March

Gwilym Simcock and Nick Smart Duo Concert/Masterclass

Pianist Gwilym Simcock and trumpeter Nick Smart have both forged international reputations in the jazz scene and beyond, touring and performing all over the world with some of the leading names in the music. Gwilym is a member of legendary guitarist Pat Metheny’s new quartet, and Nick has recently been performing alongside the iconic bassist Dave Holland celebrating the music of Kenny Wheeler. Gwilym and Nick are captivating improvisers with a shared musical history going back two decades, this event presents a rare chance to hear them perform in a duo setting exploring some original music, jazz standards and compositions by their shared heroes. 

University of Huddersfield Saxophone Day

The Tenth Annual University of Huddersfield Saxophone Day will be on Sunday 5th March 2023 from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm in St. Paul’s Hall at the University of Huddersfield. Registration from 9:30 am. 

This year the event will be a Play-Day. There will be four different playing sessions, each with their own music to explore. The sessions will be led by Sarah Markham, Chris Jolly, Richard Ingham, and Rob Ironside. The day will end with a short informal concert featuring all the music learned throughout the day. 

 

This is a free event for all those attending, whether as an observer or participant. 

Full details are available here.

  

There will be an exhibition of music and accessories, with time to browse during the breaks. 

David Pipe and Huw Morgan - Double Organ Recital

David Pipe read Music at Cambridge University as Organ Scholar of Downing College, later studying organ at the Royal Academy of Music. He has given recitals at major international venues, and festival performances as soloist have included the Bergen International Festival and the St Albans International Organ Festival. David’s solo recordings have attracted critical acclaim in the international music press, with the performances described as “electrifying”.

David became Director of the Keyboard Studies Programme and Cathedral Organist in the Diocese of Leeds in 2016, having been Assistant Director of Music at York Minster. He is founding Artistic Director of the Leeds International Organ Festival, and Curator of Huddersfield Town Hall’s organ recital series. In demand as a conductor and workshop leader, he has been Musical Director of York Musical Society since 2012.

In 2018, David was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, awarded to past students who have distinguished themselves in the music profession within their particular field

 

Huw Morgan is a composer, organist and conductor living and working in Bristol. A graduate of the University of Oxford and the Royal Academy of Music, his music has been performed in venues and festivals throughout Europe and North America, including HCMF, Tectonics Festival (Glasgow), Arizona State University and Keith FM. 

Huw began the series of "mainly slow organ music" concerts in Bristol in 2021 with the aim of exploring experimental music by living composers, bringing new audiences to the organ and attempting to show the instrument's expanded technical and expressive abilities. The series has included many world and UK first performances of pieces by Eva-Maria Houben, Michael Pisaro, Lauren Redhead, Luiz Yudo, Mia Windsor, Rishin Singh and more, alongside works by Howard Skempton, Laurence Crane, Joseph Kudirka, Jürg Frey, Philip Glass and many others. 

 

 

Strings Day, 23rd March

13.15: Four's Company Concert (St Paul's)

14.30: Student workshop (tbc: Phipps' Hall)

18.15: Meiningen Concert (Phipps' Hall)

 

Four's Company is a university-affiliated baroque chamber group, formed in 2011 and comprising scholar-researchers with expertise in historical performing practices. Three of the group are university or ex-university academic staff, viol expert Professor John Bryan (bass viol), Handel scholar and former University Organist Professor Graham Cummings, and historical violin specialist, Dr David Milsom. After seminal historical performance pioneer and composer Dr Duncan Druce passed away in 2015, the group was joined by baroque performance specialist Dr Amanda Babington. The group has given regular concerts here at the university since its inception, interrupted by Covid-19 (although a video performance can be found on the MMT Youtube channel). This, in fact, is the group's first post-Covid live performance.

 

The Meiningen Ensemble is also a university-affiliated ensemble, its members all active performer-scholars and researchers in Huddersfield Performance Research Group (HPRG), and comprising Dr David Milsom, who heads up classical performance at Huddersfield, Dr George Kennaway (an authority on the historical 'cello), who is currently a Visiting Research Fellow, and Mr Jonathan Gooing, a long-standing colleague of David Milsom, who is also completing a PhD in historical accompanying practices. The group will be playing in ways that reflect historical performance techniques and styles: although the grand piano is modern it resembles instruments that were already in existence in the late nineteenth century, and violin and cello are strung with gut strings and the 'cello played without endpin, as was customary for many until the early twentieth century. This is also the first post-pandemic live performance for this ensemble, although videos of on-location recording at Burton Constable Hall can be found on the MMT Youtube channel.