The Hampstead Arts Festival is an annual autumnal event, which enriches Hampstead’s cultural life and benefits the local community through the performance, enjoyment and appreciation of the arts, promoting established and emerging young talent. The Festival this year runs from September to December 2013 with a total of 9 concerts.

Last night saw the official launch of the 2013 Hampstead Arts Festival, with violinist Thomas Gould performing a recital accompanied by Ivana Gavric with the great revealing of this year’s programme. 2013 sees Tai Murray (Violinist) performing Bach Sonatas and Partitas, Brodsky Quartet performing the unique Zemlinsky quartets, as well as performances by Sophie Bevan, North York Moors Festival Musicians and Gwilym Simcock. It was a lovely evening with canopés being served and presented by Villa Bianca and fine wine by Jeroboams

Tickets sales are now live for the 2013 Festival and can be bought here. Have a look at an overview of the performers below – it promises to be a great year!

(Written on April 5, 2013 )

The Independent

The London 2012 Festival: The greatest show of a great year

It is about to happen all over the UK. It brings existing celebrations like the Proms together with one-off spectaculars on the Thames and in Edinburgh, and street dance everywhere, in a programme of 12,000 events.

The Guardian

Derek Hammond-Stroud obituary

Popular baritone and lieder singer with remarkable diction.

BBC presenter Petroc Trelawny arrested in Zimbabwe

Radio 3 presenter hurt in fall after detention by immigration officials at the end of a children’s concert.

Classical Music Magazine

Arts Council had consent for creative accounting

The National Audit Office has picked up on some unorthodox accounting by Arts Council England in the shape of a move devised to prevent ACE having to give cash back to the government at the end of the financial year.

NY Times

Composing a more useful future

The leaders of the American Composers Orchestra look to the ensemble’s future.

LA Times

The Sunday Conversation: Pianist Mona Golabek holds on to the music

The creator of the one-woman show ‘The Pianist of Willesden Lane’, now at the Geffen Playhouse, reflects on the gift of music.

The Times

Sophie and Mary Bevan: the soprano sisters

Soprano sisters Sophie and Mary Bevan are sharing an opera stage for the first time.

Jessica Duchen

The power of laughter

Comedy is, notoriously, the hardest genre of all at which to succeed – and probably why it doesn’t get into music very often.

Gramophone

Pianist Valentina Lisitsa signs to Decca Classics

YouTube sensation to record her London concert debut for the label.

(Written on May 28, 2012 )

In May 2013, Andrew Staples will perform the role of Tamino in the Royal Opera House’s production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. He will join Sophie Bevan (Pamina), Simon Keenlyside (Papageno), and Albina Shagimuratova (Queen of the Night)..

Other highlights in the 12/13 season include Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen with Bryn Terfel and Sarah Connolly, La bohème with Rolando Villazon, a new production of Nabucco with Placido Domingo, Simon Boccanegra with Thomas Hampson and the return of Birtwistle’s The Minotaur.

For a full list of productions, visit the Royal Opera House website.

Credit: Richard Ecclestone

(Written on March 15, 2012 )

Every day the WildKat team scan the newspapers and blogs online to bring you a digested list of the day’s classical music.

The Guardian

Wexford Opera Festival: Striking a High Note?

Every year a sleepy Irish Harbour town hosts a world-class opera festival. The festival runs till the 5^th of November.

The Guardian

Rameau’s operas: why his works deserve reappraisal.

In France, he is revered; in Britain he is barely performed. As ENO prepares its first-ever production of Jean-Philippe Rameau, Christian Curnyn applauds the legacy of a revolutionary who has always divided opinion.

The Times

Tallis Scholars/Phillips at Cadogan Hall, London

Lured by its mysterious history, polyphonic exchanges, and the soprano part’s leap up to top C some ensembles treat it as a choral spectacular.

The Times

The met brings Opera to a screen near you.

With its live broadcasts reaching three million, the New York Met is bringing opera to the masses.

The telegraph

Soprano with the genes for greatness

Sophie bevan may be the most exciting classical soprano to have appeared on the scene since Kate Royal.

(Written on October 21, 2011 )