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Tuesday, 6 December 2022

For Unto Us a Child is Born: Handel from Slovenia

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Here is a familiar chorus from Messiah  recorded by a Slovenian youth choir and Baroque orchestra, singing in highly creditable English an...

Sleep, Jesus, Sleep: Roxanna Panufnik's new version of the Ukrainian carol features an Afghan tabla player in support of Refugees

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Composer Roxanna Panufnik and Signum Classics have released a new single in support of the Refugee Council . Sleep, Jesus, Sleep  features g...

Swirling, static energy: Ruthless Jabiru & Decibel New Music Ensemble at Brunel Museum

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Cat Hope, Kelly Lovelady, Decibel and Ruthless Jabiru at Brunel Musem (photo: Billie Tün, courtesy of Ruthless Jabiru) Kaija Saariaho: Neige...
Monday, 5 December 2022

Bringing the Christmas spirit with classical, rap, gospel, grime, disco, Disney and more: Brixton Chamber Orchestra's 2022 Christmas Estates Tour

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Brixton Chamber Orchestra (BCO), director Matthew O'Keeffe, really makes good on its aim to be a real community orchestra. Twice a year,...

The Ligeti Quartet announces a new first violin and looks forward to György Ligeti's centenary

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The Ligeti Quartet (Photo Ed Miles) After nearly twelve years of quartet life, Ligeti Quartet founding member, violinist Mandhira de Saram, ...

Barely registering on the historical record, Vincente Lusitano's music proves a richly rewarding experience

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Vincente Lusitano: Motets; The Marian Consort, LINN Records Reviewed 5 December 2022;  (★★★★★) This disc from The Marian Consort presents a ...
Sunday, 4 December 2022

Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar celebrated at the London Song Festival including songs by Coleridge Taylor, Florence Price, William Grant Still & the premiere of one of my settings

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Paul Laurence Dunbar A celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Paul Laurence Dunbar  - Samuel Coleridge Taylor, Adolphus Hailst...
Saturday, 3 December 2022

From Super Nintendo to a dialogue with Debussy: Swedish composer, Martin Skafte's Preludes

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Jonas Olsson and Martin Skafte at the recording session for Skafte's 24 Preludes for Piano In December, Toccata Classics  issues a recor...
Friday, 2 December 2022

Riveting showpieces: Benjamin Grosvenor, Philharmonia and Joana Carneiro in Anna Clyne, Chopin and Bartok

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Bela Bartok in 1927 Anna Clyne, Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 , Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra ; Benjamin Grosvenor, Philharmonia Orchestra, ...

My song 'We Wear the Mask' premieres tonight, as part of London Song Festival's celebration of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar

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  This year is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first African-American writer to achieve international recogn...
Thursday, 1 December 2022

Russell Pascoe's Secular Requiem from Truro Cathedral

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Russell Pascoe: Secular Requiem; Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Julien Van Mellaerts, Truro Cathedral Choir, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Christo...
Wednesday, 30 November 2022

From Mozart, Made in Manchester to a new theorbo concerto and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra: 2023 at Stoller Hall

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Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Gábor Takács-Nagy, and Manchester Camerata The Stoller Hall in Manchester has launched the first three months of its 2...

Not so much a history of opera: Simon Banks uses 400 years of opera to hold up a mirror to the attitudes and views of those who watched and commissioned the works

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Simon Banks:  Opera: The Autobiography of the Western World;  Matador Books Book Review, 29 November 2022 Most histories of opera begin with...

Finalists announced for the Voice of Black Opera Competition

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Monday 5 December 2022 sees the final of the Voice of Black Opera Competition at Birmingham Town Hall. The five finalists are: Rachel Ducket...
Tuesday, 29 November 2022

One of the largest contemporary music events in North America: Montreal/New Musics 2023 - Music and Spirituality

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  Montreal/New Musics (MNM) international festival, presented by Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), has developed into one o...

Early Music Christmas online and in person in York at the National Centre for Early Music

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  As well as presenting the York Early Music Christmas Festival from 8 to 17 December 2022, the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) in Y...

Barbican Quartet in Haydn, Bartok and Schumann at Conway Hall

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Barbican Quartet (Photo Andrej Grilc) Haydn, Bartok, Schumann; Barbican Quartet; Conway Hall Sunday Concerts Reviewed 27 November 2022 Folk-...
Monday, 28 November 2022

A hugely ambitious company achievement: Will Todd's Migrations from Welsh National Opera

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Will Todd: Migrations - Jamal Zulfiqar, Natasha Agarwal, Bollywood Ensemble in This is the Life  - Welsh National Opera (Photo Craig Fuller...
Saturday, 26 November 2022

A day at the EFG London Jazz Festival

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BBC Young Jazz Musician - winner Ewan Hastie (Photo Tricia Yourkevich BBC) EFG London Jazz Festival at Southbank Centre including BBC Young ...

I want to live forever: Angeles Blancas Gulin is mesmerising as Emilia Marty in Olivia Fuchs terrific new production of The Makropulos Affair at WNO

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Janacek: The Makropulos Affair - Angeles Blancas Gulin in Act Three - Welsh National Opera (Photo Richard Hubert Smith) Janacek: The Makrop...
Friday, 25 November 2022

La terra impareggiabile: NMC Recordings' Annual Friends' and Supporters' Celebration

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To Pushkin House last night (24 November 2022) for NMC Recordings' Annual Friends' and Supporters' Celebration, its first such i...

We wear the mask: Paul Laurence Dunbar, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and a friendship in song

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Paul Laurence Dunbar Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was an American poet and writer born to parents who had been enslaved. He began writin...

Finding its true form: Ian Venables' new orchestral version of his Requiem in fine a performance from the choir of Merton College on Delphian

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Ian Venables: Requiem , anthems by Herbert Howells; Choir of Merton College, Oxford, Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia, conductor Benjamin Nichol...
Thursday, 24 November 2022

Music series at Marylebone Theatre

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The Marylebone Theatre opened this Autumn, based in the former Rudolf Steiner Hall which is part of Rudolf Steiner House (the home of the An...

Celebrating St Cecilia's Day in style: Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at Wigmore Hall

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Kristian Bezuidenhout Purcell: Welcome to all the Pleasures , Who can from joy refrain , Handel: As pants the hart ; Freiburg Baroque Orches...
Wednesday, 23 November 2022

Love duets and arias from 17th-century Venice with an LGBTQ slant

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Randall Scotting & Jorge Navarro Colorado Quite a few years ago I did an article on the blog about the representation of gay men and gay...

Shirley Thompson becomes president of The F-List

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Shirley Thompson in rehearsal with students from the Royal College of Music for Breathe The F-List is the first directory of its kind to fe...

Changing Standards: London Sinfonietta at the EFG London Jazz Festival

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Changing Standards - Lauren Kinsella, Trish Clowes,  London Sinfonietta, Gerry Cornelius at Purcell Room Changing Standards:  Trish Clowes,...