The Society
Welcome to the British Music Society of York website. The BMS organises chamber music concerts in York, six every year from October through to March. Concerts take place in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York. You can buy tickets for individual concerts (or reserve them online for collection on the door), or alternatively why not join the society? Members gain entry to all six concerts at a considerable saving.
The next concert will be on Thursday 14th October, performed by Emma Johnson and John Lenehan, including sonatas by Mendelssohn, Brahms and Bax, and Milhaud's light-hearted Scaramouche Suite.
The BMS York promote these concerts in association with the University of York, whose support we gratefully acknowledge. The University also promote their own series of concerts - details are available at www.YorkConcerts.co.uk.
The 2010-2011 season
The 2010-2011 concert series, our 90th, will begin in October with a programme of music for clarinet and piano, given by the popular musicians Emma Johnson and John Lenehan. In November, we welcome back pianist Martin Roscoe to play Schumann, Chopin, Beethoven and a couple of rarities by Dohnányi. At our December concert the Sacconi String Quartet will play much-loved works by Beethoven, Smetana and Dvořák.
In January we are pleased to introduce the talented Italian pianist Alessandro Taverna, who was awarded third prize at the 2009 Leeds International Piano Festival. He will play pieces described by their composers as "Fantasy". In February the distinguished German cellist Florian Kitt is joined by pianist Aima Maria Labra-Makk in sonatas by Brahms and Britten, Schumann's Fantasy Pieces and a relatively new and hauntingly beautiful work dedicated to Kitt, written by Anthony Payne (who is perhaps most famous for "completing" Elgar's third symphony). Our March concert sees the exciting Katona Twins guitar duo join the Carducci Quartet in a wide-ranging programme from Vivaldi to Piazzolla which promises to be a brilliant and unmissable finale to our season.
Details of the individual concerts may be found by clicking here.
Next concert
Thursday 14th October 2010 at 8 pm
In the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.
Emma Johnson needs very little introduction. Since winning BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1984, she has become one of the few clarinetists with an international reputation as a soloist. She is equally at home in an orchestral concerto concert or a chamber recital. As well a collaborations with other groups, she is director of her own ensemble, Emma Johnson and Friends, a versatile wind and string group.
The pianist and composer John Lenehan has over 60 CD recordings to his name, most recently of minimalist piano music. He has recorded the complete piano music of John Ireland for Naxos, and his recording of Nyman's "The Piano Concerto" won a Gramophone Award. He is in demand across the world as a masterly and virtuoso accompanist.
They will play Mendelssohn's popular youthful Clarinet Sonata written when its composer was just fifteen, and the autumnal, genial second sonata by Brahms towards the end of his life. The clarinet solo movement from Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time was written first as a separate piece, and only later incorporated into the longer work, so makes an appropriate individual item. Milhaud's Scaramouche Suite exemplifies its composer's light-hearted approach to virtuoso display.
Thank you for your interest in the Society. You can find out about becoming a member, about our history, or about some of our previous seasons' concert programmes by using the navigation links at the top left of every page.