Oxford Chamber Music Festival

What beautiful collaborations and meetings at this years Oxford Chamber Music Festival!
We had so many unforgettable moments of happiness, laughter, discussion and dialogue both musical and personal. Thank you The Guardian newspaper for highly recommending us and over the next days we will post more memories of these precious days together. Finally warmest thanks to every one of you involved , both musicians and team for making the magic possible - never forgetting our incredible audience in Oxford quite unlike any other 🙏🏼

Elisabeth Leonskaja Julius Drake, pianist Polina Leschenko Natalie Clein - Official Page Reto Bieri Priya Mitchell Thomas Adès Marc Sabbah Quatuor Ebène

📸 Photos by , multi talented Dirk Mommertz

🎶 Sublime!

Thanks to all who joined us for our opening concert with Quatuor Ebène!

There are 10 more concerts until 28 Sept --> Find the full programme on www.ocmf.net

Tickets 🎟 https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

📸 Dirk Mommertz
📸 Apple and Biscuit Photography

🎶Tonight at the Holywell Music Room !

Join us for scintillating performances from our inaugural OCMF Studio given by ensembles taking part in the masterclasses this year led by Quatuor Ébène, Reto Bieri, Priya Mitchell and Dirk Mommertz.

OCMF Studio - New Generation

📆 24 September
⏰️19:45
📍 Holywell Music Room

Tickets 🎟 https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

This concert will include a performance of Britten’s String Quartet No. 1 by the
Animato Quartet.

📣 Tonight - Quatuor Ébène!

The Oxford Chamber Music Festival opening concert tonight at Christ Church Cathedral welcomes one of the world's great string quartets Quatuor Ebène !

They pay tribute to "these enchanted isles" in Britten's brilliant and precocious portraits of three schoolfriends, and in Thomas Adès' idyllic O Albion, with its homage to Elgar's Ni**od (and behind that masterpiece, late Beethoven). Haydn's glorious 'Sunrise' almost anticipates late Beethoven in its moving adagio, alongside one of Haydn's most exhilarating finales. Finally Beethoven himself contributes his wild, epic, and "forever contemporary" Great Fugue

Tickets 🎟 https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

Full programme --> www.ocmf.net

🎼 OCMF 2024 Artist: Reto Bieri - Clarinet

Book now for OCMF 2024 - 23 - 28 September --> 🎟https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

The Swiss clarinettist and improviser Reto Bieri has been playing solo and chamber music for over 20 years. This former artistic director is currently bringing a fresh concept to the classical music scene with his brilliant, poetic theme evenings ‘à la DAVOS FESTIVAL’ in cooperation with various chamber orchestras and accompanied by long-standing chamber music partners – in particular violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Reto Bieri regularly performs with renowned orchestras, and at various festivals and prestigious institutions. He releases CD recordings with the Munich-based cult label ECM, most recently the highly praised album ‘quasi morendo’ with string quartet meta4 from Finland.

Reto Bieri grew up with Swiss folk music. Following formative experience playing dance music in taverns and training as a primary school teacher he initially attended music academies in Basel and Zurich, before studying at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York. He was particularly influenced by the composer György Kurtág and his encounters with the writer Gerhard Meier, musician Eberhard Feltz and the clown Dimitri.

Reto Bieri served as Artistic Director of the Swiss DAVOS FESTIVAL – young artists in concert between 2013 and 2018. During 2012 to 2022, he was professor for chamber music at the University of Music in Würzburg, Germany. In 2022, he accepted a position at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich, Germany, where he is now Professor of chamber music. He lives with his family in a remote Swiss Alpine location in the Bernese Oberland.

OCMF 2024 concludes on Sat 28th Sep, and it's a jam-packed day! - https://mailchi.mp/ocmf/workshop-radiance-romance-rocket-finale

Join us for a unique workshop for lovers of story and song, a lunchtime concert featuring Handel's 'Oxford' Water Music, a Bodleian Lecture with folksong specialist Steve Roud, & Farewell concert in the evening followed by a Dinner Party at the Vaults with the artists. 🎟️

There's a LOT going on at OCMF this year and we can't wait to share it with you! TICKETS https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

OCMF 2024 Artist: Linda Suolahti

Book tickets 🎟 for OCMF 2024 --> https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

One of Finland's most interesting solo violinists, Linda Suolahti, is seen as a significant trendsetter in Finnish art music, having impressed with her courage as an organizer of events and as an artistic director. She is based in Helsinki and enjoys a versatile career as a guest leader and chamber musician, regularly invited to play in some of the world's leading music festivals and concert halls.

Linda is ready to jump into the role of chamber musician, concert master, soloist, host, and artistic and production leader. Themes related to equality in music and its development are particularly important to Linda; She founded the equality promoting Kokonainen/Musequal festival to Finland in 2016 and has piloted the multidisciplinary Caisa Classequal concert series in Helsinki.

In 2023, Alba Records released Linda's acclaimed debut album Unrecorded., which contains previously unrecorded works by Finnish female composers. The 35-year-old master of music has made an impressive career working as a leader and concert master, crossing continents specializing in chamber music and playing without a conductor. Her artistic career has been supported with artist grants by e.g. The Art Promotion Center and the Finnish Cultural Fund. In 2024, she was awarded the Pro Musica award. Currently, Linda enjoys raising Pave, a German Pincsher, and performing concerts around Europe as a member of the unique O/Modernt chamber ensemble. Linda plays the Anselmo Bellosio violin (1770) owned by the Järvi-Häme Bank.

Don't forget to book tickets for Fri 27th Sep at OCMF, when we have three unmissable events! - https://mailchi.mp/ocmf/sacrifices-hidden-treasures-schubert

Hear music from MacMillan, Beamish, and Elgar at lunchtime, and then a rare opportunity to hear one of the giants of the keyboard, Elizabeth Leonsjaka at 6pm. Music of four centuries (from Byrd to Benjamin via Britten!) closes the day at 8pm. All concerts at the Holywell Music Room - see you there 🎶

TICKETS https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

Day 4 highlights masterpieces of the 20th century at our lunchtime concert, including Rebecca Clarke's expressive viola sonata performed by Marc Sabbah & Polina Leschenko. Purcell, Finzi and Britten sit alongside arrangements of songs by Radiohead, Sting, and Pink Floyd from the inimitable Hugo Ticciati & O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra! Our founder Priya Mitchell performs the universally-beloved Lark Ascending. Not to be missed! https://mailchi.mp/ocmf/twentieth-century-masterpieces

BOOK https://www.ticketsoxford.com/events/shape-of-my-heart

OCMF 2024 Artist: Sascha Bota - Viola

The exceptional Sascha Bota joins us for many of our concerts running through 23 - 28 Sept!

Tickets 🎟 https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

"Sascha Bota, Violist born in Timisoara, Romania was studying with Gérard Caussé in Madrid, with Thomas Riebl in Salzburg as well as with Walter Levin from the LaSalle Quartet for a post graduate quartet course in Basel. Since he has had the opportunity to play in chamber groups with musicians including Thomas Zehetmair, Benjamin Schmid, Leonidas Kavakos and principal players of the Berliner Philarmonie, the Doric Quartet and the Hagen Quartet.

As a soloist, he has performed with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia Banatul amongst others. Sascha has been playing as principal viola with numerous of orchestras such as the Camerata Salzburg and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. He also successfully won auditions for the Solo Viola of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra as well as the Australian Chamber Orchestra, where he was appointed as a core member shortly after. Sascha is dedicated to jazz and other forms of improvised music and regularly appears at jazz concerts and festivals. "

📣 OCMF 2024: Lecture - Singing England

Join us at OCMF 2024 for a talk by Steve Roud, author of the celebrated 'Folk Song in England' and the 'New Penguin Book of English Folksongs'. Steve will give a concise history of English traditional folk song – from a time when singing out loud was normal everyday behaviour.

Tickets 🎟 https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/12/ive-got-to-stop-somewhere-how-steve-roud-compiled-his-epic-folk-song-archive

‘I’ve got to stop somewhere!’ How Steve Roud compiled his epic folk song archive The former librarian has spent more than 50 years compiling the Roud Folk Song Index, cataloguing 25,000 traditional songs. So how did he do it? And what exactly is a folk song?

Our inaugural young artists platform, OCMF Bodleian lecture and one of Elgar's great, late masterpieces. Day 3 of the Festival promises so much! We can't wait for this one.

Come and experience the magic!

TICKETS https://www.ocmf.net/tickets/

- https://mailchi.mp/ocmf/discoveries-ocmfday3

OCMF Artist 2024: Marc Sabbah - Viola

Joining us this year is wonderful violist Marc Sabbah who will perform in many of our concerts running from 23 -28 Sept.

Tickets 🎟 https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

Marc Sabbah, born 1988 in New York City is a viola soloist, chamber musician, professor and as of 2012, the viola soloist of the Belgian National Orchestra.

Described as"a magnificent player" by legendary conductor Zubin Mehta, Marc is regularly invited as guest Principal Violist of the Israeli Philharmonic. As of September 2017, he has been teaching viola as a guest professor at the Royal Conservatory of Mons, Belgium. Graduating Cum Laude from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Marc was a pupil of Sven Arne Tepl and Nobuko Imai. His recent awards include the 1st prize at the 2016 Rising Stars Grand Prix music competition performing solo at the Berlin Philharmonic hall as well as his recent 1st Grand Prize at the Manhattan International Music Competition with a recital at Carnegie Hall.

Having played numerous concerti with European orchestras such as the Belgian National Orchestra, Caso Philharmonic, de Filharmonie Amsterdam, the Hochreinisches Kammerorchester, Marc Sabbah is creating a path as a musical force of his generation. Since 2016, Marc is collaborating with Belgian pianist Eliane Reyes forming the Duo Sabbah-Reyes, a unique duo dedicated to exploring the philosophical and emotional viola and piano repertoire.

Join us for the inaugural OCMF Studio, with new generation artists! The first one of its kind in the history of the festival - not to be missed! Tickets only £10 and free for 8-25 year olds.

Book here: https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2-

https://mailchi.mp/6e93a3327109/festival2024ocmfstudio

🎶 OCMF 2024: A little-known masterpiece

An unmissable opportunity to hear one of the giants of the keyboard, Elizabeth Leonskaja, on a rare visit to the UK, playing a composer very close to her heart. With Julius Drake (whose own insights into Schubert are justly celebrated) she tackles the bold and brilliant Grand Duo, full of unforgettable melody - Schubert Grand Duo, D812

For decades now, Elisabeth Leonskaja has been among the most celebrated pianists of our time. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to a Russian family, she gave her first concerts as early as age 11. Her exceptional talent soon brought her to study at the Moscow Conservatory. While still a student at the Conservatory, she won prizes in the prestigious Enescu, Marguerite Long and Queen Elizabeth international piano competitions. In addition to her many solo engagements, chamber music remains an important part of her work. She has performed many times with string quartets, such as the Belcea, Borodin Artemis and Jerusalem quartets. She also had a longstanding musical friendship with the Alban Berg Quartet, and their piano quintet recordings are legendary. In her second homeland, Austria, Elisabeth Leonskaja is an honorary member of the Vienna Konzerthaus. In 2006 she was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class, for her outstanding service to the culture of the country. It is the highest award in Austria. In Georgia, she was named Priestess of Art in 2016, this country’s highest artistic honor. In 2020 she received the International Classical Music (ICMA) Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tickets 🎟 https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

Join us for a scintillating opening to Festival 2024 with Quatuor Ébène.

The pre-concert film takes us behind the scenes to observe the musical and human processes usually hidden from the eyes of the audience.

The quartet explores the theme "these enchanted isles" with works by Britten and Adès (with its homage to Elgar's 'Ni**od') alongside Haydn and Beethoven. We close the event with a celebratory drink for Friends and Pass Holders.

https://www.ticketsoxford.com/events/o-albion - https://mailchi.mp/3b6121482ef6/festival2024openingconcert

🎻OCMF 2024 Artist: Brian O'Kane

The Oxford Chamber Music Festival runs from 23 - 28 September --->

Book Tickets 🎟https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

British cellist Brian O’Kane enjoys a busy career as both soloist and chamber musician. Since winning first prize at the Windsor International String Competition in 2008, he has made his debuts with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra under Ashkenazy and in recital at the Wigmore Hall. Brian is a former "Rising Star" of Ireland's National Concert Hall and he recently recorded his debut CD for the Champs Hill label.

An avid chamber musician, Brian enjoys playing as a member of the Cappa Ensemble and Navarra Quartet. He has collaborated with a wide variety of artists such as Michael Collins, Aleksandar Madzar, Anthony Marwood, Pekka Kuusisto, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit and Sir James Galway. Brian has also performed at concert halls and festivals throughout the world such as Sydney Opera House, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Seoul Arts Centre, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, West Cork, Radio France-Montpellier, Lockenhaus and the Weesp Chamber Music Festival, Holland of which his quartet are the artistic directors.

A graduate of both the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Brian‘s biggest influences have come from Louise Hopkins and at Prussia Cove, Aldeburgh & Chamber Studio from studies with Ralph Kirshbaum, Steven Isserlis, Ferenc Rados and Eberhard Feltz.

🎻 OCMF 2024 Artist: Jordi Carrasco Hjelm - Double Bass

The Oxford Chamber Music Festival runs from 23 - 28 Sept --> Book Tickets 🎟 https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

Jordi Carrasco Hjelm is a Swedish classical double bass player working with chamber music and improvisation. He studied classical double bass with Rick Stotijn and Olivier Thiery and finished his studies in Conservatorium van Amsterdam with a Masters degree in improvisation studying with the jazz violinist Tim Kliphuis. He lives in the Netherlands where he is a core member of the Asko Schönberg Ensemble who are a leading ensemble in the field of contemporary music. As a passionate advocate for free improvisation on stages for classical music and for chamber music as an inherently improvisational form he has performed in many European chamber music festivals such as the Oxford Chamber Music Festival, Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival Utrecht, Felix! Festival Köln, Ghent Festival, Miesbach Kammermusik festival, KMF Eibergen, KMF Sylt and most notably as a regular guest in Musikdorf Ernen in Switzerland.

🎻 Quatuor Ébène at OCMF 2024!

Our opening concert at the breathtaking Christ Church Cathedral features Quatuor Ébène ---> OCMF 2024: O Albion - Quatuor Ébène Don't miss out!

Tickets 🎟 https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

"Attending a concert by the Quatuor Ébène is a musical and sensual happening. In the past two decades the quartet has set standards by making familiar repertoire accessible in new ways beyond perfection, and by constantly seeking the exchange with the audience. After studies with the Quatuor Ysaÿe in Paris as well as with Gábor Takács, Eberhard Feltz and György Kurtág, the unprecedented and outstanding success at the 2004 ARD Music

Competition followed. Quatuor Ébène's albums, with recordings of Bartók, Beethoven, Debussy, Haydn, Fauré and the Mendelssohn siblings, have received numerous awards, including Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and the Midem Classic Award. In January 2021, the quartet was appointed by the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich to establish a String Quartet class as part of the newly founded „Quatuor Ébène Academy“.

Highlights of this season include concerts at the Salzburg Festival, Berliner Philharmonie, Megaron Athens, Wigmore Hall London and Carnegie Hall in New York City, NY."

🎹 OCMF Artist 2024: Polina Leschenko

Pianist Polina returns --> Get your tickets for OCMF 2024 🎟 https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2

One of the most exciting and unique pianists alive and also a greatly admired chamber musician, Polina Leschenko performs frequently at many festivals, including the Salzburg Festival, Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, Verbier, Risor, Stavanger, la Roque d'Anthéron Aldeburgh, Oxford, Cheltenham, Stift, Istanbul,Lockenhaus and Musiktage Mondsee.

Regular collaborations with artists include Martha Argerich, Ivry Gitlis, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Ilya Gringolts, Mischa Maisky, Torleif Thedéen.

In 2003 Polina Leschenko recorded a debut CD for EMI Classics in the series ‘Martha Argerich presents...’ with works by Liszt, Chopin, Kreisler/Rachmaninov, Brahms and Bach/Feinberg. She has also recorded a well-received disc of Prokofiev chamber music with Martha Argerich, Christian Poltéra and Roby Lakatos, for Avanticlassic. Her recital disc – featuring an all-Liszt program including the B minor Sonata – was released in May 2007 to great critical acclaim, receiving a “Choc” du Monde de la Musique.

Polina’s most recent CD’s include a recital CD entitled “Forgotten Melodies” (Avanticalssic), Mendelssohn double concerto with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Richard Tognetti (BIS), a recording of the Dvorak piano quartet op.87 on EMI Classics as part of the “Martha Argerich and Friends Live from the Lugano Festival” series and with Patricia Kopatchinskaja the CD “Deux” released in 2018 in collaboration with Alpha Classics."

🎻 We are proud and excited to inaugurate a new initiative, a platform for emerging British chamber ensembles which we hope introduces you to the stars of our musical future.

This year the Paddington Trio take us on a whistlestop tour of three nations, with the Scottish composer Judith Weir's intriguing work based on Zen stories, Irishman Sam Perkin's entertaining pictures of odd creatures, and the great lost-and-refound English composer of the early 20th century, Rebecca Clarke, with her searingly powerful trio.

25 September 13:00
Holywell Music Room
OCMF 2024: Freakshow
Tickets 🎟 https://www.ticketsoxford.com/oxford-chamber-music-festival-2