Musicon 2024-25 - Durham University

Looking back on MUSICON 2024/25

Durham's professional concert series once again brought top-class musical performance from across the world to Durham in 2024/25. Organised by Durham University in partnership with Durham Cathedral and GemArts, MUSICON 2024/25 worked with 18 professional ensembles and soloists to entertain 800 total audience members at 3 venues. We also delivered 7 workshops to over 220 local schoolchildren, students and other members of the community.

MUSICON 2024/25 brochure

14 Concerts

800

800 Total concert audiences

8 Workshops

5 Venues

Events

These were the live music events, performed at stunning historic venues across Durham as part of MUSICON 2023/24:

Come and Sing Day: Henry Purcell

Saturday 12 October 2024: An all-day choral workshop exploring the church music of Henry Purcell (1659-95) with a unique Evensong performance.

Henry Purcell Closterman

The Portrait Players: Les Femmes Illustres – The Female Genius

Tuesday 15 October 2024: An all-female trio whose engaging programmes are inspired by historical characters.

The all-female band The Portrait Players posing with their instruments in the woods

Fenella Humphreys (violin) and Martin Roscoe (piano): Fauré 100

Tuesday 29 October 2024: On the 100th anniversary of the death of Gabriel Fauré, this concert celebrates the composer’s works from the 1870s to the 1890s.

(credit Alejandro Tamagno)

In Echo: Music in a Cold Climate – sounds of Hansa Europe

Tuesday 12 November 2024: This fascinating programme explores the instrumental music of the sea-faring nations of Northern Europe.

Gawain Glenton, cornett player and director of In Echo

Songs from Japan

Wednesday 13 November 2024: Beautiful early twentieth-century Japanese art songs, rarely heard in the UK, interwoven with European songs and operatic excerpts.

Inventions: the harpsichord across time and borders

Wednesday 20 November 2024: A trans-national project to promote and present unusual music for solo harpsichord, focusing primarily on music by female composers.

Katarzyna Kowalik standing in front of a harpsicord in an evening dress

EXAUDI: The Mirror of Speculation

Tuesday 28 January 2025: Vocal ensemble EXAUDI returns to MUSICON with a programme exploring some of the most beautiful and strange vocal music of the medieval period.

The EXAUDI ensemble

New Music Weekend

1-2 March 2025: Experience some of the hottest new music currently being made in the company of some of the UK’s leading ensembles, in a packed weekend of events.

Plus-Minus Ensemble

Fretwork and Alexander Chance: Orlando Gibbons at 400

Tuesday 4 March 2025: This programme explores the concert music of Orlando Gibbons, whose refined and deeply expressive works represent the pinnacle of Jacobean music.

Alexander Chance. Photo credit: Benjamin Ealovega

Indian Spring Colours - Debasmita Bhattacharya (sarod) & Gurdain Rayatt (tabla)

Saturday 10th May 2025: A recital by Debasmita Bhattacharya, a highly accomplished sarod player from Kolkata, and Gurdain Rayatt, one of the UK’s foremost tabla players.

A female musician

Indian Spring Colours - Legacy of Bhimsen Joshi – Parampara

Sunday 11th May: A concert honouring the legacy of Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, one of the greatest maestros of Hindustani Classical music.

Indian Spring Colours - Vignesh Ishwar: A Journey into the Heart of Carnatic Music

Sunday 11th May 2025: Experience the soul-stirring vocals of Vignesh Ishwar, a celebrated Carnatic musician from Chennai.

Vignesh - Carnatic Music

Come and Sing Day: Orlando Gibbons

On 4-5 June at St John’s College Chapel. Special Come-and-Sing event commemorating Gibbons’ death, led by James Weeks (Durham University, EXAUDI).

Come and Sing day on Orlando Gibbons