This page was updated 19 January 2012. Please follow us on facebook and twitter
Happy New Year
We are absolutely delighted that Dame Emma Kirkby has agreed to become one of our Patrons.
GALA EVENING with Laurence Cummings, Nicholas Mulroy and Friends. We are planning a wonderful evening of music and food on Saturday 21 July. Tickets go on sale on 1 February. Numbers will be limited to 80. Claire Wellman of f.east will be providing the delicious food.
The 2012 confirmed dates for the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, the Bridport Arts Centre, the Ilminster Arts Centre and Lower Pulworthy and St Mary's, Black Torrington in Devon are below and the details are on the 2012 page.
You can download the 2012 Brochure from this link, if you would like to.
If you would like a printed version of the brochure please email us.
Enews - if you would like to join our enews list please click here. We send out reminders about upcoming concerts - it is so easy to forget that they are happening.
Support for the CinW Series - we are entirely dependent on ticket sales and donations from our audience. Most of the work involved in putting on the series is done voluntarily but we do need to pay the musicians, the printers, advertisers etc. If you would like the concerts to continue please join our Supporters scheme. You can click here for a form. |
2012 Season
3/4 February - Sarah Power soprano & Nathan Vale tenor accompanied by Anna Cardona piano 8/9/10 March - Cavaleri Quartet - Anna Harpham violin, Ciaran McCabe violin, Ann Beilby viola, and Rowena Calvert cello 27/28 April - Alasdair Beatson piano 18/19 May - The Meier Group - Nicolas Meier guitar, Demi Garcia bass, and Paolo Minervini bass 8/9 June - Rêveries Musicales - Leo Duarte baroque oboe, Jonathan Rees cello, and Tom Foster harpsichord 5/6/7 July - Sebastian Muller violin, Nico de Villiers piano, 21 July - Laurence Cummings harpsichord and group Fundraiser for the series at Whitelackington Manor 14/15 September - Wessex Baroque - Lorna Anderson soprano, Jane Norman violin, Jan Spencer bass viol, and David Miller lute 4/5/6 October - Marsyas Trio - Helen Vidovich flute, Valerie Welbanks cello, and Fei Ren piano
The concerts will be held at the Marine Theatre at 7.30pm, Lyme Regis (March, July & October), Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset on Friday morning at 11am, Ilminster Arts Centre, Somerset on Friday evening at 8pm, and either at Lower Pulworthy or St Mary's Church, Black Torrington in Devon on Saturday evening at 7.30pm. |
Thank you to everyone who has supported and taken part in the Concerts in the West this season. We finished with a lovely tour by ensemble Amaranthos and even the weather was kind.
The concerts are to entertain, interest, inform and to give young professional musicians another opportunity to give us a precious commodity - live music performed to a very high standard. The concerts are deliberately programmed to cover a wide spectrum of Classical and Baroque music and occasionally Jazz is included.
Like many arts organisations we are very dependent on ticket sales but they only cover about two-thirds of our costs. You could help us enormously by becoming a paid-up supporter and you will find information about this on the Supporters page.
Catherine Hodgson |
A note from one of our Patrons, Laurence Cummings.
I am proud to be a patron of the Concerts in the West series. They provide high quality music-making, supporting and encouraging the younger generation of musicians who reap huge benefits from this high-profile platform. The programming is highly imaginative and the venues are so charming that the series also manages to draw in audiences who are not so familiar with the enriching qualities of classical music as well as the die-hard fans. |
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Looking back at Concerts in the West 2011
Six marvellous concerts enthralled audiences in Lyme Regis, Ilminster and Hatherleigh.
Opening and closing with Baroque groups, The Blanchet Trio’s programme of German and French music for harpsichord, violin and viola da gamba in February made a fascinating contrast with Ensemble Amaranthos’s performances in October with music associated with Paris and London, cities that had attracted composers like Geminiani and Telemann. The vibrancy of the Amaranthos players was a sheer delight.
Comparatively rare occurrences were the concerts in March given by Diana Mathews viola, with Jonathan Beatty piano, performing, in the main, music by early 20th-century English composers, including the almost forgotten Benjamin Dale. The evenings were completed by Brahms’s late E flat Sonata.
The year’s featured pianist, Mark Bebbington, chose a programme of music by John Ireland, Chopin, Debussy and Poulenc, which made a most satisfying combination. Mark’s promotion of Ireland’s piano works can be heard on recent discs; no less revealing was his insight into Debussy’s explorations into techniques that were to influence later French composers.
In June, the featured singer, Katie Bray, with William Vann piano, had a remarkable voice and stage presence. Her recital covered everything from opera, Lieder, cabaret and occasional songs. Technically superb in Handel and theatrically accomplished in cabaret songs by Weill and Britten, the evenings made a lasting impression.
Powerful too were the performances of the three works featured in the Aquinas Piano Trio’s programme in October. With Ruth Rogers violin and Katherine Jenkinson cello, Martin Cousin piano is no stranger to Concerts in the West. To their stylish Mozart (his B flat Piano Trio) and scintillating Ravel (Trio in A minor) they added the tumultuous experience of Dvorák’s Trio in F minor.
Anthony Pither 2011
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News For news of the musicians who have come to play for us please go to the News page. To all our musicians: if you have some exciting news please let us know and we will pass it on. |
'Exquisite gems' Concerts in the West is an annual series of concerts, inaugurated in 2006 and organised by Catherine Hodgson, Director of the London Handel Festival.
There will be eight concert tours in 2012, from February to October. The performers are drawn from the most highly regarded young professional musicians making their mark on the music scene in the UK and abroad. They perform a very varied repertoire of classical music and Jazz giving the audience a different musical experience on each occasion.
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Concerts in the West Patrons Laurence Cummings Dame Emma Kirkby Sir Neville Marriner
Concerts in the West Charity no 1139301 Trustees John Bartholomew Catherine Hodgson Festival Director, London Handel Festival Director of Concerts in the West Peter Lansdown Anthony Pither programme notes/musical adviser Christine van Heeckeren
Michael Bancroft Treasurer Richenda Oldham PR Alan King Milverton Pianos - piano tuning Piano in Bridport Arts Centre loaned by John Hare Piano and harpsichord in Lower Pulworthy thank you to Adam Swainson
Contact details for general information about the series
Catherine Hodgson Horton House | 8 Ditton Street Ilminster | Somerset | TA19 0BQ Tel & Fax: 01460 53500 Click here to email
Ilminster Arts Centre, East Street, Somerset, TA19 0AN www.themeetinghouse.org.uk Marine Theatre, Church Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3QA www.marinetheatre.com Hatherleigh Community Centre, Hatherleigh, Devon, EX20 3HB www.hatherleigh.net The Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin, Axminster, Devon Hestercombe Gardens, Somerset www.hestercombe.com Lower Pulworthy, Highampton, nr Hatherleigh, Devon, EX21 5LQ Sandroyd School, Rushmore, Tollard Royal, Salisbury, SP5 5QD www.sandroyd.org Woodroffe School, Uplyme Road, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3LX www.woodroffe.dorset.sch.uk Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset, DT6 3NR www.bridport-arts.com St Mary's Church, Black Torrington, Devon, EX21 5PU
You can find individual reviews of the 2008 & 2009 concerts on the 2008 & 2009 series pages.
Bookings are made via the individual venues and details of these are shown on the Bookings page.
We would like to thank all those who have helped put on these concerts during the six seasons. |
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