Music at Oxford
A LIFE IN MUSIC – CELEBRATING SUSAN WOLLENBERG’S 70TH BIRTHDAY
Holywell Music Room
Thursday, 7.15pm
Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.ticketsoxford.com
Professor Susan Wollenberg, Fellow and Tutor in Music at Lady Margaret and Lecturer at Brasenose College, is joined by baritone Jeremy Huw Williams and pianist Paula Fan in a recital of music to celebrate a milestone birthday. The programme will include Wollenberg’s own song cycle Alles auf der Welt ist Wandel, which was premiered in Oxford by Kathryn Whitney in 2006 and 2007; her set of variations for piano solo, Für Fanny Hensel, which premiered in 2008, and Schumann’s Dichterliebe. Before the recital, Professor Wollenberg will talk to Dr Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey about her academic and music career.
Welsh National Opera
THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN
New Theatre, Oxford
Thursday, 7.30pm
Tickets: 0844 871 3020 or www.atgtickets.com/oxford
This charming, playful, feel-good opera is one of Janacek’s most popular works, and WNO’s colourful production, directed by David Pountenay, does the piece full justice. The title role is sung by award-winning Northern Irish soprano Aoife Miskelly, and Tomáš Hanus, WNO’s Musical Director since 2016, conducts
Welsh National Opera
RIGOLETTO
New Theatre, Oxford
Friday, 7.15pm
Tickets: 0844 871 3020 or www.atgtickets.com/oxford
Verdi’s classic opera, based on Victor Hugo’s play Le roi s’amuse, is given a makeover in this revived WNO production by director James Macdonald, with the action moved from 16th century Italy to the White House in the 1960s, during John F. Kennedy’s presidency. Mark S. Doss returns to the company to sing the title role, with Jessica Nuccio as Gilda and David Junghoon Kim as the Duke. Alexander Joel conducts.
Music at Oxford
PERCUSSION AND PIANO
JDP Music Building
Friday, 7.30pm
Tickets: 01865 244806 or www.musicatoxford.com
George Barton, percussion, and Siwan Rhys, piano, bring an unusual programme of music by 20th century American composers and living British composers as part of the Presteigne Festival tour, including works by Reich, Boden, Antheil, Feldman, Lang, Ives, Rose and Skempton, as well as a special Prestigne Festival commission, Adulthood by Liam Mattison.
New College Organ Recitals
ROBERT QUINNEY
New College
Friday, 8.30pm
Admission free
Professor Robert Quinney, Organist and Tutorial Fellow in Music at New College, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the college’s Grant, Degens and Bradbeer organ with a special recital of music by Byrd, Bach, de Grigny, Heiller and Scheidemann. The organ was installed in 1969 and restored in 2014.
Welsh National Opera
CARMEN
New Theatre, Oxford
Saturday, 7.15pm
Tickets: 0844 871 3020 or www.atgtickets.com/oxford
WNO’s Oxford season ends with a second performance of Bizet’s ever-popular Carmen in Jo Davies’ bold new production set in 1970s Brazil. It may look a little different, but the familiar numbers – Carmen’s Habanera and the Toreador’s song – are untouched. French mezzo-soprano Virginie Verrez makes her role debut as Carmen, Dimitri Pittas is Don Jose and Philip Rhodes sings the role of toreador Escamillo. Tomáš Hanus conducts.
Orchestra of St John’s
MAKI SEKIYA, PIANO
Dorchester Abbey
Saturday, 7.30pm
Tickets: www.osj.org.uk
Popular Japanese virtuoso Maki Sekiya returns to the OSJ to perform Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 as part of an eclectic programme that also includes Mascagni’s ‘Intermezzo’ from Cavalleria Rusticana, Rosauro’s Marimba Concerto (with soloist Gregor Thomson), Verdi’s ‘Prelude’ from La Traviata and Bizet’s Carmen Suite. OSJ’s Associate Conductor Cayenna Ponchione conducts the Rosauro piece, with the orchestra’s founder John Lubbock wielding the baton for the remainder of the concert.
Oxford Coffee Concerts
MARMEN QUARTET
Holywell Music Room
Sunday, 11.15am
Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.ticketsoxford.com
Recently awarded first prize in the Banff International String Quartet competition and Grand Prize in the Bordeaux International String Quartet, the Marmen Quartet return to Oxford for to perform a pair of Beethoven string quartets, the No.11 in F minor Op.95, ‘Serioso’ and the No.7 in F major, Op.59 No.1. With Johannes Marmen, Ricky Gore, Bryony Gibson-Cornish and Steffan Morris.
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra
VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY
Sheldonian Theatre
Sunday, 7.30pm
Tickets: 01865 980980 or www.oxfordphil.com
Legendary Russian pianist, conductor and Oxford Philharmonic Patron Vladimir Ashkenazy is guest conductor at this concert, which includes Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48, Richard Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 11 (with Vienna horn soloist Pip Eastop) and Elgar Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, ‘Enigma’.
NICOLA LISLE
