Latest News From Keswick MUSIC SOCIETY​

NEWS JANUARY/APRIL 2024

2023-24 Season – 5th Concert  St. John’s Church April 13th 7.30pm. The Pirasti Piano Trio with an intriguing programme: music by Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) Trio, Paul Schoenfield (b.1947) Café Music and Johannes Brahms Piano Trio No 1.

2023-24 Season – 4th Concert   Charlotte Spruitt, violin, and Angus Webster, piano, St. John’s Church Saturday February 24th.    With sonatas by Mozart, César Franck, Beethoven and Debussy this was a big concert, with beautiful, sensitive and dramatic interpretations by these brilliant young musicians. See the review on our review page.  

2023-24 Season – 3rd concert    Dame Imogen Cooper, piano St. John’s Church Saturday January 13th 2024

Imogen Cooper’s concert was attended by one of the largest audiences of recent years, and she lived magnificently up to all expectations as one of the most distinguished and cherished pianists of our time.  Her programme with music by Schubert, Bach, Thomas Adès and Beethoven took us on a fascinating musical journey and it was a joy to hear the Society’s piano at its best in the acoustics of St. John’s. See our reviews page.

NEWS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023

 The 2nd concert of our mini Autumn/Winter season, given by Lara Melda, piano, was an absorbing and thrilling evening (see The Concert Reviews Page), and we look forward to hearing Imogen Cooper in the New Year. In February our soon to-be-announced Spring/Summer season of 3 concerts will begin, ending with a glorious evening of opera at The Theatre. Our 2024-25 new format season of subscription concerts will also be announced along with our offering to Members.

NEWS NOVEMBER 2023

On October 28th The Alkyona String Quartet opened our 2023-24 season with a really inspiring concert of Purcell, Haydn, Britten and two new works by Dobrinka Tabakova and Jessie Montgomery.  The audience loved it! See the review page for a review of this concert. The next concert in this series will be given on November 25th by the brilliant young pianist Lara Melda with a programme of Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms and Chopin.

We will have to wait until after Christmas  – January 13th – to hear Imogen Cooper with Schubert, Bach, Thomas Ades and Beethoven.

NEWS OCTOBER 2023

Good news! The 2023-24 season will begin on Saturday October 28th at St. John’s Church Keswick.

Before the concert at 6pm we will hold the AGM for 2022-23 to which all Members are warmly invited.  

The Alkyona String Quartet’s concert will include music by Haydn, Purcell and Britten. Our Steinway piano will be heard again on Saturday November 25th in a concert of Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms and Chopin to be given by the young and brilliant Lara Melda. And again, after Christmas on January 13th we are incredibly pleased to announce that the distinguished and internationally renowned pianist Imogen Cooper will give a concert of music including Schubert, Bach, Thomas Ades and Beethoven.  

For details of tickets and membership of the Society, see Membership page.

NEWS AUGUST – SEPTEMBER 2023

The 3 last concerts of the 2022-2023 season were at Theatre by the Lake on March 14th – Bella Tromba – 5 trombones, May 9th, the Brompton String Quartet and June 6th, PIVA the Renaissance Collective in their programme Measure for Measure – see the review page for more details.

As last year, our attempts to have all our concerts at one venue and on convenient days of the week, in spite of all efforts, have not been totally successful. We have not given up, but are preparing our Autumn programme, which as last year will be held at St. John’s Church Keswick, where the Music Society’s Steinway piano still lives.

The planned dates for 2023-2024 are:

  1. October 28 The Alkyona String Quartet

And then we are thrilled to present two amazing pianists:

  1. November 25 Lara Melda (programme TBA)
  2. January 13 Imogen Cooper (programme TBA)

In February we will transfer to Theatre by the Lake, where our provisional dates are:

  1. February 15 TBA
  2. February 28 TBA
  3. March 20 TBA
  4. TBA
  5. TBA
  6. June 12 TBA

NEWS APRIL – JUNE 2023 

Our spring/summer 2023 season continues at Theatre by the Lake. The next concert is:

Tuesday May 9th   7.30pm    The Brompton String Quartet

The  Brompton Quartet was the winner of the St. Martin-in-the Fields Chamber Music Competition 2019 and is an up and coming ensemble known for its engaging and dynamic performances. The group is made of four exceptional soloists who have a spark of something very special when they come together.

The last concert of the 2022-2023 season will be:

Tuesday June 6th  7.30pm       PIVA      

PIVA are 6 musicians, playing the best of Renaissance music on altogether 40 instruments of the period! They will be presenting their popular programme, ‘Measure for Measure’, focusing on the popular dance and ballad music from the late 16th century which would have been familiar to theatre audiences of Shakespeare’s  day. 

NEWS FEBRUARY – MARCH 2023

After our successful autumn/winter series of 4 concerts at St. John’s Church Keswick, the second half of the 2022-23 season began on February 14th at Theatre by the Lake with an unusual ensemble – violin and guitar.

Harriet Mackenzie (violin) a multi-faceted virtuoso with “captivating, searing intensity and full of panache” (The Strad) and James Boyd (guitar), one of the finest classical guitarists playing today. Long ago awarded the Julian Bream prize, by Bream himself, in recognition of this extraordinary talent. Together, these two outstanding international musicians performed a variety of arrangements and original works for violin and guitar including music by : JS Bach, Paganini, Barrios, de Falla, Piazzolla.

Next, on March 14th, we heard a performance by BELLA TROMBA, a brilliant all-female trumpet quartet! This exciting group perform chamber music extensively across the UK and abroad. They played dazzling original works`and exciting arrangements of music from the Baroque to the 20th century, including music by Monteverdi, Bizet, Satie, Imogen Holst and Clara Schumann. 

NEWS OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2022

Keswick Music Society can now announce the new 2022-23 season, a season of two halves.

Under their new arrangements, the Theatre by the Lake cannot give us our usual range of dates and days of the week from September to April, so we will hold the concerts in the first part of our season at St. John’s Church, Keswick, which has excellent acoustics for music. As it’s where our Steinway piano is now kept, these concerts will tend to involve the piano. Tickets will be available online from Theatre by the Lake www.theatrebythelake.com, or from the Box Office 017687 74411 or in person, or on the evening at the door of St. John’s Church.

We will then have 4 Tuesday concerts at Theatre by the Lake on February 14th, March 14th, May 9th and June 6th. These will be bookable from the Theatre Box Office or online as normal.

For details of the St. John’s concerts and of the concerts at the Theatre see Our Concerts and Upcoming Concerts.

Membership News Update – January 2021

Dear Members,

Due to the disruption to our programme because of COVID19, we will delay restarting our membership scheme until the 2021-2022 season, and we aim to announce this in February-March 2021.  

Our move into national lockdown sadly means the cancellation of the rescheduled concert by Festivo Winds in St Johns Church Keswick which we had planned for 24th January as a free concert for 2019-2020 members. At the moment it is not possible to plan a new date for this concert, but there will definitely be a free concert for 2019-2020 Members later in the year.

We still hope to go ahead with 3 concerts plus a Family concert at Theatre by the Lake in February, March and April 2021, but this depends on the Theatre’s ability to reopen and we await their announcement. If the concerts go ahead tickets will be available from the Theatre by the Lake Box Office, prices to be announced.

Arrangements TBA.

Music Society News – December 2020

After various attempts, we are hoping to hold our long-delayed AGM on Tuesday March 2nd at 11am location TBA. Members will be informed of the details and we do hope that as many as possible will be able to come.

At the last committee Meeting Gill Edmonds, our popular and long serving Chairman, announced her wish to retire after 9 years, and the Committee voted that Mary Cooke, previously Concert Secretary, should replace her. These changes would normally be dealt with at an AGM, according to our constitution, so hopefully on March 2nd we can regularise them and say goodbye to Gill (as Chairman, only!) properly.

Concert News – December 2020

Great news at last! The Theatre will be reopening in February, but even before that we will try yet again to give our members some compensation for the abrupt ending of last season.

We hopefully present again, on Sunday January 24th, Festivo Winds, a young and brilliant group of wind players who will play a fascinating programme in St. John’s Church, Keswick. This will be free for members who will be asked to register beforehand, as because of Covid19 regulations there will be spaced and therefore limited seating. See this page for updates and how to book.

The first concert of our 2020 – 2021 Season will be one of the first to be held in the newly reopened Theatre by the Lake.

On Sunday February 21st Bella Tromba will present their afternoon Family Concert and at 7.30 their evening concert will be without interval (for social distancing reasons) and will last about an hour and a quarter.

Sadly, we will not be hearing the promising and entertaining Young Musicians of Keswick this year. The Theatre has very stringent conditions backstage for performers and helpers and cannot provide the necessary safe and healthy conditions for the very large numbers of keen performers whose music we normally enjoy.

“JUST” BACH ORGAN RECITALS

Sunday 23rd August, Sunday 30th August, Sunday 13th September, Sunday 20th September – 4.00pm – Parish Church of Keswick, St John

John Cooper Green will start the recitals next Sunday (23rd August) and they will then be every week at 4.00pm until the end of September, with the exception of Sunday September 6th.

Government guide lines will be followed and audience members will be asked to give contact details (in strict confidence), wear a mask and seating will be socially distanced.
Unfortunately it is not possible to provide refreshments but the audience is welcome to bring their own to consume during the recital, though we would prefer that you did not bring cans or crisps.
As usual these are relaxed recitals and you are very welcome to read, sew, knit, do the crossword, play chess (quietly!) etc. or just sit back and listen. An updated poster and programme is attached.

As a music society we are very keen to have live music return to this area and give a platform for our struggling professional musicians. These recitals may give us the opportunity to see what can be done and discover a way forward, so please support.

View the ‘Just’ Bach Poster

View the ‘Just’ Bach Programme

Concerts in Keswick: SEASON 2022-23

2023-24 Season – 5th Concert  The Pirasti Piano Trio with an intriguing programme: music by Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) Trio, Paul Schoenfield (b.1947) Café Music and Johannes Brahms Piano Trio No 1.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.