PIANIST Alberto Dalgo comes to the Old Schoolhouse at Tincleton, on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th October, with a programme called Northern Landscapes, featuring works by Schumann, Liszt and Chopin. The Milan-based pianist begins the musical journey in the woods. Schumann’s Waldszenen takes us into a forest that defies explanation – a few steps, a…
CONCERTS in the West, the charity that brings rising young stars of the chamber music scene to venues in Dorset and Somerset, has an exciting harp-violin duo for the October tour. The series starts with the usual coffee-time concert at Bridport Arts Centre at 11.30am on Friday 16th October, followed that evening at Ilminster arts…
THE lives of two remarkable West Country women, whose stories deserve to be better known, are revealed in a new play at the David Hall, South Petherton, on Thursday 15th October, and a talk with music at Ilminster Arts Centre, on Friday 27th November. Rosalie, presented by Pleasure Dome Theatre at the David Hall, is…
OVER the past 13 years, singer and artistic director Lynsey Docherty has developed the Celebrate Voice festival that she founded at Salisbury into one of the region’s most exciting and varied events. This year’s festival runs from 21st to 31st October with a line-up of world-class singers and musicians delighting audiences with 11 days of…
BOURNEMOUTH Symphony Orchestra’s 2026/27 concert season launches at Poole’s Lighthouse arts centre on Wednesday 30th September and Bristol Beacon, on Thursday 1st October, launching the orchestra’s two-year Beethoven series, Road to Joy. The BSO has announced a four-year extension of its partnership with Chief Conductor Mark Wigglesworth, which sees him at the helm until 2032….
THE adventurous Shoemakers Museum at Street is one of the main venues for this year’s Somerset Art Weeks, from hosting the launch of the family programme with children’s author Jasbinder Bilan to a fascinating and immersive installation by artists and performers Melanie Thompson and Helen Ottoway, the Frome-based composer. Step by Step is open during…
TWO of the UK’s up-and-coming opera stars will give a recital in the elegant setting of Merley House, Wimborne on Sunday 27th September. The two singers, a tenor and a counter-tenor, were selected by the Dorset-based arts charity Hurn Court Opera, from its prestigious 2025 Singer of the Year Competition. The recital follows the success…
COMPOSER Helen Porter comes to Shaftesbury’s St Peter’s Church on Saturday 19th September with her Calstock Big Jazz Choir for a performance of her major new work Small Wonders, a musical celebration of the consolation of nature. Composed for choir, soloists and instrumentalists, Small Wonders had its premiere on the last night of this year’s…
TAMSIN Waley-Cohen, one of the country’s finest violinists joins the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for two concerts, at Weymouth Pavilion on Thursday 10th September and Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple, on Monday 14th. The soloist, who is artistic director of Devo Two Moors Festival (1st to 11th October), will be playing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Massenet’s beautiful Meditation…
PURBECK, with its dramatic coastline, is inextricably linked to the sea, and this is the theme of this year’s Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival, from 3rd to 6th September. Artistic director, and internationally acclaimed cellist, Natalie Clein has chosen this theme because the sea connects and separates, carries memory and myth, and reflects the depths…