St Mary’s Church, Hay-on-Wye

Tickets £12 (students £6)

in person from Richard Booth's Bookshop, 44 Lion Street, Hay-on-Wye

or online through Booth's Bookshop

or at the door

Please note:  time given for end of concert is approximate.

Hay Music and St Mary’s Church in association present a Mayday Concert with The Crayford, Clemmow, Welsh Piano Trio

Marcia Crayford - violin Caroline Clemmow - piano Moray Welsh - cello

Programme:

Haydn:  Trio in G major, Hob XV:25 - 'Gypsy Rondo’

Butterworth (arr John Mitchell):  ‘The Banks of Green Willow’ - Caroline Clemmow

Fauré:  ‘Elegy’ - Moray Welsh

Kreisler:  Slavonic Fantasy on themes by Dvoŕák - Marcia Crayford

Piazzolla arr. Bragato: ‘Spring’ from ‘The Four Seasons’

Dvorak:  'Dumky' Trio, Op. 90

Marcia Crayford made her Royal Festival Hall solo debut while still a student at the Yehudi Menuhin School and went on to perform concertos with Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Michael Tippett and Sir Simon Rattle.

For 25 years she was leader of the Nash Ensemble, which has a remarkable worldwide reputation for its performances of a wide range of music. She has made many prize-winning recordings with the ensemble and her performance of the Elgar Violin Sonata was named the benchmark in the BBC Music Magazine.

On leaving the Nash Ensemble she was invited to lead the London Symphony Orchestra working with many of the great conductors. She has appeared regularly as guest leader with all the major orchestras, and some highlights include the last Star Wars film with John Williams and the LSO, performances at Covent Garden and concerts at the Edinburgh Festival and the BBC Proms with Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

From 2010-2013 she was Co-Artistic Director and leader of the Mid Wales Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Soloists. In 2013 she formed the chamber ensemble Dragonfly with distinguished friends who have played together for many years. She was a mentor with the acclaimed Mendelssohn on Mull Festival from 2001-2016 and was also a mentor and teacher at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama for several years.

Caroline Clemmow has a rich and varied musical background. As a violinist she led the Kent Youth Orchestra and was subsequently awarded a piano scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where she won many prizes. She performs concertos and in solo recitals, she derives particular pleasure from chamber music, covering an extremely wide repertoire and has participated in many London concerts, given numerous broadcasts and played in major festivals.

An important part of her work was the celebrated duo with her husband, Anthony Goldstone, who died in 2017. They were critically acclaimed for their pioneering broadcasts and CDs, building an international reputation.  She has been described by the Daily Telelgraph as “the ideal chamber music partner” and has travelled widely as soloist and in chamber music, including an extensive tour of the former Soviet Union.

Moray Welsh has had a distinguished career as soloist and chamber music player, following the unique experience of studying for two years at the Moscow Conservatoire with the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. While still a student at York University the quality of his playing was recognised by Benjamin Britten, with whom he played the composer's Sonata for cello and piano. Britten followed this by arranging an introduction to Rostropovich, which led to an invitation to study in Moscow.  In Britain he has played several times at the Proms, in all the major concert halls and with all the key symphony orchestras. He has toured abroad as a soloist with several British orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, the RPO, and BBC Scottish Symphony, and appeared as a soloist in Scandinavia, Europe, the USSR, the USA, and the Far East.

 In the chamber music field, Moray Welsh has been a guest with numerous groups, including the Amadeus Quartet and all the major British String Quartets. He has recorded Bach Trio Sonatas with James Galway and Kyung Wha Chung, and has several times performed the complete works of Beethoven for cello and piano. Recent chamber music partners have included André Previn, Martin Roscoe, Peter Cropper, Yuri Bashmet, Midori, Leif Ove Andsnes, Jonathan Papp and Marcia Crayford.

He has been associated with a number of contemporary composers who have written works for cello, notably the Concerto by Hugh Wood, and he has premiered concertos by David Blake, Lennox Berkeley, Ronald Stevenson, Daniel Jones, George Nicholson, William Wordsworth and Alun Hoddinott, as well as championing works for cello and orchestra by Hans Gal, Sir Donald Tovey, Alexander Goehr, Joachim Raff, Havergal Brian, Herbert Howells and David Dorward. 

For eighteen years Moray held a teaching post at the Royal Northern College of Music, and followed that as Principal cellist of the London Symphony Orchestra. With the LSO he has often been heard as soloist in Don Quixote, the Tippett Triple Concerto, Beethoven Triple Concerto, the Elgar Concerto and the Brahms Double Concerto, both in this country and abroad, under such conductors as Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis and André Previn.

Refreshments available during the interval

Richard Booth’s Bookshop Cinema

Tickets £7.50 (Light pre-event supper available at £15)

in person from Richard Booth's Bookshop, 44 Lion Street, Hay-on-Wye

or online through Booth's Bookshop

Please note:  time given for end of event is approximate.

Hay Music presents an evening with Oliver Soden talking about his newly published biography of Sir Michael Tippett, together with a showing of the film about Tippett: ‘Poets in a Barren Age’ introduced by the film’s director Mischa Scorer.

Sir Michael Tippett

Programme

6.00 pm:  Light supper available in Booth’s Bookshop café for those booking the event

7.30 pm:  Introduction to the 1974 BBC film on Tippett: ‘Poets in a Barren Age’ by the director, Mischa Scorer

7.45 pm:  Showing of the film (running time 46’)

8.30 – 9.00 pm:  Talk by Oliver Soden on his new book: ‘Michael Tippett: The Biography’  with discussion

9.00 pm:  Book signing by Oliver with sales at discounted price of £20

Oliver Soden is a writer and broadcaster, and the author of ‘Michael Tippett: The Biography’. Published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in April 2019, the book was hailed by Philip Pullman as a “delight to read” and read by the author for BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week, with Sir Derek Jacobi as Tippett.  

Oliver read English at Clare College, Cambridge and for his research on Tippett was awarded a Fellowship in the Humanities from the University of Texas at Austin. His writing has appeared in publications such as the Guardian, Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine and he has appeared as a guest on the Six O'Clock News (BBC Radio 4), Proms Plus, Twenty Minutes, Music Matters, Composer of the Week and Live in Concert (BBC Radio 3). He is part of the team behind BBC Radio 3's long-running programme Private Passions, and has worked as an assistant producer for a number of award-winning television documentaries. Born in 1990, he grew up in Bath and Sussex, and lives in London.

Mischa Scorer was for over 50 years an award-winning producer and director of documentaries for the BBC and other UK and US broadcasters. He worked on several major series such as The Heart of the Dragon, The Long Search and Testament and in 1990 started his own independent production company, Scorer Associates, concentrating principally on documentaries about the Arts. He made films with such artists as Michael Tippett, Isabel Allende, Joshua Bell, Jung Chang, Alfred Brendel and Andras Schiff. His awards include an International Emmy, a CableAce and a Peabody Award. In 2006 he founded The Masterclass Foundation, a charitable organisation which filmed world class musicians teaching and made DVDs available to students and conservatoires around the world.

Refreshments available

Dorstone House, Dorstone

Tickets £15 (students £7.50)

in person from Richard Booth's Bookshop, 44 Lion Street, Hay-on-Wye

or online through Booth's Bookshop

Please note:  time given for end of concert is approximate.

Hay Music is proud and honoured to present a recital by one of the world’s finest cellists, Raphael Wallfisch, together with his regular pianist John York.

Programme

Rebecca Clarke:  Rhapsody for Cello and Piano (1923 - unpublished until now)

Beethoven:  Sonata in G minor Op 5 No 2

Brahms: Sonata in F minor Op 120 No 1

Frank Bridge:  Sonata in D minor (1917)

Raphael Wallfisch is acknowledged as probably the leading British cellist for the last few decades with an extraordinary discography now numbering over 80 CDs encompassing the entire major cello repertoire in concerti and chamber music and individual cello works. In addition he has specialised in introducing less familiar pieces by 20th century British composers and others.

He comes from a musical family (and has sired another generation of musicians) with his father being the pianist Peter Wallfisch and his mother the cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, an Auschwitz survivor who owed her survival to her membership of the orchestra of the infamous death camp. Over his 40 year career Raphael has performed with all the leading orchestras worldwide, and nearer home with the LPO. LSO, BBC Symphony, English Chamber, Halle, CBSO, and more. He has appeared in festivals throughout Britain and Europe including the BBC Proms, Edinburgh and Aldeburgh. He has worked with numerous British composers including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, James MacMillan, John Tavener and Adrian Williams.

John York’s career was launched in 1973 when he was awarded the International Debussy prize in Paris. After a Wigmore Hall debut he has performed across the world as a soloist with many of the major orchestras as well as being a chamber music partner, primarily with Raphael Wallfisch and the piano duo York2. Apart from the Wallfisch/York CDs he has recorded the complete works for piano and winds of Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Ravel and Debussy. He was, for 33 years, Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Their programme begins with the Rhapsody for Cello and Piano (1923) by Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979). This is no Edwardian late romantic trifle but a major four movement work of, at times, almost unbearable pain and anguish, never published until now. She withdrew the work during early rehearsal with May Mukle and Myra Hess, and the work was never performed in her lifetime. It is clearly programmatic with the opening funeral bell on the piano followed by a rising cry and then descending arpeggios on both cello and piano filling the intense soundscape alongside the single line cello. The first movement ends quietly. The second movement is marked adagio e molto calmato, with the sound of a tick-tock clock, and the piano filling out with exquisite form and harmony, whilst the whole movement remains tender yet painful. In the allegro third movement you hear a percussive piano and pizzicato cello. There are thrilling passages with a strong cello theme against piano arpeggios. At one point we can perhaps hear a railway journey. Without a break the movement segues into the final lento, more anguish, more bells, and a descent into a calmer more reflective ending. Why did she withdraw this wonderful composition? Maybe on hearing it in rehearsal she found it too painful and revealing of her inner world and experience, feelings she could not bring herself to share with the public. What is known about her early family life suggests that the intense emotion is autobiographical in origin. This is a stunning work which should be heard, shared and appreciated by all those who value feeling in music.

Raphael and John continue with a performance of the huge Sonata in G minor Op 5 No 2. Here Beethoven is showing off his pianistic and compositional dexterity, structurally daring and technically demanding. The cello displays its full range with, at times, amiable conversations between the instruments and witty passages contrasting with the deeply felt troubled opening.

After the interval the duo continues with Brahms Sonata in F minor Op 120 No 1. This was originally composed for the clarinet (or viola) and piano but Wallfisch and York have made the first and their own arrangement for cello and piano. It is a substantial four movement work which fits so well on the cello, particularly with the heart-breaking second movement. It was written in 1894 three years before Brahms’ death and is one of the very last of his compositions.

The concert ends with Sonata in D minor by Frank Bridge. It is a two movement work composed between 1913 and 1917. The second movement expresses the despair of this avowed pacifist over the futility of the First World War.

This promises to be an exceptionally beautiful recital with the opportunity to hear great music performed by world-class musicians in the intimate surroundings of the music room at Dorstone House. But do remember to bring all your empathy with you! Not-to-be-missed, so do not delay in booking tickets when they come on sale, as those who leave it to the last minute will likely be disappointed.

This concert has been made possible by the support of an anonymous sponsor.

As usual concert goers at Dorstone are invited, weather permitting, to bring a picnic lunch from 1.00 pm and visit the garden and arboretum. Tea and cakes will be available after the performance, provided and served by fund-raising Dorstone volunteers. Signposted car parking is in the field next to Dorstone church.

Please note:  time given for end of concert is approximate.

Hay Primary School

Tickets: Free but please see below for how to obtain.

The first of two concerts this weekend in celebration of Hay Music's One Hundredth Concert: 

THE CoMA LONDON ENSEMBLE

CoMA (Contemporary Music for All -  www.coma.org) was created in 1993 as a vehicle for enthusiastic amateur musicians to perform new music. CoMA London Ensemble is one of a number of groups under the umbrella of CoMA, and performs several concerts per season, with repertoire by living composers, mostly written in flexibly scored ‘Open Score’ format specially for CoMA ensembles.  CoMA London Ensemble has performed at many UK festivals and in concerts in Maastricht, Paris and Berlin.

The programme for this concert comprises a varied group of pieces chosen to illustrate the wide range of styles that have emerged over the years.  All the pieces will be Welsh Premieres!

The concert will also feature pupils from Hay Primary School who will have been trained in workshops leading up to the concert, so that they can participate with the ensemble, as well as performing some of their own work.

Conductor:  Gregory Rose

Associate conductor, working with the children of Hay School:  Andrew Morris

Programme to include:

Kirsty Devaney:  Hadal Zone

Gregory Rose:  Red Planet

Philip Cashian:  Mechanik

Piers Hellawell:   Maquette

Simon Speare:  A Gentle Weeping

Peter McGarr:  Imaginary Orchestras 

Dominic Murcott:  MT Modulation

Gregory Rose - conductor/composer

Music director of CoMA London Ensemble since 1999, this will be his last concert as conductor.  Gregory is conductor of Jupiter Orchestra, Jupiter Singers, Singcircle and Trinity Laban Contemporary Music Group, and appears as an orchestral and choral guest conductor throughout Europe and East Asia, including St Petersburg Symphony (Russia), Finnish Radio Symphony, Polish National Radio Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras, and National Symphony Orchestras of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ireland, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Latvian Radio Choir, etc.  He has conducted thousands of premieres and has worked closely with many leading composers, including Cage, Stockhausen, Reich, Lachenmann, Wolff and Birtwistle. His large catalogue of compositions includes Birthday Ode for Aaron Copland, Tapiola Sunrise, Thambapani and Violin Concerto.  His Missa Sancta Pauli Apostoli won one of the British Composer Awards 2006.  His large-scale music-theatre work, Danse macabre was premiered with much success in Tallinn, Estonia in 2011, and the subsequent recording has received many accolades. Gregory collaborated in the premiere recording of John Cage’s iconic Song Books which sold out its first pressing. He has appeared in festivals throughout Europe and has made many recordings, including working as conductor/arranger for Linda Ronstadt, Madness and Diana Ross. He has conducted many operas and is a staff conductor at Trinity Laban.   

Refreshments available during the interval

The concert is free with a retiring collection.  Entry is by ticket which can be obtained by emailing your requirement to music@haymusic.org or from Reception at Hay Primary School Monday - Friday, 8.30am - 3.30pm from 29 April and not during Whitsun break - 27 - 31 May.

St Mary’s Church, Hay-on-Wye

Tickets £15 (students £7.50)

Tickets in person from Richard Booth's Bookshop, 44 Lion Street, Hay-on-Wye

or online through Booth's Bookshop

or at the door

Please note:  time given for end of concert is approximate

Hay Music proudly welcomes

Rachel Podger and Kristian Bezuidenhout

in a celebration of One Hundred Hay Music Concerts!

Programme

J.S.Bach:  Sonata for violin and harpsichord in G major, BWV 1019

Handel:  Sonata in D major HWV 371

J.S.Bach:  Sonata No 2 for Violin and Obligato Harpsichord in A major BWV 1015

C.P.E.Bach:  Sonata in B minor Wq 76

C.P.E.Bach:  Fantasie in f sharp minor Wq 67

J.S.Bach:  Chorale prelude 'Christ lag in Todesbanden' BWV 625

“There is probably no more inspirational musician working today …” (Gramophone) Rachel Podger, “the queen of the baroque violin” (Sunday Times) has established herself as a leading interpreter of the Baroque and Classical music periods. She was the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Prize in October 2015.  She is the founder and Artistic Director of Brecon Baroque Festival and her ensemble Brecon Baroque.

As a director and soloist, Rachel has enjoyed countless collaborations with musicians all over the world. Highlights include Robert Levin, Jordi Savall, Masaaki Suzuki, European Union Baroque Orchestra, English Concert, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Academy of Ancient Music, Holland Baroque Society, Tafelmusik (Toronto), and, in the USA, the Berwick Academy, the Handel and Haydn Society, Berkeley Early Music, Oregon Bach Festival, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. 

She has recently collaborated with harpsichordist Kristian Bezuidenhout with performances in Padova, Katowice, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Kiel, Seville, Oxford, and Boston USA. In 2018 Rachel led Brecon Baroque in their debut at the Edinburgh Festival and performed solo recitals and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and collaborated with acclaimed vocal group I Fagiolini to open the BBC Proms Chamber Music Series.

Rachel has won numerous awards including two Baroque Instrumental Gramophone Awards for La Stravaganza and Biber Rosary Sonatas, the Diapason d’Or de l’année in the Baroque Ensemble category for La Cetra Vivaldi concertos, a BBC Music Magazine Award in the instrumental category for Guardian Angel, and multiple Diapasons d’Or. The complete Vivaldi L’Estro Armonico concertos with Brecon Baroque was Record of the Month for both BBC Music and Gramophone Magazines, won the concerto category of the 2016 BBC Music Magazine Award, was awarded a Diapason d’Or and was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award .

Rachel is a dedicated educator and holds the Micaela Comberti Chair for Baroque Violin at The Royal College of Music, and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she holds the Jane Hodge Foundation International Chair in Baroque Violin. She also has a developing relationship with The Juilliard School in New York.

Kristian Bezuidenhout is one of today’s most notable and exciting keyboard artists, equally at home on the fortepiano, harpsichord, and modern piano. Born in South Africa, he began his studies in Australia, completed them at the Eastman School of Music and now lives in London. Kristian first gained international recognition at the age of 21 after winning the prestigious first prize in the Bruges Fortepiano Competition. 

Kristian is a regular guest with the world’s leading ensembles including the Freiburger Barockorchester, Les Arts Florissants, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orchestre des Champs Elysées, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester. He has guest-directed (from the keyboard) the English Concert, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Tafelmusik, Collegium Vocale, Juilliard 415 and the Kammerakademie Potsdam and Dunedin Consort. He has performed with artists including John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Frans Brüggen, Trevor Pinnock, Giovanni Antonini, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Isabelle Faust, Alina Ibragimova, Rachel Podger, Carolyn Sampson, Anne Sofie von Otter, Mark Padmore and Matthias Goerne.

Kristian's discography includes the complete keyboard music of Mozart, Mozart Violin Sonatas with Petra Müllejans, Mendelssohn and Mozart Piano Concertos with the Freiburger Barockorchester, Beethoven and Mozart Lieder and Schumann Dichterliebe with Mark Padmore.

Kristian has recently becomes Artistic Director of the Freiburger Barockorchester and Principal Guest Conductor with the English Concert. He play-directs with both orchestras and also with Camerata Salzburg, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Zürcher Kammerorchester. As a soloist he performs with Orchestre des Champs Elysees/Herreweghe, Les Violons du Roy/Cohen and Le Concert Olympique/Caeyers.  Solo recitals and chamber music take him to London, Rome, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Munich, Cologne, Berlin, USA and Japan. 

Refreshments available during the interval

Dorstone House, Dorstone

There are no tickets and admission is free, but guests are asked to email or telephone their request for seats so that we can keep track of numbers: michaelhession51@gmail.com or 01981 550300 

Please note:  time given for end of the event is approximate.

In July 2019 Hay Music celebrates its 100th concert and in a homage to the renowned Radio 3 programme presented by composer Michael Berkeley, in which music lovers are asked about the part music has played in their personal lives, Hay Music presents its own

‘PRIVATE PASSIONS’

Musician and broadcaster Nick Gethin interviews JOHN STARK, founder of Hay Music, under whose inspiration and leadership Hay Music has grown and flourished since 2011.

The event will take place in the Music Room at Dorstone House where there is a good quality hi-fi system through which the music extracts will be played.

Car parking will be as usual for Dorstone concerts. Guests are welcome to bring a picnic tea and enjoy the garden from 3.30 pm and after the event complimentary glasses of wine (or other drinks) will be available with the opportunity to make a donation to Hay Music.

Dorstone House, Dorstone

Tickets £15 (students £7.50)

Tickets in person from Richard Booth's Bookshop, 44 Lion Street, Hay-on-Wye

or online through Booth's Bookshop

Please note:  time given for end of concert is approximate.

This concert is presented in collaboration with the Keyboard Trust – www.keyboardtrust.org

Programme

Franz Schubert:  Four Impromptus Op. 90

The deservedly popular set of impromptus were written in 1827, one year before Schubert’s premature death at the age of 31. The publisher of the first two used the term ‘Impromptu’ and although the description was subsequently approved by Schubert they are no mere improvisations but full of the delightful and beautifully crafted melodic inventions of this master of song. The last two were not published until 1857, thirty years after their composition and the composer’s death. They have all been used in many films and are instantly recognisable, often attempted by amateurs, but in reality technically challenging.

Sergei Prokofiev:  Piano Sonata No. 3 Op.28

Sonata No. 3 has become one of Prokofiev’s most popular keyboard works. It was written in 1917 based on earlier themes that he had recorded in his teenage notebooks. It is a relatively short single movement work but with huge variations in tempi and dynamics. The composer gave the premiere in St. Petersburg the following year, and unlike many of his previous compositions it was critically acclaimed. Because of the upheaval caused by the 1917 revolution he sought, and obtained, permission to leave Russia for the United States, and did not return until 15 years later.

Modest Mussorgsky:  Suite ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’

‘Pictures’ is Mussorgsky’s most famous piano composition and a showpiece for virtuoso pianists. His long-time friend architect and artist Viktor Hartmann had died at the age of 39 and his friends curated an exhibition of 400 of his paintings, some of which were owned by Mussorgsky. The suite opens with a promenade theme, a visitor strolling through the gallery. Then follows the musical depiction of ten of the paintings culminating with the thrilling and majestic’ Great Gate of Kiev’. Huge chords depict the splendour and cumulative power of the artist’s ambitions for the city, and it forms a lasting memorial to the artistic and musical vision of two inspirational Russians.

A critically acclaimed pianist with varied repertoire, Ilya Kondratiev is the prize-winner of several renowned international music competitions, including Frederyk Chopin Hannover 2011, Franz Liszt Budapest 2011, Franz Liszt Weimar 2011, the Fifth Tbilisi 2013 and Brant Birmingham 2015. Born in Russia, he studied from the age of seven at the Samara College of Music with Victoria Soifer and, from the age of 16, at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the distinguished teacher and People’s Artist of Russia Zinaida Ignatieva. In 2014 he moved to London in order to further his studies at the Royal College of Music under Vanessa Latarche and Sofia Gulyak, graduating with a Master of Performance and an Artist Diploma in Performance. He also won the Beethoven Senior Intercollegiate Competition in 2015 and the prestigious Chappell Gold Medal in 2016.

Ilya performs extensively as a soloist and chamber music player at venues such as the Great Hall of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Gasteig Munich, Weimarhalle, Palacio de Festivales de Santander, the Palace of Arts in Budapest and the Great Hall of the Tbilisi Conservatoire. In 2009 he founded a chamber music ensemble Robert Quintet and won top prizes at the Sixth Stasys Vainunas Chamber Music Competition in 2009 and The Premio Vittorio Gui in Florence in 2011.

In 2011 Ilya was invited to work with Elisabeth Leonskaya at the Franz Liszt Piano Academy in Schilllingfurst, Germany and with Pavel Gililov at the Eppan Piano Academy in Italy. He has also performed in the masterclasses of Rolf-Dieter Arens, Dina Yoffe, Konstantin Shcherbakov, Willem Brons, Paul Gulda, Dmitry Bashkirov, Jerome Rose, Leslie Howard, Lang Lang and Arie Vardi.

In 2015 and 2017 Ilya was invited to the ‘Encuentro’ Festival in Santander and in 2016 appeared as a guest artist in the Gumusluk Festival in Turkey, and the Beethoven Music Festival and Academy in Altaussee in Austria. He is generously supported by the Keyboard Charitable Trust and Talent Unlimited Foundation.

Together with the performing, Ilya is developing his teaching career and in 2019 he joined the Royal College of Music London as a deputy piano professor.

A recent appearance for the Keyboard Charitable Trust in Cyprus received an ecstatic review from Yvonne Georgiadou, Artistic Director of The Pharos Cultural Centre:

”A revelation!....... Ilya is the most exceptional of all………Never before did a pianist keep me locked on my seat, full of excitement from beginning to end. He is a fascinating artist. He makes the piano sound like a full orchestra“.

St Mary’s Church, Hay-on-Wye

Max Baillie – violin     Ruth Gibson – viola  

Robin Michael – cello     Will Conway – cello

Centred round the great Op. 9 String Trio of Beethoven, this quartet of amazing players will also perform three lesser known but wonderful string works from Russia. 

Programme

Beethoven (1770 – 1827):  String Trio Op. 9 No.1

Alfred Schnittke (1934 – 1998):  String Trio (1985)

Reinhold Gliere (1875 – 1956):  Duos for 2 cellos, Op 53

Anton Arensky (1861 – 1906):  Quartet Op. 35 in A minor - version for violin, viola and two cellos.

St Mary’s Church, Hay-on-Wye

Programme details to follow

Richard Booth’s Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye

Tickets: £13 (Students £6.50)

Please note:  time given for end of concert is approximate.

Beatrice Philips – violin    Venetia Jollands – violin    

Hannah Shaw – viola    Hannah Sloane – cello

Finalists of the 2018 Royal Overseas League Competition, The Eusebius Quartet are fast gaining a reputation for imaginative and communicative performances. Formed in autumn 2015, they were resident String Quartet at the Lewes Chamber Music Festival 2016 and 17 and at FitzFest, Fitzrovia’s newest music festival playing quartets by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Haydn and Bartok. Since forming the quartet they have appeared at numerous London venues including Conway Hall, St James’ Piccadilly, the Foundling Museum, Blackheath Halls as well as other venues across the country. 

The quartet enjoys exploring unusual repertoire and last year collaborated with pianist Alasdair Beatson in three performances of Gabriel Pierné's Piano Quintet. They have also performed with clarinettists Matt Hunt and Michael Collins and bassoonist Amy Harman and oboist Daniel Bates. The Eusebius Quartet performed live on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune before appearing as quartet-in-residence at the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival 2017. Here, they performed Beethoven's Opus 132 and collaborated with Marie Bitloch of the Elias Quartet in a performance of Taneyev's String Quintet No.2. 

The Quartet returned to the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury, London, in February 2017 with a concert coinciding with the launch of a new exhibition ‘Child's Play’. This project paired repertoire with particular paintings and themes from the museum's collection, preceded by a tour of local primary schools in Camden.  In May 2018, the quartet did a similar schools tour in Lewes, which took repertoire from the forthcoming Lewes Chamber Music Festival programme to five schools in the surrounding area. These projects give school children the opportunity to hear and interact with a professional live string quartet. 

The members of the quartet have played together in different formations for many years, having met as teenagers studying together and then again later at IMS Prussia Cove. After completing studies in London, New York, Helsinki, Paris and the Netherlands they have been very excited to reunite as a quartet, sharing their passion for the extraordinary music written for this formation. The quartet enjoys experimenting with different styles of playing, studying early Haydn editions as well as string quartet recordings made in the twenties and thirties and feel extremely lucky to have this opportunity to spend their lives exploring the intricacy and importance of fine quartet-playing today. 

The quartet takes its name from one of the two fictional characters invented by Robert Schumann for his musical journal writings. These characters became symbolic of Schumann’s opposing moods: the fiery and impassioned Florestan contrasted the more introverted and dreamy Eusebius. 

Refreshments available during the interval

St Mary’s Church, Hay-on-Wye

Tickets £15 (students £7.50)

Please note:  time given for end of concert is approximate

By popular demand Hay Music is delighted

to welcome once again

the Choir of Clare College - Director Graham Ross

Since the founding of a mixed voice choir in 1972, the Choir of Clare College has gained an international reputation as one of the world’s leading university choirs. In addition to its primary function of leading services three times a week in the College chapel, the Choir keeps an active schedule recording, broadcasting, and performing. Former directors have included John Rutter and Timothy Brown. Under the direction of Graham Ross, Director of Music since 2010, it has been praised for its consistently ‘thrilling’ and ‘outstanding’ performances worldwide. Recent engagements include Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE), Mozart’s Requiem with the Manchester Camerata, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and the world première of Alexander Raskatov’s Green Masswith the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), Fauré’s Requiem with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and concerts in Notre Dame Cathedral, Évron Basilica, the Howard Assembly Room and across the USA. The Choir’s 2018/19 schedule includes Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the OAE, Britten’s War Requiem in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, performances in Westminster Cathedral, St John’s Smith Square’s Christmas and Holy Week Festivals, Barcelona’s Le Palau, and tours of the USA, Canada, Mexico and Spain.

In addition to live performances, the Choir has produced an impressive discography of more than forty recordings. Their recordings under Graham Ross on the Harmonia Mundi label have been released to great critical acclaim, earning praise for ‘exceptional singing’ and ‘immaculate performances’, a Le Choix de France Musique and a Diapason d’Oraward, and garnering a Gramophone Award nomination. The Choir’s nine-disc series of Music for the Church Year has received numerous 5 star reviews in the national and international press, with recordings for Advent (2013), Passiontide (2014), Christmas (2014), Ascensiontide and Pentecost (2015), All Saints and All Souls (2015), Easter (2016), Epiphany (2017), Corpus Christi (2017) and Trinity (2018). The Choir’s album Remembrance featured as Classic FM’s Album of the Week, and other acclaimed recent recordings have included the first recording of choral works by Imogen Holst, and Reformation 1517-2017, a special album of music celebrating the quincentenary of the Reformation.

The Choir has toured widely, including in the United States of America, Australia, Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, the Middle East and mainland Europe. It has collaborated with the OAE in performances of Handel’s Jephtha under the direction of René Jacobs, with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall conducted by Sir Mark Elder and Vladimir Jurowski, and with many other ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, European Union Baroque Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester, Israel Camerata, Aurora Orchestra, the Schubert Ensemble and the Dmitri Ensemble. The Choir performs a wide range of repertoire throughout the year, and has commissioned and premièred works by many composers, including Herbert Howells, John Tavener, John Rutter, Giles Swayne, James Whitbourn, Andrew Carter, Jonathan Dove, Julian Phillips, Tarik O’Regan, Alexander Raskatov, Graham Ross, Brett Dean, Matthew Martin and Nico Muhly.

Refreshments available during the interval