Vijay Iyer Composer in Residence 2019/20 on Musicality
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VIJAY IYER COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE 2019/20 ON MUSICALITY MEMORIES OF WIGMORE WITH JULIA BOYD INTRODUCING THE KALEIDOSCOPE CHAMBER COLLECTIVE MUSICAL CONVERSATIONS WITH WIGMORE HALL LEARNING AUTUMN FRIENDS OF OF FRIENDS FROM DUBLIN AND EDINBURGH TO LONDON WITH ENSEMBLE MARSYAS 2019 Summer is well and truly behind and your thoughtfulness in including Connecting people with people and with us and our 2019/20 Season is in Wigmore Hall as a beneficiary in your Will music: this is an everyday reality at Wigmore full flow. In this issue, our Trustee make a tangible impact on Wigmore Hall. Hall. Conversations bring us together and I am Fundraising remains a tough game but hoping to have many more with Friends and and supporter Julia Boyd reflects you are helping us ensure Wigmore Hall’s supporters. Engagement with our audience on what the Hall has come to wellbeing now and into the future. is stimulating and uplifting; without your mean to her over the many years Musical conversations are at the heart of commitment to the Hall we simply could not our Learning festival in February next year present the breadth and quality of performance she and her late husband John and it is exhilarating to hear from two young or remain as this country’s pre-eminent centre started coming here. voices in classical music, Freya Waley-Cohen for chamber music and song. Our Friends Music has meant so much to them both, and and Claire Roberts, in this issue. Freya is our and donors make all the difference. If you walking into the auditorium has been like a Associate Composer and is mentoring Claire would like to discuss a gift, or share a special balm, a moment in time to be inspired and throughout this season. recollection, please get in touch with me transported. Julia echoes the numerous Vijay Iyer, our Composer in Residence, [email protected] conversations which John Gilhooly and I reflects on musicality and on making or call 020 7258 8220. It is always good to have had with many of you over the last classical music more accessible to a broader hear from you! few months. Your recollections are so audience. And if you missed Jonathan Biss’ eloquent and compelling and we continue to talk after his first recital of the season, we be inspired and motivated by your passion have included some of his interview here, for this place. Your annual gifts to our as well as a fascinating timeline to give programme through membership or your our readers an insight into the history of donations to our Audience Fund, your support Beethoven in performance at the Hall as Marie-Hélène Osterweil for our Endowment Fund (see page 8) early as its inaugural concert in 1901. Director of Development COVER Vijay Iyer © Barbara Rigon THANK YOU FOR HELPING US RAISE OVER £100,000! We are hugely grateful for the response to our Audience Fund appeal this year – thanks to 437 generous audience members © Kaupo Kikkas © Kaupo we were able to raise £91,533.45. Including the additional boost we will receive via Gift Aid, this means you have helped us raise over £106,000 to support this current season, and all the wonderful things in it! Gifts ranged from £5 to £3,000, and cumulatively will play an important role in making our extensive programme of concerts and events this year possible. Whether this be underpinning a particularly ambitious artistic series, enabling us to present a young or emerging artist, or simply contributing to the everyday maintenance and upkeep necessary to keep this building in good working order, the Audience Fund is an essential part of Wigmore Hall’s annual functioning. Thank you to all those who have contributed – we continue to be very grateful for your generosity. If you would still like to support this year’s Audience Fund appeal, you can do so via wigmore-hall.org.uk/SA1920 2 WIGMORE-HALL.ORG.UK | FRIENDS OFFICE 020 7258 8230 WIGMORE HALL NEWS IESTYN DAVIES’ BIRTHDAY HONOUR In 2019/20, Wigmore Hall is with the Hall; Davies has been singing at pleased to have the eminent Wigmore Hall for 13 years. A delighted Iestyn Davies comments: countertenor Iestyn Davies in Price © Simon Jay ‘I’m honoured to join a very distinguished residency. His opening concert group of medal recipients and even more so took place on 16 September, his to have this recognition on my 40th birthday. 40th birthday, and Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall and John Gilhooly have always been central to my development as an artist had a special gift for the singer. and were integral in giving me such fantastic Joined in his celebration by The English opportunities at the start of my career. I am Concert, under the direction of Trevor flattered to have ever received that support. Pinnock, the landmark 40th birthday concert Though I am of course just a small dot in was followed by a presentation from the history of Wigmore Hall, it means an Wigmore Hall’s Director, John Gilhooly. enormous amount to me personally to be John awarded Davies with the Wigmore recognised in this way.’ Medal. This award was inaugurated in 2007 Davies’ residency continues on 22 March and recognises major international artists 2020, where he and lutenist Thomas Dunford and significant figures in the classical music present the first UK performance of their new industry who have a strong association programme England’s Orpheus. © Eduardus Lee © Eduardus DAVID KING RETIRES FROM WIGMORE HALL AFTER 34 YEARS © Anna Lumbroso © Anna THOMAS LARCHER RECEIVES GRAND AUSTRIAN STATE PRIZE David King Composer Thomas Larcher has been awarded the Grand Austrian State Prize, the highest honour his home country On Thursday 3 October, Wigmore Hall hosted a retirement party for presents in recognition of artistic achievement. The Austrian outgoing Senior House Manager, David King. Many of you who have Cultural Minister, Alexander Schallenberg, has described been to the Hall over the last 34 years will have met David, brightly Larcher as ‘a frontier crosser of music that has developed a welcoming everyone and managing the stage in his inimitable style. specific timbre of its own’. We are sad to see him retire from the Wigmore family, and incredibly We look forward to welcoming Thomas Larcher as grateful for his many years of dedicated service. Friends, family and Composer in Residence in the 2020/21 Season. artists from many parts of David’s life were able to join the staff of Wigmore Hall in a toast in October. FRIENDS OFFICE 020 7258 8230 | WIGMORE-HALL.ORG.UK 3 WIGMORE HALL MEMORIES Julia Boyd, Wigmore Hall Trustee, member of our Bechstein Society, and long time audience member, asks, ‘Why does Wigmore Hall mean so much to us? After all, London is hardly short of wonderful spaces for music so what is it that makes this particular hall so remarkable?’ 4 WIGMORE-HALL.ORG.UK | FRIENDS OFFICE 020 7258 8230 © Kaupo Kikkas © Kaupo Kikkas © Kaupo MAIN IMAGE Wigmore Hall auditorium RIGHT Julia Boyd First and foremost it has to be the sheer quality of the music. Then there is the infinite and ever-expanding variety, the zest in performance, the imaginative programming, not to mention the charm of the staff. And all this delivered day after day, night after night, year after year. But each time you walk into Wigmore (in my case at least three or four times a week) to be enveloped in its familiar magic, you are never allowed to become complacent or to sink into a comfort zone. Exciting challenges always lie ahead, whether in experiencing a controversial interpretation, unfamiliar repertoire or a dazzling new talent. Indeed, for those of us no longer able to cross deserts or sail oceans, there is no shortage of adventures at 36 Wigmore Street. Vijay Iyer? Sir George Benjamin? Freya Waley-Cohen? Perhaps this tension between familiarity and the unexpected is one reason why Wigmore Hall retains such a very special place in our hearts and minds. But there are plenty more. How can we forget the first time we heard Sir András Schiff play the Bach 48, or Mark Padmore’s Winterreise; or that moment in a Brigitte Fassbaender masterclass when the young singer suddenly ‘gets it’ and is transformed before our eyes? Then there is the thrill of hearing – at one end of the spectrum – a new quartet bursting with talent and youthful vitality, and at the other the profundity and experience of, say, the Beaux Arts Trio whose pianist Menahem Pressler is 95. In the Hall, age dissolves. All are equal in the pursuit and achievement of excellence. If the chief laurels go, of course, to the performers and staff, the punters also deserve an accolade. Where could you ever find a friendlier, more perceptive and committed audience? I have often been to Wigmore Hall on my own but cannot remember when I didn’t end up in animated conversation with some total stranger. This is a group that not only wants but needs to share its joy in music. And where, when coping with life’s slings and arrows, would you rather go to find solace than this Hall? Equally, when news of some appalling atrocity becomes too unbearable, is there anywhere better than our beloved Wigmore to remind us of our humanity? Should anyone dare to accuse the Hall of that much over-used word ‘elitism’, I would urge them to attend a ‘Singing with Friends’ concert where the performing choir is composed of people living with dementia. They will never forget it. Equally the children’s concerts, the work in schools and care homes and the events devised for toddlers will banish any suspicion that Wigmore Hall does not serve the widest possible community.