News – Anna Handler to become Ulster Orchestra’s new Chief Conductor

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published by Ben Hogwood from the original press release. Photo above (c) Christopher Heaney

The Ulster Orchestra is delighted to announce that Anna Handler will be its new Chief Conductor from September 2026.

Joining an impressive and venerable list of conductors who have worked with the Orchestra including Vernon Handley, Bryden Thomson, Yan Pascal Tortelier and, more recently, Rafael Payare and Daniele Rustioni, the German-Colombian conductor Anna Handler is at a stage in her own career that makes a partnership with the Ulster Orchestra a dynamic prospect – just last week making her Boston Symphony Orchestra subscription series debut at short notice, with violinist Joshua Bell. Handler, a former Gustavo Dudamel Fellow and current Assistant Conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, also began her tenure as Kapellmeister of Deutsche Oper Berlin in September 2025. 

During her tenure, Anna looks forward to working in partnership with the Orchestra to grow the artistic identity of the organisation in breadth and depth, taking the level of performance to new heights on the international stage. Her leadership, which is founded on respect for shared musical roots, staying curious and opening the Orchestra’s sound to the future, is inspirational and the Ulster Orchestra is excited for this new phase of its development.

Reflecting on the appointment, Anna Handler says;

“Over the next three years, we’ll ask what it means to be an orchestra that belongs to now: alive, questioning, connected. Every phrase a conversation, every silence a choice. We’ll play as if it were the first or the last time – because real music doesn’t perform; it becomes. I feel deeply honoured to lead this journey – together, with the Ulster Orchestra musicians and the wider team. I feel grateful for their trust to have been chosen as their new chief conductor – a responsibility I carry with joy and curiosity.”

Anna Handler with Ulster Orchestra players (l to r) Gongbo Jiang, Wizz Bannan and Rich Cartlidge, backstage at the Ulster Hall (c) Thomas Jackson

Auveen Sands, Ulster Orchestra Chief Executive and Patrick McCarthy, Artistic Director, commented;

“Of Anna’s many remarkable qualities, her ability to genuinely connect with musicians and audiences is what makes this such an exciting appointment. That ability was immediately evident in a recent concert in Derry~Londonderry’s Guildhall, bringing a new energy and collaborative spirit to the Ulster Orchestra’s superb music making. We’ve already agreed on some exciting and deeply meaningful programmes for next year, and can’t wait to share them with audiences in Northern Ireland, and beyond.”

Ciaran Scullion, Head of Music at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, added: 

“Anna Handler’s creativity, knowledge and extensive experience will bring a further rich dimension to the Ulster Orchestra’s work, identity and output over the next 3 years.  The Arts Council established the Ulster Orchestra in 1966 and has been its principal public funder ever since. We are delighted to see Anna join as Chief Conductor at a time when the Orchestra’s artistic profile and reach continue to rise.”

Anna Handler’s first concert as Chief Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra will be the opening concert of the Orchestra’s 60th anniversary Season, in the Ulster Hall on Friday 25 September 2026. 

Published post no.2,731 – Thursday 27 November 2025

News – Bertrand Chamayou residence @ Wigmore Hall, including Ravel’s complete piano music on Sunday 7 December

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published by Ben Hogwood from the original press release

This December, Wigmore Hall focus in on a pianist famed for winning the prestigious Victoires de la Musique Classique award on five separate occasions, most recently in 2022. Described by the Guardian as ‘a remarkable musician, no question’, Chamayou caps off his short residency with an unmissable evening of the complete Ravel pianos works. Before that, the pianist joins forces with the thrilling Belcea Quartet and accompanies soprano Barbara Hannigan for her Wigmore Hall debut.

The programme with the Belcea Quartet on Thursday 4 December is of extra interest, for in addition to Chamayou’s appearance in the rarely-heard Piano Quintet in E major of Erich Korngold, the quartet will mark the 80th anniversary of the world première of Britten’s Second String Quartet at Wigmore Hall.

Chamayou’s programme with soprano Barbara Hannigan is typically adventurous, the pair reaffirming their Messiaen credentials with a performance of the Chants de terre et de ciel, before Chamayou looks at late Scriabin in the form of the Poème-nocturne Op. 61 and Vers la flamme Op. 72, before the two take on John Zorn’s song cycle Jumalattaret, written for Hannigan herself.

Chamayou’s third appearance will see him perform the complete works for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, whose birth in 1875 is being marked with 150th anniversary celebrations this year. The concert begins at 7pm, with the programme as follows:

1875-1937
Prélude
Miroirs
Menuet in C sharp minor
Sonatine
A la manière de Borodine
Gaspard de la nuit

Interval

A la manière de Chabrier
Valses nobles et sentimentales
Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn
Sérénade grotesque
Jeux d’eau
Menuet antique
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Le tombeau de Couperin

For more information on all the Wigmore Hall concerts, click on the links highlighted above.

Published post no.2,730 – Wednesday 26 November 2025

New music – Adrian Sherwood, African Head Charge & Speakers Corner Quartet – Barbican Heights (On-U Sound)

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adapted from the press release by Ben Hogwood

Following on from this year’s critically acclaimed The Collapse Of Everything, Adrian Sherwood teams up with Speakers Corner Quartet and African Head Charge for new four track EP Barbican Heights – a project which traverses the musical worlds of dub, jazz, electronic, afrobeat, and beyond.

Barbican Heights is born out of a spirit of collaboration, bringing together one of the UK’s most innovative and influential producers, Adrian Sherwood; one of the longest serving and most iconic members of the On-U Sound family, African Head Charge; together with Speakers Corner Quartet, a rising force whose influence is integral to the sound of the contemporary UK jazz scene.

Recorded during a singular day of creative spontaneity at Wicker Studios, the three acts, alongside Alex White of Primal Scream and Fat White Family, combined for semi-improvised reworkings of classic African Head Charge composition ‘Wicked Kingdom Of This Earth’, Speakers Corner Quartet’s own ‘Topanga’, as well as two new tracks constructed from scratch during the session. 

The EP title, a sly nod to a classic Keith Hudson tune, refers to the upcoming show at London’s prestigious Barbican Theatre, which will see all three artists share the same bill. The show also sees headliner Adrian Sherwood on stage with his own live band for the first time, comprised of long-time collaborator, Doug Wimbish (Living Color, Sugar Hill Gang, Tackhead), the aforementioned Alex White, plus Mark Bandola (The Lucy Show) showcasing Sherwood’s new studio album, The Collapse of Everything, and other On-U classics.

Sherwood’s first solo album in thirteen years and only the fourth in his storied career, The Collapse Of Everything was released in August to great acclaim. More reflective than earlier records in his discography, the album plays out like a Jamaican spaghetti Western with its widescreen vistas and mood shifts, incorporating everything from dust-caked desert blues to earthshaking dubs decorated in seemingly infinite detail. An expansive palette that ranges from delicate piano motifs to heavily processed sound effects move in and out of a wide-panned stereo field, at times coalescing into an almost hallucinogenic state. Mojo Magazine calls it “Sherwood’s most thrillingly exploratory solo album so far.”

The show in February 2026 will also coincide with African Head Charge marking forty-five years since the release of their first album My Life In A Hole In The Ground. Started as a studio project by Adrian Sherwood and master percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, in the basement studios on London’s Berry Street, beneath Chinatown, the group has gone on to release over a dozen studio albums (including 2023’s critically acclaimed A Trip To Bolgatanga), and developed into a potent live act, spearheaded by Noah, which has performed headline shows and festivals around the world.

Completing the lineup are Speakers Corner Quartet — a group defined by community, collaboration, and an unshakeable DIY spirit. Since forming in 2006, they have spent the past decade collaborating and shaping standout live and studio projects with artists such as Sampha, Kae Tempest, Tirzah, Dean Blunt, the late MF DOOM, and Lianne La Havas. Following the release of their critically acclaimed debut album Further Out Than The Edge (2023), the band have performed sold-out shows at The Roundhouse and Royal Festival Hall, delivered standout sets at Glastonbury and Montreux Jazz Festival, led a pioneering ICA residency exploring music and robotics, and scored the BAFTA-winning TV series Mr Loverman.

Adrian Sherwood Live Dub Sessions 2026:

5 Feb  / Milan / Magazzini Generali  

6 Feb / Gent / Wintercircus              

11 Feb / Berlin / Metropol                

13 Feb / Stockholm/ Fasching                   

17 Feb / London / The Barbican  * w/ live band, African Headcharge + Speakers Corner Quartet

26 Feb / Madrid / Club Villanos                

28 Feb / Barcelona / La Nau

26 Mar / Tennessee / Big Ears festival

27 Mar / NYC / Superior Ingredients (rooftop)

28 Mar / Montreal / Club SAT

31 Mar / Toronto / Standard Time

01 Apr / Chicago / Empty Bottle

02 Apr / Portland / Holocene

03 Apr / LA / First Fridays @ The Natural History Museum

04 Apr / SF / Great Northern

Listen / Buy

Published post no.2,728 – Tuesday 25 November 2025

News – Broadcast: On the occasion of the 70th birthday of Jorge E. López, Sunday 30 November

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published by Ben Hogwood and Richard Whitehouse

On the occasion of the 70th birthday of Jorge E. López

The singular tonal language of an Austrian composer of Cuban origin

Sunday 30th November 2025 @ 19:45 [NB: 18:45 UK time] on Austrian Radio Station Ö1

Jorge E. López, one of the most distinctive and original composers currently living in Austria, celebrates his seventieth birthday next Sunday. He has never identified with the conventions of New Music: ‘‘Instead, I was convinced from the beginning that it was more about making the ancient present’’. He does not look for the new but ‘‘rather the repressed’’, as emphasized in an extended interview with the radio journalist and regular Ö1 broadcaster Peter Kislinger.

López was born on 30 November 1955 in Havana. In 1960 he came to the United States with his family, where he lived in New York and Chicago. In 1970 he began to compose – inspired by such figures as Mahler, Berg, Ives, Messiaen, Stockhausen and Xenakis – then studied at California Institute of the Arts during 1971-76. In 1987, after notable orchestral performances in Donaueschingen, the focus of his life shifted to Europe and the German-speaking world.

He draws inspiration for his often timeless works from an intense experience of nature, most especially in Lapland, Iceland and the American North-West. His works defy current trends in contemporary music and demonstrate an affinity for the music at the turn of the 20th century as well as proximity to the aesthetics of Surrealism. In recent years, he has resided alternately between Mölltal in Upper Carinthia and Vienna. This latest edition of the Supernova series (produced by Rainer Elstner) features several large-scale orchestral works by the composer.

The programme can be accessed from the UK by clicking on the link below:

On the occasion of the 70th birthday of Jorge E. López | SUN | 30 11 2025 | 19:45 – oe1.ORF.at

Published post no.2,728 – Monday 24 November 2025

In concert – Helena Juntunen, CBSO / Osmo Vänskä: Sibelius & Shostakovich

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Helena Juntunen (soprano), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä (above)

Sibelius
Karelia Suite Op.11 (1893)
Songs – Höstkväll Op.38/1 (1903, orch. 1904); Hertig Magnus Op.57/6 (1909, orch. 1912); Våren flyktar hastigt Op.13/4 (1891, orch. 1913)
The Bard Op.64 (1913)
Luonnotar Op.70 (1913)
Shostakovich
Symphony no.15 in A major Op.141 (1970-71)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 19 November 2025

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Pictures (c) Jonathan Ferro

Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä makes relatively UK appearances these days such that this evening’s concert with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra was to be anticipated, given the never less than intriguing juxtaposition of works from Sibelius and Shostakovich.

It now appears less frequently on programmes than half a century ago, but Karelia Suite finds Sibelius at his most uninhibited and Vänskä responded accordingly – whether the simmering motion of its Intermezzo or the pulsating activity of its Alla Marcia; its Ballade distilling the keenest atmosphere with Rachel Pankhurst making the most of her plaintive solo. Harpist Karherine Thomas was similarly attuned to her almost obligato role in The Bard, a tone poem whose sombre understatement hardly prepares one for the surging emotion towards its climax.

Elsewhere in this half it was Helena Juntunen (above) who stole the show with her judicious selection of Sibelius songs. That almost all these are settings of Swedish texts reflects an introspective Romanticism often overlooked in his output and Juntunen brought out the stark imagining of Autumn Evening then restless aspiration of Baron Magnus as potently as the ecstatic yearning of Spring is Flying. Her swapping sophisticated gown for traditional dress may have pointed up stylistic differences with Luonnotar, but it also underlined the inimitability of this setting from Finnish national epic the Kalevala. Birmingham audiences had been spoiled by hearing Anu Komsi in the piece, but Juntunen was no less inside music whose extremes of timbre or texture result in as heady a culmination then as spellbinding a conclusion as any in Sibelius.

Hard now to recall a time when Shostakovich’s 15th Symphony was believed too inscrutable for wider appreciation, rather than that masterly reassessment of Classical symphonism it is. Vänskä brooked no compromise in an initial Allegretto not without its technical mishaps, for all its sardonic and even scabrous humour came over unimpeded, but it was with the Adagio this performance wholly found its stride. As enhanced by eloquent contributions from cellist Eduardo Vassallo then trombonist Richard Watkin, this was palpably well sustained through to a climax shot through with a defiance borne of desperation, before retreating back into its initial numbness. Continuing directly, the ensuing Allegretto was an intermezzo no less acute in its expression and not least for the way solo instruments melded so deftly with percussion.

Vänskä did not make the mistake of rendering the finale an Adagio, such as holds good only with its portentous introduction. The main Allegretto was persuasively handled – broadening marginally for a central passacaglia builds stealthily if inevitably to a climax corrosive in its dissonance, before retracing its thematic steps towards a coda which evokes the notion of the ‘unbearable lightness of being’ more completely than any other music. Here, also, there was no mistaking the CBSO’s collective focus in bringing this totemic work to its deathless close.

Shostakovich 15 does not lack for probing or memorable readings these days and, if tonight’s did not answer all its questions, Vänskä nevertheless ensured this piece left its mark on what was a commendably full house, and which set the seal on a flawed while memorable concert.

For more information on the 2025-26 season head to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website. Click on the names to read more about soloist Helena Juntunen and conductor Osmo Vänskä

Published post no.2,727 – Sunday 23 November 2025