For our November concert on Sunday afternoon, 16th, we’re pleased to welcome Clare Hammond back to play for us at Newton Abbot. Acclaimed as a “pianist of extraordinary gifts” (Gramophone) and “immense power” (The Times), Clare is recognised for her imaginative playing, visionary programming, and communicative performance style. She won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award in 2016 and an Edison Klassiek Award in 2024.
After completing her BA at Cambridge University, where she obtained a double first in music, she undertook postgraduate study with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and with Professor Rhian Samuel at City University London.
Concert performances have included the BBC Proms, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Salle Bourgie in Montreal, and return visits to the Wigmore Hall. Clare gave the second ever performance of the recently revived Fantasia by Andrzej Panufnik, more than sixty years after its premiere, with the Filharmonia Poznańska and Łukasz Borowicz. In 2025/26, she makes her debuts at the Royal Albert Hall with the Philharmonia, and at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr; premieres concertos by Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade and George Stevenson with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Britten Sinfonia, and returns to give recitals at the Wigmore Hall and Fundación Juan March in Madrid. A busy lady indeed!
Clare has recorded seven discs for BIS, most recently releasing an album of concertos by Walton, Britten and Tippett with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and George Vass. The Times praised her “crisp artistry” while Gramophone described her “exquisitely variegated tonal palette, deft touch and quiet authority” as “truly things of wonder”. She previously recorded a disc of etudes by visionary composer Hélène de Montgeroult, featured extensively on Radio 3’s Composer of the Week, while her album of etudes by Unsuk Chin, Nikolai Kapustin, Sergei Lyapunov and Karol Szymanowski won her an Opus d’Or from Opus HD magazine and 5 diapasons from Diapason. Then Youth, a collection of music written for Clare by Edmund Finnis , won an Edison Klassiek Award and Presto Classical’s ‘EP of the Year’ Award in 2024. In December 2025, Clare recorded another disc for BIS, of music by Ravel, Tailleferre, Bonis, Barraine and Chaminade.
Clare’s programme for us on Sunday will include:
Mél Bonis – Selection from Femmes de légende, ‘Phoebe’, ‘Desdémonda’ and ‘Mélisande’ Listen
Germaine Tailleferre – Partita Listen
Maurice Ravel – Miroirs
Claude Debussy – Images, Book 1
Co-created by participants at HMP Oakwood with Michael Betteridge – Internal Victories
Cécile Chaminade – Autrefois, Op. 87 (1897) and Au pays devasté, Op. 155 Listen
Maurice Ravel – Sonatine
This promises to be an exciting concert, showcasing the piano in a way that we don’t often hear as Clare Hammond introduces each piece and guides us through the world of late 19th & 20th-century keyboard music. Book your tickets now at Clare Hammond: An Afternoon of French Impressionism and Contemporary Voices – nadsa concerts Some of Clare’s CDs will be available at our concert priced at £15 each, so don’t forget to bring some cash – we can’t always take card payments.
This concert is sponsored by the C & M Pike Trust, to whom we are most grateful.
A quick look at what else is happening nearby musically:
On 15th November Devon Philharmonic Orchestra are at Exeter Cathedral with a programme of popular Russian music – Devon Philharmonic Orchestra | Exeter
On 13th November the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra are at the Great Hall, Exeter, with Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Fauré, Mendelssohn; they return on 27th with music from Hollywood by Britten, Korngold, Dvořák. Upcoming Exeter symphonic concerts
On St. Cecelia’s day, 27th November, the Torbay singers present J S Bach’s B-minor Mass at St Matthias’ Church, Babbacombe Road; Torbay Singers – 22/11/2025 7:00pm – Bach: Mass in B-minor
Devon Baroque are at the Cathedral on Sunday 7th December playing Handel’s Messiah for the Cathedral Choir – Concerts | Devon Baroque
28th November will see the Ambrosian Strings at St. Mary the Virgin Church, St Marychurch, with chamber music by Brahms, Schumann and Shostakovich – details here: Duo Lamorniana – Ambrosian Strings
That’s it for now; happy listening,
John R
