LIMF 2024: 19 -21 September
Composer in Residence: Elena Langer
great British chamber music
Our Thursday and Saturday concerts include two masterpieces: Warlock’s setting of love-lorn poems by WB Yeats, The Curlew, and Vaughan Williams’ evocative response to AE Housman’s collection, A Shropshire Lad. Both will be sung by the exciting young tenor, Hugo Hymas (English Concert, Dunedin Consort, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Gabrielli Consort, OAE, English Baroque Soloists etc), with support from an outstanding team of string and wind players.
On Friday evening we travel back to Baroque Britain, welcoming another outstanding young singer, the soprano Hilary Cronin (1st Prizewinner: London Handel Competition, Academy of Ancient Music, Arcangelo, English Baroque Soloists, The English Concert, Florilegium, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, The King’s Consort, OAE, The Sixteen etc), who will perform works by JC Bach (‘The English Bach’) and GF Handel, who made Britain his home for more than 40 years. The concert will also include music by Elizabeth Maconchy and Elena Langer. Richard Gowers, the brilliant young pianist, organist and conductor, will join us on the harpsichord.
Thursday 19 September, 7.30pm: Leicester Cathedral
‘Tread softly because you tread on my dreams….’
Great British Music from the 1920s to the present day
Arthur Bliss, Peter Warlock, Michael Tippett, Madeleine Dring, Grace Williams and Elena Langer
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friday 20 september, 7.30pm: Hansom hall, belvoir st, leicester
‘Stay, Oh Sweet….’
Baroque and more……
GF Handel, JC Bach, Elizabeth Maconchy and Elena Langer
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saturday 21 september, 1 - 1.45pm:
Music for all (family concert)
Join us for a special afternoon at the Leicester International Music Festival's 'Music For All' concert, held at Hansom Hall on Belvoir Street.
Our concert has been specifically prepared with younger listeners in mind, and promises to be a wonderful and relaxed introduction to orchestral music.
Nicholas Daniel, the esteemed British oboist, conductor, and Artistic Director of the festival, will be presenting the concert. His gentle and welcoming presence will guide you through a
selection of beautiful music, offering insights into the pieces and the chance to engage with the performers.
Listeners are encouraged to enjoy the music in a way that feels comfortable to them, whether you choose to sit back and take it all in, move around the hall, or interact with the musicians, you are welcome. The Hansom Hall staff and LIMF team will be there to support your needs, with quiet areas, a café, and baby changing facilities available.
saturday 21 september 7.30pm:
hansom hall, belvoir st, leicester
‘Now for a breath I tarry…..’
Great British Composers…..
Henry Purcell, Michael Tippett, Arnold Bax, Benjamin Britten & Ralph Vaughan Williams PLUS
‘Elena’s Mind Garden’ - A beautiful selection of music by our composer in residence.
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Elena Langer, composer in residence (born 1974 in Moscow), is a Russian-born British composer of opera and other contemporary classical music. Her work has been performed at the Royal Opera House; Zurich Opera; Carnegie Hall; Richard B Fisher Center for the Performing Arts; Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre; Shakespeare's Globe; Wigmore Hall; Opera National du Rhin, Strasbourg; and Milton Court, Barbican Centre. Her very many outstandingly successful compositions include the opera, Figaro gets a Divorce (WNO); Five Reflections on Water for the Boston Symphony Orchestra; RedMare for Katya Apekisheva & Charles Owen, and a selection of chamber pieces for Nicholas Daniel and others, some of which we will hear at this festival.