LEAMINGTON Music, the leading promoter of chamber and early music in the Midlands, is preparing for another busy winter.
The Leamington Music Winter Season is built round two monthly series of concerts in Warwick and Leamington.
The Early Music at St Mary’s Church Warwick concerts begin on October 4 when The Marian Consort perform in the series for the first time, with a programme of vocal music of the golden age of Elizabethan times.
The series, which has given Warwick a national profile over the last 25 years, sees the return of the viol consort Fretwork, The Gesualdo Six and Ex Cathedra. The City Musick and the young German star recorder player Tabea Debus perform in Warwick for the first time.
The International String Quartet Concerts series at the Royal Pump Rooms in Leamington has been a feature of the town’s music scene for nearly30 years and the 2022/23 season is launched by the Brodsky Quartet. Other quartets returning to Leamington include the Fitzwilliam, Piatti, Doric and the Arcadia from Romania.
Making its debut is the young Anglo-American Eusebius Quartet on 4 November, which includes Tendrils, a work by Leamington composer Howard Skempton, just days after he celebrates his 75th birthday.
Other venues used in Warwick include the Unitarian Chapel, where the Mexican guitarist Morgan Szymanski will take the audience on a musical journey through Latin America on October 12 and The Dream Factory where the klezmer group She’Koyoh will perform on November 22.
In Leamington, the Royal Spa Centre hosts three concerts, a brass band extravaganza on November 13 and the annual Ensemble 360 day with a Family Concert in the morning and a concert of large-scale chamber music in the afternoon on March 5.
The hall at Kingsley School once again hosts the winners of the 2022 Leamington Music Prize, the Félicité Piano Trio on November 18 and nearby Holy Trinity Church will have a Christmas Concert, The Mirth and Melody of Angels with The York Waits on December 7.
Festival director Richard Phillips said: “We have evolved a successful formula over the years for our Winter Season and as before there is a good mix of our audiences’ favourites, plus some new groups to discover. And many of them will be involved in our Education Programme visiting local schools.
“Having put on some 50 concerts in the year following the resumption of public performances, we feel we are now back to normality. We live in bewildering times and the range and quality of music-making that Leamington Music offers has never been more needed.”
Visit www.leamingtonmusic.org for tickets and full performance details.
