Warwick & Leamington Midsummer Music Festival

Warwick District Music Promoters Forum

Leamington Music

Warwick & Leamington

Midsummer Music Festival 25 June to

10 July 2021

Celebrating

Welcome to the Warwick & Leamington Midsummer Music Festival!

To celebrate the return of live music-making, ten promoters have come together for the Warwick & Leamington Midsummer Music Festival in which choirs, orchestras, chamber groups, and soloists will offer an enterprising range of music in twenty-four concerts. With American music for 4 July, there are two dozen works by English composers on offer but the core programming remains in Europe.

The Festival celebrates a special anniversary too - twenty-five years of the Music to Your Ears leaflet produced by the Warwick District Music Promoters Forum. The Forum produces the anti-clash dairy that transforms into MTYE and which inspired the idea of drawing all these concerts together.

Music to Your Ears has always shown what a rich choice of music is on offer to local audiences, both from those who make music and those who promote concerts, often bringing in leading international musicians to the area. For those twenty five years, Warwick and Leamington have consistently punched musically well above their weight.

With Council venues currently closed due to the impact of coronavirus restrictions, the promoters of the Festival concerts are pleased to be welcomed into churches, gardens, and theatres for their triumphant and long-awaited return to making music live and in person.

Booking for events is organized by the individual promoters, so please check the websites given for details on how and when to book, for any changes or cancellations, and for the most up-to-date information on how promoters are working with Government guidance for keeping audiences safe and happily enjoying being entertained once more.

Friday 25 June | 1.15pm - 2pm St Mary’s Church | WARWICK | CV34 4RA Summer Recitals Series

Mark Swinton organ

JS Bach Prelude and Fugue

in E minor BWV 548 JS Bach Andante from Sonata No 4

BWV 528 Saint-Saëns Prélude et Fugue

Op 99 No 2 Leighton Et Resurrexit

(Theme, Fantasy & Fugue) Tickets: Free entry (retiring collection) Booking info: stmaryswarwick.org.uk

Friday 25 June | 7.30pm - 8.45pm (no interval) All Saints Church | LEAMINGTON | CV31 1AA

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge

Leamington Music

Graham Ross director | George Gillow and Samuel Jones organ

A place where angels sing Marking their first live concerts since the start of the pandemic, the Choir returns to Leamington to present a sumptuous choral programme that unlocks the silence and celebrates the human voice in song.

Interwoven amongst masterpieces by Byrd and MacMillan are a fascinating selection of recent Icelandic choral works, American spirituals, folksongs, and Ross’s own arrangement of Abide with me.

Concert generously supported by Michael & Halldóra Blair Tickets: £20 | Booking info: leamingtonmusic.org | 01926 497000

Saturday 26 June | 6pm - 9.30pm Hill Close Gardens | WARWICK | CV34 6HF

Midsummer Music in the Gardens Katie Leaver soprano | Emma Cockbill piano

Come along and join us for a special evening in one of Warwick’s bestkept secrets! Picnic from 6pm (tearooms open), with a selection of light operetta and songs from the shows from 7pm.

Tickets: £15 | £11.50 | Booking info: hillclosegardens.com | 01926 493339

Saturday 26 June | 7pm - 8.15pm (no interval) All Saints Church | LEAMINGTON | CV31 1AA

Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra Roger Coull conductor | George Ewart violin Beethoven Egmont Overture Op 84 Beethoven Romance in F Op 50

for violin and orchestra Brahms Symphony No 4 in E minor Op 98

Tickets: £12 | £10 (children half price) Booking info: wso.org.uk

Saturday 26 June | 7.30pm - 8.30pm

(no interval) St Mary’s Church | WARWICK | CV34 4RA

The Choirs of the Collegiate Church of St Mary

Beauchamp Sinfonietta | Mark Swinton and Lucy Morrell organ Oliver Hancock conductor Parry I was glad and Blest pair of sirens Howells Hymn for Saint Cecilia | Bainton And I saw a new heaven Mendelssohn Hear my prayer | Jonathan Dove Vast ocean of light Bairstow Save us, O Lord | Willan O praise the Lord Brahms Geistliches Lied Concert generously supported by the Warwick Choral Trust and the William A. Cadbury Charitable Trust

Tickets: £12 (children free) Booking info: stmaryswarwick.org.uk

Sunday 27 June | 3pm - 4pm (no interval) Northgate Methodist Church | WARWICK | CV34 4TH

The Queen’s Singers

Trevor Barr director | Richard Copeland piano In their inaugural concert The Queen’s Singers present an eclectic mix of music for female voices and piano centred around Fauré’s evocative Cantique de Jean Racine and Will Todd’s The Call of Wisdom. Featuring singers from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, this is a group set to go places and one to watch in the years to come.

Tickets: £10 | Booking info: 01926 885663 or on the door

Sunday 27 June | 7.30pm - 9.15pm (with interval) The Dream Factory | Playbox Theatre WARWICK | CV34 6LE

Leamington Music

2020 Leamington Music Prize winners

Olga Eckert and Mafalda Galante violins Maria João Antunes viola | Griff Wadkin cello | Beth Haughan piano The Sonia & Harry Hyamson concert

Concert generously sponsored by

Smetana From my Homeland JB 1:118 Martinů Three Madrigals H313 Dvořák ‘Song to the moon’ from

Rusalka Op 114 Dvořák Piano Quintet No 2 in A Op 81 Tickets: £15 (inc. glass of wine) Booking info: leamingtonmusic.org | 01926 497000

Thursday 1 July

Holy Trinity Church | LEAMINGTON | CV32 5RE

Coull Quartet

Roger Coull and Philip Gallaway violins Jonathan Barritt viola | Nicholas Roberts cello

Leamington Music

Sibelius Quartet in D minor Op 56 ‘Voces Intimae’

5pm Villa-Lobos Canto Lirico (from Quartet No 1) Haydn Quartet in F Op 50 No 5 ‘The Dream’

The Robert Simpson Centenary Concert

8pm Simpson Quartet No 10 ‘For Peace’

Beethoven Quartet in C Op 59 No 3 ‘Razumovsky’

Leamington Music is delighted to include these two one-hour concerts from the Coull Quartet in the Midsummer Music Festival. The Coull has long-championed the music of the Leamington-born composer Robert Simpson, and commissioned his Quartet No 10 for their tenth anniversary celebrations in 1984.

Tickets: £20 per concert or £35 for both Booking info: leamingtonmusic.org 01926 497000 Concerts generously sponsored by and supported by David Morris

Friday 2 July | 1.15pm - 2pm St Mary’s Church | WARWICK | CV34 4RA Summer Recitals Series

David Smith piano

J.S. Bach Inventions and Chorale Preludes A fascinating programme of some of the finest examples of Bach’s manuals-only works.

Tickets: Free entry (retiring collection) Booking info: stmaryswarwick.org.uk

Friday 2 July | 7.30pm - 8.45pm (no interval) Holy Trinity Church | LEAMINGTON | CV32 5RE

Ex Cathedra

Jeffrey Skidmore conductor

Leamington Music

Our First Love - the English Renaissance We all remember our first love! For Jeffrey and the founding members of Ex Cathedra it was the English Renaissance, a golden age in which composers created a treasury of truly inspiring choral repertoire.

So it feels fitting that for a return to live concerts, Ex Cathedra return to their first love with this programme of powerfully emotional music from Tallis, Sheppard, Byrd, Tomkins, Gibbons, and more.

Concert generously supported by The Grimmitt Trust Tickets: £20 | Booking info: leamingtonmusic.org | 01926 497000

Saturday 3 July | 11am - 2pm All Saints Church Garden | LEAMINGTON | CV31 1AA

Music to Picnic By Leamington Old Town Ltd presents Pleasurable Midsummer Music for Picnic Time including classical and flamenco guitar favorites, gentle jazz, sultry songs and much more...

Free entry but booking advisable Booking info: middleton.georgina@gmail.com 07730 364049

Saturday 3 July | 12.30pm - 1.30pm

(no interval)

Holy Trinity Church | LEAMINGTON | CV32 5RE

Imogen Whitehead trumpet Oliver Hancock organ Clarke Trumpet Voluntary Purcell Sonata in D Mathias Fanfare Leamington Haydn Trumpet Concerto in E flat Music Yon Toccatina for Flute Anthony Plog Four Themes on paintings

of Edward Munch Concert generously supported by David & Gina Wilson Tickets: Free entry (retiring collection) | Booking info: leamingtonmusic.org

Saturday 3 July | 7.30pm - 8.45pm (no interval) St Mary’s Church | WARWICK | CV34 4RA

Da Capo Chamber Choir John Adams director

Songs for Summer - Feel the joy and celebrate the return of live music

with Da Capo Chamber Choir. Discover old and new favourites in an a cappella selection of music for summer from the 16th century to the present day.

Tickets: £10 (children free) | Booking info: dacapochoir.org.uk

Saturday 3 July | 7.30pm - 8.45pm (no interval) All Saints Church | LEAMINGTON | CV31 1AA

Leamington Sinfonia Joe Davies conductor

Music with Space - a programme of spatial music inspired by our socially-distanced times.

Ives The Unanswered Question Howard Skempton Birthday Round for Charles Copland Quiet City | Gabrieli Antiphons Lotti Crucifixus (orch. Joe Davies) | Tallis Spem in Alium (orch. Joe Davies) Tickets: £10 | £5 (children free) | Booking info: leamingtonsinfonia.org.uk

Sunday 4 July

Curzon Brass Jacob Smith and Matthew Tarrant trumpets Tom Hayes horn | Dan Price trombone Mark Dilley tuba

American Music

for Independence Day The 2019 Leamington Music Prize winners present music by Sousa, Piazzolla, Gershwin, Kern, Rodgers, Duke Ellington, Elvis Presley, Stevie Wonder, and many more!

3.30pm - 4.30pm

7.30pm - 9.15pm (with interval)

Lord Leycester Hospital WARWICK | CV34 4BH

The Dream Factory WARWICK | CV34 6LE

Bring a picnic and a rug, and enjoy a relaxed afternoon Leamington from 3pm in the beautiful Music Master’s Garden of the historic Lord Leycester Hospital.

It’s just a quick hop over to The Dream Factory for the full evening programme of American delights with a glass of wine.

Tickets: £8

Tickets: £15 (including wine) Booking info: leamingtonmusic.org | 01926 497000

Sunday 4 July | 3pm - 4.15pm (no interval) All Saints Church | LEAMINGTON | CV31 1AA

Leamington Chamber Orchestra

Richard Laing conductor | Daniel Sanford-Casey clarinet Weber Clarinet Concerto No 2 in E flat Op 74 Dvořák Symphony No 9 in E minor Op 95 ‘From the New World’ Tickets: £14 (children free) Booking info: leamingtonchamberorchestra.org.uk

©mikebeardphotography

Tuesday 6 July

St Mary’s Church | WARWICK | CV34 4RA

The Bach Players

Rachel Elliott soprano | Marion Moonen flute Nicolette Moonen and Jean Paterson violins Rachel Stott viola | Jonathan Manson cello Reiko Ichise viola da gamba | Silas Wollston harpsichord

5pm

Leamington Music

Bach Brandenburg Concerto No 5 in D BWV 1050 Buxtehude Quemadmodum desiderat cervus BuxWV 92 Bach Canons from the Goldberg Variations BWV 1087 Bach Cantata BWV 209 ‘Non sa che sia dolore’

8pm

Buxtehude Sonata No 6 in D minor BuxWV 257 Bach The Musical Offering BWV 1079

Coming to Warwick for the twelfth time, and with two one-hour concerts, The Bach Players are a mainstay of the Early Music scene and celebrate 25 years this year. The ensemble began its life with a focus on J.S. Bach’s Cantatas and gradually expanded its horizons to a broader picture of the beautiful music of Bach’s time.

Tickets: £20 per concert or £35 for both Booking info: leamingtonmusic.org Concert generously supported by Michael Blair, Murray Campbell, John Hobley, Jonathan Holden, Rose Ledlie and Margaret Pringle

Thursday 8 July | 7.30pm - 9.30pm

(with interval)

St Mary’s Church | WARWICK | CV34 4RA

Armonico Consort

Christopher Monks director Ian Bostridge Evangelist Sir Willard White Christus

J.S. Bach St Matthew Passion Whatever your own spiritual beliefs, everyone should hear St Matthew Passion at least once.

A work of genius, combining the most perfectly formed recitative with Bach’s most beautiful arias, St Matthew Passion vividly, passionately and dramatically brings to life the intense emotions and humanity of the Passion of Christ.

Tickets: £39.50 | £27.50 | £19.50 | £14.50 | £11 Booking info: armonico.org.uk | 01926 334418

Friday 9 July | 1.15pm - 2pm St Mary’s Church | WARWICK | CV34 4RA Summer Recitals Series

Parmetto Piano Trio

Sue Meteyard violin | Maja Todd cello | Gillian Parsons piano

Clara Schumann Trio in G minor Op 17 Widor Quatre Pièces en Trio Two lesser-known gems of the Piano Trio repertoire - the Parmetto Trio’s speciality!

Tickets: Free entry (retiring collection) Booking info: stmaryswarwick.org.uk

Friday 9 July | 7.30pm - 8.45pm (no interval) Holy Trinity Church | LEAMINGTON | CV32 5RE

Mark Padmore tenor Morgan Szymanski guitar

Leamington Music

Dowland Songs from ‘The Firste Booke of Songes’ Stephen McNeff A Certain Man and Eden Rock Schubert Nachtstück D672 and Nacht und Träume D827 Alec Roth A Road Less Travelled English Folk Songs Leamington Music favourite Morgan Szymanski makes a much-anticipated return to the area, bringing with him one of the world’s finest tenors, Mark Padmore. The programme takes us on a journey of exploration from the Renaissance right up to the present day, combining two wonderful contemporary British composers with two giants of the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Concert generously supported by Diane Holt Tickets: £20 | Booking info: leamingtonmusic.org | 01926 497000

Saturday 10 July | 7pm - 8.15pm (no interval) St Mary’s Church | WARWICK | CV34 4RA

Sinfonia of Birmingham Michael Seal conductor

Sibelius Valse Triste Op 44 No 1 Beethoven Symphony No 3 in E flat Op 55 ‘Eroica’ Tickets: £12 | Booking info: sinfonia.org.uk

Warwick & Leamington

Midsummer Music Festival 25 June to 10 July 2021

Warwick District Music Promoters Forum

Celebrating

Leamington Music

With thanks to Arts Council England, Warwick District Council, Warwick Town Council and Leamington Town Council for grant support