Martins, Hans Krasa: Brundibar; director: Martha Collins, conductor Jesse Martins, Sarasota Youth Opera; Sarasota Opera at Sarasota Opera House, Florida
Reviewed by Robert J Carreras, 8 November 2025

In his latest Letter from Florida, Robert J Carreras finds that Sarasota Youth Opera's performance of Hans Krasa's Brundibar, alongside a prologue designed to introduce the work today, touches in the right places

To touch the audience in the right place – how's that for an operatic golden rule? Self-evident as is the worthiness of this pursuit, particularly when children are involved, Sarasota Opera goes much farther. With its Brundibar, the company gives little in the way of mixed messages, aiming tight for that most vital of organs, the human heart.

As a matter of language, there are many telltale signs of agonizing and deliberating over handing this subject matter and its exposition over to young hearts and minds. And in creating from scratch a companion piece that helps shine a light on the point of the main attraction, conductor Jesse Martins and Martha Collins (better known in Sarasota as Stage Director) show they are all too aware that children are barraged with the phrase, “use your words.”

The mouthful that is Raise up your voice: Intolerance through the voices of children, a prologue referred to here as RUYV, may could be a work that stands up next to others it plays with, and, it needs work. As with any effective piece of its type, it is practical to the extent it can be performed in its current iteration solo, to introduce Brundibar as today, or in tandem with any number of other works that agree with it in purpose.

At its core, this prologue is a message in a bottle, a love-letter and call to action for adults, from children. The children want for adults to act like it, to be better human beings. “You know this!” the children seem to be pleading at us. The children of Ha'shoah are not the only ones pleading never forget.

Prologue: Raise up your voice - Sarasota Opera (Sarasota Youth Opera)

“You can take a girl out of Cuba, but you can’t take Cuba out of a girl” - Odaline de la Martinez finds her voice as a composer

Odaline de la Martinez (Photo: Malcolm Crowther)

Born in Cuba, and brought up in the USA, and based in the UK, in this guest posting composer and founder of Lontano Ensemble, Odaline de la Martinez talks about finding her voice as composer. 

On Friday 21 November, her Canciones will be performed by pianist Nigel Foster, soprano Ana Beard Fernandez and percussionist Gillian McDonagh as part of the London Song Festival's concert, Songs by Latin American Women Composers. Canciones was commissioned and premiered by Janis Kelly and Simon Limbrick with Timothy Barrett at the Wigmore Hall in May 1983.

I always knew I wanted to be a composer and a conductor but everyone, apart from my family, said that women couldn’t be conductors, so in my mind, I put it off. Ever since I was a child, I was always beating rhythms and dancing for any guests who entered the house. Our home in Cuba was in a town with a large Afro Cuban population, and the sound of Afro-Cuban drumming was very present. I went to sleep many nights to this hypnotic soundtrack, which instilled in me a love of rhythm. Rhythm gives life and energy to music and is my own life-blood.

After the Bay of Pigs, my parents sent my sister and me aged 11 to stay with an aunt in Kansas and later Arizona with the idea of returning when things had settled down. Then our parents joined us in the US and we ended up moving to New Orleans, another city where music is everywhere.

One of my first pieces was for voice and guitar written in Spanish and I quickly realised that in Spanish, it didn’t stand a chance of winning any competitions, so I quickly translated it into English and won several competitions in Arizona. Later in New Orleans, my high school asked me to write various hymns and anthems. When I went to Tulane University in New Orleans, it was initially to study maths and music but half way through, I was told I had to make a decision between the disciplines and of course music won.

When I won a Marshall Scholarship to come and to study in London, I thought that the Afro-Cuban flavour in my music was probably not going to be accepted at the Academy, so I started to write modern music. I had written a Misa Breve Afro Cubana and decided to temper the Afro-Cuban style in the first movement and make it more acceptable. I probably should have been stronger in my convictions and truer to myself, but it was only later that I found my voice. Anyway, I’ve restored the original first movement to the Misa Breve.

And so, I found myself becoming a conductor, founding Lontano Ensemble while at the Academy, where initially I was the pianist. Then I asked John Carewe whether I could try conducting and he encouraged me. I quickly realised that we needed to establish Lontano to promote the unheard voices of women composers and the music of Latin America, in particular Villa Lobos and Ginastera, whose music was very much connected to the cultures of Latin America. Ginastera abandoned tonality in favour of serialism. And yet, in my mind his best work is Cantata for Magic America for 14 percussionists and soprano, a combination of serialism with wonderful pre-Columbian texts. Shortly after in 1992, we set up a record label to record this music to create an archive of recordings and Lorelt was founded.

In 2006, we started the London Festival of American Music because so many American composers, beyond Glass, Adams and Reich, never get heard this side of the Atlantic but most of all to show the diversity in geography, style and gender and the most recent festivals have shown a spotlight on African-American composers. This coincided with me rediscovering my roots and composing an opera Imoinda, a story of love and slavery in collaboration with writer Joan Anim Addo. It’s a trilogy and in Plantation, Act III there is a section called “Bembe” where the drums and dancers go crazy.

There is so much Afro-Cuban culture which still needs to be discovered and recognised, including the music of Amadeo Roldan, whose mother was a black Cuban, and whose father was Spanish. The family moved to Cuba when he was 16. He then discovered Afro-Cuban music and went crazy for it. Though he has not been an influence on my music, the fact that he was interested in African music, inspired me.

My two sets of songs Four Afro-Cuban Poems and Three Afro-Cuban Poems are based on the Caribbean poems Motivos de Son by Nicolas Guillen, who was a black journalist and was very interested in Afro-Caribbean culture, strongly influenced by his meeting in 1939 with African American poet Langston Hughes. His poems mirror the rhythm of Afro-Cuban speech, which even in Spanish, put an emphasis on rhythm in different part of the word and certain consonants are swallowed up when spoken.

Conducting so much contemporary music has really helped me to understand orchestration and how to balance between an orchestra, choir and soloists and also how to notate so that others can understand the music. And while my musical soul is very much rooted in Cuba, Bach and Crumb remain my biggest musical inspirations.

Thankfully a lot has changed since I became the first woman to conduct at the BBC Proms in 1984 and Smyth’s opera The Wreckers in 1994. Smyth’s music and many other women composers’ music have now entered the mainstream. Now I hope that Afro-Caribbean music will achieve a similar prominence – we just need all musicians to play in 5/8 time!

• Odaline della Martinez will receive an International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement from Tulane University at a Gala in New Orleans on 18 April 2026.
• Her Canciones will be performed by pianist Nigel Foster, soprano Ana Beard Fernandez and percussionist Gillian McDonagh on Friday 21 November at the London Song Festival at Hinde Street Church, W1.

Engaging delight & profound melancholy: Purcell celebrates St Cecilia whilst Blow & Henry Hall lament his death in Dunedin Consort's concert at Wigmore Hall

John Blow by Robert White, line engraving, published 1700
NPG D1075 © National Portrait Gallery, London

Purcell: Welcome to all the pleasures; Raise, raise the voice, Blow: An Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell, Hall: Yes, my Aminta, 'tis too true, Draghi, Croft; Jessica Cale, Samuel Boden, Nicholas Mulroy, Chris Webb, Dunedin Consort; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 18 November 2025

Blow's fabulous Ode for the death of Purcell given its due in a programme that explored Purcell's later music alongside that of his contemporaries and friends in performances that engaged and delighted

In 1695, John Blow and Henry Purcell published Three Elegies Upon the Much Lamented Loss of our Late Most Gracious Queen Mary as a shared homage. By the end of the year, Purcell would be dead at only 36 and Blow, some ten years Purcell's senior, would resume his post as Organist at Westminster Abbey which he had relinquished in favour of his talented pupil.

In 1696, Henry Playford published Blow's Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell, ‘Mark how the lark and linnet sing’. The Ode set a poem by John Dryden, one of Purcell's favourite collaborators, and twelve poems in Purcell's honour were produced; of these, at least five inspired musical settings. These include works by Daniel Purcell (setting another Henry Purcell collaborator, Nahum Tate), Godfrey Finger, Jeremiah Clarke and Henry Hall.

Blow's Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell and Henry Hall's own tribute, Yes, my Aminta, 'tis too true formed the centrepieces of the Dunedin Consort's concert at Wigmore Hall on 18 November 2025. Purcell died on the eve of St Cecilia's Day so it was appropriate that the concert included two of his St Cecilia odes, Welcome to all the pleasure from 1683 and Raise, raise the voice (c. 1685). Along with these there were instrumental pieces by Purcell, Giovanni Draghi and William Croft. The performance was directed by tenor Nicholas Mulroy (Dunedin Consort's Associate Director) who was joined by Jessica Cale (soprano), Samuel Boden (tenor), and Chris Webb (bass) with the instrumentalists Matthew Truscott and Huw Daniel (violin), Thomas Kettle (viola), Jonathan Manson (cello), Laszlo Rozsa and Olwen Foulkes (recorder), Toby Carr (theorbo) and Stephen Farr (organ).

In terms of length and musical complexity, Blow's Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell is a substantial piece but it uses compact musical forces: two voices, two recorders and continuo, the use of recorders leaning into the instrument's association with mourning. The voices intended were probably high tenors, as here, singing full voice lightly with some falsetto: what the French termed haut-contre. For the post-War revival of music by Purcell and his contemporaries we got used to hearing this music sung by modern countertenors and the change in sound world can be remarkable.

Classical & grime to disco, pop, & jazz: Brixton Chamber Orchestra's Christmas Estates Tour 2025

Brixton Chamber Orchestra's annual Christmas Estates Tour is back for 2025. From 12 to 21 December 2025, the orchestra will be taking seasonal setlist around Lambeth. There will be something for everyone - from classical and grime to disco, pop, jazz, and, of course, your festive favourites. 

The tour begins on 12 December at Loughborough Primary School and ends on 21 December at Stockwell Park Estate, along the way popping up at estates across Lambeth. And entry is free!

There is one rather special venue this year, on 19 December the orchestra will be playing at Streatham Hill Theatre, that marks a return to performing in this magnificent space that first opened in 1929 as one of London's largest and most revered venues outside of the West End.

Full details from the Brixton Chamber Orchestra's website. 

From A Queer Holiday Extravaganza to Messiah to Corelli & Locatelli on tour: Christmas with Royal Northern Sinfonia

A Christmas Gaiety 2022: Peaches Christmas and Edwin Outwater

The Royal Northern Sinfonia is certainly going all out for Christmas in the season at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music as well as on tour. TV presenter Matt Baker joins the Orchestra, plus Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia, Voices of the River’s Edge with conductor Ellie Slorach for Christmas at the Glasshouse, whilst conductor Edwin Outwater, drag icons Peaches Christ and Baga Chipz, drag musical phenomenon Le Gateau Chocolat, musical theatre star Kellis Ellis and soprano Rebecca Bottone join the orchestra for Christmas Gaiety - A Queer Holiday Extravaganza! 

Still in the more popular vein, Stephen Bell will be directing the Orchestra in Christmas from the Musicals. Then John Wilson and his Sinfonia of London are joined by vocalist Matt Ford for A Christmas Songbook, and another guest artist will be saxophonist Jess Gillam and her ensemble for their Christmas concert.

 More traditional fare features in the Winter Tour for brass and percussion players from the Orchestra promising a musical sleigh ride through Newcastle, Hexham and Heaton directed by Tim Burke. Still on tour, the Orchestra will be in Alnwick, Musselburgh, Sunderland, Berwick, Newcastle and Carlisle, with a Baroque programme featuring Corelli's Christmas Concerto (of course), alongside Leclair, Locatelli,  Torelli and Purcell's The Fairy Queen. Whilst in Kendal, Cullercoats, Redcar, Bishop Auckland, Hartlepool and Hexham, the programme moves from Dowland and Handel to Marais and Lully.

And of course Christmas means Handel's Messiah, and Kristian Bezuidenhout will be directing the Orchestra and Chorus. 

There is big screen fun with Home Alone with a live score from the Orchestra, along with the Glasshouse choir for 18 – 35-year-olds, Voices of the River’s Edge, completes the wonder by singing the main theme Somewhere in My Memory. And what would Christmas be without The Snowman. The classic film with Howard Blake's music performed live by the Orchestra features with Ellie Slorach conducting and the programme is completed by We're going on a bear hunt with a terrific score by Stuart Hancock.

The fun continues after Christmas with an evening of music from Bond films and of course the 'traditional' Viennese classics.

Full details from the Glasshouse's website. 

Faith, fragility, & the passing of time: new work by Arthur Keegan alongside Messiaen for Hebrides Ensemble's Scottish tour

Arthur Keegan (Photo: Alejandro S Garrido)

The Hebrides Ensemble has announced a new tour in February 2026. Music for Time will tour to Dumfries House, Cumnock (1 February) as part of The Cumnock Tryst’s year round programme, Fruitmarket, Edinburgh (2 February), Bun Sgoil Ghaidhlig Phort Righ, Skye (6 February) presented by SEALL & Skye Chamber Music and Adelaide Place, Glasgow (7 February).

The programme features Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, a work that has a particularly special place in Hebrides Ensemble’s history as it was part of their first-ever concert performance 35 years ago, and was amongst the Ensemble’s first recordings on Linn Records.

Alongside the Messiaen will be the premiere of a new piece by Arthur Keegan. Keegan's new work takes Messiaen’s ideas of eternity and renewal as a starting point, creating a contemporary reflection on faith, fragility, and the passing of time. And the premiere is supported by the Royal Philharmonic Society's Composers Programme. Keegan's work featured on the disc The Past & I: 100 years of Thomas Hardy [see my review] charting the composer's response to the poet as the result of a residency at the Red House in Aldeburgh.

Full details from the Hebrides Ensemble's website. 

A real radio opera: Claire Booth as a pianist labouring under the absurdity of life in Stalin's Russia in Joe Cutler's Sonata for Broken Fingers

Joe Cutler: Sonata for Broken Fingers; Claire Booth, Stephen Richardson, Christopher Lemmings, James Cleverton, Lucy Schaufer, BCMG, Sian Edwards, BRC
Reviewed 17 November 2025

Inspired by a probably untrue story, Joe Cutler and Max Hoehn's opera explores the horror and absurdity of life under Stalin in a vivid new radio opera

There is a story in Solomon Volkov's book Testimony, that one night in 1944 Stalin heard a performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 on the radio performed by Maria Yudina, and asked for a copy. It had been a live recording, so Yudina was rushed into the studio overnight to make a recording for Stalin's desk. Though probably not true, it is believable. It is this combination of sheer absurdity and horror of life under Stalin that composer Joe Cutler and librettist Max Hoehn explore in their opera, Sonata for Broken Fingers inspired by this story.

The opera has now been issued by Birmingham Record Company, the piece commissioned by Opera21 and co-produced in partnership with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Birmingham Record Company. The recording features Stephen Richardson as Stalin, Claire Booth as the pianist Maria Maximova, Christopher Lemmings as Gleb, the programmer of Radio Moscow, James Cleverton as Leonid, the minister and Lucy Schaufer as Dr Denisova and Public Prosecutor. Sian Edwards conducts Birmingham Contemporary Music Group - Flute: Helen Benson, Bass Clarinet: Oli Janes, Trombone: Tony Howe, Cello: Arthur Boutillier, Piano: Joe Howson, Percussion: Julian Warburton, plus Xenia Pestova Bennett pre-recorded piano fragments.

National Centre for Early Music & BBC Radio 3 announce the 2026 Young Composers Award writing for The Gonzaga Band

The Gonzaga Band

Each year the National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award 2026 is presented by the National Centre for Early Music in association with BBC Radio 3 and for the 2026 instalment young composers will be working with musicians of The Gonzaga Band, specialists of late Renaissance and early Baroque repertoire.

Young composers are invited to compose a new song setting for soprano, cornett and keyboard, to be performed by the outstanding Gonzaga Band: (Jamie Savan cornett; Faye Newton soprano, Steven Devine keyboard). The song should take inspiration from the music of Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporaries, evoked in The Gonzaga Band’s recently released recital programme Love’s Labyrinth. Candidates should write a song setting that explores the theme of love through the relationship between the voice and instruments, setting a poem by Lady Mary Wrath, a contemporary of Shakespeare.

Composers selected for the final are invited to a collaborative workshop day in York on 16 April 2026, led by composer Christopher Fox and the members of The Gonzaga Band. This will be followed by a public performance of all the selected compositions at the National Centre for Early Music. 

The winning entries will be premiered by The Gonzaga Band in a lunchtime concert at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Tuesday 27 October 2026, which will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show and BBC Sounds. 

The award is open to young composers up to the age of 25 resident in the UK and is divided into two categories: 18 years and under and 19 to 25 years.

Full details from the competition website. 

The Journey of Strings: Paraguayan classical guitarist Berta Rojas explores the guitar’s history and evolution in Latin America

Paraguayan classical guitarist Berta Rojas has been fulfilling a dream to explore the guitar’s history and evolution in Latin America starting with the 15th century, from the arrival of the vihuela and early guitars brought by conquistadors to the creation of unique string instruments that voice the soul of the continent’s people. 

Over two years, travelling to 10 countries, Berta collaborated with 17 guest artists, each performing on string instruments native to Latin America—some tracing their origins back hundreds of years.  The result is a project that encompasses vinyl, streaming platforms, performance videos, and an innovative AR-enhanced book. There are eleven tracks in all, each accompanied by a performance video, exploring instruments from the sonorous bass of the giant 25-string Chilean guitarrón to the more mandolin-like Puerto Rican cuatro.

Berta Rojas & Evangelina Mascardi (Photo: Sol Capasso)

You can explore further at The Journey of Strings website, and there is a YouTube playlist.