More Music News
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Proms classics from the Orchestra of the Swan…
Posted on Mon 05 Oct
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Leamington Music celebrates 20th year with first ever Polish music festival
Posted on Tue 15 Sep
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Leamington Music announces new concert season in 20th anniversary year
Posted on Tue 08 Sep
CBSO: SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE
This François Leleux-conducted CBSO concert climaxes with a performance of Symphonie fantastique, a piece which Hector Berlioz wrote as a reaction to a deeply affecting romantic failure.
Accompanying the acclaimed work are two compositions by Claude Debussy - Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun and Rhapsody For Cor Anglais And Orchestra.
A lush and lyrical wind sinfonietta from Ruth Gipps completes the programme.
Symphony Hall, Wednesday 21 October
ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
The Warwick-based Orchestra of the Swan (OOTS) return to their previous home of Stratford-upon-Avon this month to take part in the town’s week-long music festival - an event which is this year celebrating its 30th anniversary.
OOTS’ concert sees them presenting a programme featuring compositions from three centuries. These include Dido’s Lament (Purcell), Gabriel’s Oboe (Morricone), Adagio (Barber) and Air (Bach)... Mozart, Vivaldi, Handel and Elgar, meanwhile, are represented by some of their most enduring music.
Stratford Town Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon, Thursday 22 October
SERENADES WITH FRANÇOIS LELEUX
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s (CBSO) ever-popular Centre Stage season continues this month, giving audiences the chance to experience the artistry of the musicians in an intimate setting.
The latest entry in the series sees acclaimed oboist François Leleux team up with the orchestra’s woodwind section to perform mini masterpieces by Dvořák, Gounod and Richard Strauss.
The lunchtime concert comes the day after Leleux conducts the full CBSO in a performance of Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique.
CBSO Centre, Birmingham, Thursday 22 October
RED PRIEST: A BAROQUE EXTRAVAGANZA
With the promise of a 30th-anniversary year to look forward to in 2027, baroque quartet Red Priest boast a truly unique style, bringing together high-energy performance with boundary-crossing arrangements and an endearing theatricality. Given that the group take their name from red-haired Italian priest and legendary Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi, it’s no surprise to find that they’re turning to his best-known work, The Four Seasons, for this Shropshire Music Trust concert. Compositions by Bach, Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann are also included in the evening’s programme.
Maidment Building, Shrewsbury School, Friday 23 October
THE GONZAGA BAND
Cornettist Jamie Savan formed the Gonzaga Band back in 1997, meaning that their 30th-anniversary year lies just a couple of months away.
Jamie is joined by soprano Faye Newton and Steven Devine (harpsichord and organ) for this 55-minute lunchtime concert, performing a selection of songs and duets from the age of Monteverdi...
The winning compositions from the 2026 NCEM/BBC Radio Three Young Composers Award also feature in the programme.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Tuesday 27 October
LEON MCCAWLEY PIANO RECITAL
Since forming at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama seven years ago, Fibonacci have been making a name for themselves as one of Europe’s finest young string quartets.
They visit Birmingham to perform a lunchtime concert that features Mozart’s String Quartet No21 and their own arrangements of Moravian folksongs as a prologue to Janácek’s Intimate Letters.
Stoke-on-Trent Classics’ Piano Masters returns with an imaginative new season of concerts.
October’s contribution to the series is a performance by renowned British pianist Leon McCawley. A first-prize winner many a moon ago in the ninth International Beethoven Piano Competition, Lyon is using his late-month Potteries recital to trace the evolution of the piano, from Mozart’s classical clarity to the rich Romanticism of Chopin and Grieg.
Works by Beethoven, Fanny Mendelssohn and Faure also feature on the bill.
Stoke-on-Trent Repertory Theatre, Thursday 29 October
SHOSTAKOVICH'S PIANO QUINTET
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s (CBSO) ever-popular Centre Stage season continues early this month, giving audiences the chance to experience the artistry of the musicians in an intimate lunchtime setting.
The latest entry in the series features Elegy - a haunting miniature by Czech composer Josef Suk - and a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet - a work widely considered to be a perfect introduction to the composer’s chamber music.
CBSO Centre, Birmingham, Thursday 5 November
FLANDERS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Belgium’s highly regarded Flanders Symphony Orchestra here get their teeth into much-loved works by four composers.
Widely acclaimed French violinist Alexandra Soumm (pictured) is the soloist for both Mozart’s fifth Violin Concerto and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending. The latter is one of two pastoral idylls of pre-First World War England which are featured in the concert, the other being A Shropshire Lad by George Butterworth.
The concert programme is completed by Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony, a work in part inspired by the folk traditions of the composer’s native Bohemia...
Much-in-demand British conductor Duncan Ward is the man with the baton.
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Thursday 5 November
BBC PHILHARMONIC
Residing at the Corporation’s Manchester home of Media City in Salford Quays, the BBC Philharmonic is no stranger to Stoke-on-Trent, regularly presenting Victoria Hall concert-goers with works from its impressive repertoire.
This latest visit to the Potteries sees the orchestra getting to grips, in inevitably impressive style, with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No3 and Tchaikovsky’s evocative ‘Winter Dreams’ symphony.
The conductor and soloist is award-winning South Korean pianist Sunwook Kim (pictured).
Victoria Hall, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Friday 6 November
MARTINU QUARTET
Formed by students of the Prague Conservatoire and here returning to Leamington and Warwickshire for their 34th concert - by far the most visits by any quartet! - Martinů present programmes of work which combine classical masterpieces with neglected compositions and world premieres.
Currently celebrating their 50th anniversary, they will perform a programme featuring Ravel’s String Quartet in F major,
Martinů’s String Quartet No2, and Smetana’s String Quartet No 1 in E minor, ‘From My Life.’
Holy Trinity Church, Leamington Spa, Friday 6 November
ARMONICO ACADEMY WARWICK AND SCHOLARS
“One of my proudest achievements has been the creation of the AC Academy Scholarship programme,” says Armonico Consort’s founder, Christopher Monks.
“[The programme] supports talented young people and helps them develop both their musical potential and their ambitions...
“I warmly invite you to hear these exceptional young musicians perform Fauré’s Requiem in the magnificent acoustic of Leek Wootton Church.”
All Saint’s Church, Leek Wootton, Warwickshire, Tuesday 10 November
CBSO: BRITTEN'S WAR REQUIEM
Symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, full choir, children’s choir and solo singers are here brought together for Benjamin Britten’s monumental War Requiem. Written in the early 1960s, the work was produced by the composer - a lifelong pacifist - in an attempt to articulate the horror and grief he felt at the losses caused by two world wars.
The piece will be conducted in the cathedral by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director, Kazuki Yamada.
Coventry Cathedral, Wednesday 11 November
EX CATHEDRA: WORDS APART
Two composers from different centuries - the 18th and the 20th - respond to the same sacred texts in Ex Cathedra’s mid-month concert at Bournville’s St Francis’ Church.
James Burton (pictured) picks up the reins for a concert that pairs masterworks by Johann Sebastian Bach with contrasting choral interpretations by modern Swedish composer Sven-David Sandström...
James will be taking over Ex Cathedra conducting duties on a full-time basis when Jeffrey Skidmore steps back next autumn.
St Francis Church, Bournville, Birmingham, Saturday 14 November
THE CITY OF BIRMINGHAM CHOIR: DANCES OF TIME
The City of Birmingham Choir team up with the Westminster Chamber Orchestra to present a sequence of works that reflect on the effects of time passing.
The programme includes Bob Chilcott’s wide-ranging Dances Of Time and John Rutter’s settings of poems by Shakespeare and Campion in When Icicles Hang.
Joseph Haydn’s Mass In Time Of War brings proceedings to a close. The mid-afternoon concert is conducted by Adrian Lucas.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Sunday 15 November
LANO STRING QUARTET
Lano return to Warwickshire for this late-morning concert having been among the winners at the 2025 Leamington Music Prize competition. Their impressive win, in the Audience Prize category, was achieved just one short year after they first came together at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire... The quartet here perform Caroline Shaw’s Plan And Elevation alongside Haydn’s The Lark and Elgar’s String Quartet in E minor, Op83.
Unitarian Chapel, Warwick, Tuesday 17 November
ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN: VISIONS OF BOHEMIA
The Orchestra of the Swan’s mid-month concert is one of its hugely popular Swan Sessions. The regular get-togethers typically see between three and eight members of the orchestra performing in a relaxed and intimate setting.
The programme features compositions by Smetana, Dvořák and Martinů.
A performance of Dvořák’s String Quintet in G Major - a work full of colour, energy and melodic invention - brings proceedings to a close.
St Nicholas Church, Warwick, Thursday 19 November
BIRMINGHAM BACH CHOIR
One of the city’s oldest and most distinguished musical groups, Birmingham Bach Choir present a concert featuring works by three titans of the British musical scene in the early 20th century: Hubert Parry (Songs Of Farewell), Ralph Vaughan Williams (Mass in G Minor), and Gustav Holst (Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day). Paul Spicer conducts, Martyn Rawles is the organist.
St Francis Church, Bournville, Saturday 21 November
BIRMINGHAM FESTIVAL CHORAL SOCIETY: ECHOES OF VIENNA
Specialising in a wide variety of choral music from the 16th to the 21st century, Birmingham Festival Choral Society present three main concerts a year. This later-month offering sees them performing two choral masterpieces: Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Mass in C major.
Bradshaw Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Saturday 21 November
CHANDOS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Malvern’s very own amateur orchestra is fast heading towards its 50th anniversary and currently comprises in excess of 100 members. With Music Director Michael Lloyd at the helm, Chandos here performs a programme featuring three compositions: Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture, Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour, and Shostakovich’s First Symphony.
York Hall, Malvern College, Sunday 22 November
MARIN ALSOP & THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA
The trailblazing Marin Alsop makes a welcome return to Birmingham as the principal guest conductor of the world-class Philharmonia Orchestra.
A passionate advocate for female conductors, Marin here picks up the baton for a performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium), a series of musical dialogues between orchestra and solo violin (played by Esther Yoo). Also featuring on the concert programme is Mahler’s sixth symphony, a work which has been described as a monumental tour-de-force.
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Sunday 22 November
CHINEKE! ORCHESTRA
Chineke! was founded to challenge the status quo - and it was certainly in need of some serious challenging.
On a continent in which the majority of symphony orchestras were mainly made up of white and white-Asian players, this 11-year-old ensemble - the brainchild of double-bassist Chi-chi Nwanoku - were Europe’s first professional orchestra comprising black and minority ethnic musicians.
Their visit to Coventry late this month sees them presenting an imaginative programme that features Stravinsky’s Suites No1 and No2, Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, Eliana Echverry’s Symphonic Lullabies and Adolphus Hailstork's First Symphony.
Tatiana Perez (pictured) conducts, with Plinio Fernandes playing solo guitar.
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Thursday 26 November
THE WELSH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Wales’ only professional chamber orchestra are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year and visit Bridgnorth as part of a tour of the Marches area. A Shropshire Music Trust event, the concert will see them performing a programme that includes works by Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn and Morfydd Owen. A new work by Susie Self for baritone and orchestra also features.
St Magdalene Church, Bridgnorth, South Shropshire, Thursday 26 November
K'ANTU ENSEMBLE: MIDWINTER MERRIMENT
Exploring the less-trodden territories of early music, K’antu Ensemble combine elements of folk and world music with historically informed techniques.
Their late-month visit to Selly Manor sees them bringing together familiar carols with some lesser-known seasonal sounds from across the centuries. Alongside the hour-long concert, audience members can also enjoy a glass of mulled wine.
Selly Manor, Bournville, Thursday 26 November
SPIRES PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA: FIELDS AND FORESTS
“We are acoustic adventurers,” explain Spires Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus, “seeking out unheard gems, then programming them alongside classics we know and love; crafting concerts that are not only outstanding to listen to but that we also love to perform.”
That love of performance is sure to be much in evidence when this Coventry-based community of ambitious musicmakers here present an afternoon of choral and orchestral delights inspired by nature and trees. The programme includes music by, among others, Dvorak, Grieg, Price, Elgar, and Vaughan Williams.
King Henry VIII School, Coventry, Saturday 28 November
CBSO: BEETHOVEN'S VIOLIN CONCERTO
Ludwig van Beethoven gets a whole concert to himself at the end of the month, when the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) perform four works which represent the composer at his romantic and dramatic best.
Three overtures - Leonore, Egmont and Coriolan - are followed by his 1806 Violin Concerto, a work which was so fussy and difficult that critics initially deemed it unplayable by all but the very finest of soloists. Indeed, it would be nearly half a century before the concerto would become part of the standard concert-hall repertory. The CBSO’s very own Eugene Tzikindelean here plays the solo part in what has since become one of Beethoven’s best-loved compositions. The talented Romanian also takes on conducting responsibilities for this mid-afternoon concert.
Birmingham Town Hall, Sunday 29 November
ARMONICO CONSORT: SUPERSIZE POLYPHONY 3
Armonico Consort turn 25 this year and are ready to party! Concert-goers who’ve enjoyed the ensemble’s previous two Supersize Polyphony performances will no doubt be waiting with bated breath for the next in the series. And why wouldn’t they be? After all, what’s not to like about an immersive 360-degree surround-sound concert celebrating large-scale 16th- and 17th-century choral music?
Armonico director Christopher Monks is typically effusive about the forthcoming celebration: “For those who have loved the cinema sound-effects of our polychoral performances from Spem in Alium in 40 parts surrounding the audience, you will simply love this! We will be working with special guest choirs around the UK in celebration of our momentous milestone.”
Coventry Cathedral, Tuesday 26 January