THE Kronos Quartet, probably the world’s most adventurous string quartet, mark five decades of barrier-breaking, border-crossing music with a 50-date world tour in 2024 – and Bristol’s reconstructed Beacon Centre, reopening in early December, has one of only two UK dates, on Thursday 18th January. The programme, called Five Decades, draws on a fascinating snapshot…
SIX new boy choristers have been admitted to Salisbury Cathedral and four established choristers were promoted to seniors during Evensong on 25th September. Family, friends and sponsors joined the service which was followed by the traditional “bumping” ceremony. Next Sunday will see a similar service at which two girl choristers will be admitted and established…
CONCERTS in the West has announced a change of performers for the October series at Bridport Arts Centre (coffee concert) and Ilminster Arts Centre on Friday 6th and the Dance House at Crewkerne on Saturday 7th. Violinist Emmanuel Bach has injured his arm and it is taking some time to heal. He therefore made the…
IT seems hard to believe that it is ten years since the first performances of the Ridgeway Singers and Band, and the anniversary is being celebrated with a concert at Bridport on Sunday 29th October. The group’s concerts of traditional (and new) Dorset songs and tunes feels like an ancient part of the cultural fabric…
STRODE Theatre at Street opened on 5th October 1963 with its first public event, a concert by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and marked the start of its diamond jubilee year with a return visit by the BSO on the actual 60th birthday. The theatre, which is part of Strode College and one of the…
ATHELHAMPTON House, one of the country’s most beautiful Tudor manors, is a perfect setting for Passamezzo – A Handful of Pleasant Delights, a programme of music, words and song illustrating aspects of life in Elizabethan England, on 30th September at 7.30pm. The ancient house, with its beautiful garden and famous topiary trees, is on the…
THE autumn series of Concerts in the West brings the duo of Italian cellist Riccardo Pes and the London-based pianist and composer Alexander Boydconcerts to the three regular venues, Bridport Arts Centre, Ilminster Arts Centre and the Dance House at Crewkerne, on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd September. The programme features works by Prokofiev, Chopin,…
THE 2023 series of Music in Oborne, now a well-established part of the area’s musical calendar, continues on on Friday 4th and Saturday 5th August at 8pm with Mozart’s beautiful and gently satirical Cosi Fan Tutte. Menotti’s The Telephone will be performed on Saturday 20th at 3pm, all at St Cuthbert’s Church and Opera in…
WHEN the no-changes-under-any-circumstances straitjacket was taken off the Gilbert & Sullivan Savoy Operas, the stage was set for a host of brilliant reworkings of these comic classics. Few of the reimaginings have been more successful than Sasha Regan’s all-male productions and next week Bath augiences can enjoy her delightful new take on perhaps the best-loved…
BATH Opera is on tour with the summer 2023 production, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, in an imaginative updated staging which moves the action from the decadence of the late 18th century to the power-plays of 1950s Hollywood. The tour continues at Wincanton Memorial Hall on Friday and Saturday 14th and 15th July, ending at…