CITY MUSIC SOCIETY
Lunchtime Concerts
Thursdays at 1.05 pm at St Bartholomew the Great,
West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE


This Notice contains important information about our concerts and the Covid-related measures that will be in place. If you intend to attend a concert, it is important that you observe and adhere to these measures.

Note: The following arrangements were in place at the time of posting of this page but may be subject to change according to Government regulations at the time of the concerts.


We respectfully ask you NOT to attend if:
• you or anyone in your household are experiencing any symptoms of Covid-19 (raised temperature, new persistent cough, headache, runny nose, sore throat, breathlessness or loss of/change to your sense of taste or smell)
• you have in the last 14 days been contacted by NHS Test and Trace as a 'close contact' to someone experiencing COVID-19
• you have visited any country outside the UK in the last 14 days and been required by the UK authorities to quarantine on return.


 
Doors open at 12.30pm.
We look forward to welcoming audiences to our concerts in St Bartholomew the Great.
 

Admission to all lunchtime concerts is Free.

The City Music Society Young Artists Series celebrates the amazing talent of musicians performing and studying in the UK.

Many of our artists are major prize winners, emerging from the UK's leading conservatoires, while some of the concerts mark the role of The Worshipful Company of Musicians in supporting and encouraging outstanding young musicians as they begin their careers.


The great Antonin Dvořák ‘bookends’ our Spring series with his monumental third piano trio starting and the wonderful ‘American’ string quartet ending a sequence of concerts that will intrigue, entertain and entrance our audiences. Poulenc and Shostakovich also feature prominently and, as always, there is a sprinkling of unfamiliar music as our young artists explore new repertoire and less-well-known composers.

A collection is made at the end of each Young Artists concert to help finance future City Music Society Young Artists concerts.

Seats cannot be guaranteed after 1.00pm.

Limited standing is permitted at the discretion of the Society.

Latecomers are only admitted during a suitable pause in the programme.

All programmes are subject to change at short notice.

The City Music Society reserves the right to refuse admission.

Please note that City Music Society concerts are not suitable for children under the age of 8 and the Society reserves the right to refuse entry to children under that age.





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22nd January 2026
Trio Havisham
Magdalena Riedl violin
Seth Collin cello
Zany Denyer piano
 Trio Havisham
   
Dvořák
Trio No.3 in F minor Op.86

Winners of the Sutton Chamber Music Prize at the Guildhall School in 2025, Trio Havisham return to City Music Society only a year after their first appearance for us. They are looking forward to a Wigmore debut on 9th June, reward for another distinction, The Musicians’ Company Maisie Lewis Concerts Award. Dvořák’s monumental third piano trio was described by the critic Eduard Hanslick as ‘a most valuable gem’, demonstrating ‘that the composer finds himself at the pinnacle of his career’.

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29th January 2026

Harmony of Time
Sara Matović director and baroque violin
Sandro Rossi countertenor
Bojan Čičić baroque violin

Pablo Tejedor Gutiérrez baroque cello
Predrag Gosta harpsicord


Harmony of Time
links to:
Pablo Tejedor Gutiérrez - www.continuoconnect.com/artists
Sandro Rossi - https://www.stretta-artists.com/artists/singers/countertenor/rossi-sandro.html
Predrag Gosta - www.predraggosta.com
   
Nicholas Porpora
Sinfonia da camera in G minor Op.2 No.3
Giovanni Bononcini
Siedi, Amarilli
Sammartini
Trio Sonata in G minor Op.3 No.5
Alessandro Scarlatti
Dormi, o fulmine di guerra
Tartini
Sonata à 3 in D minor, B. d2


Dolcezza e Furore – Passion and Grace in the Italian Baroque
brings together some of the most expressive and dramatic chamber works of the eighteenth century, performed on period instruments by the ensemble Harmony of Time, a dynamic ensemble dedicated to historically informed performance, bringing together distinguished musicians from across Europe. With a deep respect for historical performance practices and an innovative artistic approach, the ensemble breathes life into Baroque music with expressive depth, stylistic authenticity, and creative interpretation.


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5th February 2026

Sofia Sacco piano

Sofia Sacco
   

Couperin

Le Rossignol en amour

J.S.Bach

Toccata in E minor
Satie
Gnossienne No.5
J.S.Bach arr. Siloti
Prelude in B minor
Shostakovich
Sonata No.2 in B minor Op.61


Italian pianist Sofia Sacco has played extensively throughout Europe, Asia and South America. She appeared as soloist in more than 100 recitals in Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium, China and Mexico. She is a first prize winner of the Bach International Music Competition and A. Baldi International Piano Competition. Sofia received her Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music and for 2024-26 is a City Music Foundation Artist. Shostakovich features extensively in her repertoire and her first CD is of the composer’s Preludes and Fugues Op.87.



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12th February 2026

Danushka Edirisinghe cello
George Herbert piano


Herbert-Danushka
Link to Danushka Edirisinghe's website | Link to George Herbert's website
   
Beethoven
Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 5
Poulenc
Sonata for Cello and Piano FP143

Studying at the Royal Academy of Music with support from a Musicians’ Company scholarship, Danushka Edirisinghe has achieved success in several competitions, including first prize in the 2022 Haslemere International String Competition, leading to a performance of the Haydn Concerto with the London Mozart Players. He enjoys membership of the Isla Quartet and has appeared with several orchestras including the BBCSO and the LSO. Having studied German and Music at Cambridge University, and acted as Organ Scholar at St John’s College, George Herbert has now embarked on a career embracing accompanying, organ-playing, singing and conducting.composer.


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19th February 2026

Flutes and Frets
Beth Stone flutes
Daniel Murphy lutes and guitar


Flutes and Frets
   
White
Christe Qui Lux Es Et Dies III
Dowland
Lachrimae Pavane (Flow My Tears) & Sir John Souch His Galiard
de Visée
Chaconne from Suite in G Major for solo theorbo
Hotteterre
Suite III Op.2 Livre 1
Daquin
Le Coucou
Rossini
The Thieving Magpie Overture
Villa-Lobos
Distribuição de Flores & Schottish Choro
Kapustin
Sonatina Op.100


The duo Flutes and Frets employ an array of instruments that enable them to express the colours, gestures and emotions of repertoire extending from medieval times to the present day. They have performed all over the UK and in several parts of Europe and have won numerous international competitions. Both Beth and Daniel appear frequently with ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, Ex Cathedra and the Irish Baroque Orchestra.



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26th February 2026
Boreas Trio
Lidia Moscoso oboe
Paddy Kearney bassoon
Lara Cucic piano



Boreas Trio
   

Poulenc

Trio for Oboe, Bassoon & Piano FP43
Oscar Navarro
Una Historia de la Alhambra 
Alyssa Morris
Up & Away 


In a competition of very high quality in May 2025, the Boreas Trio came very close to winning the Ivan Sutton Chamber Music Award at the Guildhall School but were pipped by Trio Havisham (see 22nd January). Yet their finely balanced ensemble and their dexterous and colourful performance of Poulenc’s Trio earned them a well-deserved consolation prize of a CMS concert.


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5th March 2026

Regency Quartet
Mabelle Park violin
Olwen Miles violin
Jamie Howe viola
Ellen Baumring-Gledhill cello

Regency Quartet

   
Webern
Langsamer Satz
Shostakovich
String Quartet No.3 in F Op.73
Britten
Waltz (from Three Divertimenti)
 
Formed at the Royal Academy of Music in 2021, the Regency Quartet were winners of the 2025 Royal Over-Seas League Strings and Keyboard Ensembles prize. They have been selected as 2025/26 Kirkman Concert Society Artists and are part of the Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artists Scheme. Awarded a number of prizes at the RAM, in 2023 they were selected to visit Hong Kong through the Sir Elton John Global Exchange Programme. In their programme Webern’s glorious late Romantic ‘slow movement’ precedes Shostakovich’s Third Quartet, his only composition of 1946 and dedicated to the Beethoven String Quartet.


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12th March 2026

RCM Wind Ensemble
Marie Lloyd director

RCM Wind Ensemble
 

Mendelssohn arr Andreas N Tarkmann

Fugue in D Major

Eleanor Alberga

Nightscape

Mendelssohn’s magical incidental music for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is reimagined in a remarkable arrangement for wind ensemble by Andreas N Tarkmann. The welcome annual visit by the Royal College of Music Wind Ensemble as always brings unusual and invigorating music, including a work by the Jamaican composer Eleanor Alberga. Nightscape is a four-movement serenade evoking ‘the sounds, atmosphere, memories and folklore of a Jamaican evening and night’.




19th March 2026

Sejin Yoon piano

Sejin Yoon
   

Mendelssohn

Variation Sérieuses Op.54
Dutilleux
Au Gré Des Ondes (6 petit pieces)
Schumann
Faschingsschwank aus Wien Op.26


South Korean pianist Sejin Yoon is a soloist and chamber musician whose playing is particularly known for its delicacy, sensitivity and virtuosity. She began her studies abroad in the UK at the age of twelve, where she was immersed in a cultural melting pot and exposed to different teaching styles, all of which have greatly influenced her approach to music and helped her develop a personal passion for classical music education as well as performance. In 2025 she was awarded The Musicians’ Company’s Carnwath Piano Scholarship and will appear in the Company’s Maisie Lewis Wigmore Hall concert on 9th June.

Concert sponsored by Kahn & Averill
Kahn+Averill




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PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS CONCERT WILL TAKE PLACE IN ST GILES CRIPPLEGATE, FORE STREET, BARBICAN EC2Y 8DA

 

26th March 2026

Fitzroy Quartet
Dan-Iulian Druțac violin
Jure Smirnov Oštir violin
Emily Pond viola
Michael Newman cello

Fitzroy Quartet
 

Jessie Montgomery

Strum

Philip Glass

String Quartet No.2 ('Company')

Dvořák

String Quartet No 12 in F major (‘The American’)

Grainger

Molly on the Shore

Following their formation at the Royal Academy of Music in 2015, the Fitzroy Quartet were appointed Chamber Music Fellows at the RAM and an Associate Ensemble at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Since then they have enjoyed numerous performances in the UK, Europe and other parts of the world. Prizes in several competitions include the Beethoven Prize at the Beethoven International Chamber Music Competition in Poland. Advocates of neglected music as well as the great masterpieces, the Fitzroys present an intriguing trio of companion pieces to Dvořák’s familiar final quartet,

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City Music Society concerts resume on Thursday 17th September 2026 at 1.05pm at
St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE.
 
 
17th September 2026

THE MUSICIANS’ COMPANY CONSORT
Adrian Butterfield director

Batterfield
   

J.S.Bach

A programme of cantatas by J.S.Bach
 
 
 

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For further information about these concerts please contact
Leslie.East1@btopenworld.com

Latest update: 06 December 2025