Brian Elias: Wigmore Hall Retrospective to be livestreamed from London’s Wigmore Hall on 24 April 2021

BRIAN ELIAS:  WIGMORE HALL RETROSPECTIVE SATURDAY 24 APRIL 2021, 11.30AM & 3PM Livestreamed on Wigmore Hall YouTube  Available on demand for 30 days  ‘Though Elias writes little…what he produces is immaculately achieved. Every inflection tells, the balance of sound is exact, and the sound seductive in the best traditions of glamorous 20th century orchestral writing.’ … Read more

Mozart: the thick and thin of it

Readers of the London Review of Books have recently been reminded of the incomparable importance of Brigid Brophy (1929-1995), born of Irish parents in Ealing, West London, sometimes called Lady Levey, since her happy husband, Sir Michael Levey, who was Director of the National Gallery, gave up his posting to look after her in her final illness of multiple sclerosis, following her many lesbian affairs, with among others, Iris Murdock.

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Sir Antonio Pappano steps down from Covent Garden in July 2024 to take up the Chief Conductor baton with LSO

LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA APPOINTS SIR ANTONIO PAPPANO AS ITS CHIEF CONDUCTOR

Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor) & LSO (c) Liam Hennebry

The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) has announced the appointment of Sir Antonio Pappano as its Chief Conductor from September 2024, becoming Chief Conductor Designate in September 2023. He steps down from his post as Music Director of the Royal Opera House at the end July 2024. Sir Antonio will conduct the Orchestra in its annual London Barbican Season, where it is Resident Orchestra, and on national and international tours. For more information about LSO click here.

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Let’s Dance International Frontiers 2021 outdoors and online from 29 April to 8 May 2021

LET’S DANCE INTERNATIONAL FRONTIERS 2021 

SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART: CAN DANCE CHANGE THE WORLD?

29 APRIL TO 8 MAY – FEATURING 11 DAYS OF OUTDOOR AND ONLINE EVENTS

Annual festival features online performances, discussions, workshops and a conference exploring dance as a medium for positive change.

Online Colonisation in Reverse: Jean-Léon Destiné Exhibition featuring archival materials, some of which have never been presented in public before.

Performances from BOP Jazz Theatre Company and Dani Walter-Harris, Paris Crossley and Fubunation streamed from Curve Leicester.

Online conference Creating Socially Engaged Art: Can Dance Change the World? highlighting the impact that Black communities have made to the international dance ecology.

LDIF+ masterclasses will take place in person in June.

For online tickets and information CLICK HERE.

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German pianist Lisa Maria Schachtschneider discusses women in music with Gregor Tassie

Pianist Lisa Maria Schachtschneider in conversation with Gregor Tassie ‘The female in music is my contribution on the way to equality’ is the heading for the young German pianist Lisa Maria Schachtschneider’s debut recording. Through neglect and ignorance, the question of women in music is a perennial problem to overcome and is exacerbated by recent … Read more

100 live and 53 recorded concerts in the pandemic at Ealing’s St Mary’s Perivale

St Mary’s Perivale in the pandemic

A brief resume of the past eventful 12 months by Hugh Mather

Our next concert, on 16 March 2021 (click here), will be our 100th LIVE pandemic concert – probably more than any other UK venue. Huge credit to our technical team, led by Simon Shute (right) and George Auckland (left), who have made it all possible. Here is the story of the past extraordinary 12 months.

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The Metropolitan Opera co-produces the ENO’s new Ring cycle to be completed in 2025

English National Opera announces new staging of Wagner’s Ring cycle

Directed by Richard Jones and conducted by Martyn Brabbins, The Valkyrie will form the first part of a complete Ring cycle over the next five years.

English National Opera (ENO) is to bring Wagner’s Ring cycle to the London Coliseum, starting with The Valkyrie this Autumn, subject to any further lockdown restrictions. Directed by the award-winning Richard Jones, and marking the first time in more than 15 years since ENO last staged The Ring, all four parts of The Ring cycle will be staged at the London Coliseum over five years. Rhinegold will premiere in 2022/23 followed by a reprise of The Valkyrie, and new productions of Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods in 2024 and 2025 consecutively. The Metropolitan Opera is co-producing.

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San Francisco Opera to mount a virtual Ring Festival in March

San Francisco Opera’s Ring Festival 

There is nothing in music quite like a Ring Festival. As with a cricket test match or a baseball World Series, the four-day sequence of Wagner operas stands as a pinnacle of the form, draws the attention of aficionados from near and far, and often plays out with ancillary events that broaden the scope beyond the main affair.

Greer Grimsley (Wotan) and Iréne Theorin (Brünnhilde)
in Die Walküre final scene (c) Cory Weaver/SFO

San Francisco Opera announced plans on 16 February to stream videos of its excellent 2018 Der Ring des Nibelungen on four weekends in March, along with a new set of lectures, interviews and panel discussions on Zoom. Similar to events that were presented with the series when it was mounted in 2018, these live sidebars focus on individuals from the cast and creative team.

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