Sheffield Chamber Music Festival 2024
20 Years of Ensemble 360: Festival Launch
Schubert's rousing Octet (perhaps the piece most closely associated with Ensemble 360 over their two decades) showcases the range and breadth of the ensemble, with its jaunty, memorable tunes and high drama. It is coupled here with two works written especially for the group.
Sheffield Chamber Music Festival 2025
Join Music in the Round & Ensemble 360 for this year's festival Friday 16 – Saturday 24 May, as they welcome some of the world's finest musicians and stellar guest artists.
Echoes From The Birdcage
Experience the vibrant soundscape of London’s King’s Cross with Echoes from the Birdcage. These works capture the diversity of the city, from the meditative echoes of Messiaen to the energetic beats of Steve Reich and works infused with jazz and Balkan folk dance.
Intimate Letters
Janáček’s intricate second quartet – nicknamed ‘Intimate Letters’ – is skilfully interspersed with the Czech composer’s own writing, performed by an actor, in this specially scripted performance of the work for Ensemble 360 with actor.
Schumann & Ravel: Mother Goose
This afternoon concert begins with the ‘Mother Goose’ Suite. Ravel’s delightful, whimsical work sets fairytales to music, performed here in a chamber arrangement.
Goldberg: Bach at Breakfast
A breakfast concert of Bach’s hugely popular Goldberg Variations, at Samuel Worth Chapel. Intricate counterpoint and life-affirming spirituality are the hallmarks of this most intimate of works presented in a breath-taking, conversational arrangement for violin, viola and cello.
Goldberg: Bach at Dawn
As the day breaks and birdsong surrounds Samuel Worth Chapel, Bach’s hugely popular Goldberg Variations, will greet the dawn. Intricate counterpoint and life-affirming spirituality are the hallmarks of this most intimate of works presented in a breath-taking, conversational arrangement for violin, viola and cello.
The Nostalgic Utopian Future Distance
An electrifying and electrified evening of duets between soloists drawn from Ensemble 360, and tape or live electronics, all presented in multi-speaker, 360-degree surround-sound.
Battleship Potemkin
A technical masterpiece, and Soviet cinema at its finest, don't miss the screening of this influential and visionary piece of cinema with the original soundtrack performed live by Ensemble 360, to mark the film’s centenary year.
Appalachian Spring
Members of the celebrated Elias Quartet join forces with their friends and former colleagues in Ensemble 360 for this very special concert.
Relaxed Concert: Appalachian Spring
For this ‘Relaxed’ concert of American music featuring Barber’s much-loved Adagio and Copland’s joyful Appalachian Spring, doors will be left open, lights raised, a break-out space provided and there will be less emphasis on the audience being quiet during the performance.
The Night Overtook Us: An Evening of Scottish Folk Music
Donald Grant, Elias Quartet violinist, is also a master of the folk fiddle. Raised in the Highlands, Donald was immersed in Gaelic song and Scottish music from an early age.
Cycles & Circles
Jasdeep Singh Degun is one of the finest exponents of the sitar and one of the most exciting musicians working today. His many collaborations with players from both Indian and western classical traditions have earned him broad audiences and many prizes, including two prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society awards in 2024.
Brahms String Sextet
In a final chance to catch the members of the Elias Quartet in collaboration with Ensemble 360, this celebration of music for strings centres on Brahms’s spectacular Sextet.
Shostakovich, Mozart & More
With Ensemble 360 once again joined by members of the Elias String Quartet, this is an expansive programme of some of the most exciting writing for strings from the 20th century, interspersed with two very different, but equally glorious, works for piano and wind.
Celebrating Avril Coleridge-Taylor
Presented by Leah Broad, whose group biography of female composers Quartet (2023) won plaudits around the globe, this concert with conversation introduces us to the ground-breaking Avril Coleridge-Taylor and her world.
Sinfonietta Britten, Vaughan-Williams & More
This sumptuous exploration of an intricate musical family tree unpacks the influence of some of the 20th century’s greatest composers upon one another.
Close Up: Music For Curious Young Minds
A tour through the wondrous world of chamber music, specially created for young audiences. This concert combines some of the most well-known music ever written, alongside playful storytelling in Berio’s entertaining Opus Number Zoo.
Finale: Mozart, Beethoven & Elgar
In a nostalgic nod to Ensemble 360's beginnings, the group revisits the music from their very first concert in this 20th anniversary Festival Finale.
Goldberg: Piano at Dawn
Tim Horton performs his own spellbinding early morning concert, returning the Goldberg Variations to their original keyboard form. Once again ringing out among the dawn chorus, in the atmospheric hidden gem of Samuel Worth Chapel.
