Events

Past events are here. Coming up next:

Sunday, June 14th 2026, 3.00pm, St Mary's Church, Ross-on-Wye, HR9 5HN
in collaboration with Wye Valley Music
Tickets £20, members: £17, under 25: £2, under 15: free

“There is probably no more inspirational musician working today than Podger” Gramophone

Award-winning Baroque violinist Rachel Podger takes the resurgence of the Arts in England post-1660 as the compelling inspiration for her new programme, The Muses Restor’d. Adopting its title as its theme, Rachel and her vivacious Brecon Baroque take the listener on a journey of captivating violin-led chamber music from Jacobean to Early Georgian England. Ranging from the gentle intimacy of consort idioms to the full-blown instrumental virtuosity of the evolving Baroque period, this album uncovers little known glories of English instrumental music and its influences.

The Muses Restor’d

George Frideric Handel: Sonata in D major HWV 371 Op. 1 No. 13  
John Jenkins: Fantasia-Suite in A minor
Johann Schop: Lachrimae(based on Dowland)                                                 
Richard Jones: ‘Chamber Airs’ for a violin and Thorough Bass Op. 2 No. 4  
William Lawes:  Sonata (Fantasy Suite) No. 8 in D major                              
John Blow:Ground in G minor                                                                                    
Matthew Locke:Little Consort in two parts For Severall Friends in C minor-major 
Henry Purcell: Sonata in G minor Z.780                                                
Tune set:                                                                                                                 
Thomas Baltzar: The Division Violin: A Prelude for the Violin
Francesco Barsanti: ‘Lochaber’ from A Collection of Old Scots Tunes (G major) 
Purcell Lilli Bullero: Z646  ‘A new Irish Tune’, (G major)
James Oswald: Alloway House from A Curious Collection of Scots Tunes
Francesco Geminiani: Two Airs for a Violin or German Flute, Violin, Cello & Harpsichord: Auld Bob Morrice. 

The Enigma of Edward Elgar

Saturday, July 11th 2026, 7.00pm, St Mary's Church, Ross-on-Wye, HR9 5HN
Tickets £15.

A musical drama about Elgar, focusing on his relationship with his beloved wife Alice

Written and performed by Michael Lunts

The friends who inspired the famous ‘Enigma Variations’ are also brought to life as, following the death of Alice, Elgar’s senior by a number of years, the composer muses on the origins of that first acknowledged masterpiece, a work that put him on the musical map, and which may never have seen the light of day but for Alice’s encouragement and inspiration.

But what of the other women hidden within the work’s ‘musical portraits’?

And who, ultimately, was Edward Elgar?  Was he the real ‘enigma’?

In this performance, the Enigma Variations are played live in a special piano transcription made by Elgar himself, as well as the ever-popular ‘Salut d’Amour’, dedicated to the composer’s wife.

Michael Lunts has written and performed a number of acclaimed one-man shows about key moments in the lives of composers, in all of which he has integrated the music that emerged from these critical events into the action.

‘The Enigma of Edward Elgar’ is the latest of these dramas, and the first in which Michael has portrayed a British composer, one whose music and the enigmatic character reflected in it, have long fascinated him.