Concerts

2023 Programme shortly to be announced

Berwick Music Series 2022

String Theory – Music for Solo Strings

Venue:  Watchtower Gallery, Berwick Upon Tweed

CONCERT 1

Baroque Tendencies

Watchtower Gallery, September 24, 1.00pm

Solo Violin: Darragh Morgan

Described by The Strad Magazine as ‘hugely impressive, he plays with seemingly effortless control’, Irish violinist Darragh Morgan is a renowned exponent of contemporary music, He has appeared as a soloist at Aldeburgh Festival and BBC Proms. A passionate chamber musician, Darragh is founder member of ‘the virtuosic Fidelio Trio’ (Sunday Times). Darragh was for several years violinist with the award-winning Smith Quartet, praised by The Guardian as ‘Britain’s answer to the Kronos’. He regularly leads London Sinfonietta, including recently at The Esplanade Singapore and Venice Biennale. He has recorded over 50 chamber music and solo albums. Darragh plays an 1848 Giuseppe Rocca violin, generously on loan from the Morgan-Rocca Instrument Trust which is administered by The Royal Society of Musicians and a bow by Joseph Alfred Lamy.

This concert will also include a performance of A Limit of Hearing by Elisabet Dijkstra, winner of the Berwick Prize for the Berwick New Music International Composition Competition.

CONCERT 2

The Melancholy of Departure

Watchtower Gallery, October 8, 1.00pm

Solo Cello: Anton Lukoszevieze

Lithuanian cellist, composer and inter-disciplinary artist Anton Lukoszevieze is one of the most diverse performers of his generation. Anton has given many performances at international festivals throughout Europe and the USA. He has also performed concerti with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as performances with contemporary vocal ensemble Exaudi and King’s College Choir, Cambridge. In 2009 he was awarded the ‘Millennium Star’ medal, for services to Lithuanian culture, by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. In 2012 he was awarded a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for outstanding contribution to chamber music. He is the founder and Director of Apartment House, who have made recent appearances at the Wigmore Hall, London.

This concert will also include a performance of Aurora by Eden Lonsdale, winner of the Open Prize for the Berwick New Music International Composition Competition.

CONCERT 3

Ferns, masks and rags – music for an evening

Watchtower Gallery, October 8, 6.00pm

Solo Cello: Anton Lukoszevieze

CONCERT 4

Baroque Intersections

Watchtower Gallery, October 22, 1.00pm

Solo Viola: Fiona Winning

Scottish violist Fiona Winning was until 2014 Principal Viola of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and before that the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. During her years in London, she was a regular guest principal of the Philharmonia and London Philharmonic Orchestras, including four seasons at Glyndebourne Opera. She is also a regular guest principal viola of the Aurora Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. For seven years she was a member of the Scottish Ensemble with whom she performed at the Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms, and at the Edinburgh International, Aldeburgh and City of London Festivals, and broadcast regularly on Radio 3. Fiona plays on an Antonio Gragnani viola from 1780 for which she gratefully acknowledges support from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Loan Fund for Musical Instruments.

JS Bach Suite No. 3 in C major (Adapted for viola), BWV 1009 and Ligeti Viola Sonata (Movements interleaved)
Luke Styles (new piece)