Our March concert on the 16th returns us to the usual Friday evening time of 7.30 at the Courtenay Centre, and features pianist Clare Hammond, http://clarehammond.com/ . An active chamber musician, Clare has worked with the Brodsky, Endellion, Badke, Dante and Piatti Quartets and with Henning Kraggerud, Andrew Kennedy, Jennifer Pike, Philippe Graffin and Lawrence Power so it is a privilege to welcome her to Newton Abbot as a solo performer. In 2016, she won the Royal Philharmonic Society's 'Young Artist Award' in recognition of outstanding achievements. Highlights that year included a performance at the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia and a series of three concerts at the Belfast International Arts Festival, broadcast as part of the BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts series. Her concerts have earned critical acclaim, as have her several world premier performances. Clare will play for us just one modern piece, Edmund Finnis's 'Youth' from 2017, and the varied programme will also include a Haydn Fantasia in C, Four Schubert Impromptus, Beethoven's Sonata no.30 in E, Scriabin's op.19 sonata and three movements from Stravinsky's Petrushka. More programme detail can be found at http://www.nadsa.co.uk/clare-hammond-140-p.asp , where you may also buy tickets for this exciting evening at the advance price of £13. If you wait until the night it'll cost you £2 more at the door, but as a member you would enjoy a further reduction to only £10 - a bargain price! We are grateful to Estelle McCormick for generously sponsoring this concert, and to our Season's Sponsor, Austins Department Store.
This weekend on Saturday 10thTorbay Symphony Orchestra http://www.torbaysymphony.org/ are at Teignmouth Pavilions as part of the Teignmouth Classical Music Festival, where they will be performing Stephen Montague's Dark Sun' alongside the Tchaikovsky violin concerto (with soloist Elena Abad) and Mahler's 1st Symphony. If you miss this, the concert is repeated in Totnes the next day and tickets for either concert can be bought from their website above.
The Teignmouth Classical Music Festival is on right now; it includes poetry by Keats featuring South Devon Singers Choir and supported by The Gallery Singers and Flute Cake; free Mini-Recitals; Lunchtime and Afternoon Concerts, and Teign Piano Trio playing Palm-Court style at the Oystercatchers Cafe. Then in Chudleigh on 18th is A Night at the Opera, with Red Earth Opera Chorus & Orchestra. Full details of the festival can be found at Teignmouth Classical Music Festival on Facebook
The Torbay Singers are singing the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 on Saturday 24th March in Babbacombe, with soloists and accompanied with sackbuts, cornetts and baroque strings conducted by Tina Guthrie evoking the majesty of St. Mark's, Venice. Information and tickets from http://www.torbaysingers.com
Another event this weekend is the Lord Mayor's Concert on Saturday in Exeter Cathedral, where the Exeter Philharmonic Choir will perform the Mozart Requiem; in the same programme, Jordan Black will be the soloist in Mozart's Clarinet Concerto. http://exephil.org.uk/ for more information.
The Cathedral always has a pretty full programme of music; https://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/news-events/what-is-on/category/concerts/ will give you details, but March will include a Requiem by Howard Goodall and movements from Mozart's 'Great' C-minor Mass; Rachmaninov's Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom; Villages in Harmony, and Handel's Messiah.In all, a fairly busy month for music lovers in South Devon: make the most of it!
Happy listening,
John R