Sunday 6 June 2021, 18.00 and 20.30 BST

Pianist Florian Mitrea makes a welcome return to Benslow Music as part of the 2021 Hertfordshire Festival of Music with three master works of the piano repertoire by Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt. The programme includes a world premiere by Alan Mills.

Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 30 June 2021, 19.00 BST

An evening talk series by Helen Astrid, a former opera singer with English National Opera and Garsington Opera Festival. She has considerable experience in giving talks on the history of opera both online and in the classroom and her Tedx Talk ‘Tell me the Truth about Opera’ has been viewed by thousands.

Mozart and Da Ponte: Men Behaving Badly
Discover the most sublime of all Mozart's operas where he collaborated with one of the most unscrupulous and infamous librettists of the day, Lorenzo Da Ponte.

The Golden Age of Bel Canto: A Magnificent Trio
Find out how composers Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini shaped the way forward for music throughout Europe in the 19th Century, their operas carving a solid place in the opera houses around the world today.

Wednesday 9 June 2021, 20.00 BST

Beethoven: String Quartet in F major Op 18 No 1

Brahms: String Quintet in C minor Op 51 No 1

Monday 14 June 2021, 15.00 BST

Beethoven: 6 Variations on the aria "Nel cor più non mi sento" (WoO 70)

Schubert: Sonata in A minor D784 

J S Bach: Andante from Sonata in D minor BWV 964

Brahms: Sarabande WoO 5 No 1

Felix Mendelssohn: Fantasie Op 16 No 2

Liszt: Chapelle de Guillaume Tell from Années de Pèlerinage (Première année: Suisse)

Liszt: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca from Années de Pèlerinage (Deuxième année: Italie)

Schubert/Liszt: Wohin? No 5 from Müllerlieder von Franz Schubert S565

Schumann/Liszt: Widmung No 1 from Myrthen S566

Friday 18 June 2021, 13.00 BST

Everyone Matters and Benslow Music take delight in their joint project “Performing for Hitchin” where amateur and professional musicians rehearse together in the cheerful ambience of Benslow Music before offering concerts to care homes around the district.

After a spate of lockdown cancellations violinist Martin Smith and clarinettist Margaret Archibald take especial pleasure in presenting a dance programme that includes jigs, reels and hornpipes from the British Isles, sevdah from Bosnia, genteel minuets from Vienna and wild tango from Argentina.

“Dancing round the world” livestream is part of Benslow Music’s celebration of Make Music Day 2021 (21 June) and the dance theme was inspired by a wheelchair dance event for Leonard Cheshire in Hitchin that sadly had to be postponed.

In place of live concert visits Benslow Music is also making a series of streamed concerts freely available to care homes as part of a special Make Music Day festival in June.

Thursday 24 June 2021, 20.00 BST

Ilana Cravitz (violin) and Rupert Gillett (double bass) explore the colours of eight strings through the kaleidescope of klezmer music in their fidl and bass duo, a combination with a history rooted in Jewish eastern Europe.

Saturday 26 June 2021, 20.00 BST

The Oxford-based group Strannik (in Russian strannik means a wanderer, a pilgrim) is a musical collaboration between Russian singer Tatiana Soloviova and British folk musicians Jon Bennett and Jacqui Johnson. Strannik is a multi-instrumental and singing group specialising in traditional and contemporary Russian and British songs. As a multi-lingual group, it also draws on the musical heritage of other countries from around the world, singing in Italian, Spanish, Polish and German.

Strannik was a prize winner at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in Wales in 2019, and they have been subsequently booked at the Broadstairs, Cropredy and BunkFest festivals where they provided not only music but also Russian Dance workshops. Their first album 'Songs From Russia' was described as "beautiful and educational"(Oxford Daily Information), "with powerful vocals and sensitive support" (Shire Folk magazine).

Like to watch again?

Explore our library of on-demand performances by your favourite artists. Virtual ticket holders can also re-watch performances you booked for again for FREE!

Benslow Music presents...

Saxophone quartet Four Winds (1 July)
The Robert Franz Osterwald Lieder Project (2 July)
Escape Benslow Music! (2 July)
Classico Latino (7 July)
Opera in the Gardens with Eboracum Baroque (8 July)
Violinist Sebastian Müller (9 July)
The Rose Consort of Viols (13 July)
And the ever-popular Night of Jazz with Paul Eshelby and friends (22 July)