What's On @ Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Autumn '19 by Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

WHAT’S ON SEP – NOV ‘19 0121 331 5909 | BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS /RoyalBirmCons

@BirmCons

CLASSICAL

TUE 8 OCT

CHINEKE! Photo by Eric Richmond Photography

Birmingham City University

NAME YOUR SEAT BE PART OF ROYAL BIRMINGHAM CONSERVATOIREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FUTURE BY NAMING A SEAT IN OUR FANTASTIC NEW CONCERT VENUE, THE BRADSHAW HALL.

Contact robin.leonard@bcu.ac.uk

Birmingham City University

Esther Abrami

MON 23 SEP

HANDEL, BRAHMS, KREISLER 1.05pm Recital Hall FREE ADMISSION Esther Abrami violin Tom Pickles cello Handel Passacaglia Esther Abrami violin Robert Markham piano Kreisler Prelude and Allegro Brahms Scherzo Connor Wilcox piano Beethoven Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57

The Heath Quartet

WED 25 SEP

YCAT AT THE CONSERVATOIRE: THE HEATH QUARTET 1.45pm The Bradshaw Hall £10 (£8) Oliver Heath violin Sara Wolstenholme violin Gary Pomeroy viola Chris Murray cello Beethoven Quartet No.2, Op.18 Ades Arcadiana James Macmillan Memento

The dynamic and charismatic Heath Quartet are fast earning a reputation as one of the most exciting British chamber ensembles of the moment. Formed in 2002 at the Royal Northern College of Music they were selected for representation by YCAT; in 2012 won Ensemble Prize at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and in May 2013 they became the first ensemble in 15 years to win the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artists Award. Join them for what will be their last concert after two years as Quartet in Residence at RBC. 3

“

The Multi-Story Orchestra

Joyous and expert music-making The Times

”

FRI 27 SEP

MON 30 SEP

5pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

1.05pm Recital Hall

FREE ADMISSION

Terry Riley In C

Nathan Isaac clarinet Joanne Sealey piano

THE MULTI-STORY ORCHESTRA

They’ve been celebrated as one of the most exciting young orchestras to emerge in recent years – and in September, The Multi-Story Orchestra come to Birmingham to present Terry Riley’s minimalist masterpiece, In C in collaboration with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s musicians.“Forget fusty concert halls” – the performance will begin with musicians spread around the Conservatoire’s foyer, the audience able to walk amongst different groups of musicians who have devised interactive and participatory games exploring different aspects of the piece – be it a theme, rhythm or specific passage. No performance of In C is the same as it entirely depends on the musicians and how they want it to be performed – Terry Riley merely suggests, indicating what he wants to be played, but never stating how many times or by how many people. There is no conductor, and every musician has the freedom to shape the final performance in what promises to be a truly unique and immersive musical experience.

MESSAGER, GUSTAVINO

André Messager Solo de Concours Carlos Gustavino Tonada y Cueca Trad. (Arr. Lenny Sayers) Odessa Bulgar Ka Pek Ho double bass Charles Matthews piano Proto Sonata 1963 Bottesini Capriccio di Bravura Glière Intermezzo and Scherzo

WED 2 OCT

DMITRI SITKOVETSKY (VIOLIN) 1.45pm The Bradshaw Hall £5 (£3) Dmitry Sitkovetsky violin Join globally celebrated violinist, Dmitry Sitkovetsky for an interview and masterclass on Bach’s Chaconne with Shi Ling Chin.

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Celebrate literature in a festival bringing writers, artists, commentators, readers and thinkers together, with the aim to connect people and spark positive change in ten days of great creative writing.

THU 3 OCT

SAT 5 OCT

6pm Recital Hall

6pm The Bradshaw Hall

£10 (£8)

£12 (£10)

NATIONAL POETRY DAY: MUSES AND FURIES

HOW TO FAIL WITH ELIZABETH DAY

BOYS WILL BE BOYS Confronting power, patriarchy and toxic masculinity 8pm The Bradshaw Hall £12 (£10)

SUN 6 OCT

HOW SHOULD BRITAIN BE RUN? 10am Royal Birmingham Conservatoire FREE ADMISSION, booking required

MAKING WRITING WORK 12pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £8 (£6.40) Carol Ann Duffy

THU 3 OCT

AN EVENING WITH CAROL ANN DUFFY AND FRIENDS 8pm The Bradshaw Hall £15 (£12)

READ ON: SPARK YOUNG WRITERS SHOWCASE 1pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire FREE ADMISSION, booking required EVENT DETAILS AT WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS FULL FESTIVAL PROGRAMME AT WWW.BIRMINGHAMLITERATUREFESTIVAL.ORG 5

SUN 6 OCT

READ ON: AFTER SUMMER AND OTHER STORIES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF NEW WRITING FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 2pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £3 adults, under 18s FREE ADMISSION, booking required

POSTCARD FROM THE PAST WITH TOM JACKSON 2pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £10 (£8)

READ ON: FAN FICTION EVENT 3.30pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire FREE ADMISSION, booking required

MURDER SHE WROTE WITH HALLIE RUBENHOLD AND JO BAKER

SUN 6 OCT

TRUTH TO POWER WITH JESS PHILLIPS 6pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £12 (£10)

PODCAST FROM THE PAST WITH STUART MACONIE AND LIZ BERRY 8pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £10 (£8)

SUN 13 OCT

NEW KINGS OF THE WORLD WITH FATIMA BHUTTO 5.30pm The Bradshaw Hall £12 (£10)

Billy Bragg

4pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £10 (£8)

READ ON: JONATHAN STROUD 4.30pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £5 adults, under 18s FREE ADMISSION, booking required

A TALE OF TWO CITIES A celebration of Riga and Birmingham 4.30pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £8 (£6.40) 6

UNDERSTANDING THE PAST, BUILDING OUR FUTURE WITH BILLY BRAGG, PAUL MASON AND SELINA TODD 7.30pm The Bradshaw Hall £15 (£12) BOOK NOW VIA WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS OR 0121 331 5909

FRI 4 OCT

MON 7 OCT

6.30pm Organ Studio

1.05pm Recital Hall

FREE ADMISSION

Enjoy a short performance in our Organ Studio of beautiful music from one of the greatest composers of all time, Johann Sebastian Bach.

Ben Isaac violin Robert Markham piano

BITE SIZED BACH

BRAHMS

Brahms Violin Sonata No.2 in A major, Op.100

Graham Sadler

TUE 8 OCT Dmitry Sitkovetsky

FRI 4 OCT

RBC PRESENTS RACHMANINOV, TCHAIKOVSKY AND BRAHMS

PUBLIC RESEARCH SEMINAR GRAHAM SADLER (ROYAL BIRMINGHAM CONSERVATOIRE) 3.30pm Workshop 2 £5

7pm The Bradshaw Hall

Rameau, Telemann, Voltaire and the Cantate pour le jour de la Saint-Louis: Who borrowed from whom, and why does it matter?

FREE ADMISSION Director Dmitry Sitkovetsky Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Strings Orchestra Rachmaninov (orch. Dmitry Sitkovetsky) Vocalise in E minor for strings Tchaikovsky (orch. A Lascae) Souvenir d’un lieu cher for violin solo and strings Brahms (trans. Dmitry Sitkovetsky) String Sextet Op.36 in G

4–6 October 2019

Join the finest young musicians from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire directed by one of the world’s most celebrated violinists, as they offer a treat of a Friday evening concert celebrating beautiful, romantic repertoire in the exquisite surroundings of The Bradshaw Hall. We are honoured to have Dmitry Sitkovetsky, named “a magnetic creative force”, work with our strings players, and hope you enjoy the culmination of a four-day project in this concert. SIGN UP TO OUR MAILING LIST AT WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONSERVATOIRE

Two recently discovered facts: (a) the opening of this Rameau cantata is virtually identical to that of a Telemann sonata; (b) during a visit to Paris in 1737–8, Telemann published a tribute to Rameau. Using ‘forensic’ and other techniques, this presentation shows how these facts are related. In the process, it explores the possibility that the lyrics of the cantata are by Voltaire, shedding light on the extraordinary event for which Rameau composed it. Graham Sadler is a research professor at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He has published extensively on seventeenth and eighteenth-century French music and edited three Rameau operas for the Opera Omnia Rameau (Bärenreiter). Recent books include Rameau entre art et science (co-edited with Sylvie Bouissou, École des Chartes, 2016), French Baroque Opera: A Reader (with Caroline Wood, 2nd edition, Routledge, 2017) and The Rameau Compendium (Boydell, 2nd edition, 2017). 7

Chineke!

TUE 8 OCT

CHINEKE! 1.05pm The Bradshaw Hall £15 (£12) Chineke! Ensemble Coleridge-Taylor Piano Quintet in G minor, Op.1 Schubert Piano Quintet in A, D667 The Chineke! Ensemble will perform a programme of quintets by Coleridge-Taylor and Schubert, displaying the astonishing maturity and virtuosity of the young composers. Premiered in 1893, Coleridge-Taylor’s charismatic four-movement quintet was written at the age of eighteen. The influence of his favourite composer Dvořák, as well as Schubert, is evident in the inventive melodic lines and rich tone colour of this Post-Romantic piece, demonstrating a remarkable self-assurance for one so young. This is complimented by Schubert’s innovative “Trout Quintet”, composed in 1819 when he was just 22 years old. The fourth movement features variations on his earlier Lied “Die Forelle”, and is scored for piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass rather than the more usual piano and string quartet configuration. Chineke! Ensemble comprises principal players of the critically acclaimed Chineke! Orchestra, Europe’s first majority Black Minority Ethnic (BME) orchestra. Founded in 2015 by distinguished international double bassist Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, Chineke!’s mission is to champion change and celebrate diversity in classical music. The ensemble made its debut in 2017 in Manchester followed by concerts at Wigmore Hall, Cheltenham and Ryedale festivals in 2018. It has since performed at the Tonbridge Music Club, Wimbledon International Festival, Cambridge Music Festival, St George’s Bristol, The Africa Center in New York, The Stables in Wavendon and Petworth Festival. 8

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ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN AT ROYAL BIRMINGHAM CONSERVATOIRE One of the country’s leading chamber orchestras, Orchestra of the Swan returns to Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Bradshaw Hall for another delightfully varied season. Not only are they performing an exceptional programme of orchestral concerts, but the residency will: • Enable RBC students to enjoy performance, professional skills and composition masterclasses with OOTS soloists, conductors and core players. • Feature the première of a 3-5 minute work by an RBC composition student at every concert. • Offer the chance to compete in an in-house competition, winning a valuable concerto performance with the orchestra every year. • Provide shadowing opportunities for students studying Arts Management. • Offer side-by-side opportunities at rehearsals alongside OOTS players. • Enable students taking their community modules as part of their degree to participate in half-day workshops in care homes for those with dementia. It is extremely exciting to be able to welcome such fantastic 21st century chamber orchestral performances, and a wealth of talented conductors and soloists, to the Conservatoire. Watch the exceptional skill and refreshing energy of Orchestra of the Swan once and you won’t miss them again!

WED 9 OCT

TALES OF THE CITY 2.30pm The Bradshaw Hall £25 - £18 Conductor Rebecca Miller Viv McLean piano Hugh Davies trumpet Louise Braithwaite cor anglais Rossini The Barber of Seville, Overture Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue Copland Quiet City Mozart Symphony No.38 ‘Prague’ Catherine Mole Through Cumbrian Hills (world première) Cities are the inspiration for this concert conducted by Rebecca Miller, featuring pianist Viv McLean as soloist. This is possibly Gershwin’s most popular work, and has become synonymous with the stylishly bustling New York City of the 1930s. Copland’s is an introverted soundscape; a deserted metropolis depicted by plaintive jazz-influenced trumpet and a pale wash of strings. There is no doubt that Mozart had a particular affinity with the city of Prague; anecdotal evidence suggests he felt its inhabitants truly understood his music. Many of his major works received premières there, including Symphony No.38. 1.30pm with Christopher Morley

Save 20% when you book three or more concerts in the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Series Save 30% when you book all six concerts in the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Series

Rebecca Miller. Credit Richard Houghton.

ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN AT ROYAL BIRMINGHAM CONSERVATOIRE

Tamsin Waley-Cohen

Upon a Midnight Clear

WED 11 DEC

WED 22 JAN

2.30pm The Bradshaw Hall

7pm The Bradshaw Hall

£25 - £18

£27.50 - £18

Papagena vocal quintet

Conductor Tom Hammond Tamsin Waley-Cohen violin

UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR

Papagena are famed for their programming that defies pigeonholing; from classical to folk; medieval to contemporary, their range spans a colossal nine centuries – and now they are set to grace The Bradshaw Hall for an exquisite celebration of the festive season. Upon a Midnight Clear is a breath-taking musical journey through the heart of winter. A mesmerising tapestry of ancient carols, popular songs and winter-themed classical favourites, perfect for a pre-Christmas treat. Pre-concert talk: 1.30pm with Christopher Morley

INTIMATE VOICES

Sibelius The Swan of Tuonela (from Lemminkäinen Suite) Sibelius The Tempest, Suite No.1 (excerpts) Jonah Raes Verhuizen (world première) Sibelius Humoresques for Violin and Orchestra, Op.89 Sibelius Kuolema (Valse Triste & Scene with Cranes) Sibelius Symphony No.7 Intimate Voices explores the musical and personal landscape of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius through his own words and compositions. From stark simplicity to the bold, distilled complexity of the seventh symphony; Sibelius is revealed through the intimate thoughts in his letters and the dark, awe-inspiring qualities of his musical imagination. Tamsin Waley-Cohen makes a welcome return to perform as soloist in the seldom heard Humoresques. Pre-concert talk: 6pm with Christopher Morley

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Lauren Zhang

Beethoven

WED 6 MAY

REBEL REBEL – BEETHOVEN & BOWIE WED 26 FEB

IMMORTAL BELOVED 2.30pm The Bradshaw Hall £25 - £18 Conductor Jason Lai Lauren Zhang piano Schumann Genoveva, Overture, Op.81 Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5, Op.73 Schumann Symphony No.2, Op.61 Lauren Zhang, winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year 2018 and RBC Junior Department Conservatoire student makes her debut with OOTS in Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto. The ‘Emperor’ concerto represents the apex of Beethoven’s ‘heroic’ writing, with stormy episodes and virtuoso passages for the piano; the balance between them and the tender moments perfectly judged. Schumann’s admiration of Beethoven went beyond mere words. In 1836 he composed his ‘Grande Sonate’ the proceeds from which were to have been used towards the construction of a monument dedicated to the great composer. He began work on his 2nd symphony in 1845, but was severely hampered by his deteriorating health. It was eventually completed in 1847. Pre-concert talk: 1.30pm with Christopher Morley

7pm The Bradshaw Hall £27.50 - £18 Conductor Philip Sheppard Beethoven Grosse Fuge, Op.133 Philip Sheppard/David Le Page New work based on songs by David Bowie Beethoven Symphony No.5, Op.67 Rebel Rebel examines the cultural impact and far reaching legacies of two visionary artists who challenged the weight of received ideas and accepted musical norms during their respective lifetimes. This concert takes Beethoven’s most iconic work, the 5th symphony, and intersperses it with beautifully reimagined versions of songs by David Bowie from his extraordinary catalogue of recorded material. Both men were possessed by an innate compulsion to reinvent themselves and their work, and despite coming from opposing ends of the musical spectrum, they nevertheless shared an astonishing motivation to be in control of their own artistic destinies. Pre-concert talk: 6pm with Christopher Morley

WED 10 JUN

A CELEBRATION OF NEW TALENT 2.30pm The Bradshaw Hall £25 - £18 Conductor Daniele Rosina Hyungi Lee marimba Anders Koppel Marimba Concerto No.1 OOTS is delighted to welcome Hyungi Lee, the winner of the Bromsgrove International Musicians’ Competition 2019, and one of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s rising stars, winner of the Conservatoire Concerto Prize. Full programme and remaining soloist will be announced in December. Pre-concert talk: 1.30pm with Christopher Morley

Tabea Debus

Samuele Telari

THU 10 OCT WED 9 OCT

YCAT AT THE CONSERVATOIRE: TABEA DEBUS 1.45pm Recital Hall £10 (£8) Ode to an Earworm Tabea Debus recorder Alex McCartney theorbo Jonathan Rees viola da gamba

YCAT AT THE CONSERVATOIRE: SAMUELE TELARI (ACCORDION) 6pm Recital Hall £10 (£8) Samuele Telari accordion Bach (arr. Busoni) Chaconne in D minor BWV.1004 Bruno Mantovani chrono Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition Described by Il Sole24Ore as an “artist whose overwhelming musicality goes beyond his instrument”.

Programme to include Purcell, Handel, Bach, Freya WaleyCohen, Corelli and Falconieri. In 1668, Samuel Pepys put into words what millions of others have experienced: the power of music and its mysterious ability to continue playing inside the listener’s mind. Until the 15th century music was predominantly an aural tradition. However, with the invention of the printing press this tradition began to disappear. Still, some melodies are innately memorable. Tabea is constantly exploring the horizons of music for recorder and has performed widely in Europe, Asia and the USA. Her programme includes music based around sight, hearing and the passage of time, ranging from baroque to contemporary. “Only very rarely do we get the chance to encounter musicians in full artistic control and bestowed with a technical ability that makes you sit and listen in awe.” Early Music Review

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MON 14 OCT

STRAUSS, BORODIN

Samuele Christian Telari Goursaud

1.05pm Recital Hall FREE ADMISSION Holly Teague soprano Jonathan French piano Berg Nacht Debussy Nuit d’étoiles, Beau Soir Dove Between Your Sheets Strauss Wiegenlied, An die Nacht When Tuba Come One Amy Ewen baritone horn Ben Smith euphonium James Hobbis tuba Mark Dilley tuba Karl King arr. Kelly Diamond Barnum and Bailey’s Favourite Borodin arr. Tubalatè Village Choir Michael Bolton arr. James Hobbis Go the Distance

TUE 15 OCT

PUBLIC RESEARCH SEMINAR CHRISTIAN GOURSAUD (ROYAL BIRMINGHAM CONSERVATOIRE) 3.30pm Workshop 2 £5 Antoine Busnoys’s Missa L’homme armé: A New Digital Edition This seminar presents an update on the activities of a major research project based at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, giving an introduction to Dr Christian Goursaud’s work on a cornerstone of fifteenth-century polyphonic composition: Busnoys’s Missa L’homme armé. The complex relationships between the sources of the mass will be discussed, along with notational features peculiar to the composer, and the practicalities of the creation of a new online edition. Dr Christian Goursaud is a Research Fellow at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he is currently a member of a research team working on the AHRC-funded project ‘Interpreting the Mensural Notation of Music: an Expert System Based on the Theory of Johannes Tinctoris’. He is a specialist in fifteenth and sixteenth-century music, with a particular focus on manuscript studies and the practicalities of performing from mensural notation. He is also an active professional singer.

Thomas Buckner

WED 16 OCT

YCAT AT THE CONSERVATOIRE: THE CASTALIAN QUARTET 1.45pm The Recital Hall

TUE 15 OCT

WORLD WAR III, JUST THE HIGHLIGHTS: THOMAS BUCKNER PERFORMS ROBERT ASHLEY 7pm The Lab £10 (£8) Thomas Buckner voice Guest performers from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Composition Department Thomas Buckner, Ashley’s closest friend and collaborator, presents a program of pieces written especially for him by Ashley in their 30+ years of working together. Works include stand-alone pieces such as World War III, Just the Highlights, as well as completely re-conceived concert versions of arias from other operas such as The Producer Speaks. For this multimedia performance Thomas Buckner is joined by guest performers from the composition department.

£10 (£8) Sini Simonen violin Daniel Roberts violin Charlotte Bonneton viola Hannah Shaw viola Christopher Graves cello Haydn String Quartet in F, Op.77 No.2 Brahms String Quintet No.2 in G, Op.111 The Castalian Quartet is rapidly emerging as an exciting voice on the international chamber music scene, and have just been appointed as ensemble-in-residence at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. The Quartet was selected by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2016 and recipients of the inaugural Merito String Quartet Award and Valentin Erben Prize and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Award in 2018.

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FRI 18 OCT

Dr Juliana M. Pistorious

LUNCHTIMES @ BMAG: PHOENIX CLARINET QUARTET 12.30pm The Round Room, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery FREE ADMISSION Katie Jenner, Kaethe Uken, James Mackinder, Nathan Isaac clarinets Musicians from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire treat you to a delightful lunchtime recital in the beautiful surroundings of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. This month features the Phoenix Clarinet Quartet.

MON 21 OCT

BEETHOVEN, RAVEL 1.05pm Recital Hall FREE ADMISSION Petrina Phua piano Beethoven Piano Sonata No.30 in E flat major Ravel Jeux d’eau Will Snell French horn Joanne Sealey piano Georgina Taylor harp Saint-Saëns Romance in E for Horn and Piano Debussy arr. M. Kazimierz Deux chansons Beau Soir et Romance Longinotti Mélodie Romantique for Horn and Harp Mozart Konzert-Rondo KV371

TUE 22 OCT

PUBLIC RESEARCH SEMINAR DR JULIANA M. PISTORIUS (UNIVERSITY OF HUDDERSFIELD) 3.30pm Workshop 2 £5 ‘The troubles of the neck’: Tracing the postcolonial avant-garde in William Kentridge’s The Head & the Load The language of the avant-garde is necessarily, if invisibly, infected with the colonial anti-aesthetic. In The Head & the Load (2018), a collaborative installation by South African artists William Kentridge, Thuthuka Sibisi, Philip Miller, and Gregory Maqoma, this contagion is made visible. Juliana’s analysis of The Head & the Load develops the notion of the postcolonial avant-garde as a critical category through which to read the work’s adoption of European avant-garde conventions in combination with its anticolonial agenda. Juliana M. Pistorius is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield, and Research Fellow at Africa Open Institute, Stellenbosch University. Her research interrogates the racialised politics of operatic performance in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa.

Randall Goosby

WED 23 OCT

YCAT AT THE CONSERVATOIRE: RANDALL GOOSBY (VIOLIN) 1.45pm The Bradshaw Hall £10 (£8) Randall Goosby violin Jonathan Ware piano Debussy Violin Sonata in G minor William Grant Still Suite for violin and piano R. Strauss Sonata for violin and piano Op.18 In 2018 Randall won 1st Prize at the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York. Randall began violin studies at the age of seven. Encouraged by his teacher, he applied for the Perlman Music program which was transformative for him. The Perlmans enabled him to take up a scholarship to the Juilliard Pre-College programme where he studied with Itzhak Perlman and Chatherine Cho until he graduated. He is currently completing his Masters with Donald Weilerstein and Laurie Smukler at Juilliard School. Sought after as a song accompanist and chamber musician, over the last year Jonathan Ware has given recitals at Wigmore Hall (with Golda Schultz, Robin Tritschler and Ludwig Mittelhammer), the Aldeburgh Festival and Boulez-Saal.

THU 24 OCT

AWAKE SWEET LOVE 6pm Recital Hall £10 (£8) Conductor Elizabeth Pallett Priory Early Music Series Willow Burden soprano Rachel Barnard mezzo Jack Whiting tenor Teddy Woolgrove baritone Elizabeth Pallett lute A selection of songs from John Dowland’s First Book of Ayres 1597

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THU 24 OCT

RBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CBSO PRE-CONCERT SHOWCASE

BRUCH’S VIOLIN CONCERTO

6.15pm Symphony Hall

£13 - £52 tickets available from www.thsh.co.uk

FREE ADMISSION

Conductor Fabien Gabel Simone Lamsma violin City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Conductor Michael Seal Lutosławski Concerto for Orchestra Join us for the first of this year’s pre-concert showcases at Symphony Hall, run as part of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s comprehensive partnership with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

7.30pm Symphony Hall

Wagner The Mastersingers of Nuremberg: Overture Bruch Violin Concerto Bruckner Symphony No.4 (Romantic)

Following on from last year’s electrifying showcase performances of The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky and Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite, Michael Seal and the Conservatoire’s Symphony Orchestra return with another 20th-century orchestral showpiece, Witold Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra.

SAT 26 OCT

MON 28 OCT

12pm Beatbox (basement level), Library of Birmingham

1.05pm Recital Hall

FREE ADMISSION

Now in its third year, Chamber Music at the Library of Birmingham is a series of monthly recitals by Royal Birmingham Conservatoire musicians. Expect rich and varied programmes, spanning all departments.

Yuechen Zhao cello

CHAMBER MUSIC SATURDAYS

ELGAR

Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor Alicia Hillman saxophone Joanne Sealey piano Muczynski Sonata Scelsi Tres Pezzi Glazunov Chant du Menestrel

TUE 29 OCT

PUBLIC RESEARCH SEMINAR DR CAROLINE RAE (CARDIFF UNIVERSITY) WITH CHARLES WHITTAKER (VIOLA) 3.30pm Workshop 2 £5 Expressing the Incantatory: Performing Jolivet’s Cinq églogues (1967) for solo viola André Jolivet (1905-1974) was among the most influential French composers of the last century, renowned for his combination of innovative language with expressions of the sacred and incantatory. Spanning the breadth of his compositional oeuvre, Jolivet’s works for strings are some of his most personal musical statements. This talk focuses on the Cinq églogues for solo viola as a microcosm of Jolivet’s late style and will include selected illustrations given by the violist Charles Whittaker, concluding with a complete performance. Caroline Rae is a Reader in music, pianist, writer and broadcaster. She is the editor of André Jolivet: Music, art and literature (Routledge, 2018) and has written extensively on French music since Debussy. She also works on twentieth-century music in Latin America and has particular interests in Franco-Hispanic interactions as well as performance practice and music criticism. She was a piano pupil of Dame Fanny Waterman from childhood, later studying in France with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen (French Government Scholarship) and in Germany with David Wilde and Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover.

TUE 29 OCT

LIXIN LIU (SOPRANO) 1.05pm Recital Hall £10 (£8) Join us for a Professional Performance Showcase featuring soprano Lixin Liu. These concerts feature our Advanced Postgraduate Diploma students - performers at the very highest levels of study who are already launching their professional careers. Programme to be announced on bcu.ac.uk/concerts

WED 30 OCT

THE ART OF PRACTICING 6pm Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £5 Pascal Nemirovski This session, led by Pascal Nemirovski, is intended for young pianists and keen piano amateurs alike who need help with the organisation of their practice to help recognise, analyse and solve difficulties by identifying problem areas, rather than repetitive playing, aiding mental preparation for performance. Pascal will show examples from repertoire including Bach, Chopin, Prokofiev and Scriabin, to put into practice best physical and psychological preparation; practice with an analysis and harmonic approach; development of a more secure technique, and memory and comprehension of the piece by a better use of the ears.

Timothy Ridout

WED 30 OCT

YCAT AT THE CONSERVATOIRE: TIMOTHY RIDOUT (VIOLA) 1.45pm The Bradshaw Hall £10 (£8) Timothy Ridout viola Jâms Coleman piano Glinka Sonata for viola and piano in D minor, G. iv3 Shostakovich P Sonata for viola and piano in C, Op.147 Over the last year, Timothy has made his debut with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, undertaken a residency with Baden-Baden Philharmonie, and performed the Walton Concerto with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under the auspices of the Orpheum Foundation. Timothy was the winner of the inaugural Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition held at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2014, and the first British winner of the Lionel Tertis Competition in 2016. BOOK NOW VIA WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS OR 0121 331 5909

Saorsa Quartet

Eden Stell Duo

FRI 1 NOV

COFFEE, CAKE AND CADENZAS

THU 31 OCT

1pm The Piano Bar, The Alexandra Theatre

6pm Recital Hall

Saorsa Quartet

EDEN STELL GUITAR DUO

FREE ADMISSION

Mark Eden guitar Christopher Stell guitar

Alistair Legg violin Sean Morrison violin Peter Whitehead viola Chloe Butterworth cello

Mompou Cançons i danses Scarlatti Sonatas Castelnuovo-Tedesco Les Guitares bien tempérées Op.199

Haydn String Quartet Op.76, No.2 Borodin String Quartet No.2 in D Britten Three Divertimenti

Mark Eden and Christopher Stell perform elements of three major projects they’ve been collaborating on in recent years.

To guarantee admission please visit www.atgtickets.com/ shows. Please note that the Piano Bar is not currently wheelchair accessible.

£10 (£8)

Enjoy the meditative and contemplative qualities of Mompou; the lyrical Italian style and Iberian inspired rapid toccatalike note flurries of Scarlatti and the refined melodies of Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

MON 4 NOV

POULENC, SAINT-SAËNS

Dr Paola Botham

1.05pm Recital Hall FREE ADMISSION Yu-Han Yang euphonium Joanne Sealey piano John Reeman Sonata for Euphonium Steven Verhelst Evelien Philip Sparke Pantomime Sebastian Wyss violin Tanya Avchinnikova piano Poulenc Sonata Saint-Saëns Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso

TUE 5 NOV

PUBLIC RESEARCH SEMINAR DR PAOLA BOTHAM (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) 3.30pm Workshop 2 £5 Unsettling Futures: The British Dystopian Play

MON 4 NOV

HARPSCAPES 7pm Recital Hall £10 (£8) Helena Bowen, Emily Hopper, Katharine Sherratt, Georgina Taylor, Justina Varkuleviciute, Sun Yuning harps Immerse yourself in the beautiful sound-world of the harp for a unique experience showcasing Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s harpists. Discover masterpieces from Scarlatti, Bartók, Khachaturian, Cardon, Tournier and many more original and transcribed pieces from the harp repertoire.

At a time when disturbing political realities almost seem to be competing with the dystopian imagination, depictions of alarming futures have also multiplied on the British stage. This talk will trace the development of the dystopian play in Britain from the so-called alternative theatre movement post 1968 to current revivals and new writing, giving particular attention to the seminal feminist dystopias of Caryl Churchill and contemporary female dramatists such as Lucy Kirkwood and Debbie Tucker Green. Dr Paola Botham is Lecturer in Drama at Birmingham City University. Her main research interest is modern and contemporary political theatre. Publications include chapters on the history play for Twenty-First Century Drama (Palgrave, 2016) and on Caryl Churchill for Modern British Playwriting (Methuen, 2012), as well as several articles in international academic journals. She is currently working on a monograph titled Political Theatre Reconstructed (Bloomsbury) and coediting the second volume of Political Performances: Theory and Practice (Brill). BOOK NOW VIA WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS OR 0121 331 5909

WED 6 NOV

: X BO ZZ X O rA V rk e ed li

JIAN WANG INTERVIEW & MASTERCLASS 1.45pm The Bradshaw Hall £5 (£3) World-renowned cellist and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire International Chair of Cello, Jian Wang presents an inspiring masterclass.

FRI 8 NOV

VOXBOX: liederkrAZZ 6.30pm Eastside Jazz Club

WED 6 NOV

£10 (£8)

7pm The Lab

Join us for the latest in our innovative VoxBox song series. LiederkrAZZ will bring Schumann’s masterful song cycle, his Liederkreis, Op.39, into sparky dialogue with jazz responses.

INTEGRA LAB £10 (£8) Researchers from RBC’s Integra Lab present a selection of new and exciting works that combine interactive technologies with musical performance. Spanning a broad range of genres, expect performances that examine ways in which technologies – new and old – can be used to generate, expose and explore musical ideas using novel and unconventional approaches.

Students from RBC’s Vocal and Operatic Department will join forces with the Jazz Department to bring together the seemingly opposed in this startling evening of music making. Come and experience what happens when jazz and classical meet and breakdown the perceived barriers of freedom versus preconception, creativity versus re-creativity. This project attempts to build bridges rather than divide, unite where differences occur, encourage and celebrate diversity, support each other’s styles rather than mitigate their idiosyncratic ways, and prove Aristotle right when he said ‘many things are not merely a complete aggregate but instead some kind of a whole beyond its parts’. Do join us for what promises to be an exciting, controversial and invigorating evening as we juxtapose two styles that seem so different, yet have so much in common.

SAT 9 NOV

TIME MEASURES 3pm The Lab FREE ADMISSION Stockhausen’s Zeitmaße – or in English, Time Measures – is a chamber work for five woodwinds that explores the relationships between music and time. Hear the first cohort from the NEXT course – RBC and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group’s study scheme for emerging contemporary performers –perform this seminal work, plus pieces by Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio.

SAT 9 NOV

EARTHRISE 7pm The Bradshaw Hall £15 (£12) Conductor Daniele Rosina Amazingly, it’s fifty years since the first moon landing and the first earthrise was seen by men but still Earthrise - the music of Richard Tandy and Dave Scott-Morgan (Electric Light Orchestra musicians) - chimes on… weightless and timeless, an evergreen commemoration to the excitement and mystery of the time. It was on Christmas Eve 1968 when the crew of Apollo 8 first orbited the moon as a reconnaissance for the Apollo 11 mission and took the iconic photograph of the earth rising out of the lunar landscape. However, it was a long time later - in 1985 - that the Tandy Morgan duo recorded the album of songs Dave had written about that defining event. Richard Tandy, long time keyboard player for The Electric Light Orchestra and Dave Scott-Morgan, guitarist, vocals and composer invite you to the première of an orchestral presentation of their symphonic concept album Earthrise. Tonight’s concert is a unique opportunity to hear the album as interpreted and rearranged by Royal Birmingham Conservatoire composers Rob Roberts, Emily Abdy and Peter May.

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TUE 12 NOV

FRI 15 NOV

6.30pm Organ Studio

7pm The Bradshaw Hall

FREE ADMISSION

£10 (£8)

Enjoy a short performance in our Organ Studio of beautiful music from one of the greatest composers of all time, Johann Sebastian Bach.

Conductor Daniele Rosina

BITE-SIZED BACH

THALLEIN ENSEMBLE

Programme to include music by Luc Ferrari and new pieces by RBC composition students, George West and Oliver Mack.

Eve Egoyan

Jeffrey Skidmore

TUE 12 NOV

GENTLE FLAME 7pm The Bradshaw Hall

MON 18 NOV

£10 (£8)

EVE EGOYAN: THE AUGMENTED PIANO

Conductor Jeffrey Skidmore Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Baroque Orchestra

7pm Recital Hall

JS Bach Cantata BWV 140 Wachet auf JS Bach Cantata BWV 61/62 Nun komm der Heiden Heiland Liz Johnson Gentle Flame (première)

Nicole Lizée David Lynch Etudes for piano and video Chiyoko Szlavnics Constellations I-III for piano and sinetones Southam selections from Simple Lines of Enquiry with the video Machine for Taking Time by David Rokeby

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the candle-led Peaceful Revolution which took place in Leipzig in autumn 1989, this programme explores an Advent theme of darkness into light through two cantatas by JS Bach and a new cantata commissioned from Liz Johnson, entitled Gentle Flame.

FRI 15 NOV

LUNCHTIMES @ BMAG 12.30pm The Round Room, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery FREE ADMISSION Musicians from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire treat you to a delightful lunchtime recital in the beautiful surroundings of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. This month featuring students from the Strings Department. SIGN UP TO OUR MAILING LIST AT WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONSERVATOIRE

£15 (£12)

Eve Egoyan is an artist whose medium is the piano. Her performances encompass diverse sensibilities, from Alvin Curran’s five-hour long Inner Cities to Erik Satie’s miniatures; from minimalist Simple Lines of Enquiry by Ann Southam to works of maximalist complexity by Michael Finnissy; from the barely audible to roaring overtone-filled resonances; from rigorous interpretation of a score to free improvisation.

“ ” Eve Egoyan’s pianism has strengths in abundance. International Piano Magazine

TUE 19 - 22 NOV

NOVEMBERFEST CHAMBER MUSIC AT THE CONSERVATOIRE Following the huge success of our inaugural Piano Chamber Music Festival and Competition in 2018, join us for another celebration of Chamber Music during three-and-a-half packed days in November. Robin Ireland and Daniel Tong have put together a programme in which RBC students and brilliant young ensembles from across the UK intermingle with some of the finest chamber artists in the world. In works as diverse as Haydn and Philip Glass; Mozart and Takemitsu; Schubert and Messiaen, we explore all corners of the repertoire for strings and piano. Gain extra insight from our talks whilst the international artists work with RBC students in masterclasses.

TUE 19 NOV

DEBUSSY, MESSIAEN 5.30pm The Bradshaw Hall £5 (£3) Nino Jvania and Salomé Chitaia (two pianos) Debussy Six Epigraphes Antiques Messiaen Two pieces from Visions de L’Amen

POULENC, RAVEL, CHAUSSON 7.30pm Recital Hall £10 (£8) Daniel Rowland and Anthony Hewitt

Salomé Chitaia

Poulenc Violin Sonata RBC student ensemble Ravel Piano Trio Daniel Rowland, Anthony Hewitt and RBC student quartet Chausson Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet

Anthony Hewitt

Our first evening concert basks in the evocative colours of French repertoire from the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. Join stellar duo Daniel Rowland and Anthony Hewitt for Poulenc’s vibrant sonata, full of wit and irony but with a heartfelt and tender elegie for Federico García Lorca at its centre. Then Ravel’s peerless Piano Trio, a succession of tone poems for three instruments, before Rowland and Hewitt join a quartet of RBC students in one of the lesser-known jewels of the repertoire: Chausson’s magnificent, richly Romantic Concert for Violin, Piano and Strings Quartet.

BOOK NOW VIA WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS OR 0121 331 5909

Bartosz Woroch

GLASS, SCHUBERT 5pm Recital Hall £5 (£3) Usha Kapoor violin Edward Leung piano Philip Glass Sonata for Violin and Piano Schubert Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor, D385 Philip Glass Pendulum

SCHUBERT, SCHOENBERG 7.30pm Recital Hall £10 (£8) Trio Cortàzar Schubert Adagio in E flat, D897 Notturno Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht Trio Opal Schubert Piano Trio in B flat, D898

WED 20 NOV

TAKEMITSU, BEETHOVEN 1pm Recital Hall £5 (£3) Trio Opal Takemitsu Between Tides for Piano Trio Beethoven Piano Trio in B flat, Op.97 Archduke

Our second evening concert journeys to Vienna for works written nearly a century apart. Trio Cortàzar and Trio Opal show us the development of Schubert’s masterly Trio in B flat, firstly by playing its original slow movement (the ‘Notturno’) before a full performance of this astonishing and life-affirming work as it was eventually published. In between, Trio Cortàzar give us Schoenberg’s impassioned and technicolour score for Verklärte Nacht, music from the composer’s early Romantic world and of which he remained proud until the end of his life.

WHAT MAKES MOZART MOZART? 3pm Recital Hall £5 (£3) An Illustrated Lecture by Oliver Wille, with RBC musicians

TUE 19 - 22 NOV

NOVEMBERFEST CHAMBER MUSIC AT THE CONSERVATOIRE Behn Quartet

THU 21 NOV

HAYDN, MOZART

BRAHMS 7.30pm The Bradshaw Hall

1pm Recital Hall

£10 (£8)

£5 (£3)

Ursula Smith and John Thwaites

Trio Cortàzar Haydn Piano Trio in E flat minor Hob XV:31 Jacob’s Dream

Brahms Sonata for Cello and Piano in E minor, Op.38

Fitzroy Quartet Mozart String Quartet in G, K387

HAYDN, BEETHOVEN 5pm Recital Hall £5 (£3) Behn Quartet Haydn String Quartet in G, Op. 76 No.1 Beethoven String Quartet in C minor, Op.18 No.4

‘BRAHMS AND THE GHOSTS OF THE PAST’ 6.30pm Recital Hall £5 (£3) An introduction to Brahms sonatas Op.34 & Op.78 by Daniel Tong 26

Oliver Wille and John Thwaites Brahms Sonata for Violin and Piano in G, Op.78 Bartosz Woroch violin Jianing Kong piano With RBC musicians Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor, Op.34 Brahms contributed masterly works to the chamber repertoire throughout his life. Ursula Smith and John Thwaites team up the first of his Cello Sonatas, with its symphonic opening movement and homage to Bach in the demonic finale. Then Oliver Wille joins Thwaites for the lyrical and expansive first Violin Sonata, encompassing homage to his godson, Felix Schumann, and his idol, Beethoven. In the second half, Bartosz Woroch and Jianing Kong of Trio Cortàzar join forces with RBC students for Brahms’ monumental Piano Quintet, a work that alternates violent passion with episodes of intimate confession.

BOOK NOW VIA WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS OR 0121 331 5909

Jiafeng Chen

Alasdair Beatson

Jubilee Quartet

FRI 22 NOV

1pm Recital Hall

7.30pm Recital Hall

£5 (£3)

£10 (£8)

Jubilee Quartet

RBC Students

Panufnik String Quartet No.3 Ravel String Quartet

Bridge Phantasie for Piano Trio

PANUFNIK, RAVEL

BEACH, MENDELSSOHN 5pm Recital Hall £5 (£3) RBC duo Amy Beach Sonata for Violin and Piano RBC musicians Fanny Mendelssohn String Quartet in E flat

BRIDGE, BRAHMS, ELGAR

Jiafeng Chen, Robin Ireland, Matthew Sharp and RBC students Brahms String Sextet in B flat, Op.18 Alasdair Beatson and RBC musicians Elgar Piano Quintet in A minor, Op.84 Our festival comes to a close in style with RBC students rubbing shoulders with some of our most acclaimed staff members. Frank Bridge was a master of the Phantasie, a through-composed piece that incorporates all the content of a multi-movement work. Followed by the lyrical grandeur of Brahms’ String Sextet in B flat, led by Jiafeng Chen, Robin Ireland and Matthew Sharp. The second half is given to Elgar’s richly elegiac Piano Quintet, with Alasdair Beatson joining top RBC students for this uniquely haunting and exhilarating masterpiece. This should be a night to remember! 27

Daisy Evans

THU 21 – SAT 23 NOV

MON 25 NOV

Thu 7pm, Fri 7pm, Sat 2pm & 7pm The Lab

7pm Recital Hall

£10 (£8)

Director Daisy Evans Conductor Anthony Kraus

The vibrant musical city of Naples is perhaps most famous for its contributions to baroque opera, led by Alessandro Scarlatti. Less well-known is its reputation as a hot-spot for soloistic recorder music written by leading Neapolitan baroque composers including Mancini, Fiorenza, Barbella, and Vinci, as well as Scarlatti himself. Our programme selects some of the best examples of sonatas, concerti and cantatas for recorder with continuo, strings and voice, many of which are rarely performed.

OPERA SCENES

Acclaimed opera director, Daisy Evans and British conductor, Anthony Kraus, join exciting talent from the Vocal and Operatic Department for our ever-popular annual set of Opera Scenes. Enjoy an evening of varied repertoire from well-known arias to less familiar territory as our rising stars present a journey through landscapes both light and dark. A thrilling evening in our studio theatre space, The Lab. Not to be missed!

NEAPOLITAN DISCOVERIES

MON 25 NOV

PROKOFIEV, BRAHMS 1.05pm Recital Hall FREE ADMISSION Grace Duthie flute Joanne Sealey piano Prokofiev Sonata No.2, Op.14 Olga Eckert violin John Thwaites piano Brahms Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in G, Op.78

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Janet Hilton

Jakob Fichert

TUE 26 NOV

PUBLIC RESEARCH SEMINAR: LECTURE-RECITAL JANET HILTON (SPEAKER/CLARINET), WITH JAKOB FICHERT (PIANO) 3.30pm Recital Hall £5 New Tonalities: Music for Clarinet and Piano by Busoni, Wellesz, Hindemith This lecture-recital aims to highlight three answers to the crisis of traditional harmony in the time of the Fin de siècle and the first half of the 20th century. Approaches such as Schönberg’s serialism or Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition have been widely studied. We explore fascinating and inspiring contributions to the music of the last century by three composers who are less frequently programmed and whose tonal languages are less familiar, Busoni, Hindemith and Wellesz. Janet Hilton has appeared with most major British orchestras, at festivals including Edinburgh and the BBC Promenade Concerts, and in many other countries. Her acclaimed recordings for Chandos include the chamber music repertoire by Weber, Brahms, Mozart and Sir Arthur Bliss and concertos by Weber, Nielsen, Copland and Stanford. She has also recorded Max Reger’s three clarinet sonatas for Naxos. Her most recent recording, Flying Solo, is a programme of music for unaccompanied clarinet. An internationally-known teacher, Janet was Head of Woodwind at the Royal College of Music for twelve years, where she continues to teach, also travelling widely for concerts and masterclasses, including visits to Paris, Vienna, the USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Australia. Jakob Fichert has performed extensively in the UK and abroad and has recorded for Toccata Classics, Resonus Classics, Divine Arts and Naxos to great critical acclaim both as a soloist and collaborating artist in chamber music and Lied. Jakob studied at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe with Wolfgang Manz and as a postgraduate with Yonty Solomon at the Royal College of Music. Jakob has given numerous master classes for conservatoires, universities and music specialist schools in the UK, China and Mexico, is Principal Lecturer in Piano at Leeds College of Music, Principal MA Piano Tutor at University of York and is also an Associate of the Universities of Leeds and Hull.

Lixin Liu

Thomas Riebl

WED 27 NOV

THOMAS RIEBL INTERNATIONAL CHAIR IN VIOLA: INTERVIEW AND MASTERCLASS 1.45pm The Bradshaw Hall £5 (£3)

TUE 26 NOV

LIXIN LIU (SOPRANO) 1pm The Bradshaw Hall £10 (£8) Advance Performance Diploma student Lixin Liu returns for another lunchtime performance.

An interview and masterclass with the world-renowned Thomas Riebl, International Chair of Viola at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

WED 27 NOV

THE SECOND DAME GILLIAN WEIR MESSIAEN PRIZE 5pm St Chad’s Cathedral

TUE 26 NOV

FREE ADMISSION

PHILIP BATES PRIZE FOR COMPOSERS AND SONGWRITERS

Young BMus organ students at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire compete for a £1,000 prize kindly donated by one of the world’s foremost musicians – Dame Gillian Weir.

7pm Recital Hall

The Second Dame Gillian Weir Messiaen Prize will be awarded for the best performance of a wide-ranging programme, which includes a work by Olivier Messiaen. We are honoured to have Dame Gillian on the adjudication panel this evening.

£10 (£8) Join us for an evening celebrating the very best in new compositions, and help shape the landscape of future music. The Philip Bates Trust and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire jointly run the annual Philip Bates Prize for Composers and Songwriters, an exceptionally broad competition which has recognised talent in a variety of genres. It encourages entries in everything from classical, jazz and folk, to singer-songwriter ballads, Asian music and rock, as long as the work is suitable for live performance and appealing to a wide range of concertgoers. 30

BOOK NOW VIA WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS OR 0121 331 5909

Mixed Brass

WED 27 NOV

PIANO SHOWCASE 6.15pm Symphony Hall FREE ADMISSION The Conservatoire’s finest pianists take to the stage of Symphony Hall.

HAYDN AND MOZART 7.30pm Symphony Hall £13 - £52 tickets available from www.thsh.co.uk Conductor Riccardo Minasi Oliver Janes Clarinet Nikolaj Henriques Bassoon Haydn Symphony No.88 Strauss Duett-Concertino for Clarinet and Bassoon Beethoven Coriolan: Overture Mozart Symphony No.39

THU 28 NOV

MIXED WIND, BRASS AND PERCUSSION ENSEMBLES 6pm The Bradshaw Hall £10 (£8) Directors Douglas Mitchell and Amos Miller Kenneth Hesketh The Doctrine of Affections Gunther Schuller Double Quintet for Wind and Brass Quintets Morton Feldman Instruments 1 Elizabeth Maconchy Music for Woodwind and Brass Come and hear the Conservatoire’s woodwind, brass and percussing musicians showcase some of the best chamber music for their instruments in a stylistically eclectic AngloAmerican programme, including rare live opportunities to hear a seminal work by Morton Feldman, a jazz-inflected double quintet by the criminally underrated Gunther Schuller, an octet by vibrant British composer Kenneth Hesketh and a magnificent work for 18 players by Elizabeth Maconchy.

FRI 29 NOV

SAT 30 NOV

7pm The Bradshaw Hall

12pm Beatbox (basement level), Library of Birmingham

£10 (£8)

FREE ADMISSION

Conductors Amos Miller and Ian Porthouse Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Symphonic Brass and Brass Band

Dunev Quartet

RBC SYMPHONIC BRASS & BRASS BAND

Birmingham Services for Education Brass Band Martin Riley New Work (world première) Hans Werner Henze Ragtimes and Habaneras Richard Strauss Festmusik der Stadt Wien Ray Farr Intrada: Ein’Feste Burg Dan Jenkins Navarra Philip Sparke Year of the Dragon Our annual autumn concert gives you the opportunity to hear Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Brass Department in action in a riveting programme of epic and rarely performed works, with special guests Birmingham Services for Education Brass Band directed by Saphran Ali.

CHAMBER MUSIC SATURDAYS

Hristo Dunev violin Alastair Legg violin Eleanor Chapman viola Alice Cheer cello Beethoven String Quartet No.1 in F, Op.18 No.1 Grieg String Quartet No.1 in G minor, Op.27 An exciting series of concerts given by students from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Chamber Music department. This month featuring the Dunev String Quartet.

SAT 30 NOV

JUNIOR CONSERVATOIRE CONCERT 7pm Recital Hall £8 (£6) Talented young artists from the Junior Conservatoire present an engaging programme of music.

BOOK NOW VIA WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS OR 0121 331 5909

Boult’s Bar and Restaurant is located on Level 0 with a simple range of hot and cold food for you to enjoy throughout the day and evening – equally perfect for you to enjoy before or after a concert or just when you are meeting up with friends. Also located here, the bar serves a range of quality wines, fizz, craft beers and fabulous cocktails.

OUR SUPPORTERS Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is extremely grateful for the generous support of all its donors, in particular the following individuals, foundations and organisations.

INDIVIDUAL DONORS

Helen Allen The Family and Friends of Margaret Asher S S Baden Andrew Banks The Estate of Royston Beech Margaret Beesley Ian Bentley Dr Keith Bradshaw OBE DL Tony Bridgewater & Veronica Bridgewater A J Briscoe Paul Butcher Anita Davies Tony Davies & Darin Qualls Stuart Denning Professor Andrew Downes H J Edgar Steve Elliott Alan Fairs The Estate of Pauline Faulkner G Gregory John Gripton & Rosemary Phillips Tony Hales CBE David Hart & Erica Hart Elizabeth Hobbs Mark Hopton Sean Kelly Gail Lawrence Donald Main Kerry Milan Herm Miller Betty Milne John Morris Marita Morrison A R Phillips Andrew Rackham Richard Rathbone Joseph Seager Jean Smith & John D Smith Margaret A Tait Judith Taylor A C Turner Professor Graham Upton Dame Gilliam Weir DBE The Family and Friends of Gwyn Williams Jane Williams & Bob Walker

FOUNDATIONS AND ORGANISATIONS

LEGACY FELLOWS

Awards for Young Musicians Cheltenham Ladies College Churchill Music Marden House Concerts Orchestras for All PRS Foundation Signatur Sophieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Silver Lining Fund The Alan Edward Higgs Charity The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation The Aspinwall Educational Trust The Brooks Van Der Pump Charitable Trust The Carne Trust The Denis Matthews Memorial Trust The DMC McDonald Foundation The EMI Music Sound Foundation The Ernest Cook Trust The Fidelio Charitable Trust The GDST Shrewsbury The George Cadbury Trust The Gibbons Family Trust The Headley Trust The John Avins Trust The Joseph Weingarten Memorial Trust The Leverhulme Trust The Michael Bishop Foundation The Music and Dance Scheme The Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Association The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Trust The Schubert Ensemble Trust The Wolfson Foundation Universal Music UK Sound Foundation

Tony & Veronica Bridgewater John Gripton & Rosemary Phillips Marita Morrison Jeremy Patterson Richard Rathbone Jane Williams & Bob Walker If you would like to support the work of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and its students, please contact Robin Leonard at robin.leonard@bcu.ac.uk or on 0121 331 5534. Thank you for your support!

BOOK NOW VIA WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONCERTS OR 0121 331 5909

HOW TO FIND US HOW TO FIND US

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is situated at 200 Jennens Road, Birmingham B4 7XR, opposite Aston University and behind Millennium Point.

PARKING

There is a multi-storey car park owned and managed by Birmingham City Council situated adjacent to Millennium Point. The car park entrance is on Howe Street off Jennens Road. If you are using a sat nav please use the postcode B4 7AP.

BUS ROUTES

The 14, 55, 66 and 94 all go from Priory Queensway (B&M Bargains) and stop on Jennens Road. There is a stop almost opposite Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with a pedestrian crossing nearby.

ACCESSIBILITY

Wheelchair users are entitled to concessionary priced tickets with a complimentary companion seat. Guide dogs are welcome at all Royal Birmingham Conservatoire venues. If you wish to bring a guide dog or wheelchair, please let the Events Office know by calling 0121 331 5909. PLEASE NOTE that listings are correct at time of going to print.

ROYAL BIRMINGHAM CONSERVAT OIRE AS SOCI AT ION Join us today to support the musicians of tomorrow! Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Association (RBCA) is a subscription-based membership association which supports the work of students at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Our international membership consists of alumni, current and former members of staff, distinguished Honorary Members including the President of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE Duniv, parents, friends and all those wishing to support our objectives. Formerly a registered charity, RBCA is now officially part of, and wholly administered by, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Our work is overseen by a committee comprising senior Conservatoire staff and volunteers who possess a diverse range of expertise and experiences across different sectors and industries.

expenses, and masterclasses) and to help produce the Conservatoire’s twice-yearly promotional magazine Fanfare. We also support Conservatoire students’ involvement in the CBSO’s Learning and Participation Programme. Membership of RBCA is open to anybody wishing to support the work of the students at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. The students increasingly need your help in these days of economic challenge and uncertainty. Please visit our website www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/bca to see the benefits offered to RBCA Members and join us online or by requesting further details from Robin Leonard by emailing rbca@bcu.ac.uk or calling 0121 331 5534.

RBCA’s primary objectives are to provide financial support to individual students for a variety of needs (such as instrument purchase and repair, travelling and living SIGN UP TO OUR MAILING LIST AT WWW.BCU.AC.UK/CONSERVATOIRE