International locals among star line-up for Leamington Music Festival Weekend - The Leamington Observer

International locals among star line-up for Leamington Music Festival Weekend

Leamington Editorial 4th Apr, 2017 Updated: 4th Apr, 2017   0

THIS year’s Leamington Music Festival Weekend brings a starry line-up of artists to town but also involves two locals with international reputations.

Running from April 28 to May 2, the festival will include baritone Roderick Williams, who lives in Kineton, and Leamington-based composer Howard Skepton.

Roderick will perform in two concerts at the Pump Rooms. Accompanied by Iain Burnside, he will sing Schubert’s great cycle Die schöne Müllerin on Sunday April 30, followed by a performance with Ensemble 360 of Skempton’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner on Monday May 1.

Roderick is currently half way through with his Schubert Project, which sees him giving performances of the three great song cycles over a period of three years.




He sang Winterreise in Warwick last November and he will conclude with Schwanengesang in the following Leamington Music Festival Weekend in May next year.

Howard has lived in Leamington for some 30 years now. He is always busy with commissions and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was premiered in Birmingham in autumn 2015. It was performed by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and given at the Wigmore Hall in London the following day. The recording with Roderick, BCMG and conductor Martyn Brabbins is issued this month.


Howard is working on a further commission for Roderick using D. H. Lawrence’s Man and Bat. The premiere is scheduled for July in Sheffield.

Howard celebrates his 70th birthday in October. To mark this special year the Leamington Music Festival Weekend includes a new work called Dedication written for Benjamin Nabarro (violin) and Gemma Rosefield (cello) and the Clarinet Quintet which was premiered in Warwick in the Festival 20 years ago, and which will be played by Jack McNeill with the Gildas String Quartet on May 2.

For tickets visit www.royalspacentreandtownhall.co.uk or call 01926 334418.

Vist www.leamingtonmusic.org for full festival details.

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