Exceptional young guitarist Sungbin Cho, winner of the London International Guitar Competition in 2021, performs Stephen Dodgson’s Guitar Quintet with the Asaka Quartet in an evening performance at the Royal Academy of Music.
Graduating with a BMus from the Korea National University of Arts, Sungbin Cho subsequently served in the Republic of Korea Air Force where he completed his two-year military service before entering the Royal Academy of Music to undertake an MA in Performance, with Michael Lewin. He is the first Korean national to play classical guitar at the RAM.
Sungbin Cho – guitar
Asaka Quartet:
Iona Mcdonald – Violin I
Guo Yu – Violin II
Xin He – Viola
Jonathan Fong – Cello
This year, the Barnes Music Festival sees the launch of a year-long international choral project, which marks the 10th anniversary of the composer’s death (2023) and his centenary year (2024) and encourages choirs and vocal groups all over the world to perform and record Stephen Dodgson rich and varied choral output. To mark the start of the project, Barnes Music Festival host a three-choir concert with the opportunity to browse scores and a catalogue detailing Stephen Dodgson’s choral works.
Programme
‘Tis Almost One
Four Poems of Mary Coleridge
Home-bred pictures
Two Choral Songs
Barnes Festival Consort – dir. James Day
Pegasus Choir – dir. Matthew Altham
The Vickers-Bovey Duo perform a programme at the Barnes Music Festival based around nature and the works of Stephen Dodgson, who wrote prolifically for guitar composing many works for Julian Bream and John Williams, also paying tribute to one of his favourite composers Leoš Janáček.
The duo received the Principal’s Prize at the Birmingham Conservatoire and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with Distinction and the Performance Diploma in 2016.
Programme
Dodgson – Promenade
Janáček – In The Mists (arr. Bovey)
Rameau – Pieces de Clavecin (arr. Vickers/Bovey)
Dodgson – Riversong
Shining new light on an old treasure. This Barnes Music Festival concert centres around ‘A Beautiful Object’: the harpsichord, with a new work of that same name by a rising figure on the contemporary music scene, composer Héloïse Werner. Auspiciously absent at the start, the harpsichord is introduced with music of its main era, in an arrangement that links its celebrated past to the present. With Héloïse’s piece, then follows an exciting journey of discoveries. Stephen Dodgson’s Sonata has beautiful serenade-like character, with its last movement a nod to the harpsichord’s illustrious past, guiding us back in time again to one of the Unmeasured Preludes by French Baroque composer Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre. The evening finishes with one of the most famous contemporary harpsichord concertos to date.
Bach Club is a concert curator, boutique label and home to Bach Club Soloists, an ensemble focusing on period instruments, new commissions, and remarkable collaborations. Bach Club founder and director Pawel Siwczak, is a Polish & British musician with a passion for historical keyboards, putting emphasis on the storytelling power of the language of music; the sheer ability to communicate expressively with the audience is key to him.
Programme
Purcell, arr. Britten, arr. Siwczak – Chacony in G Minor
Héloïse Werner – A Beautiful Object (world premiere)
Dodgson – Sonata for Four
de La Guerre – Unmeasured Prelude for harpsichord
De Falla – Concerto for harpsichord, flute, oboe, clarinet, violin and cello
Bach Club Soloists, directed by Pawel Siwczak, with musicians from Britten Sinfonia
Thomas Hancox, Flute
Peter Facer, Oboe
Jackie Shave, Violin
Caroline Dearnley, Cello
Pawel Siwczak, Harpsichord
Exceptional young guitarist Sungbin Cho, winner of the London International Guitar Competition in 2021, performs his final recital at the Royal Academy of Music: a complete concert of Dodgson guitar works.
Programme
Partita no. 1
Fantasy-Divisions
Guitar Quintet (with the Asaka Quartet)
Guitar Concerto (with orchestra)
Graduating with a BMus from the Korea National University of Arts, Sungbin Cho subsequently served in the Republic of Korea Air Force where he completed his two-year military service before entering the Royal Academy of Music to undertake an MA in Performance, with Michael Lewin. He is the first Korean national to play classical guitar at the RAM.
Join the Mēla Guitar Quartet in a wonderfully eclectic evening hosted by the Luton Music Club featuring Stephen Dodgson’s Change-Ringers alongside works by Philip Houghton and Laura Snowden and arrangements of Bach, Debussy, Ravel, Glinka, Milhaud, Bizet, Sain-Saëns, and Brubeck and Desmond. The quartet recently recorded Change-Ringers as part of a delightful collection of Dodgson guitar chamber works.
Programme
Camille Saint-Saëns – Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah arr. Bovey
Claude Debussy – Deux Arabesques arr. Tarlton Andante con Moto; Allegretto Scherzando
Phillip Houghton – Opals (1995) Black Opal; Water Opal; White Opal
J.S. Bach – Organ fugue BWV 578 arr. Mēla
Mikhail Glinka – Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture arr. Tarlton
Stephen Dodgson – Change-Ringers (1996)
Maurice Ravel – Pavane pour une infante défunte arr. Robinson
Laura Snowden – My Clock is Broken! (2019)
Darius Milhaud – Brazileira from Scaramouche arr. Robinson
Brubeck/Desmond Medley arr. Tarlton
Georges Bizet/Goss – Carmen Fantasy: Seguidilla; Gypsy Song