THIS year’s Budleigh Salterton Music Festival welcomes a new artistic director, says farewell to director Nicky Marshall, and celebrates some favourite musicians returning for the 15th festival, running from 12th to 20th July. Jason Thornton, who for 18 years has been the music director of Bath Philharmonic, renowned for his collaborations with leading soloists including…
THOUSANDS of Dorchester residents are preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, with events including Dorchester Arts’ spectacular lantern parade and a music performance of Apollo – One Giant Leap at Maumbury Rings, on Friday 19th July. Schools across Dorchester and beyond have been preparing for the performance for weeks, and…
ANGLO-Italian pianist, composer and choral singer Giovanni Lonati gives his first recital in the UK in Bath at 1pm on Friday 5th July at St Luke’s Church. The 32-year-old pianist will play works by Chopin and Beethoven’s Appassionata. Entrance is free but by ticket only, and the audience is invited to make donations to Dorothy…
LOVERS of great organ music can enjoy a real treat with a new CD of works by César Franck, recorded on Salisbury Cathedral’s famous 1876 Father Willis organ, played by the Cathedral’s assistant director of music, John Challenger. John’s second album is released on the Cathedral’s own new recording label. The recording was made before…
BRUTON-based guitarist Jon Pickard performs his third concert seasonal, entitled Summer Fruit, at is at Holy Cross Church, Weston Bampfylde at 7pm on Saturday 20th July.
IT is almost three decades since Richard Hosford and the Gaudier Ensemble made their debut at a beautiful Dorset church – 29 years on, this year’s Cerne Abbas Music Festival will run from Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th July. It all began in 1990, when clarinettist Richard Hosford, leader of the Gaudier Ensemble and a…
EXETER Philharmonic Choir tackles one of the great challenges of the choral repertoire, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, for its summer concert, at Exeter Cathedral on Saturday 6th July at 7.30pm. This majestic and deeply spiritual work has been organised by conductor Brian Northcott to celebrate his 75th birthday. It will be performed jointly by…
DORCHESTER Piano Quartet will be performing another free lunchtime concert on Thursday 4th July, at the Corn Exchange. The programme, which includes Spanish and Czech music, starts at 11.30am. It starts with Manuel de Falla’s Spanish Folksongs (1914), which proved so popular that they were arranged for a number of different instruments. In this version,…
ALISTAIR McGowan is a popular and multi-talented impressionist, stand-up comedian, actor, writer…and latterly, pianist, as he demonstrates in his one-man show, coming to Dorchester Arts at the Corn Exchange on 5th July at 8pm. After the success of The Piano Album, Alistair is on tour with An Introduction to Classical Piano, a show that brings…
THE July series of Concerts in the West brings pianist Clare Hammond, who is recognised for the virtuosity and authority of her performances, to venues in Devon, Dorset and Somerset from 4th to 6th July. Her programme includes the world premiere of Michael Zev Gordon’s Diary Pieces, as well as sonatas by Josef Mysliveček and…