IF you love folk and traditional music with a festive flavour, you probably already know that Christmas and the Mellstock Band go together like turkey and cranberry sauce. This December, the delightful quartet, who recreate the music of Thomas Hardy’s time, come to Bridport Arts Centre on Saturday 13th December at 7.30pm. The name Mellstock…
THERE’S nothing quite like raising your voice in Christmas song, and who better to do it with than the Celebrate Voice youth choir and the singing stars of the popular annual event. This year’s Celebrate Voice at Christmas, at Salisbury’s atmospheric Medieval Hall in the Cathedral Close, will be performed from Thursday 11th to Saturday…
ONE of the most eagerly anticipated local concerts in the run-up to Christmas is always the male choral ensemble Opus Anglicanum’s Medieval Carols and Figgy Pudding, this year at Wells Cathedral on Tuesday 16th December and St Mary’s Church, Dorchester on Thursday 18th. For more than 30 years, the ensemble has performed this programme, which…
A CRITICALLY acclaimed young pianist, Reed Tetzloff, will give an afternoon recital, The Romantic Piano, at St John’s Church, Tisbury, on Saturday 13th December at 3.30pm. The concert is raising funds for the church. Tetzloff came to international attention ten years ago at the XV Tchaikovsky Competition, where he was dubbed “the lyric hero of…
IF you think grand opera is all about very big voice, huge orchestras and vast opera houses, think again! Dorset’s Artsreach rural touring charity is bringing a small scale operatic entertainment to Yetminster on Sunday 14th December. Village halls may not have much in common with Covent Garden, the Met, Sydney Opera House or La…
MUSIC at Exeter Cathedral in the weeks before Christmas ranges from Devon-based folk duo Sound of the Sirens, on Friday 5th December, to the traditional favourites, carols and Handel’s Messiah. Sound of the Sirens, pictured right, is a special homecoming gig for the singer-songwriting duo who are based in the city. Abbe Martin and Hannah…
CONSONE Quartet, the first period instrument string quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists, is coming to Bridport Arts Centre, Ilminster Arts Centre and Crewkerne Dance House on 28th and 29th November, for the final Concerts in the West tour of 2025. The four musicians – Agata Daraškaite and Magdalena Loth-Hill, violins, Elitsa…
YES, you read that right – “ice (not nice) music”. Pioneering Norwegian musician Terje Isungset is bringing his mesmerising ice quartet to Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Wednesday 19th November, with two more dates in our region, 21st November at St George’s, Bristol, and 22nd at the Turner Sims hall at Southampton University. Also known…
ONE of the country’s finest chamber choirs, The Tallis Scholars come to St Mary’s Church, Dorchester, on 11th November, in a programme that celebrates the 500th anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest musical figures of the Renaissance, Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina. Over the past five decades, Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars have…
A RISING star of the cello, 16 year-old Hugo Svedberg, joins the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on Thursday 13th November, at Exeter University Great Hall, for a concert entitled Sunshine and Shade. He will be playing one of Tchaikovsky’s best-loved pieces, the Variations on a Rococo Theme, a work characterised by carefree charm, grace and the…