Past Events
Events Search and Views Navigation
August 2018
Southwell Music Festival: For the Fallen – An Armistice Commemoration
Marcus Farnsworth, Libby Burgess and the Southwell Festival Chamber Soloists present a programme ranging from Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad to Stuart MacRae's Parable and Stravinsky's A Soldier's Tale.
Find out more »Southwell Music Festival: Tippett A Child of Our Time
Following his sell-out solo recital last year, Southwell Music Festival presents the brilliant Sheku Kanneh-Mason playing the Elgar cello concerto, alongside a performance of Tippett's A Child of Our Time. In a work of originality and great beauty, for which the composer wrote both words and music, Tippett uses five spirituals to underline his message: these 19th-century American slave songs transcend time and place to express the two extremes of the human condition – desolation and hope, and remind us of our common humanity.
Find out more »Southwell Music Festival: Opera Gala
An opera gala featuring Alison Rose, Jessica Gillingwater, Stephen Kennedy and Libby Burgess piano, in aid of Family Care, a small Nottingham-based charity who are passionate about positively shaping children’s futures.
Find out more »Southwell Music Festival: Mass in B minor
The Mass in B minor is the summation of its composer’s work, the ultimate expression of his faith, and one of the supreme creations of western classical music. This monumental setting of the Ordinary of the Catholic Mass reached its final form towards the end of Bach’s life: in it he reworks earlier compositions and draws on many musical styles, old and new. In this chamber performance on period instruments the solo and chorus parts will be sung by nine members of the Festival Voices and Artistic Director Marcus Farnsworth.
Find out more »July 2018
IAO Festival recital
As part of the Incorporated Association of Organists' 2018 festival, Richard Pinel and Libby Burgess present a morning recital of duets for organ and piano.
Find out more »MusicFest Aberystwyth Summer School: vocal coach
Libby coaches alongside Veronica Veysey Campbell, John Flinders and Dr Ron Morris on the Classical Vocal Summer School of MusicFest Aberystwyth.
Find out more »St Marylebone Festival: A 19th Century Drawing Room Soirée
Join us for an 19th Century style soirée led by members of the Choir of St Marylebone. Transport yourself to 1860s Marylebone and experience period entertainment from the truly international centre that London was at this time. From the operettas of Offenbach and Balfe, to the domestic Lovesong-Waltzes of Brahms, this is a night to remember.
Find out more »Cheltenham Festival
The Berkeley Ensemble returns to the Cheltenham Festival, joined by radiant soprano Katherine Broderick, for chamber works by Debussy and Ravel, which paint canvases of intimate seduction. Kenneth Hesketh invites us into the woods of a darker sound-world with his setting of a Brothers Grimm tale, shortly followed by world premieres of Hesketh’s Debussy arrangements (Cheltenham Music Festival commissions).
Find out more »June 2018
Stephen Darlington farewell concert
The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford - where Libby was formerly organ scholar - bids farewell to Stephen Darlington, who retires after more than thirty years as Cathedral Organist and Tutor in Music at Christ Church. The concert features a rare performance of Moralities by Hans Werner Henze.
Find out more »Faversham Music Festival: In & out of the kitchen
Chamber group CantiaQuorum, under the artistic direction of trumpeter Alex Caldon and violinist Alexandra Caldon, present music by Debussy, Boulanger, Bernstein, & Martinu as part of this new festival in the Kent town of Faversham.
Find out more »East Devon Music Festival: Seasons of life – a journey in song
Soprano Gemma Summerfield, baritone Gareth Brynmawr John and pianist Libby Burgess present a wide-ranging programme exploring the seasons of life, featuring Schubert, Debussy, Finzi, Tom Lehrer, and everything in between!
Find out more »Bach-a-thon
Pembroke College, Cambridge, will present the complete organ works of Bach in 24 hours, performed by female organists. The event, beginning at midday on 18 June, aims to increase the visibility of female organists while exploring Bach’s writing for the organ.
Find out more »An evening of chamber music
The Hampden Quartet and Libby Burgess return to Southgate to play Mozart, Mendelssohn and Schumann in aid of Maxability, a charity that is dedicated to inclusivity for adults with disabilities in the Borough of Barnet.
Find out more »Concerts in the Round: solo recital
Libby returns to St Chad's to give a solo recital of piano music, including music by Bach, Mendelssohn and Liszt, and Busoni's virtuosic arrangement of Bach's D minor Chaconne.
Find out more »Sea Pictures
Clare McCaldin and Libby Burgess perform Elgar's evocative Sea Pictures in St Paul's Church Knightsbridge.
Find out more »May 2018
Edington Arts: Brahms Requiem
Edington Arts presents a choral workshop on Brahms’ beautiful German Requiem, led by Ashley Grote, former Director of the Edington Music Festival, and accompanied in the piano duet version of the work by Libby Burgess and current Director of the Edington Music Festival Richard Pinel.
Find out more »Schumann Piano Concerto
Tonight’s concert pairs masterpieces inspired by passion and devotion. Schumann’s concerto is one of the high points of the entire Romantic movement, an outpouring of heartfelt melody in which Schumann channelled his longing for Clara Wieck, whose father at first refused him permission to marry her. This much-loved work is followed by Berlioz’s wild and still-extraordinary Symphonie Fantastique, performed by the Bristol Classical Players.
Find out more »Berkeley Ensemble Chamber Course tutors’ concert
The sixth annual Berkeley Ensemble Chamber Music Course commences with a varied programme given by the tutors. Taking place over the early May bank holiday weekend, participants will spend three days playing chamber music with like-minded musicians in the idyllic surroundings of rural Somerset, whilst receiving coaching from members of the Berkeley Ensemble.
Find out more »April 2018
New Paths: The Raggle-Taggle Gypsies
Our Viking journey reaches a starry conclusion with the appearance of Swedish-born mezzo-soprano Katarina Karnéus, former winner of Cardiff Singer of the World. We are thrilled to welcome Katarina to Beverley to sing Wagner’s stunning Wesendonck Lieder. The symphonic sweep of Brahms’ virtuosic G minor piano quartet ends wildly in gypsy dancing! Bookending these works are two pieces showcasing our wonderful string team: Grieg’s ever-popular Holberg Suite, and Mendelssohn’s glorious Octet, astonishingly composed when he was only sixteen years old.
Find out more »New Paths: Songs of Praise
A beautiful programme for a Sunday afternoon, these pieces are variously Biblically-inspired. Songs by Schubert, Howells and Brahms are pitted against Beethoven’s joyous variations for cello and piano on the popular hymn tune we know as ‘Thine be the Glory’. Baritone Nicholas Merryweather and Jesus College Choir conclude the musical feast with Vaughan Williams’ captivating Five Mystical Songs, in the rarely-heard version for piano and string quartet.
Find out more »New Paths: Notes from the Asylum
Vivienne Haigh-Wood’s marriage to TS Eliot was disastrous but she made him as a poet. Premiered in 2013 by today’s performers Clare McCaldin and Libby Burgess, this piece of music theatre tells the story of Vivienne’s life – imagined in her own words – in a staged cycle of six songs. NcNeff’s music alludes to music hall (a favourite of both Eliots) and Andy Rashleigh’s dazzling lyrics are witty and poignant in turn.
Find out more »New Paths: Festival Ceilidh
An informally presented concert of folk- and dance-inspired music given by the New Paths artists, who include some outstanding folk musicians. The stunning programme ranges from energetic Argentinian tango, to haunting folksong of the British Isles, and traditional music from Scandinavia. Benjamin Rimmer’s recent Rise for harp and string quartet is dreamy and magical, whilst the top-hit toe-tapping Danish music Woodworks will have you itching to dance! And so at 8.30pm we push back the chairs, get out the hay bales, and hand over to Triple Scotch, feted as the finest Ceilidh band in the UK, for two hours of solid barn dancing. Do-si-do!
Find out more »New Paths: Freddie’s
The culmination of a major New Paths outreach project with Frederick Holmes School in Hull for children with severe physical disabilities and profound and multiple needs. Come and hear this specially composed piece performed by students alongside New Paths artists.
Find out more »New Paths: Free But Lonely
Four festival violinists and Artistic Director Libby Burgess play the FAE Sonata, written as a collaboration by friends Schumann, Brahms and Dietrich, and named after Brahms’ motto Frei Aber Einsam. Alongside this Carris Jones and Nicholas Merryweather sing romantic and light-hearted duets by Brahms.
Find out more »New Paths: A Maiden’s Garland
The hidden Priest’s Room at St Mary’s Church houses a number of artefacts from throughout the church’s history, amongst which lies the earliest Maiden’s Garland known to exist (c.1680). Maidens Garlands were a funerary memento, honouring with a virgin’s crown the young person who had died without a bridal crown. Carried before the coffin and then hung in church, their origin is thought perhaps to lie in Norse tradition. In response to this history, Schubert’s fiery and profound Death and the Maiden Quartet is partnered with Ophelia songs by Elizabeth Maconchy and Cheryl Frances-Hoad. Maconchy’s daughter Nicola LeFanu, for many years a Professor of Music at the University of York, writes for the unusual combination of soprano and treble recorder, while baritone Nicholas Merryweather sings Schumann’s lesser-known but stunningly beautiful Kerner Lieder.
Find out more »