CONCERTS in the West, the charity that brings rising stars of the chamber music scene and concert platform to venues in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, makes its debut at Shaftesbury in April, when the Gildas Quartet give the fourth concert of their tour, at St Peter’s Church on Sunday 21st April at 3pm. All four…
HURN Court Opera, the company set up to provide performance opportunities for young singers, is this year staging Mozart’s dark comedy, Don Giovanni, at Christchurch Regent Centre on Tuesday 9th April, Theatre Royal, Winchester, on Thursday 11th, both at 7pm, and at Bryanston School’s Coade Hall, Blandford, on Saturday 13th at 4pm. The cast is…
THE Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and assistant conductor Tom Fetherstonhaugh celebrate the Classic FM Hall of Fame in a series of concerts at Poole, Exeter and Portsmouth, from 18th to 20th April, with award-winning pianist Eric Lu (pictured) as guest soloist. The programme, presented b y Classic FM’s Anne-Marie Minhall, begins with Rossini’s delightful overture, The…
IT’S 34 years since the fledgling Milborne Port Opera took to the village hall stage to perform Trial by Jury, and since then dozens of singing actors, acting singers and dancers have got together around Easter to put on a show. The company’s reputation has grown, the repertoire become more varied, and, from the original…
AFTER singing Climb Every Mountain at a band call in the Circle Bar of Bristol Hippodrome, a friend of mine fixed a steely eye on the conductor and brass section of the orchestra and said, “Listen gentleman, the audience will have paid their money to hear me sing this number, not hear you play it”….
DORSET musicians Emily Burridge, cello, and Karen Wimhurst, clarinet, join sound artist Adrian Newton for All Trees Are Clocks, a multi-media performance celebrating ancient trees and woodlands, at Dorchester Corn Exchange on Sunday 21st April at 2.30pm. The musicians play live, accompanying field recordings and video curated byAdrian Newton, documenting how ancient woodlands are changing…
THERE are some shows that have a perennial appeal, perhaps because they push a lot of emotional buttons. And one of the best examples is Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers, which returns to Bath Theatre Royal from Tuesday 9th to Saturday 13th April, with a cast led by Niki Colwell Evans, Sean Jones and Scott Anson…
TRAVEL writers will be descending on Sherborne over the weekend 5th to 7th April, for the town’s Travel Writing Festival, bringing tales of adventures and experiences around the globe, from Bodmin to Beijing, and across the centuries, from Caesar’s Gaul to the UK shipping forecast. Speakers include world-famous photographer Don McCullin, explorer Benedict Allen and…
IN many ways the story of Montague Burton, gentlemen’s outfitters, runs parallel with the rise and fall of the steel industry in the UK. Escaping from Russian pogroms, Lithuanian born Meshe David Osinsky arrived in this country in 1900, aged 15 and unable to speak English. Within a year he was earning a living as…
ONE of the most consistently exciting film events around, the Banff Mountain Film Festival tour, returns with a series of new action-packed films, continuing at the Regent Centre in Christchurch on 10th April. The Festival returns to the south and west in September. From mountain biking across America to terrifying freestyle mountain climbing or skiing…