St Mary’s Church, Hay-on-Wye, HR3 5EB. Doors open 2.00pm. Bar.

Michael Poll played for Hay Music in 2023 to great acclaim and we very much look forward to his return for the Hay Winter Weekend Festival. As well as the two pieces by Bach, Michael will play music by Federico Moreno Torroba (1891 - 1982) - a Spanish composer, conductor and theatrical impresario, especially remembered for his contributions to the classical guitar repertoire, becoming one of the leading twentieth-century composers for the instrument

Tickets:  direct from the Hay Festival box office.  General booking opens on Friday, 26 September.

Programme

JS Bach:  Suite for Lute BWV 995 in G Minor

JS Bach:  Suite for Lute BWV 996 in E Minor

Federico Moreno Torroba:  Suite Castellana

MICHAEL POLL has performed and conducted in North America, South America and Europe, including at the Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall and the National Theatre of Panama. 

A 2010 Fulbright and a 2012 Marshall Scholar, Poll holds a BA in music summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his Junior year, and was concurrently a visiting student at the Curtis Institute of Music. He also holds degrees from the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poland and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he was a Junior Fellow from 2015 to 2017, and was awarded a Doctorate in 2022. He has guest lectured at the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, SUNY Binghamton, the San Francisco Conservatory and Virginia Tech, and has presented at conferences at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Guildhall School. 

In 2023 Poll was appointed Associate Conductor of Central City Opera in Colorado; previously he conducted Bloomsbury Opera in London, leading new productions of Cosi and Figaro, during which time he also served as an intern assistant conductor to Franz Welser-Möst for Salome at the Salzburg Festival, as an observer to Barry Wordsworth for Copelia and to Sir Antonio Pappano for Meistersinger, The Ring, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and the Verdi Requiem, all at the Royal Ballet and Opera. From 2014 to 2018 Poll was Music Director of the Goodensemble Orchestra in London, where he led a Gala in honour of Queen Elizabeth, a cycle of Beethoven piano concerti and premiers by Sato Matsui, Joseph Stillwell, David Grahame Taylor, Igor Maia, and Raymond Yiu.

Poll’s debut guitar recording, 7-String Bach, was called “masterful” by Gramophone magazine, and Wholenote praised his “Warm, rich, and full tone”. Since its release by Orchid Classics in 2018, 7-String Bach has been streamed over 1 million times on Spotify and Apple Music and was featured on the BBC and Classic FM. As a guitarist he has entertained five sitting Lord Mayors of the City of London as well as the Speaker of Parliament.