2024 events

'Music at Lunchtime' events at the New Guesten Hall, Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings - all presented as part of Bromsgrove Festival 2024

Festive Classics is pleased to be a member of Bromsgrove Arts Alive, which promotes, champions and encourages involvement in the arts, culture and heritage in Bromsgrove and the surrounding area

All concerts will start at 12.00noon, followed by lunch at 1.00pm Click here to download an A4 poster of the concerts Click here for ticket and other details of 'Music at Lunchtime' events

Wed 26 Jun 2024	Mr Coward Entertains - Actor/singer and pianist Michael Lunts - Michael is well-known to the audiences of Festive Classics, and he is returning for his ninth occasion. This will be yet another new show prepared for us, based on a recording that Noël Coward made of his own songs. The show will not be an impersonation, but more like an hour in the company of Coward, as he would have presented the material himself from the piano. Although a prolific playwright, with over 50 plays to his name (including Hay Fever, Private Lives and Blithe Spirit), he also composed hundreds of songs, which will be the core of Michael′s show. We are sure to hear such classics as Sail Away, The Stately Homes of England, Matelot, London Pride and Mad Dogs and Englishmen. We are assured of yet another memorable show. Michael Lunts' website
Wed 3 Jul 2024	Dedicated to Catalan cellist, Pablo Casals - Dr Richard Jenkinson - After Richard thrilled the audience in 2018 with his performance of Kodály's Sonata for Solo Cello, we are delighted to welcome him back to enthral and inspire us with another solo cello concert. This concert links pieces made famous by the Catalan master-cellist, Pablo Casals. Bach’s solo cello suites were a staple of the repertoire of Casals, and the second of these will be combined with a suite by his former student, Gaspar Cassadó, which is full of Spanish verve and flair. These substantial works will be separated by the traditional folk song El Cant dels Ocells ('The Song of the Birds') in an arrangement by Casals. Casals played this haunting Catalan lullaby at the age of 94 for the General Assembly of the United Nations in October 1971, when receiving the U.N. medal for peace. He believed that "Music will save the world". Richard Jenkinson's website This concert generously supported by Margaret Goode
Wed 10 Jul 2024	Trad Jazz at Lunchtime - Sauce City Jazz - Sauce City Jazz was formed in 1992 in Claines, near Worcester, by a group of friends who got together to welcome a local soldier home from the Gulf War. A fun evening soon evolved into a six piece jazz band, now approaching its 30th year. The normal line-up is trumpet, trombone, clarinet, banjo, string bass and drums. A sousaphone sometimes replaces the string bass. The numbers will include a wide range of traditional and cherished New Orleans Dixieland jazz classics - popularised by the likes of Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball and Humphrey Lyttelton - such as Panama Rag, Royal Garden Blues, Muskrat Ramble, Just a Little While, Bourbon Street Parade and Tin Roof Blues. As usual, every number will be improvised on the spur of the moment, so every performance is unique. Sauce City Jazz's website
Wed 17 Jul 2024	Quintessential Classics - Chameleon Wind Ensemble - The quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn) will perform a varied programme of lighter classics. The Chameleon Wind Ensemble was formed in 2010 by a group of local instrumentalists - the majority of whom are, or were, instrumental teachers, plus one solicitor! The ensemble's name highlights the differing individual sounds of the instruments and the contrasting musical colours of the music in the wind quintet repertoire. The members of the quintet are all very active in various ensembles throughout the West Midlands area, including Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, Chandos Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St John, Redditch Orchestra, the British Police Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia of Birmingham, Eroica Camerata, Kimichi Symphony Orchestra and various chamber groups. They have performed in many venues across Worcestershire and the wider Midlands area, and are regular contributors to the lunchtime series of concerts at St. Chad's Church in the centre of Shrewsbury.

To enquire about 'Music at Lunchtime' events, or for any other query, please email us.