Mairi McGillivray (pictured) recently completed her Master of Music in Vocal Performance at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under the tutelage of Louise Crane, having previously gained a Bachelor of Music from University of Glasgow (one semester at State University of New York).

Lunchtime Music

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

450 years ago, in the summer of 1576, the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe began construction of Uranienborg – his groundbreaking laboratory and astronomical observatory on the island of Hven. It marked the beginning of a Danish fascination with the sky and the stars that continues to this day.

Towards the stars

Trinity Church Copenhagen

British cellist Marie Macleod has been a familiar presence in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra since 2013, when she joined as principal cello. In this concert, she is joined by pianist Martin Sturfält to highlight music for cello by four English composers.

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Salut d’amour

Stockholm Concert Hall

In the Renaissance, Advent—the weeks preceding the celebration of Christ’s birth at Christmas—was a time of wonder and reflection. Centuries-old carols tell this story, with some works presented here in their inherited form, others reimagined by skilled arrangers. This programme reaches across the ages: from the eternal beauty of the Tudor church right up to the twenty-first century, with each piece chosen to evoke a sense of mystery and joy.

Veni Emmanuel

Smith Square Hall

Experience an evening of orchestral brilliance with a program that spans centuries of musical innovation. The concert opens with George Frideric Handel’s Water Music Suite No. 1, a regal masterpiece brimming with baroque elegance. Contemporary composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s Quark Dances—a dynamic and imaginative work that fuses science and sound—adds a bold, modern voice to the evening. Finally, the program culminates with Benjamin Britten’s Les Illuminations, a luminous and evocative song cycle that brings Rimbaud’s vivid poetry to life through Britten’s expressive, shimmering orchestration. Don’t miss this captivating journey through time and tone.

Radiance

Town Hall Seattle

Famous for its infectious rhythms and soaring themes, Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony simply bursts with life and energy. It’s the climax of a concert celebrating song in all its forms. The inspirational RSNO Changed Voices toast their 20th anniversary with a new piece by Cheryl Frances-Hoad and baritone Andreas Landin hits the road in Vaughan Williams’ lovely Songs of Travel based on the poetry of Scotland’s own Robert Louis Stevenson.

Beethoven Seven

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Dunedin Consort’s Associate Director Nicholas Mulroy leads Scotland’s only professional choir through music that invites contemplation and reflection in four of Scotland’s most beautiful acoustics. The season of Lent, a time of penitence for Christians leading up to Easter, has inspired composers over the centuries to write some of their most beautiful and heartrending music. In this a cappella programme, you’ll hear connections between renaissance polyphony, Francis Poulenc, and Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

The Quality of Mercy choral tour

St Aloysius' Church, Garnethill

The ensemble’s recent album brings together a sequence of works, ancient and modern, to mark the feast of Epiphany.

The Gesualdo Six

Wigmore Hall

The afternoon's performance blends narrative and music, telling the stories of cellos lost and found. The stories are drawn from Kate Kennedy’s book Cello: A Journey through Silence to Sound (Head of Zeus/Bloomsbury), released in August 2024.

Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound

New Zealand-born violinist Geneva Lewis has forged a reputation as a musician of consummate artistry. Named a BBC New Generation Artist (2022–24), Ms. Lewis is also the recipient of a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant. She was Grand Prize winner of the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Competition, winner of the Kronberg Academy’s Prince of Hesse Prize (2021), Musical America’s New Artist of the Month (June 2021), a Performance Today Young Artist in Residence, and a YCAT Concordia Artist.

Solo Recitals at the Strand: Geneva Lewis, violin

Strand Theatre, Rockland

Ryan Wigglesworth’s feast of English music opens with Britten’s suite of ‘best bits’ from his 1953 Coronation opera Gloriana, all about the fraught relationship between Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex. Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s new climate change-themed Cello Concerto – premiered last year in Glasgow by tonight’s forces – takes inspiration from three disparate aspects of the natural world. Elgar’s Symphony No. 2 is considered by many to be the best ever written in England. ‘I have put my soul into it,’ said the composer of this captivating journey, whose thrusting outward energy conceals deep inner poignancy.

Prom 10: Elgar’s Second Symphony

Royal Albert Hall

An Avery Fisher Career Grant winner and Performance Today young artist, Lewis made her debut at the Tannery in 2022, and we re-engaged her immediately. Her beautiful musicality supported by an astounding technique will captivate you.

Geneva Lewis, violin & Janice Carissa, piano

Union College

Our Chief Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth closes the season with a passionate and moving concert with 2012’s BBC Young Musician, Laura van der Heijden.

Elgar's Symphony No.2

City Halls

Enjoy a varied programme of chamber music from Royal College of Music musicians in the Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room.

Classical Coffee Mornings at the Royal Albert Hall: Eva Schockmel

Joby Talbot follows his critically acclaimed 2005 commission for Tenebrae, Path of Miracles, with a new a cappella work, a setting of WB Yeats’s The Song of Wandering Aengus. This evening’s concert stands as a celebration of the great British choral tradition and the vast panoply of works written for its finest ensembles. Tenebrae crowns its programme with the transcendent sounds of High Flight, an exquisite evocation of Bob Chilcott’s memories of life as a boy chorister at King’s College, Cambridge.

Tenebrae; Nigel Short conductor

This programme moves across the ages, from the intricate architecture of Renaissance polyphony by Palestrina, Lassus and Byrd, to the distinctive voices of the present day, including Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Blake Morgan. At its centre is the season of Advent: a time of waiting and anticipation. Ancient hymns and carols sit alongside modern reflections on the Christmas story, with familiar melodies appearing both in their traditional form and through the lens of contemporary arrangers. From candlelit devotion to moments of joy, The Gesualdo Six trace a musical path through the festive season.

O Magnum Mysterium

The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge and conductor Graham Ross return to Sinfonia Smith Square for the final concert in their year-long celebration of Clare College’s 700th anniversary.  Traditional carols and Christmas motets and anthems, including those from the time of the College’s founding such as Angelus ad virginem and In dulci jubilo sit alongside more recent additions to the canon, including works written especially for the Choir by the late Sir John Tavener, former Director of Music Sir John Rutter, and Cecilia McDowall.  The programme also includes Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s The Nativity, commissioned for the College’s 700th anniversary.

Angelus ad Virginem

Enjoy an evening of powerful orchestral storytelling led by conductor Valentina Peleggi. The program opens with Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s atmospheric Invocatio. Cellist Jason McComb then takes centerstage for Saint-Saëns’s dazzling Cello Concerto No. 1, a virtuosic showcase of passion and lyricism. The concert concludes with Schubert’s dramatic Symphony No. 4, “Tragic,” a work of striking intensity and energy. Join us for a captivating performance that blends bold contemporary voices with beloved masterworks. 

Saint-Saëns & Schubert

Perkinson Center for the Arts & Education

After pursuing the Artist Diploma programme at the Norwegian Academy of Music, South Korean- British pianist Victor Lim completed his studies with Kathryn Stott at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), gaining its prestigious International Artist Diploma. Victor was selected as one of RNCM’s 50 Faces in 2023 and was made an Associate of the RNCM in 2025. He is also a City Music Foundation Artist, Making Music UK’s Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist and the winner of the 2021 RNCM Gold Medal.

Cheryl Frances-Hoad

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 18, 2026

Classical Coffee Mornings at the Royal Albert Hall: Eva Schockmel · Royal College of Music

Dec 11, 2026

Tenebrae; Nigel Short conductor · Wigmore Hall

Dec 15, 2026

O Magnum Mysterium · Sinfonia Smith Square

Dec 21, 2026

Angelus ad Virginem · Sinfonia Smith Square

29 - 31 Jan, 2027

Saint-Saëns & Schubert · Richmond Symphony

Past events

Sep 21, 2026

Lunchtime Music · Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Jun 18, 2026

Towards the stars · DR Vocal Ensemble

About

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