New work, young artists, established favourites: University of Birmingham’s Barber Concerts

The University of Birmingham’s Elgar Concert Hall

The University of Birmingham has announced its programme of lunchtime and evening concerts for 2024/24, the Barber Concerts taking place in the Elgar Concert Hall in the university’s in the Bramall Music Building, and the Dome studio space.

The evening concert series includes the BBC Singers joining forces with Britten Sinfonia, conductor Bob Chilcott, for the premiere of Michael Zev Gordon’s A Kind of Haunting . There are concerts from the brass ensemble, Septura, a recital from soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha and pianist Joseph Middleton, the James Ehnes Piano Quartet in Fauré and the Brautigam/Hoppe/ Poltéra Trio.

The free lunchtime concert series includes Ariel Lanyi, piano, Timothy Ridout, viola and Jonathan Ware, piano, Marie-Christine Zupancic, flute and Daniel Browell, piano, BBC New Generation Artist, James Atkinson, baritone and Hamish Brown, piano. Kenneth Hamilton, piano, gives a lecture recital, Songs of Love and Dances of Death, whilst Caroline Ritchie and Henrik Persson perform on two spectacular and historically important viols, and there is a special concert in celebration of the exhibition Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites at the Barber Institute, with settings of poetry by Dante Gabriel Rossetti .

Other highlights for Autumn include Groove onto the Moon, a concert experience especially created for children aged 3 to 7 and their adventurous grown-ups; Rosie Tee, a Birmingham-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer in her brand of technicolour, retro-futuristic pop; BEAST and turntablist Mariam Rezaei; Odd Priest, a multi-disciplined artist from Birmingham.

Full details from the university website.