Paul Drayton
Pre Season Talk
26th September 2023 at 7pm (doors 6:30pm
Mylor Theatre
This entertaining and informative “season taster” event is presented by pianist,
composer, conductor and teacher Paul Drayton, who comments on the season ahead in his own inimitable style with piano accompaniment and other recorded musical illustrations.
Tickets: £5 on the door (non-members)
FREE ENTRY FOR MEMBERS
​
FRIDAY 13TH OCTOBER 2023
Laura van der Heijden &
Max Baillie, cello and violin
Programme to include:-
Honegger: Sonatine for Violin and Cello
Kodály: Duo for Violin and Cello
J S Bach: Arrangements of Chorale 305 and
Inventions 4, 12 and 13
Laura van der Heijden has emerged as one of the leading cellists of her generation. Recently signed to Chandos Records, her first album “Pohádka” was
released in 2022 to critical acclaim. Highlights of the coming season include touring with the Brno Philharmonic, BBC Symphony at the Barbican, Scottish
Chamber Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, BBC Scottish Symphony and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. In 2023, she is also Artist in Focus at King’s Place,
London. She also gives solo and chamber recitals at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall, Cheltenham Music Festival and at the Bad Kissingen Festival.
British-German violinist Max Baillie has performed deep in the Sahara Desert with Malian nomads, has led Bjork’s band in the Royal Albert Hall, and played with
Bobby McFerrin at Carnegie Hall. He is founding member of Lodestar Trio with its unique Scandinavian folk versions of Bach and other Baroque music, and
also of ZRI— a quintet inspired by the Viennese Red Hedgehog Tavern where Brahms and Schubert heard the Gypsies play. A graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin
School, Max was mentored by the legendary violinist Ivry Gitlis. He plays the mandolin, and graduated from Christ’s College, Cambridge, with a first class degree in Political Philosophy
FRIDAY 17TH NOVEMBER 2023
Malachy Frame &
Frederick Brown,
baritone and piano
Programme:
Schubert: Winterreise
​
Belfast-born baritone Malachy Frame was Northern Ireland Opera's 'Voice of 2016,' having won the competition at the company's annual Festival of Voice
in August. Since then, operatic roles have ranged from Figaro in Mozart’s ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ to March Hare/White Knight in Todd’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland’. Malachy made his Wigmore Hall debut
singing Bach with the Gabrieli Consort.
Frederick Brown was born and brought up in Truro. As a Truro Cathedral chorister he attended Polwhele House School, followed by Truro School before moving
on to Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music where he studied piano accompaniment under Michael Dussek. Frederick joined the staff of Welsh National Opera as a conductor and pianist in 2018, having previously held a post as répétiteur at the Hamburg State Opera.
Malachy and Frederick met at the Royal Academy of Music and have given a number of recitals in London. They are excited to be performing Winterreise together in Truro.
FRIDAY 15TH DECEMBER 2023
O Duo, percussion duo
(Owen Gunnell & Toby Kearney)
Programme to include arrangements of:-
Chopin: Revolutionary Étude
Maxwell-Davies: Farewell to Stromness
Steve Reich: Clapping Music
O Duo was formed in 2000 by Owen Gunnell and Oliver Cox who were both scholars at the Royal College of Music. In the summer of 2018 Toby Kearney joined O Duo. Alongside international performances, O Duo has won a Special Commissioning Award from the BorlettiBuitoni Trust and been appointed Artistic Directors of the Children’s Classic Concerts series in Scotland.
O Duo has performed across the world. Highlights include appearing at the BBC Proms, at the Last Night of the Proms in Hyde Park, recitals at the Wigmore Hall,
Cheltenham and City of London Festivals. O Duo gave the premiere of Stephen McNeff’s Concert O-Duo at the Barbican as part of BBC Symphony Orchestra’s
80th birthday concert.
‘brimming with style and panache’ (Daily Telegraph)
FRIDAY 19TH JANUARY 2024
Leon McCawley, Piano
Haydn: Sonata No. 34 in D major Hob. XVI/33
Tchaikovsky: Song of the Lark & Autumn Song
from The Seasons Op. 37a
Prokofiev: Sonata No. 2 in D minor Op. 14
Chopin: Impromptu in A flat major Op. 29
Schubert : Four Impromptus D 935
Praised for his unfailingly communicative playing, British pianist Leon McCawley has been delighting audiences worldwide since winning, in 1993, first prize
in the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna and second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition. His many concert performances
and extensive discography have established him as a pianist of great integrity and variety, bringing freshness and vitality to Classical, Romantic and 20th century
repertoire. McCawley’s recent CD of Haydn Sonatas Volume IV for SOMM Recordings is no exception:
“There is real freshness to McCawley’s playing throughout, concomitant with a sense of Haydn’s delight in playing with form. Captured in superb sound, this is one of McCawley’s finest discs to date”.
(International Piano, December 2021).
“One of today’s most impeccably musical pianists.”(International Piano, January/February 2021
FRIDAY 9TH FEBRUARY 2024
Zoe Tweed & Julian Chan,
French horn and piano
Programme to include arrangements of music by Saint-Saëns, Strauss, Schumann and Bozza
Originally from Wells, Somerset, Zoë moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music for both her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, and is now a busy freelance Horn player. She is currently on trial for Principal Horn with the Scottish Chamber and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras and 3rd Horn with the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, while performing regularly with other orchestras across the UK. Zoë is interested in a range of musical styles and genres and is an avid chamber musician, having both written and arranged works for brass, and wind quintet. She is also involved in recording sessions for TV and Film and as a Munster Trust Recital Artist, she hosts solo recitals around the country.
Born in Kuala Lumpur in 2000, pianist and composer Julian Chan is currently recipient of the Steinway & Sons Award at the Royal Academy of Music, where he
studies with Ian Fountain and Michael Dussek.
FRIDAY 15TH MARCH 2024
Primrose Piano Quartet
Mozart: Piano Quartet in E flat
Francaix: String Trio
Saint-Saëns: Barcarolle for Piano Quartet
Chausson: Piano Quartet
The Primrose Piano Quartet was formed in 2004 by four renowned chamber musicians and is named after the violist, William Primrose. The group's acclaimed
discography includes favourites such as works by Fauré, Brahms, Elgar, Strauss and Schubert as well British repertoire featuring neglected masterpieces of
the 19th and 20th century and major commissions from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Anthony Payne (premièred at the Cheltenham Festival and at King's Place London). Their double CD of the complete Brahms piano quartets on period pianos was the culmination of years of research into historically informed performance practice and has been hailed by critics as "revelatory”. A similar disc of French works will be released in 2024. The Quartet enjoy a busy performing schedule throughout the UK and abroad with recent tours taking them to Denmark, Germany, Romania, Portugal and Bulgaria in addition to regular
appearances at London's Kings Place, Wigmore and Conway Halls. Their own festival in West Meon, Hampshire is now in its 12th year, and they were
appointed ensemble-in-residence at the Battle Festival in 2016.