Counterpoise is an ensemble of some of the most sought-after instrumentalists in the UK, founded with the aim of crossing genres, exploring the relationship between music, text and visuals, and seeking to develop aspects of narrative and other extra-musical influences.

Fenella Humphreys violin
Deborah Calland trumpet
Kyle Horch saxophone/clarinet
Iain Farrington piano

Our latest project, Kokoschka’s Doll, featuring Sir John Tomlinson, Rozanna Madylus and Counterpoise, will be performed at a number of venues in 2017 and 2018 (click here for details). Read more

St John’s Smith Square has announced its 2017/18 Season

In a characteristic programme, punctuated by a range of Festival celebrations, St John’s Smith Square continues its core mission to provide a home for Baroque music within the UK’s only concert hall dating from the Baroque period while equally championing new music. International artists sit comfortably alongside emerging talent and St John’s Smith Square also continues to provide a vital and unique central London home for the best in community music. Read more

Bayreuther Festspiele 2017 

As announced at the closing press conference for the 2016 Festival by Festival Director Katharina Wagner, the Bayreuth Festival is launching a new supporting programme this year. It is entitled Bayreuth Discourse and is designed as a series of events for the academic and artistic analysis of Wagner’s work and legacy.

A two-day symposium will be held in summer 2017. This year’s theme will be ‘Wagner’s Work and National Socialism’. Lectures and discussions will examine facets of Wagner’s personality and the effect of his works and writings during the Nazi regime and the long-term consequences. Four concerts will feature music by opponents and victims of Nazi rule. Read more

Music in the Summer in the Queen City Read more

Daniel Barenboim Unveils The Pierre Boulez Saal’s 2017/18 Season in Berlin

 Daniel Barenboim and Ole Bækhøj announced the second season of the Pierre Boulez Saal on Thursday, June 8 in Berlin. In the spirit of Pierre Boulez, flexibility, openness, and musical curiosity will remain the essential ideas for the 2017–18 programme. Contemporary music will stand side by side with chamber music masterworks of the Classic and Romantic eras and major compositions of the 20th century.

The Boulez Ensemble, founded for the hall’s opening and consisting of members of the Staatskapelle Berlin, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, as well as students and faculty of the Barenboim-Said Akademie and international guests, will be heard in concerts with Daniel Barenboim, François-Xavier Roth, Emmanuel Pahud, Zubin Mehta, and Sir Antonio Pappano, among others. Commissioned new works by Luca Francesconi, Aribert Reimann, and Benjamin Attahir, Pierre Boulez’s last student, will have their world premieres.

A staged production of Luther dancing with the gods, will be seen at the Pierre Boulez Saal for the first time. Director Robert Wilson is creating this project, which features texts by Martin Luther and music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Knut Nystedt, and Steve Reich. This is a collaboration with the Rundfunkchor Berlin for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Three concert cycles are dedicated to major Classical works: Daniel Barenboim, Michael Barenboim, and Kian Soltani perform Beethoven’s complete piano trios. Renaud Capuçon and Kit Armstrong take on Mozart’s violin sonatas; and the Streichquartett der Staatskapelle Berlin presents Schubert’s 15 string quartets.

The Staatskapelle Berlin returns to the Pierre Boulez Saal for three concerts conducted by Lahav Shani, Pablo Heras-Casado, and Lorenzo Viotti.

Jazz and early music offer new programmatic aspects. Trumpeter and vocalist Till Brönner will host a series of five concerts with national and international guest stars entitled “Talking Jazz.” Music from the 15th to 18th centuries is heard in concerts by the RIAS Chamber Choir, the Capella della Torre, the Freiburg BarockConsort, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Orlando Consort, and Il Giardino Armonico.

Music from the Middle East and Northern Africa will once again be featured prominently, with the Arabic Music Days in December 2017 as the centerpiece. Kinan Azmeh, Naseer Shamma, and others will be the headliners. Three lecture concerts offer introductions by the performing artists themselves: Jörg Widmann and François-Xavier Roth present music by Boulez, and Sir András Schiff takes on Bach’s piano partitas.

Other highlights include performances starring Thomas Hampson, Daniil Trifonov, Sergei Babayan, Piotr Anderszewski, Gidon Kremer, Yefim Bronfman, Radu Lupu, Mitsuko Uchido, Martha Argerich, and many others. There will also be, children’s concerts, and academy concerts featuring students of the Barenboim-Said Akademie.

Further information  at: https://boulezsaal.de/ .

The National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company & Harrogate Festival,  4-20 August 2017 (RJW)

The National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company has assembled its 2017 season of G & S delights. We first heard of this unique company at the now world-famous International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival with an original professional line-up of ex-D’Oyly Carte principals that included Kenneth Sandford, John Ayldon, Alistair Donkin, Geoffrey Shovelton, Patricia Leonard and Lorraine Daniels when first staging The Yeomen of the Guard. It has developed over the decades to become one of the world’s finest professional Gilbert and Sullivan touring groups. This year it will be performing Mikado, Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore and Princess Ida at Windsor, Buxton, Harrogate Festival, Malvern, Norwich and Newcastle-on-Tyne between 20 July and 30 September.

Pirates of Penzance

The 2017 Festival has a line-up of new faces, and others making a welcome return. Vivian Coates, founder and artistic director of Lyric Opera in Ireland, will direct two new productions – Princess Ida and The Pirates of Penzance. The President of Italy decorated him for his services in promoting Italian opera in Ireland.

Michael McCaffery (Old Vic Company, National Theatre, Glyndebourne and the Bayreuth Festival) directs a new production of The Mikado at Harrogate in August and Donald Maxwell returns to direct HMS Pinafore and star in Princess Ida. Andrew Nicklin takes over the Musical Direction for three of the four shows and Aidan Faughey conducts Princess Ida.

Other frontline newcomers include Anthony Flaum who made his mainstage debut with the English National Opera this year (Nanki Poo and Frederic); Mae Heydorn the Swedish/German mezzo soprano (Glyndebourne, Grange Park Opera) takes Katisha, Buttercup, and Ruth; Emma Walsh (Lyric Opera, Nevill Holt Opera, Winslow Hall Opera) will play Princess Ida, Josephine and Mabel; Natalie Montakhab, a rising star with Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera and English National Opera will play Yum Yum.

Toby Stafford-Allen is known to us as one of Britain’s leading baritones with English National Opera and will play Pirate King, Pish Tush and Captain Corcoran. Simon Wilding, a member of the Bayreuth Festival Chorus, has also starred with English National Opera, Opera Holland Park, and Royal Opera and will play the Sergeant of Police, Pooh Bah and Dick Deadeye. When you add well-known singers like Richard Gauntlett (Major General, Sir Joseph and Ko-Ko); James Elliott (Ralph Rackstraw and Hilarion), Richard Suart (King Gama); Nicholas Sales (Cyril); James Cleverton (Arac) and Gaynor Keeble (Lady Blanche) you can understand why the production teams are excited at laying these new foundations of talent.

The Festival venues are the Royal Hall and Savoy theatres in Harrogate. A busy fringe programme complements the stage performances between August 4^rd and 20^th August 2017. The brochure can be seen at the Gilbert and Sullivan Festival website.

 Raymond J Walker

WORLD-CLASS CLASSICAL MUSIC IN ESSEX, AT ROMAN RIVER MUSIC’S SUMMER WEEKEND

Tickets for Roman River Music’s Summer Weekend on 14-16 July are now on sale, offering a chance to experience world-class, classical music in rural Essex.

Taking place in the beautiful surroundings of Coggeshall parish church, St Peter ad Vincula, this year’s Summer Weekend features four programmes of French music performed by eight exceptionally talented musicians from around the globe.

The internationally acclaimed tenor, Karim Sulayman, will make his debut at the Summer Weekend, flying in especially from New York for the occasion.

Alongside Karim, Tom Poster, Elena Urioste, the Navarra Quartet and Raphaela Papadakis complete the incredible line-up of musicians.

Orlando Jopling, Artistic Director at Roman River Music, says, “Eight wonderful and charismatic musicians will be performing in one of Essex’s most idyllic villages.  It’s a truly unique opportunity to enjoy an evening of French music with some delicious French cheese and wine, in an incredible setting.”

BBC Radio 3 has recognised the quality offering of Roman River Music and will be recording all four Summer Weekend concerts for broadcast.

Tickets are priced from £6 (or just £3 for anyone under 30) and can be purchased online now from romanrivermusic.org.uk.  Further information about each of the concerts can also be found on the site.

About Roman River Music

Roman River Music presents world-class music in unexpected venues on the Essex/Suffolk borders.

Roman River Music produces two international festivals in North Essex and creates opportunities for over  1,000 young people to compose, perform or listen to music and get involved in the performing and visual arts.

We  aim to challenge, inspire and surprise audiences with magical and unique experiences in unusual and unexpected venues in Colchester and coastal Essex. We commission new work and collaborations, nurture emerging talent and tempt  internationally renowned musicians and performers to our corner of the world with the promise of appreciative audiences and the time and space to develop their skill and create new work among the salt marshes and wide open skies of  coastal  Essex.

The charity  uniquely combines strong grassroots support from over 100 volunteers with a truly international quality programme.

SUMMER WEEKEND

Roman River Music’s Summer Weekend concerts will celebrate the rich treasure trove of music by French composers from the golden age of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Iconic masterpieces have been carefully chosen by pianist Tom Poster, providing a framework for some exquisite rarities interwoven throughout this unique four-concert festival.

Musicians
Tom Poster piano
Elena Urioste violin
The Navarra Quartet
Raphaela Papadakis soprano
Karim Sulayman tenor

Friday 14 July, 8pm
Debussy Violin Sonata
Saint-Saëns Violons dans le soir
Messiaen La mort du nombre
Fauré Piano Quintet No 1 in D minor

Saturday 15 July, 11am
Fauré Violin Sonata No 1 in A major
Ravel String Quartet in F major

Saturday 15 July, 6pm
Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte
Chausson Chanson perpétuelle
Fauré La bonne chanson
Ravel Piano Trio

Sunday 16 July, 6pm
Poulenc Songs (selection)
Chausson Concert in D major

For further details, please visit http://romanrivermusic.org.uk/summer-festival-2017/

AUTUMN FESTIVAL

Roman River Music’s Autumn Festival will run from 14 September to 1 October 2017.  Full details of the Autumn Festival are due to be announced in May.

Ex Cathedra Unveils an Exciting Season of Choral Music in Birmingham and Beyond

The Birmingham-based Ex Cathedra is a leading UK choir and Early Music ensemble.  It is a unique musical resource, comprising a specialist chamber choir, vocal Consort, period-instrument orchestra and a thriving education programme. Ex Cathedra was founded in 1969 by Jeffrey Skidmore OBE so the ensemble is fast approaching its 50th anniversary. Details of their 2017/18 season have just been announced.   Read more