Piano recital presenting Romantic music next to short pieces inspired by bird song.

The Kriesleriana Op. 16 written by Robert Schumann is a piece full of longing, passion, turmoil and eccentric expressions. These emotions were present in Schumann’s life in 1834, while his romantic aspirations with pianist Clara Wieck were objected by her father. Driven by unfulfilled love and longing, Schumann was the ideal Romantic. Being as such, he would find inspiration and consolation in nature. Such inspiration can be found in Waldszenen Op. 82. In this cycle, the movement Vogel als Prophet “prophetic bird” presents a dark forest scene contrasted with the prophecy of piece with a vision of a bird flying in the blue sky.

The turmoil and the artist’s sorrow of Kriesleriana will be surrounded by nature, fresh air and bird song, in a more modern fashion, with “bird miniatures” by Dutilleux, Messiaen and Takemitsu

Presented by Bloomsbury Festival as part of the New Wave programme, a platform for emerging talent.

FREE – But pre-booking is essential
(Suggested donation of £5 at event)

A one-day festival celebrating South Asian culture through film, music, food and dance, 75 years after the Partition of the Subcontinent.

11am – 1pm Tabla workhop with Sanju Sahai

2pm – 4pm Rising Silence, by Leesa Gazi, a journey of relationships between women surrounded by war and violence.

This will be followed by a Q&A with film soundtrack composers Olly Weeks and Sohini Alam

17.00 – 18.15 Magpie Robin’s Songbook, album launch and performance by Sohini Alam, Sahana Bajpaie, Samantak Sinha and band

18.45-19.30 Dance Performance by Anusha Subramanyam and Beeja Dance Company

19.45 – 20.15 Taking Flight, a performance by Jason Singh, themed on The Partition and The Conference of the Birds

All day:

Project Dastaan, a bespoke 360-degree digital experience and peace-building initiative, at the Wolfson Gallery

South Asian food stalls

Supported by the Global Music Academy.

Tickets: FREE – but pre-booking for some events is essential

Leading violist Rosalind Ventris presents a programme of works inspired by nature, folk music and dance. From the clarion call of Beamish’s music, to toe-tapping music from Imogen Holst and the atmospheric sound-world of Bloomsbury-born composer Elizabeth Lutyens, this recital presents a diverse range of moods and techniques, showcasing the expressive range of the viola.

This concert celebrates the pre-launch of Rosalind’s first solo album of twentieth and twenty first century works written by women for Delphian Records.

Tickets: £12 (£10) / Ticket & CD £18

Between 1860 and 1940 Holborn was at the heart of the London’s music scene. The Holborn Empire was amongst the most popular theatres in the city and its stars were household names. Join the Good Companions for a musical romp through Holborn’s colourful and dramatic history, with rousing, singalong performances of the era’s classic songs.

Tickets: £12 (£10)

Two iconic piano works make up this Piano Recital by José Songel: Bach English Suite 2 and Liszt Sonata in B minor.

Presented by Bloomsbury Festival as part of the New Wave programme, a platform for emerging talent.

FREE – But pre-booking is essential
(Suggested donation of £5 at event)

Between 1860 and 1940 Holborn was at the heart of the London’s music scene. The Holborn Empire was amongst the most popular theatres in the city and its stars were household names. Join the Good Companions for a musical romp through Holborn’s colourful and dramatic history, with rousing, singalong performances of the era’s classic songs.

Tickets: £12 (£10)

Immy Churchill and Matt Carter have been playing together for nearly two years after the met during their studies at The Royal Academy of Music. They began exploring the acoustic sound world of the singer-songwriter and have been performing together ever since.

Growing up in a musical household, Immy has been inspired by the likes of Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Nick Drake and has developed her own writing style as a result. This afternoon of music will be Immy’s original songs presented in an acoustic piano, guitar, vocal setting: look forward to a relaxed and intimate afternoon of Immy’s singer-songwriter repertoire.

Presented by Bloomsbury Festival as part of the New Wave programme, a platform for emerging talent.

FREE – But pre-booking is essential
(Suggested donation of £5 at event)

What does it mean to sing? Song is our thoughts, emotions and identity made real through our breath. Song could be our most immediate art and is interwoven into our lives from places of worship to football stadiums to the workplace.

Conway Hall brings singers together from differing traditions and cultures to discuss life, song, the craft of singing and the magic we can make with just our own breath.

Tickets: £10 (£8)

Pianist Zhu Sun presents a performance of Chopin’s third sonata in collaboration with contemporary dancers from The Place that features a new choreography by Noé Engelbeen. The project forms part of Zhu’s doctoral research into the relationship between metaphor, dance, and music.

Tickets: £8 (£6)

SOAS Concert Series presents an evening of incredible musical chemistry and exciting performances. Éamonn Cagney and Niwel Tsumbu blend Classical, Jazz, Congolese, West African, Irish and Flamenco influences to create a unique and exhilarating fusion.

After 10 years of performing and composing together they released their second album ‘The Art of the Duo’ in 2021. Expect a highly engaging concert, both intimate and elaborate. The duo is Ireland’s premiere World-Jazz outfit and best kept secret.

Doors open at 6pm for 6.30pm start.

Tickets: £10 (£5)

Kaira are an interdisciplinary duo bringing together their individual backgrounds in performance, classical piano, contemporary dance and bodywork to explore the art behind artistry which transcends individual modes of expression, allowing them to form new connections between mediums whilst simultaneously deepening their understanding of each one.

Their exploration birthed a friendship which has become as valuable to the process as their creative interests, leading them to consider how they authentically connect and hold the space for one another both as people and performers. This dynamic has supported and influenced the pair’s process to the point where in this event they intend to create a space in which we can bring their genuine selves, and offer the same opportunity to the audience.

Through the language of Medtner’s music, movement and meditative practices we will create a shared experience, within which Kaira will offer opportunity to be present in your own internal space using meditation on the breath. This concept was arose in part as a response to Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’, and the need for space in order to create and express oneself.

This performance takes place in Chancellor’s Hall at Senate House.

Tickets: £8 (£6)

Eloquently combining elements of alternative and jazz with subtle undercurrents of blues, the Canadian singer/songwriter has carved a sound that is entirely her own. She spent her younger years listening to Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Amy Winehouse. These musicians nurtured her interest in Jazz and in turn her unique sound. Tess is classically trained in piano and percussion. These technical skills helped in the creation of ‘percentile’, her six track EP. Tess is focused on the stories behind her songs and the meaning behind her music. She looks forward to sharing a set of jazz standards, originals (form percentile and unreleased) alongside select classic rock.

1st set 8.30pm – 9.10pm
15 min break
2nd set 9.25 – 9.55pm

Tickets: £12 (£10)

An immersive one-hour concert, where music, tarot cards and costumes create a dream-like, mysterious and colourful atmosphere. Pierrot XXI, uses Pierrot Lunaire (a masterpiece of chamber music from 1912) by Schönberg, Tarot cards and visual elements to shed light on human behaviour towards the environment.

Tickets: £TBC

In this concert, world-renowned musicians Sidiki Dembele, Kuljit Bhamra MBE, Laura van der Heijden and Alice Zawadzki, bring influences from the West African Griot tradition, Indian Punjabi music, Western European classical music and folk music from Europe and the Middle East.

Write to Life’s writers, who met as clients of Freedom from Torture’s unique writing and performance group, add their lived experience on the journey from an unspeakable past to new lives, and new voices, here in Britain. The resulting programme of solos and ensemble pieces brings the two groups together in an unforgettable musical conversation.

Tickets: £12 (£10)

Piano Phase Project is a collaborative piano duo creating musical installations in contemporary settings where two musicians give the audience an insight into a new format of classical music concerts. This liberal presentation of music allows listeners to move freely in the space and experience a performance in a new environment.

‘Summertime’ explores the jazz legacy of a Litvak composer George Gerschwin and Ukrainian composer Nikolay Kapustin. The installation takes the audience back to the 1920s in Kaunas, when the city became a temporary capital of Lithuania. Throughout the installation, a theatre performer will impersonate the stories from the times, connecting with the Great Gatsby era of the Eastern Europe. Get ready for glam, sparks and lots of jazz!

Anna Szałucka and Monika Lozinskienė are keen explorers of sound and extended piano techniques. Join them and dive into the world of DYI percussive instruments, sound experiments and improvisation.

Tickets: £8 (£6)

Presented by one of London’s most exciting emerging orchestras, the Goodensemble Orchestra opens the night with Mendelssohn’s youthful overture inspired by the Mediterranean air in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream. This is contrasted by Grieg’s Nordic-inspired Peer Gynt Suite, comprising of characterful miniatures written for Ibsen’s play of the same name. Concluding the night is an absolute Russian classic not to be missed – Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2, a piece that not just restored the composer’s confidence after a period of depression, but effectively sealed his reputation as one of the best piano concerto writers in history.

Programme:
• Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture
• Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No.1
• Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2^

Soloists:
Ivan Moshchuk
Conductors:
Alvaro Ibarra, Owen Ho^

Tickets: £12 (£10)

Nicknamed ‘The Bloomsbury Beast’, the pipe organ of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church is one of the most impressive and unique pipe organs in London.

This filmic double-bill, part of the Bloomsbury Festival, is an opportunity to hear it as never before: accompanying two classic silent films.

At 2pm, Donald MacKenzie (Organist, Odeon, Leicester Square) will accompany the Buster Keaton film ‘The General’ (1926), an hilarious action-adventure-comedy often ranked among the greatest American films ever made.

At 7pm, Aaron Hawthorne (international, multi-award-winning organist) will be bringing his inimitable improvisational accompaniment to the spine-chilling German Expressionist film ‘Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror’ (1922).

Tickets: £7 or £10 for both films; Under 16s Free

Piano Phase Project is a collborative piano duo creating musical installations in contemporary settings where two musicians give the audience an insight into a new format of classical music concerts. This liberal presentation of music allows listeners to move freely in the space and experience a performance in a new environment. By creating this particular musical installation they help people stop and relax in a soothing, alleviating atmosphere. ‘Sound Meditation’ is a therapeutic experience with the calm music by Debussy, Ravel, Čiurlionis and others.

The audience is invited to stand, sit or lay down in the most comfortable position for them; bring a mat, blanket, eyemask and anything else you need to make it a mindful and pleasant adventure.

Anna Szałucka and Monika Lozinskienė are keen explorers of sound and extended piano techniques. Join us and dive into the world of DYI percussion instruments, tibetan singing bowls, rainmakers, beautiful smells and more.

This performance takes place in Chancellors Hall, Senate House. 

Tickets: £8 (£6)

Lucilla Rose explores with her violin the shifting moods and exuberant sunny cheerfulness of two sonatas by Debussy and Beethoven who disguise in their music the psychological sufferings caused by a terminal cancer for the former and by looming deafness for the latter, along with the nocturnal wanderings of the tormented soul of the Faust by Wieniawski.

Presented by Bloomsbury Festival as part of the New Wave programme, a platform for emerging talent.

FREE – But pre-booking is essential
(Suggested donation of £5 at event)

The Harrison All Day Folk Festival returns to Bloomsbury’s best loved music pub. Now in its 10th year, these legendary events are both revered and notorious for their vibrancy and fun.

At least 10 great folk acts will perform back to back in the basement venue, from lunchtime until late night. As well as serving hundreds of delicious roasts and copious quantities of quality beer, the ground floor bar will also host a lively Irish and an even livelier Brazilian Choro session.

The very best of times returns to Bloomsbury.

Music from 2pm – midnight; food served from 12 noon

FREE – Just Turn Up

Piano Phase Project is a collborative piano duo creating musical installations in contemporary settings where two musicians give the audience an insight into a new format of classical music concerts. This liberal presentation of music allows listeners to move freely in the space and experience a performance in a new environment. By creating this particular musical installation they help people stop and relax in a soothing, alleviating atmosphere. ‘Sound Meditation’ is a therapeutic experience with the calm music by Debussy, Ravel, Čiurlionis and others.

The audience is invited to stand, sit or lay down in the most comfortable position for them; bring a mat, blanket, eyemask and anything else you need to make it a mindful and pleasant adventure.

Anna Szałucka and Monika Lozinskienė are keen explorers of sound and extended piano techniques. Join us and dive into the world of DYI percussion instruments, tibetan singing bowls, rainmakers, beautiful smells and more.

This performance takes place in Chancellors Hall, Senate House. 

Tickets: £8 (£6)

dream.risk.sing is a recital programme which gives voice to women’s experiences which are rarely heard in song. Curated and performed by soprano Samantha Crawford and pianist Lana Bode, the programme highlights five specific aspects of a woman’s life: growing up, love and lust, motherhood, career and legacy.

The programme features Crossing Faultlines, a new song cycle commissioned from composer Charlotte Bray and poet Nicki Jackowska, believed to be the first song cycle to address the topic of women in the workplace. Alongside this new work exploring themes of mentorship, discrimination and ambition are new piano arrangements of two songs from Judith Weir’s woman.life.song; Carson Cooman’s Ballad from Gold into Diamonds about women oppressed through religious fundamentalism; Ricky Ian Gordon’s My Mother is a Singer paying tribute to his mother and the sacrifices she made for him; two songs from Helen Grime’s Bright Travellers cycle on modern motherhood; and singer-songwriter Michele Brourman’s My Daughters about passing the torch to future generations of women. Also featured on the programme are two earlier works: Antonin Dvořák’s Songs My Mother Taught Me and Florence Price’s The Heart of a Woman, the first black female composer to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra.

Tickets: £12 (£10)

Described by Bernard Greenhouse as “the new Beaux Arts Trio”, the Greenwich Trio are earning a reputation for their performances of a wide range of repertoire. Their performance for Conway Hall foregrounds the contributions made to the repertoire by Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn, alongside their male colleagues. Come along to discover some beautiful music.

The Greenwich Trio are Lana Trotovšek (violin), Heather Tuach (cello) and Yoko Misumi (piano).

Programme:
Clara Schumann | Piano Trio in G minor Op.17
Clara Schumann | Three Romances for violin and piano Op.22
Fanny Mendelssohn | Fantasie in G minor for cello and piano
Felix Mendelssohn | Song without Words in D for cello and piano Op.109
Brahms | Trio No.3 Op.101

5.30pm Pre-Concert Talk with Katy Hamilton: Music Among Friends  
Katy Hamilton discusses the personal and professional relationships that brought about the composition of the music in tonight’s programme, and the networks that operated across public and private performance spaces for men and women performing and writing music.

Doors open 5pm
Pre-Concert Talk 5.30pm
Greenwich Trio 6.30pm

Tickets: £12 (Conway Hall Members £10, Under 26s Free)