More September concerts

First there are the two Salon Music concerts –

9th September – The Voice Trio – book here.

Love songs from the 12th to the 21st Century – Highgate School Chapel – £20 to include wine before and during the interval.

24th September – Madeleine Mitchell and Richard Crabtree – book here

Boccherini, Bach, Bartok – and Judith Weir – £30 to include wine and buffet supper

And then……

14th September – MARÉS, Journeys into Brazilian Music – book here

This is the first in in the New Stages Creations autumn programme whose launch I went to back in July.

Making a living as a musician has never been easy but over the last few years it has got significantly harder. The disaster of the pandemic came as an existential shock but the creeping financial squeeze of streaming presents as much of a problem. So it is hats off to any group looking for new ways to make their music making financially viable.

New Stages Creations is one such initiative. Headed up by two Brazilians, guitarist and Royal Academy research doctor, Fabricio Mattos and composer Bernardo Simoes, New Stages Creations brings together 11 excitingly different instruments and their players in a live concert series linked to a subscription video platform.  For their live performances New Stages has partnered with Sands End Arts and Community Centre just off the New King’s Road in West London. The Arts Centre has a rather beautiful new wooden ‘happenings’ hall which will host one event a month over the next year.

And the ‘events’ are an exciting and eclectic mix; we were treated to five minutes of each at the launch evening to whet out appetites – which indeed they did. All were interesting and tempting – but my own favourites were:

• Aethereally. (5th October 2023) An entrancing piece for the accordian and oboe by Bernardo. This revealed the accordion, as played by Alise Silina in any case,  to be an instrument of infinitely greater subtlety, interest and charm than I had ever imagined.
• Doing the Rounds. (12th December 2023) The poetry of Audrey Ardern-Jones read by Audrey and accompanied by Lucas Jordan on the flute and Fabricio on the guitar. Words and music perfectly matched and mutually illuminating.
• Power and Nuance. (21st March 2024) London Central Brass focus on brass chamber music and for this event, on contemporary brass music from across the Americas. (Their 5 minute ‘sampler’ at the launch event consisted of two delightful pieces written by Bernardo, one for the horn and one for the tuba.)
• Silence, Power and Harmony. (16th May 2024)  The music and the Tao of tea. 靜 is stillness, tranquillity, silence; 勁 is strength and power and 境 is a state of being that can be reached by contrasting states such as soft and hard, yin and yang, slow and fast. Yi-Hsuan Chen 陳 邑 瑄 (flute) and Anqi Qu 曲 安 琪 (guzheng – a plucked zither) ‘will perform their rendition of 靜 勁 境, transporting you into a world of tranquillity, strength, and diversity’.

For the full programme and how to book for the live concerts – or how to sign up to the video subscription service – check in to the New Stages website. And if you are very lucky – and the weather is clement – you might even get a post concert rendition of some delightful Brazilian café music in the garden of the centre afterwards – Fabricio here on the left and Lucas on the right.

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