The Salomé Quartet has performed worldwide in venues including the Muzikverein in Vienna, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Unesco Hall in Paris, Lutoslawski Concert Studios Warsaw and Tel Aviv Opera House. In London they have appeared at the Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre and Cadogan Hall.

We are also very excited to have our first Hythe event, bringing the same programme from Dover to Hythe.

Book via link below:

www.tickettailor.com/events/folkestonenewmusic/1670738

Programme
Purcell – Chacony
Puccini – Crisantemi
Nielsen – At the bier of a young artist
John Woolrich – Ending Up
Shostakovich – Adagio and Allegretto
Stravinsky – 3 Pieces
Webern – Langsamer Satz

The Salomé Quartet has performed worldwide in venues including the Muzikverein in Vienna, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Unesco Hall in Paris, Lutoslawski Concert Studios Warsaw and Tel Aviv Opera House. In London they have appeared at the Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre and Cadogan Hall.

We are very excited at Folkestone New Music to be branching out into Dover, with this event at Biggin Hall.

Book via link below:

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/folkestonenewmusic

Programme

Purcell – Chacony
Puccini – Crisantemi
Nielsen – At the bier of a young artist
John Woolrich – Ending Up
Shostakovich – Adagio and Allegretto
Stravinsky – 3 Pieces
Webern – Langsamer Satz

Mark Simpson introduces and plays Helmutt Lachenmann’s extraordinary clarinet piece, Dal Niente. The music comes out of silence, from nothing, from the nature of the clarinet itself- wood, breath, and the weight of the keys.

This will be followed by a showing of Wiebke Pöpel’s award-winning film, ‘My Way’-  a portrait of Helmut Lachenmann, approaching the music and its captivating protagonist in a very personal, engaging, and often humorous way.

Book Via link below:

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/folkestonenewmusic/1670720

Darragh Morgan will talk about and perform some of the spectacularly virtuosic contemporary music for which he is famous, including music by Sciarrino, Xenakis, and Gerald Barry.

Darragh has appeared at the Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, Maerzmusik Berlin, BBC Proms, Osterfestival Tirol, Bang on a Can New York, Beijing Modern Music Festival, and Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre.

He has performed concertos with the National Orchestra of Ireland, Ulster Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic, Istanbul SO and European Union Chamber Orchestra.

He has recorded over 75 albums many of which have received Diapason d’Or and Gramophone Awards.

Part of Folkestone New Music’s Music Club.

6.30pm - Louise Drewett, Andrea Balency-Bearn, and Martha-Maria Mitu introduce their new pieces.

7.30pm - Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo), Joseph Havlat (piano)

New music by four brilliant young women composers: Louise Drewett, Rūta Vitkauskaitė, Andrea Balency-Bearn, and Martha-Maria Mitu. The performers are two extraordinary Australian musicians: Lotte Betts-Dean, whose singing shows ‘impressive control, an irrepressible sense of drama and extraordinary self-assurance’ and ‘an unmissable, urgent musicality’ (The Guardian), and pianist Joseph Havlat, whose career has included being a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican.

John Woolrich In Conversation with Luke Styles, with Marianne Schofield, Double Bass.

The Australian composer Luke Styles talks about his music in conversation with John Woolrich. Luke, who is also artistic director of the Deal Festival of Music and Arts, began his musical journey as a double bass player and he has composed extensively for the instrument. He will share insights into writing for the bass, while the exceptional performer Marianne Schofield will demonstrate its unique qualities and perform Luke’s music.

Part of Music in May Programme.

“Mark Simpson is a leading talent among young British composer-instrumentalists,”

Mark Simpson  Darkness Moves
Luciano Berio Sequenza IX
Kaija Saariaho Duft
John Cage Clarinet Sonata
Steve Reich  New York Counterpoint

Part of Folkestone New Music’s Music Club and the Music in May Programme. 

Oliver Pashley and George Fu, the ‘…mercurial monarch of the clarinet.’ (The Times), gives a concert of exciting, virtuosic music by Debussy, Berg, Maxwell Davies, and a new piece by Philip Cashian.

Oliver Pashley plays regularly with orchestras and ensembles at home and abroad, including the Philharmonia and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has played guest principal with the Royal Philharmonic and the Bournemouth Symphony orchestras.

Chinese-American pianist, George Fu, has been praised as “one of the most exciting pianists of our time… a deep thinker, thoroughly in command”. 

Debussy Première Rhapsodie
Eleanor Alberga Duo from Dancing with the Shadow
Philip Cashian Fiction
Berg Four Pieces
Maxwell Davies Hymnos

Distinguished composer Howard Skempton introduces and performs his 'austerely beautiful, sparse, decidedly enigmatic music.' (The Guardian). 

The melodies and chord patterns he uses may be commonplace, familiar, or even ­banal, but once we step into his world, we don't hear them like that any more. By stripping everything away except what is ­essential, Skempton's music clears a space for us to hear sound as sound, letting the ­gentle play of pattern seep deeply into our ­consciousness. At this point, simplicity becomes marvellous, complex, astonishingly beautiful. We see familiar objects in a new light, as we'd never seen them before, transformed.  (The Guardian)

Skempton  works for accordion

Part of Folkestone New Music’s Music Club.

William Howard is one of Britain’s leading pianists, enjoying a career that has taken him to over 40 different countries. His performing life consists of solo recitals, concerto performances, and guest appearances with chamber ensembles & instrumentalists. In 1983 he founded the Schubert Ensemble, with which he performed for the full 35 years of the Ensemble’s existence (it gave its final concert in June 2018). Winner of the 1998 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Chamber Ensemble, the Schubert Ensemble earned a worldwide reputation as one of the finest piano and string ensembles, as well as setting up several ground-breaking educational projects and commissioning 50 concert works.

His solo career has taken him to many of Britain’s most important festivals, including Bath, Brighton and Cheltenham, and he has been artist-in-residence at several others. He has performed many times in the Wigmore Hall, at the South Bank in London, and has broadcast regularly for BBC Radio 3.

Janacek On an Overgrown Path (Series Two) 

Howard Skempton 24 Preludes and Fugues 

Woolrich Piano Book VII

Fauré Nocturnes No.6 and No.13

Ravel Jeux d’Eau  

Hans Abrahamsen is one of the greatest living composers in the world and we are delighted to welcome him to Folkestone. He will be interviewed by Philip Cashian before a concert of his music, including his Horn Trio, played by Royal Academy of Music students and members of Riot Ensemble, specially coached by Hans for tonight’s event.

Hans Abrahamsen Congratulations Greeting, for horn

Luca Zucchi new work

Alexander Papp new work

Adam Zolty new work

Hans Abrahamsen Horn Trio

The prize-winning Pelléas Ensemble consists of Henry Roberts (flute), Luba Tunnicliffe (viola) and Oliver Wass (harp). Their fascinating programme stretches from 17th century England and Italy  (John Dowland and Barbara Strozzi) to the music of today (Harrison Birtwistle and John Woolrich). They will also play Debussy’s magnificent Sonata for flute, viola and harp.

We are very sorry to inform you that Mark Simpson has a horrible virus and is bed-bound, so we are having to postpone the Helmut Lachenmann talk, performance, and film that was due to take place on Thursday 27th March. We will inform everyone with a rescheduled date soon. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Over the past fifty years German composer Helmut Lachenmann has shaped contemporary music with his ‘Musique Concrete Instrumentale’- a unique noise music in which players use all parts of their instruments to make extraordinary new sounds.

Mark Simpson is introducing and playing Lachenmann’s extraordinary clarinet piece, Dal Niente. The music comes out of silence, from nothing, from the nature of the clarinet itself- wood, breath, and the weight of the keys.

An exclusive film screening will follow - Wiebke Pöpel’s award-winning film, ‘My Way’. The film depicts a portrait of Helmut Lachenmann, approaching the music and its captivating protagonist in a very personal, engaging, and often humorous way.

Adrian Bradbury and David Juritz perform Ravel’s magnificent Sonata for Viola and Cello in a concert that also includes music by Haydn, Villa-Lobos, and Betsy Jolas - plus Stravinsky’s arrangement of La Marseillaise and Sibelius’s Raindrops (written when he was just ten years old).

After leaving the Royal College of Music David Juritz joined the English Chamber Orchestra before being appointed leader of the London Mozart Players (a position he held until 2010). He made many appearances as a soloist with the LMP, including his debit at the 2006 BBC Promenade Concerts. In 2019 he was invited to direct the English Chamber Orchestrate their debut in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Other performances have included appearances as soloist and director at the Tonhalle in Zurich, performances of the Beethoven and Brahms concertos in Tokyo, the Tchaikovsky concerto at the Barbican and solos with the ECO and the City of Birmingham SO.

David plays on a violin made by J.B.Guadagnini in 1748.

Adrian Bradbury is a regular guest principal player with orchestras including BBC Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, London Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

de Lisle/Stravinsky La Marseillaise
Haydn String Duo in D Hob VI
Villa Lobos Deux Choros
Berio Les mots sont allés
Ligeti Hommage à Hilding Rosenberg
Sibelius Canon
Sibelius Rain Drops
Betsy Jolas Musique pour Delphine
Ravel Sonata for violin and cello

The first of Folkestone New Music's series of 2025 events at kollectiv, Folkestone's exciting new arts and culture hub. Composer Mark Simpson and award-winning environmentalist writer Melanie Challenger discuss their opera, ‘Pleasure’.

Pleasure was co-commissioned by the Royal Opera House, Opera North, and Aldeburgh Music, and first performed in Leeds in 2016 to great acclaim.

’.”…the perfect operatic subject: squalid and earthbound yet imbued with a radiant, almost mythic quality… At the start of what one hopes will be a long operatic career, Simpson has pulled off a genuine coup." - The Guardian

At 18:00, we will be offering a free, celebratory glass whilst the team introduces what is happening in the rest of the full and exciting 2025 Folkestone New Music season. Please join us!