A WEST Dorset choir specialising in music that Thomas Hardy sang has just launched a new website and is keen to attract more singers and instrumentalists to join. Broadwindsor Gallery Quire is a community ensemble dedicated to exploring and performing the rich tradition of West Gallery music – vibrant hymns and anthems that once filled…
WHEN audiences gather for Hurn Court Opera’s La Traviata on 16th April at Christchurch Regent Centre, 18th at the Coade Hall at Bryanston School and 20th at Winchester Theatre Royal, they will see striking and original costumes designed by students at Arts University Bournemouth. The new creative partnership between the opera company, a Dorset-based arts…
CELLIST Adrian Brendel, now the director of Bath’s Mozart and Bach festivals, comes to the Farrington Hall at Port Regis near Shaftesbury on Saturday 14th March to perform works by Beethoven, Faure and Prokofiev. He will be joined by pianist Alasdair Beatson, who has stepped in following the withdrawal of Viv McLean, as advertised. The…
ICELANDIC cellist Geirþrúður Anna Guðmundsdóttir, with accompanist Antoine Préat, joins Concerts in the West’s for the March series, starting at 11.30am on Friday 13th March at Bridport Arts Centre, followed by Ilminster Arts Centre that evening at 7.30pm and Crewkerne Dance House on Saturday 14th at 7.30. The duo will play a programme of cello…
OPERA at Oborne and Opera Cameratina get together over Valentine’s weekend to celebrate the distinctive music of America, with an evening of three short operas on Saturday 14th February, an open workshop and song recital on Sunday. The performances are at the village’s lovely St Cuthbert’s Church, the venue for the summer Opera at Oborne…
THE next concert in the Shaftesbury Chamber Music series at Port Regis School brings the Carducci String Quartet back to North Dorset for an evening of varied works on Sunday 15th February at 5pm. The quartet, violinists Matthew Denton and Michelle Fleming, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, violin and cellist Emma Denton, will play Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet, Shostakovich 4…
THE 2026 season of recitals at the Tincleton Gallery, at the Old School House, Tincleton near Dorchester, opens on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th February, with piano-violin duo Milda Daunoraite and Amber Emson. The programme is an evening of romantic musical dialogues – just right for Valentine’s Day. Pianist Milda Daunoraite is studying with Tessa…
CONCERTS in the West opens the 2026 series on Friday 13th February, with a welcome return for the acclaimed, young, Hungarian-born pianist Daniel Lebhardt. The recital programme follows the usual pattern of coffee concert at Bridport Arts Centre at 11.30am on Friday 13th followed by a 7.30pm performance at Ilminster Arts Centre. The third concert…
DORCHESTER Arts has got together with Sherborne Girls School to present an exciting evening of piano virtuosity, on Friday 6th February at 7pm, when two of the most gifted young pianists of our time, Martin James Bartlett and Mariam Batsashvili give a programme of piano duets at Gransden Hall in the school’s Merritt Centre. Franz…
THE third Shaftesbury Festival of Baroque takes place at the arts centre, St Peter’s Church, St James’s Church and other venues from 20th to 26th January. The programme ranges from film to dance to a “battle” of 17th century playwrights. Professional musicians from the region and beyond (even Cumbria) will be taking part in this…