What’s on this 2024-25 season

Sunday, 19th January, 2025, 2.30 pm
St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury
Mariam shown with her right arm in front of her on - presumably - the top of a piano; the other arm is folded up and her chin rests on her left hand.
BBC New Generation Artist 2017-2019 and Leeds Piano Competition 2024 Judge
 J Haydn Sonata in D Major, Hob.XVI:37
 Beethoven Rondo a capriccio, Op. 129 'Rage Over a Lost Penny'
 Brahms Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118
 Schubert Impromptus Op. 142 Nos. 2 and 4
 Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos. 12 and 13

The brilliant Georgian maestro Mariam Batsashvili plays in Shropshire for the first time. She won First Prize in the 10th Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht 2014, and since then she has become a world-famous pianist, performing in over 30 countries, playing in the world’s most famous venues. Mariam’s technique is flawless and she plays with passion and a deep understanding of the music.

TICKETS

£18; children and full-time students £9
Please note 2.30 pm start

How to buy tickets

Her musicianship seems to connect directly with one’s heart and her colours of sound, thoughtful interpretations and stupendous touch move and delight her audiences. As a BBC New Generation Artist, she made her debuts at the Cheltenham Music Festival, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Ulster Orchestra at the BBC Proms.

Watch Mariam's videos at https://www.mariam-piano.com/#media

 

DIRECTIONS

Performer website(s)
Sunday, 23rd February, 2025, 3.00 pm
Maidment Auditorium, Shrewsbury School
The Dante Quartet standing in a line with their instruments in front of an iron gateway. They are wearing black and looking cheerful.
Zoë Beyers & Ian Watson - violin, Carole Ella - viola and Richard Jenkinson - cello
 Britten Three Divertimenti for String Quartet (1936)
 Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110
 Elizabeth Maconchy String Quartet No. 13 'Quartetto Corto'
 Brahms String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 51 No. 1

The Dante Quartet, one of the UK’s finest ensembles, is known for its imaginative programming and impassioned performances. The Quartet was founded in 1995 and chose its name to reflect the idea of an epic journey. The Quartet has been honoured with the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music and has also received international awards for its recordings.

Facebook: dantequartet
Instagram: dante_quartet

TICKETS

£18
Children and full-time students £9

How to buy tickets

Frequently heard on Radio 3, the Quartet has appeared many times at London’s Wigmore Hall and Kings Place, and at some of the UK’s foremost festivals and music societies. Abroad, the Quartet has played in France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, Finland, the Czech Republic and Poland, and has twice toured Japan.

The Dante Quartet has made a series of acclaimed recordings for Hyperion, winning the BBC Music Magazine Award and the French Diapaison d’Or. The Quartet has also recorded for Signum and Toccata Records and their recording of the string quartets by Herbert Howells was released on the Naxos label in 2019. The Dante Quartet has recently recorded the eight string quartets and two quintets of C.V. Stanford on the SOMM label.

'The unflinching integrity of their interpretation and the excitement of their playing were consistently superb' The Guardian

DIRECTIONS

Performer website(s)
Friday, 7th March, 2025, 7.30 pm
St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury
A composite image of the two performers, each in dark clothing against a dark background with their faces highlighted
Celebrity Song Recital with baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist James Baillieu

Songs by Franz Schubert, Albert Fischer-Dieskau, Klaus Fischer-Dieskau, Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Aribert Reimann, Christian Sinding, Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, Eduard Künneke, Hanns Eisler, Edvard Grieg, Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, Carl Loewe, Franz Grothe, Clara Schuman, and Carl Maria von Weber.

From Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's birth in 1923, we will explore his experiences in childhood, in wartime – including being a prisoner-of-war, friendship, loss and marriage, finishing with his death just short of his 87th birthday in 2012.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau would have been 100 years old on May 28, 2025. He shone a light on German Lieder unlike almost any other artist and gave it new life in the modern day. His singing reached so many people and he touched their hearts with the art of song. To this day he is considered to be a source of inspiration, a role model to thousands of singers, with many of his recordings remaining unsurpassed.

Baritone Benjamin Appl is celebrated for a voice that “belongs to the last of the old great masters of song” with “an almost infinite range of colours” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), and for performances “delivered with wit, intelligence and sophistication” (Gramophone magazine). A former BBC New Generation Artist (2014-16), Wigmore Hall Emerging Artist and ECHO Rising Star (2015-16), Benjamin was also awarded Gramophone Award Young Artist of the Year (2016).

Described by The Daily Telegraph as “in a class of his own” James Baillieu is one of the leading song and chamber music pianists of his generation. He has given solo and chamber recitals throughout the world and collaborates with a wide range of singers and instrumentalists including Benjamin Appl, Jamie Barton, Ian Bostridge, Allan Clayton, Annette Dasch, Lise Davidsen, the Elias and Heath Quartets, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Adam Walker, and Pretty Yende.

Watch Benjamin and James reimagine Schubert's song cycle Winterreise in the wintry setting of an Alpine landscape. Available on BBC iPlayer and available until the middle of February 2025.

TICKETS

£22
Children and full-time students £11

How to buy tickets

Benjamin Appl reminisces: At a public master class in Schwarzenberg, Austria, I was able to get to know my greatest idol and work with him for the first time. To this day, I consider this encounter and the resulting years of collaboration to be one of the greatest gifts of my professional life. For me he was more than “just” a teacher: he helped me considerably with technical and interpretive ideas, but also advised me in the art of performing on stage and crafting programs. He was a real mentor to me in so many ways. I feel fortunate that I was able to see him just before his death, in the spring of 2012 at his home on Lake Starnberg and that I can cherish that final memory.

In the last few months I was able to go through Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's private documents and, in his diary entries, letters and notes, gain an insight into the private person that Fischer-Dieskau was. This evening’s recital is dedicated to him, and is intended to explore the life of the great baritone and unveil the many facets of his personality. Alongside music, I share anecdotes, travel reports, excerpts from letters along with my personal insights and memories.

DIRECTIONS

Performer website(s)
See the grey panel for the full list of concerts
© 2024.  Shropshire Music Trust, c/o
17 Whitehall Street, Shrewsbury, SY2 5AD.
 Reg. Charity number 515026.   Cookies and Privacy Policy