Listings: September - December 2024

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No concerts in August - concerts resume Friday 6th September

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6th September

Award-winning Italian pianist Nicolas Ventura is excited to present a programme that includes two Scarlatti piano sonatas, Beethoven's transcendent final piano sonata, no.32, Op.111, and music by Debussy and Scriabin.

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13th September In a change to the previously published programme: 

Rachel Ellis (violin) and Stephen Carroll-Turner (piano) of the Brighton Chamber Ensemble play Mozart's great Sonata in B flat major K454 along with two lesser-known gems: ‘Notturno' by Emilie Mayer and ‘Romance' by Amy Beach. 

 

20th September 

The chromatic harmonica is a uniquely expressive instrument, equally at home with haunting film themes and baroque music. Phil Hopkins, accompanied by Rachel Fryer (piano), takes us on a journey from JS Bach to the film music of John Barry, taking in Fauré, Debussy and Morricone along the way.

 

27th September

Soprano, flute and piano trio Caroline Goodwin, Polina Loubnina and Zhanna Kemp present an extraordinary programme of arie antiche, lieder and art songs by female composers, from the Baroque period through to the 20th century. Featured composers include Barbara Strozzi, Lili and Nadia Boulanger, Pauline Viardot, Mel Bonis, Alexandra Pakhmutova and Florence Price, amongst others.

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4th October

Alexander Rider is a harpist who goes beyond the notes to find the stories of the performers who inspired them. An intimate feast of French music for the harp, to include works by Saint-Saëns, Fauré and Henriette Renié. 

 

11th October

Mateusz Rettner (piano) performs the early, but already very mature, First Sonata by Scriabin which explores the dark moods of the composer's struggle with depression following a career-stopping injury. However the atmosphere will be lightened by Earl Wild's 'Seven Virtuoso Etudes' based on popular Gershwin songs.

 

18th October

Paul Richards (Latin guitar) will be performing the classical guitar music of South America and Spain. “A gem on the stage.  Paul Richards beautifully updated the Laurindo Almeida nylon-string Brazilian Guitar style.” Jazz Wise Magazine

 

25th October

Ida Pelliccioli (piano) presents “Spanish keyboard music in the 18th century: from master to pupil" with pieces by Domenico Scarlatti, Padre Antonio Soler and Blasco de Nebra.

 

1st November

Jazz pianist Mark Wallace will be playing and improvising on jazz classics by Gershwin, Porter and Ellington such as Satin Doll, Take the A Train and The Man I Love. 

 

8th November

The South Downs Folk Singers (SDFS) began life following a Heritage Lottery Funded project in partnership with the South Downs Society, about the heritage and songs of the South Downs. SDFS is not a formal choir but a joyful group who sing traditional South Downs songs unaccompanied, as they may very well have been sung in homes, places of work and recreation in the past.

 

15th November

Alastair Penman (saxophone) and Jonathan Pease (piano) perform a selection of well-known and original music from their recent albums ‘Soar’ and ‘Quietude’, praised by critics as "an extended, dazzling display of talent" and "completely gorgeous".

 

22nd November

Singing viola player Katherine Clarke returns to give a world premiere of ‘Notes to Self’ by Orlando Gough. The programme will also include solo works by Bach and Telemann, as well as some of Katherine’s own singing viola arrangements.

 

29th November

The LIPS Wind Quintet are delighted to return to Brighton Unitarian, with an extra clarinet! Alongside Janáček's wonderful Mladi, we bring Higdon’s popular Autumn Music, and a new set of dances, by John Cook. 

 

6th December

Internationally acclaimed pianist Chisato Kusunoki, a graduate of the University of Oxford and the Royal Academy of Music, will perform works by Bach-Rachmaninoff and the Dagestani composer Murad Kazhlaev, some of which will be UK premieres.

 

13th December

"Manuscripts don't burn": Siriol Hugh-Jones (cello) and Anya Kolesnik (piano) play the Rhapsody for cello and piano by Rebecca Clarke, premiered in 1923 but unpublished for almost a century. 

 

20th December

Nick Andrews and Dan James will perform a concert of gorgeous cello and piano music as has become a Unitarian Christmas tradition. There'll be some singing too, and some special guests.