Music Society/Pentland Concerts

PENTLAND CONCERTS

Welcome to the Pentland Concerts web page.

Last season was one of our very best, with many highlights and much wonderful music.  We hope our programme for this year can match last year’s and have assembled a wide variety of artists, some of whom already have established international careers, and some who are young artists on the verge of exciting professional careers.  Many of these will become familiar names in the classical music world in years to come, like Sean Shibe, the guitarist, who played for us last year and was described in the Scotsman as ‘the finest classical guitarist I have ever heard’. 

This season, we will continue to use the wonderful performance space in St Mungo’s Church, and are also going to try out the newly refurbished Carlops Church, which now has a superb space of its own that we think will be great for concerts. We very much hope you will come along to our concerts and look forward to seeing you there.

Tickets and Subscriptions

You can subscribe to all six of our concerts for the price of £40, less than £7 and far less that the cost of an equivalent concert in Edinburgh.  The over 75s can subscribe for only £32.

Children under the age of 16 are welcome to come with an adult, free.

Individual concerts are priced at £9.

Contact

For any queries, or if you need a lift along to Carlops please contact either:

Michael Pryor: 01968 660829 mipryor@btopenworld.com; or

Gail Jackson: 01968 660695 G.Jackson@ed.ac.uk

All concerts are at 7.30 pm

Saturday 17 October 2009

St Mungo’s Church, West Linton

The Fujita Trio

The Fujita sisters from Japan have been playing chamber music together since early childhood. They made a highly acclaimed debut at the Wigmore Hall in March 1999. Concert engagements have taken the Trio to more than 100 venues in the UK. Overseas, they have played in Canada, France, Italy, Ireland, Romania, Egypt, Morocco and Turkey, and they have won numerous awards and prizes, both as a Trio and individually.  We are very fortunate to have a group with such a reputation coming to play for us in West Linton. 

Sunday 29 November 2009

Carlops Parish Church

The Finzi Quartet

We are lucky once again to have been awarded a concert by this years’ Tunnell Trust prize-winning group, the Finzi Quartet. The Finzi Quartet was formed at the Royal Northern College of Music and are to make their debut at both the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room later this year.  The group is steadily building an international reputation, with residencies and performances in Blair Atholl, Aldeburgh, London and Trondheim. They have recently completed studies at the Instituto Internacional de Música de Cámara de Madrid. Having a strong desire to promote the music of English composers, the Quartet feels extremely honoured that the Finzi Trust supports their use of Gerald Finzi’s name.  The quartet will play works by Haydn, Bridge and Beethoven.

Saturday 12 December 2009

St Mungo’s Church

The Bridge Duo – Matthew Jones, violin/viola and Michael Hampton, piano

The Bridge Duo has performed worldwide to high acclaim. Recent recital venues in the UK include the Purcell Room, St. John's Smith Square, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Blackheath Halls and the Wales Millennium Centre. They are devoted to raising the awareness of the depth and quality of the repertoire for viola and piano, presenting attractive and accessible programmes. They aim to explore this overlooked music (much of it British) and to perform it in a dynamic way, changing people's perception of the viola as a solo instrument. The duo will be playing works by British composers.

Saturday 30 January 2010

St Mungo’s Church

Sebastian Stanley - piano

Sebastian Stanley was born in Spain in 1984 and moved to England at the age of 4, but did not start playing the piano until he was 13. He has now completed two degrees at the Royal College of Music. As a finalist in the 2008 Royal Overseas League Competition, Sebastian is establishing himself as a pianist of great promise. Other competition successes include winning the London Emanuel Trophy, the prize for the ‘Best performance of a work by a British composer' in the International Haverhill competition, and winning the Chappell Gold Medal (The highest award for piano) at the RCM in July 2006. Sebastian has been lucky enough to be helped by many wonderful pianists from around the world. He will play works by Liszt and Brahms.

Saturday 20 February 2010

Carlops Parish Church

Fenella Barton, solo violin

British violinist Fenella Barton, whom The Strad has hailed as “gifted and decisive, enjoys a dynamic career as both a soloist and chamber musician.  She has enjoyed a successful and varied career in several major ensembles, including the contemporary music group Capricorn and the chamber ensemble Fibonacci Sequence. She currently leads the “virtuosic” Configure8 of whom The Strad commented on “the gorgeous sound combinations these players could achieve”. She is a member of the Kandinsky piano trio and was leader of Jane’s Minstrels for ten years, winning a gramophone magazine record of the year accolade. She now broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and has an active recording career. Fenella is a winner of the Fulbright Scholarship. The concert will include works by Bach and a new work written for Fenella, themed ‘Bach with a Twist’.

Saturday 6 March 2010

Carlops Village Centre

Simon Thacker, guitar, Daisy Chute,

One of our favourite musicians, the guitarist Simon Thacker, has joined forces with singing star Daisy Chute to perform colourful classical, Latin American, jazz and folk influenced music of remarkable emotional range and stylistic diversity.  Simon is an award winning guitarist who has played two wonderful concerts for us in the past.  Daisy shot to fame with the female vocal quartet All Angels, whose debut album reached the top 10 in the national pop album charts and number 2 in the classical charts, earning a platinum disc, Classical Brit Award nomination and making them the fastest selling début classical group of all time. All Angels were watched by 10 million TV viewers when they sang in front of the Queen at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall and have appeared countless times on peak time BBC and ITV. Daisy has sung as a soloist at the Wigmore Hall and released a critically acclaimed solo jazz album at the amazing age of 15, championed by Humphrey Lyttelton on Radio 2, and now has several exceptionally successful albums behind her.

Wednesday 21st April  2010

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Red Cross Hall, Linton Bank Drive