North Westmorland Arts 
Concerts in Appleby-in-Westmorland   TELEPHONE 017684 83777                           

Calendar of Concerts for the 2011-12 season

These are the forthcoming concerts for the 2011-12 season, all concerts taking place in the Market Hall in Appleby.  If you'd like your own copy of the concert dates, as a nice poster to print off and put on your notice board at home, click HERE.

Highlights

• Five cracking gigs to look forwards to...      
  3 more new names and 2 firm favourites return for 2011-12.  It's always a difficult balance to attain.  Do we invite old friends back into the fold or bring new ones along to the party that is the North Westmorland arts concert season?  Only one answer - invite them all!
• Our season opener's this year are the simply dazzling Northern Sinfonia and their Principals Ensemble.  They wowed us last year with some quite exquisite playing and they return to kickstart the new season with a really interesting programme that we know will only serve to underline their reputation once more.  Expect the underlining to be in a really broad-nibbed, indelible felt-tip pen.
• Next are performers new, not only to our stage, but also to that of the world and they are the rising stars forming within Chethams School of Music in Manchester.  We shall probably all be kept guessing who will appear in front of us on the night as their individual talents are still being moulded and the programme will form in the closing weeks before the concert.  Their students are regular finalists and winners of the BBC Young Musician of the Year.  Could there be a better accolade? 
• The cold of January will serve up a hot blast of brass from our town's other favourite band, the celebrated, the magnificent, the splendiferous Yorkshire Imperial Urquhart Travel Band.  We shall squeeze as many of them as we can onto our normally generous stage, but be warned that we may have to open up the balcony - this is always a packed house performance as their fans travel some way to come and hear them.
• For February's concert, we look to the East.   No, beyond Yorkshire.  To Bulgaria, from where 66% of the Vladigerov Trio originates.  All three are towering individual performers in their own right but they make a fascinating combination of forces on the platform together.  It is probable that we shall seat this concert slightly differently from usual to incorporate the Steinway that has been offered to us for this concert.  Front row seat recommended.
• Even further East now, to Moscow, for our season's finale, a night with flautist Alena Lugovkina and her accompanist Karim Said.  She won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music to study under William Bennett (who regular concert-goers will remember from our last season) and has already appeared as soloist with The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and alongside the Berlin Philharmonic's Emmanuel Pahud.  Beautiful tone with an improbable power, incredible technique and a sensuous musicality suggest that Ms Lugovkina is already well on her way to the very top.

 

At a glance

• Northern Sinfonia Principals Ensembles
  Sunday 16th October 2011 - 7:30pm £10.00

 

• Chethams School of Music - Rising Stars
  Sunday 13th November 2011 - 7:30pm £8.50

 

• Yorkshire "Imps" Brass band
  Sunday 29th January 2012 - 7:30pm £10.00

 

• The Vladigerov Trio                           Sunday 26th February 2012 - 7:30pm £8.50

 

• Alena Lugovkina (Flute) & Pavel Timofejevsky (piano).
• Sunday 25th March 2012 - 7:30pm  £8.50      

 

NOTE:  Programme information is often garnered well ahead of a concert and sometimes, as we all know, the best laid plans of mice and men oft gang agley...and so, whilst given in good faith, programmes sometimes do change for a variety of reasons.  If we have prior knowledge, we shall use this website to communicate any such change but the organisers are not able to accept liability for said change if it occurs. 

Who is playing?

Northern Sinfonia Principals  16th October 2011

This ensemble is formed from the core players of Northern Sinfonia, who relish such opportunities to explore the rich pickings of the music written for the 'ets. (Quartets, Quintets, Sextets...)  As a full orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia often achieve a sound so tight and accurate that, with eyes closed it could be an octet in front of you and this perhaps  gives a small insight into why their ensemble playing can be so memorable. 

Tickets:  £10.00 per person.
Programme and further details

 

Chetham's School of Music   13th November 2011

With 290 or so students, aged 8 - 18, Chetham's is the largest specialist Music School in the UK and the only Music School based in the North of England. In the heart of Manchester, their vibrant cosmopolitan city centre location complements a dynamic music programme - they regularly collaborate with the city's leading cultural venues on a range of projects and initiatives, to present exciting opportunities for their students.

For this concert, we shall see a glimpse of the rising stars of tomorrow and understand why their protégé pepper the great orchestras and ensembles throughout the classical world.

Tickets:  £8.50 per person                          Programme and further details

 

The Yorkshire Imperial Urquhart Travel Band  29th January 2012 

You can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of Brass Bands famous enough to be known by their nickname. The Yorkshire Imps is undoubtedly one of them. Hailing from Yorkshire which has contained many of the world’s finest bands for over a century and a half The Imps have earned the right both in the contest arena and on the concert platform to be regarded as quite simply one of the best in the business.

There is a physical limit to the number of players that we can squeeze onto the Appleby stage - around 28 in total - without losing anyone over the edge, but the sound is pretty impressive.  Expect some rearrangement of internal organs in the more dramatic passages!  There is always something slightly messianic about The Imps appearances as the many Disciples of Brass undertake huge pilgrimages to come and hear them play at Appleby so we expect plenty of bodies to be warming the hall for this special January night.

Tickets:  £10.00 per person                          Programme  - Hot off the press..

 

The Vladigerov Trio - 26th February 2012

We are delighted to introduce some performers new to our Appleby concerts.  The Vladigerov Trio features Bulgarian pianist Venera Bojkova and fellow countryman Alexander Somov, with violinist Lucy Jeal.  More accurately, we introduce a new quartet, as the fourth presence on stage will be a magnificent Steinway grand piano that we have been offered the use of by a very generous new NWA concert-goer.  Expect truly stirring interpretations from this ensemble and, as they will be seated on the floor with the rest of us, a sound that you will feel through the very legs of your chairs.

Tickets:  £8.50 per person                                 Programme and programme notes

 

Alena Lugovkina (Flute) & Pavel Timofejevsky (Piano) - 25th March 2012

Our season ends with a young Russian flautist, Alena Lugovkina who is a product of the tightly-disciplined Gnessin Special Music School in Moscow and who now resides in London.   Many who have heard her perform are confident that she is destined to reach the rarefied atmosphere breathed by the likes of James Galway and Emmanuel Pahud and here she is, coming to Appleby to play for our discerning ears on 25^th March!  Another programme to keep and dust off again in a few years.

Accompanying her on stage will be pianist Pavel Timofejevsky.

Tickets:  £8.50 per person                                   Programme