Horsham Music Circle

HORSHAM MUSIC CIRCLE - 83rd Season - 2024/25

The Music Circle’s 83rd Season’s Autumn concerts brought rewarding comments from our audiences and reviewers alike. We were wowed by the brilliance of Kosmos Ensemble’s fantastic programme from around the globe. The three players showing great rapport and demonstrating their individual virtuosity. The recital by bassoonist Siping Guo with Apolline Khou on piano displayed excellent programme choices performed with commanding technique and musicality. This was hugely enjoyed and greeted with enthusiastic applause. The acclaimed pianist Leon McCawley treated us to a wonderful recital. We savoured a rich programme skilfully displaying precise and exciting articulation and a full dynamic range all expertly handled with musicianship at the highest level.

For the Spring series 2025 we offer three contrasting concert programmes and hope to see you there!

The series opens on Saturday February 15th 4.30pm in St Mary’s Church with the SUSSEX CHAMBER PLAYERS. The chamber players are a group of like-minded musicians who enjoy chamber music but also work together in a range of settings including teaching, coaching and performing. They gave us a splendid performance at our Vaughan Williams 150 concert in 2022 and now are back with larger forces to play Mendelssohn’s ever popular Octet. Programmed with this wonderful work are string octet arrangements by Anna Cooper of Moskowski’s Bolero, Fauré Apres Un Reve and Duke Ellington’s Prelude to a Kiss and the Sextet in E flat by Frank Bridge. A real feast of chamber music not to be missed! We move to the Causeway Barn for Saturday March 15th 7.00pm with an evening to bring baroque into the 21st century presented by recorder virtuoso PIERS ADAMS with LYNDY MAYLE keyboards. Titled BAROQUE ALCHEMY, it involves electronic keyboards - an electro-baroque fusion duo! This programme has been impressing music societies throughout the country. Piers has performed for the Music Circle before with his group Red Priest. His mission, with Lyndy, is to to ‘alchemise’ baroque (and other classical) music and bring it into the 21st century, but in a way which is appealing to traditional classical audiences as well as younger, more eclectic ones. The beauty of the synth is that it can produce a wondrous range of sounds and as such it is the perfect accompaniment to the purity and natural expression of the recorder.  From Bach to Piazzolla they promise us a truly moving and memorable musical experience! On Saturday May 10th 7.00pm at St Mary’s Church a resounding finish to the season is expected when acclaimed quintet ONYX BRASS plays for our 83rd Anniversary concert. It celebrated its 30th anniversary last year and continues to be the leading light in establishing the brass quintet as a medium for serious chamber music, combining “staggering virtuosity” (Sarah Walker, BBC Radio 3) with the entertaining and articulate style that has become the group’s trademark. The group’s extensive discography has received huge critical acclaim, Gramophone hail “some of the most thrilling chamber brass-playing of its kind” and Record Review (R3) describing the group as a “wonderful, virtuosic brass quintet”. The programme ranges from Monteverdi’s Vespers, Rameau and Bach to Shostakovich, Arnold and Bernstein’s West Side Story Suite.

Cash payments (bring coins!) will be accepted at the concerts for Interval refreshments Wine/Juice £4/£1 and programmes £1.

PARKING at our main venues, St Mary's Church and Causeway Barn RH12 1HE  - The nearest parking is behind the Barn via the slip road half way down the Causeway on the right hand side - this is open from 5pm. Otherwise Denne Road Car Park, Talbot Lane RH12 1JH or Forum Blackhorse Way RH12 1NU (closes at 10pm).

The concerts are open to all. Individual tickets are available but do consider taking advantage of the special deal for the three Music Circle Spring concerts. We look forward to seeing our regular supporters return and hope others discovering us for the first time will be inspired to join them. If you are new to live music performances, you will hear a great variety of pieces over a couple of hours with a short interval when you can meet with fellow music lovers over a glass of wine or soft drink - do come along and give it a try!

A Ticket Application form, with discount rate for those attending all three concerts, is available direct from Horsham Music Circle. You can book by phone 01403 252602 (answer machine), email horshammusiccircle@gmail.com, or download the Ticket Application Form from the website. Online bookings from 2nd January at wegottickets.com/HorshamMusicCircle. Tickets also on the door.

The Horsham Music Circle can be contacted on 01403 252602 or by email horshammusiccircle@gmail.com and for more details see our website at horsham-music-circle.org.uk and Facebook page.