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, Schumann and Poulenc at Ilminster on the Friday evening and Crewkerne on Saturday, both at 7.30pm. The Bridport programme, as always a coffee concert at 11.30am, will feature Prokofiev, Poulenc and Schumann.

Riccardo Pes was born in Spilimbergo, Italy and studied at the Music Conservatory Benedetto Marcello in Venice and attended the High Specialisation Music Courses held by Giovanni Sollima at Academia Nazionale Santa Cecilia in Rome. Subsequently he graduated from the Royal College of Music, where he was an RCM Scholar, supported by numerous awards.

Riccardo has studied composition and counterpoint with the composers Batista Pradal and Mario Pagotto. He is a keen chamber musician and he is co-founder and artistic director of the Vendramelli String Orchestra, a string ensemble formed by established musicians and young talents. In July 2021, Riccardo released QUBIT, an album of his own compositions, inspired by physics and astrophysics.

Appreciated for the sensitivity and integrity of his interpretations, Alexander Boyd enjoys an international career as both soloist and chamber musician. He made his concerto debut in 1983 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yerzy Maksymiuk. Since his London Wigmore Hall debut in 2001 he has regularly performed there and at many of the UK’s leading concert halls, including London’s South Bank Centre, Barbican, Conway Hall, St Johns Smith Square, St Martins in the Fields, Birmingham’s Barber Institute and Cardiff’s St David’s Hall. He has performed throughout Europe and the US, also appearing at international festivals including Yale and Tanglewood in the US, Aldeburgh, Banff in Canada and Huntingdon in Australia.