CITY MUSIC SOCIETY
Lunchtime Concerts
Thursdays at 1.05 pm at St Bartholomew the Great,
West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE


We look forward to welcoming audiences to our concerts
in St Bartholomew the Great
.

This Notice contains important information about our concerts and the Covid-related measures that will be in place. If you intend to attend a concert, it is important that you observe and adhere to these measures.

Note: The following arrangements were in place at the time of posting of this page but may be subject to change according to Government regulations at the time of the concerts.

 
Doors open at 12.30pm.
We respectfully ask you NOT to attend if:
you or anyone in your household are experiencing any symptoms of Covid-19 (raised temperature, new persistent cough, headache, runny nose, sore throat, breathlessness or loss of/change to your sense of taste or smell)
you have in the last 14 days been contacted by NHS Test and Trace as a 'close contact' to someone experiencing COVID-19
you have visited any country outside the UK in the last 14 days and been required by the UK authorities to quarantine on return.
 
In addition we ask you to:

wear a face covering at all times in the church (unless you are exempt)
sanitise your hands on arrival
maintain social distancing from others who are not in your household
follow one-way signs and indications from our stewards
keep your belongings to a minimum and with you at all times
notify us by email to leslie.east1@btopenworld.com if you develop Covid-19 symptoms or test positive
within 7 days of the concert.
 
We will continue to review the situation and adapt these measures where necessary to respond to any changes in Government guidance.

 



Printed programmes
Printed programmes will be available at the concerts. These will not have been touched by hand before being given to you.
 

Admission to all lunchtime concerts is Free.

The City Music Society Young Artists Series celebrates the amazing talent of musicians performing and studying in the UK.

Many of our artists are major prize winners, emerging from the UK's leading conservatoires, while some of the concerts mark the role of The Worshipful Company of Musicians in supporting and encouraging outstanding young musicians as they begin their careers.


As well as the great classical composers who always feature in a City Music Society series – and Bach, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms are all represented here – we are always surprised and delighted by the imaginative choice of repertoire by our outstanding young artists. A concert of music solely for the left handed pianist, attractive guitar music by little-known Victorian composers, a work by a Ukrainian composer played by a Ukrainian pianist, music by female composers of today and 100 years ago and a time-travelling programme of pieces composed in 14th-century Florence – all these are part of the experience we offer in our Autumn series.

A collection is made at the end of each Young Artists concert to help finance future City Music Society Young Artists concerts.

Seats cannot be guaranteed after 1.00pm.

Limited standing is permitted at the discretion of the Society.

Latecomers are only admitted during a suitable pause in the programme.

All programmes are subject to change at short notice.

The City Music Society reserves the right to refuse admission.

Please note that City Music Society concerts are not suitable for children under the age of 8 and the Society reserves the right to refuse entry to children under that age.


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19th September 2024

The Musicians’ Company Consort
Adrian Butterfield director

  wcom.org.uk
Supported by The Worshipful Company of Musicians

   
J S Bach
Komm, du süße Todesstunde BWV 161
J S Bach
Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! BWV 70

First performed in Weimar in September 1716, Bach’s cantata, BWV 161 is an appropriate choice for our annual celebration of the composer’s genius. The Musicians’ Company’s traditional opener for our series is presented by a consort of leading exponents of Baroque instrumental performance and outstanding vocal soloists from the Royal College of Music.

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26th September 2024

William Bracken piano

William Bracken
Photo: Francis Ware
 
   
Robert Schumann
Arabeske in C Op. 18
Clara Schumann
Nocturne in F Op. 6 No.2
Brahms
Four Piano Pieces Op.119 
Debussy
La Puerto del Vino (Preludes Book II)
Liszt
Spanish Rhapsody


We regret that Nikita Burzanitsa is indisposed. We are very grateful to William Bracken for stepping in at short notice. William was awarded the silver medal of The Musicians’ Company in 2022. After studies at the RNCM Junior Department in Manchester he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School where his teachers have been Ronan O’Hora and Martin Roscoe. In May 2023 he gave his Wigmore Hall debut and he has been a scholar in the Dame Imogen Cooper Music Trust and won first prize in the Liszt Society International Piano Competition.


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3rd October 2024

Astatine Piano Trio
Maja Horvat violin
Riya Hamie cello
Berniya Hamie piano


Photo: Sophie Williams
Astatine Piano Trio website
   

Haydn

Trio in E minor Hob XV:12

Ravel

Piano Trio in A minor


Formed at the Royal College of Music in 2021 the Astatine Trio have won first prize in the Birmingham International Piano Chamber Music Competition, the Virtuoso & Belcanto International Chamber Music Competition in Lucca, Italy and the Intercollegiate Piano Trio Competition in 2022. They have been mentored by Alfred Brendel and undertaken residencies at Snape Maltings and the University of Cambridge. Alongside Haydn’s E minor Trio they will play Ravel’s remarkable Trio, written in haste in 1914 before being called up as a medical orderly in the Great War.

 

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10th October 2024

Gus McQuade & Gonçalo Maia Caetano  guitar duo
Please note change of artists




 
Dodgson
Promenade 1
Sergio Assad
Tres Cenas Brasileiras
Lennon & McCartneyn
She's Leaving Home (arr. Leo Brouwer)
De Falla
La Vida Breve
Stephen Goss
Cocktail List

Two Musicians’ Company award winners join forces to explore the delights of guitar duets. Gus McQuade won the New Elizabethan Award with Eleanor Grant while Gonçalo Maia Caetano was awarded the Company’s star prize, the Prince’s Prize in 2023. Both graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with first class honours and are now enjoying successful careers.
 
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17th October 2024

Trinity Laban String Ensemble
Nic Pendlebury conductor

     
Jessie Montgomery
Starburst
 
Aaron Jay Kernis
Musica Celestis
 
Britten
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge Op.10
 
     

The senior string ensemble of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance under its innovative and energetic Head of Strings, Nic Pendlebury, always bring fascinating combinations of music to our concerts. Britten’s brilliant ‘Frank Bridge Variations’, a heartfelt tribute to his teacher written when Britten was only 24, contrasts vividly with works by two American composers, Kernis’s meditation on the singing of angels in heaven and Montgomery’s depiction of exploding gestures in rapidly changing musical colours.


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24th October 2024
Max Pemberton piano

Pianist Max Pemberton's website
 
Bridge
Three Improvisations for the left hand H.154
Scriabin
Prelude and Nocturne for the left hand alone Op.9
Blumenfeld
Etude for the left hand alone Op.36
Chopin/Godowsky
Étude No.13 (after Chopin Étude Op.10 No.6)
Takacs
Toccata and Fugue for the left hand alone Op.56
Bach/Brahms
Chaconne in D minor BWV 1004
 
A surprising number of piano works for the left hand alone exist, many of them inspired by Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right arm serving in the First World War. Max Pemberton started exploring this fascinating repertoire when having difficulties with his right hand and now champions some of the extraordinary music he plays in this concert. A student at the Guildhall School, Max is the holder of the 2023 Carnwath Scholarship from The Musicians’ Company.

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31st October 2024

Orelia Trio
Madeleine Dawson violin
Miguel Angel Villeda cello
Joanna Lam piano


   

Haydn

Trio in G Hob.XV/25 (‘Gypsy’)

Clarke

Piano Trio

Winners of the 2024 Ivan Sutton Chamber Music Award at the Guildhall School, sponsored by City Music Society, the Orelia Trio impressed with a heartfelt performance of Rebecca Clarke’s 1921 trio. This astonishing work by one of the first ever female professional orchestral players exhibits her deep understanding of string playing.


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7th November 2024

RCM String Orchestra
Jonathan Morton
conductor

   

Wojciech Kilar

Orawa

Joanna Marsh (arr. J. Azkoul)

In Winter’s House 

Tchaikovsky

Serenade for Strings Op.48


Artistic Director of the Scottish Ensemble and Principal First Violin of the London Sinfonietta, Jonathan Morton brings his wide experience of leading string orchestras and his commitment to works by contemporary composers to this programme by the Royal College of Music’s youngest orchestra. The Polish composer Wojciech Kilar is famed for his score for Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, while the multi-award-winning Joanna Marsh’s piece evokes a child’s experience of winter.



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14th November 2024

Ensemble Pampinea
Fiona Kizzie Lee organetto, recorder, pipe and tabor, double recorder
Maruša Brezavšček recorder
Vojtech Jakl medieval fiddle


 

Sounds of Decameron

Music by composers in 14th-Century Florence


Winners of the 2022 Young Ensemble Competition of the London International Festival of Early Music, the members of Ensemble Pampinea met while studying at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland. Their programmes explore the riches of medieval and pre-Renaissance music, exemplified in this concert, inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameronwith its tales of love, tragedy and wit.

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21st November 2024

Kyan Quartet
Naomi Warburton violin
Sydney Grace Mariano violin
Wanshu Qiu viola
Simon Guémy cello



   

Beethoven

Quartet in E minor Op.59 No.2 (Razumovsky)
Caroline Shaw
Entr’acte and Valencia
   
Established in 2020, the award-winning Kyan Quartet brings together four exceptional musicians from the UK, the USA, China and France. Recipients of the 2024 String Ensemble prize in the Royal Over-Seas League competition, the quartet are also current holders of the Tunnell Trust award which will enable them to tour Scotland in February 2025. In addition to their devotion to the great classical repertory the Kyan members are also strong advocates for new music and for widening participation in and access to music for families, children and those living with dementia.
 
 
City Music Society concerts resume on Thursday 30th January 2025 at 1.05pm at
St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE.
 
 
30th January 2025

Roelof Temmingh piano

 
Beethoven
Sonata in D (Pastorale) Op.28
Suk
About Mother Op.28
Prokofiev
Sonata No.3 in A minor (From old notebooks) Op.28
 
South African pianist Roelof Temmingh completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music, studying with Nigel Clayton and Dina Parakhina, and was awarded the Tagore Gold Medal. In 2022 he was The Musicians’ Company’s Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellow at the RCM. An enthusiastic chamber music performer he has appeared in solo and piano quartet concerts in South Africa, UK, USA, France, Spain, Sweden and Austria. His programme explores the 28th Opus of three very different composers.
 
 
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For further information about these concerts please contact
Leslie.East1@btopenworld.com

Latest update: 18 September 2024