An Invitation to Music
Welcome to Penrith Music Club and our 81st season of outstanding concerts by internationally distinguished musicians and gifted young musicians with a great future.
2024-25 Season
We look forward to welcoming you to our concerts!
| Monday 23rd September | Peter Donohoe and Martin Roscoe (2 pianos) | Review |
| Monday 21st October | Pirasti Trio (violin, cello, piano) | Review |
| Monday 18th November | Sarah Williamson (clarinet), Sam Haywood (piano) | Review |
| Monday 13th January | Jeremias Fliedl (cello), Callum McLachlan (piano) | |
| Monday 10th February | William Bracken (piano) | |
| Monday 10th March | Solem String Quartet | |
| Saturday 19th April, 2:30pm | Junior RNCM concert |
All concerts are at the Penrith Methodist church and start at 7:30pm unless otherwise advised.
Single tickets – 2024/25 season £20 (students £5), Junior RNCM concert £10 (students free)
Tickets can be purchased on the door, pre-booked by calling 01768 863518 or bought in advance from Beckside Books. Regular concert-goers are encouraged to become members.
Season preview
Penrith Music Club has been bringing high quality international artists to the area for more than eighty years and our 2024-25 season promises to be another outstanding year.
Our season opens on Monday 23rd September with an event which we think is unique in our history. Two of the most eminent pianists of our time will be giving a recital of music for two pianos with works by Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Debussy and Rachmaninov. Martin Roscoe has been a frequent visitor to Penrith over many years, both as solo pianist, accompanist and chamber musician. Peter Donohoe was silver medallist in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1982 and gave a memorable performance of Liszt’s piano sonata for us later that decade.
Our October concert will be given by the Edinburgh-based Pirasti Trio. The main work in their programme will be Brahms’s imposing Piano Trio in B major. Trios by Rebecca Clarke and Paul Schoenfield complete an attractive programme. Cellist Alison Wells is a former student of Penrith’s Queen Elizabeth Grammar School.
In November we welcome international clarinettist Sarah Williamson and pianist Viv McLean in a delightful programme of some of the classics of the clarinet repertoire. As well as Weber’s Grand Duo Concertante and Brahms’s Sonata in Eb major, there will be music by Finzi, Poulenc, Schumann and Gershwin.
The first two concerts of 2025 feature three talented young artists of the future. Austrian-born cellist Jeremias Fliedl, finalist in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and pianist Callum McLachlan, son of pianist Murray McLachlan, have both been studying in Salzburg and have been performing together for the last five years. As well as cello sonatas by Beethoven and Rachmaninov, their January programme will include Fauré’s lovely Elegy for cello and piano and music by Arvo Pärt.
Our February concert features the rising star English pianist William Bracken. Born in Liverpool, William studied at the Guildhall School of Music with Ronan O’Hora, Martin Roscoe and Noriko Ogawa. He has already given recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall. William’s wide-ranging programme will include music by Haydn, Ravel, Prokofiev, Messiaen, Schumann and Liszt.
The final evening concert of the season will be given by the Solem Quartet. Praised for their “immaculate precision and spirit” (The Strad), the Solem Quartet has established itself as one of the most innovative and adventurous string quartets of the present day. Their recital will include two of the finest works in the string quartet repertoire, Beethoven’s final quartet in F major and Debussy’s remarkable quartet in G minor, as well as works by Henriëtte Bosmans and Nadia Boulanger.
The season ends with our annual afternoon concert by musicians from the Junior Department of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, showcasing some of the most promising musical talent of the future – an uplifting and enjoyable end to our season.
Penrith Methodist Church with its excellent Steinway grand piano is the venue for all the concerts.
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