Today sees the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new work for string quartet, Awake, commissioned by the Castalian String Quartet with funding from the Cosman Keller Art & Music Trust and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust.

The Castalian String Quartet will be performing the work at the Edinburgh Festival, framed by Janáček’s String Quartet No.1 (‘Kreuzer Sonata’) and Beethoven’s String Quartet No.13, Op.130.

In this video you can hear the Quartet talk about Awake, explaining the genesis of the work and its links with the other works in their programme.

The Trust congratulates Hannah Uzor, holder of the first Milein Cosman Scholarship for Drawing, on her graduation from the MA programme at the Slade School of Fine Art.

We are delighted to have supported such a gifted artist during the last two years. Hannah’s graduate degree show is now on view at the Slade, and images from it can be seen online here.

The Trust is pleased to announce that it will be funding the St Paul’s Opera schools outreach programme this summer.

This will enable the singers of St Paul’s Opera to take scenes from their forthcoming production of Carmen into local primary schools, sharing their passion for the music with young children. A special family matinee performance of the complete opera will also be performed at St Paul’s on Saturday 1 July 2023.

This drawing (left) of Spanish dancers by Milein Cosman comes from the Milein Cosman Dancers Collection held at the University of Salzburg. More images from this collection can be viewed online here.

The Trust is delighted to announce the acquisition of Milein Cosman’s archive by Tate Archive.

Tate Archive houses a rich collection of sketchbooks, drawings, letters, diaries, photographs and other personal papers of artists who worked in Britain in the twentieth century. It is also a centre of excellence for the study of émigré artists and Milein’s archive will join those of over fifty other émigré artists, including her great friend Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, pictured here with Milein on the steps of the Tate Gallery building where Tate Archive is housed.

As work on the archive progresses, further information will be posted here.

Hans Keller’s wordless method of musical analysis will be presented at special events this term in both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

On Tuesday 7 February, the Chilingirian String Quartet and Andrew Marriner will perform Keller’s analysis of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in the Recital Room at the West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge, after which Cambridge PhD candidate Nicky Swett will discuss the psychological theory of musical similarity and difference at work in Keller’s score. Further details here.

On Thursday 2 March, the Castalian String Quartet will perform Keller’s analysis of Britten’s Second Quartet in the Holywell Music Room in Oxford, followed by contributions from Christopher Chowrimootoo, Marinu Leccia and Nicky Swett. Further details here.

Both events are open to the public and admission is free.

The Confluence Quartet has now joined the Mithras Trio as Hans Keller Chamber Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for the 2022-23 season.  They will be giving their debut recital at the Milton Court Concert Hall on Monday 27 February at 7:30 pm. Admission is free.

Yesterday the Mithras Trio gave a thrilling recital at the Wigmore Hall, featuring Frank Bridge’s Phantasie Piano Trio in C minor, Beethoven’s Op.70 No.1 (‘Ghost’) and the world première of Joy Lisney’s Petrichor.  You can listen again to this concert here.

ChamberStudio’s Hans Keller Forum returns to Cambridge this week for its second residential stay. The Aestus Quartet, the Astatine Trio, the Hirvi Quartet and the Kyan Quartet will enjoy another three days’ intensive coaching from Richard Ireland, Alasdair Beatson and John Myerscough.

Hannah Uzor, holder of the Milein Cosman Scholarship at the Slade will again be Artist in Residence and a lecture-recital on The Inner Workings of Britten’s Quartets will be given by Simon Rowland-Jones, illustrated by the Medea Quartet.

Free tickets for this lecture and for the public masterclasses can be booked here.

Peter Black, Milein Cosman’s Artistic Executor, retires from the board of trustees today, after sixteen years. Peter is the Trust’s longest-serving trustee, being one of the original four trustees appointed by Milein Cosman in 2006, alongside Julian Hogg, Christopher Wintle and Andrew Cherniavsky.

Earlier this year, Peter recalled his first meeting and long friendship with Milein Cosman for the publication accompanying the exhibition of her work at the Bundestag in Berlin in April and May: his memories can be read here.

Before he left the Trust, Peter and his colleagues were delighted to welcome two new art trustees, James Cahill and Donato Esposito.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the death of Milein Cosman.

It is sixteen years since she founded the Cosman Keller Art & Music Trust. All her beneficiaries are deeply grateful to her — and by her many friends she is sorely missed.

The winner of the 2022-23 Hans Keller Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music is violinist Valentín Sanchez Piñero.

An experienced performer with ensembles all over Europe, Valentín has a keen interest in baroque music. He is studying for a Master’s degree in performance at the Academy, working with Alexander Redington.

Read more about Valentín here.

The Trust is delighted that Busha El-Turk’s Saffron Dusk, commissioned by the Trust for the Adelphi Quartet (and performed by them at the Wigmore Hall and the Aldeburgh Festival) will receive a new interpretation tomorrow night as part of the Austrian Cultural Forum’s contemporary music platform Soundings.

Soundings was originally founded in 2004 by Cosman Keller Trustee Andrea Rauter (while she was working at the Austrian Cultural Forum) with composer Joe Cutler. It brings together composers and performers from Austria and the UK for four days of open rehearsals, discussions and concerts.

More information and tickets here.

The Adelphi Quartet’s original performance of Saffron Dusk can be heard here.

The Trust is delighted to announce a new partnership with the British Museum to create a Project Curator post in the Museum’s Prints and Drawings Department in memory of Milein Cosman.

We are thrilled that Grant Lewis has been appointed to this post and will be working on the Museum’s Late Michelangelo exhibition, which will take place in 2024.

Further details here.

The Castalian String Quartet returns to Oxford this month for the second year of their Hans Keller String Quartet Residency at the university’s Faculty of Music.

They have an exciting programme of concerts planned for this year – further information and booking details can be found here.

Hannah Uzor, who holds the Milein Cosman Scholarship for Drawing at the Slade School of Fine Art, is one of six artists commissioned by English Heritage to create portraits of significant figures from the African diaspora whose stories contributed to the history of England. Hannah’s portrait of Sarah Forbes-Bonetta was initially exhibited at Osborne House, the private family home of Queen Victoria, where Sarah often visited as a protegée of the queen.

English Heritage is now partnering with the Africa Centre to bring all six portraits together for the first time, in a new exhibition which will run from 10 September until 28 October. See the Africa Centre and English Heritage websites for more details.

On Friday 8 July, the opening event of this year’s Guildhall Chamber Music Festival will be a lecture-recital on Functional Analysis, given by the Trust’s Patron Levon Chilingirian and the Coalitiō Quartet, featuring Hans Keller’s analysis of Haydn’s ‘Lark’ Quartet Op.64 No.5. Further details here.

The Chilingirian Quartet has a long association with Hans Keller and a deep understanding of his analytical methods. A film of their own recent performance at the Guildhall of Keller’s analysis of Beethoven’s Quartet in F minor Op.95 can be viewed here.

The Consone Quartet and the Mithras Trio are rounding off their year as Hans Keller Chamber Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a concert on Saturday 9 July, as part of the Guildhall’s Chamber Music Festival.

The Mithras Trio will be opening with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor, and the Consone Quartet will be playing Boccherini before teaming up with the Fibonacci Quartet to finish the concert with Mendelssohn’s great Octet Op.20.  Tickets and further details here.

The Trust is delighted to be supporting St Paul’s Opera in its production of Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring this summer.

St Paul’s Opera in South London has a mission to offer accessible opera to the local community together with valuable performance opportunities to aspiring professional singers.

Tickets can be booked here

Hans Keller and Milein Cosman were closely associated with Benjamin Britten from the 1940s until Britten’s death, producing a huge volume of writings on and drawings of his works. This image (left) shows Milein Cosman’s drawing of Joan Cross as Lady Billows in the original production of Albert Herring in 1947. Hans Keller’s 1947 guide to Albert Herring can be read here.

As part of its Hans Keller String Quartet Project, the Trust is delighted to announce a new partnership with ChamberStudio : the Hans Keller Forum.

Beginning in September 2022, this will provide extra support and coaching to college-age chamber ensembles through regular specialist residential courses in Cambridge.

Read more here.

Oxford University’s Trinity Term begins today, and the Castalian String Quartet will shortly be heading back to Oxford for the next visit of their Hans Keller String Quartet Residency.

During their previous visits they have worked with eleven student composers.  In their concert on 11 May at the Holywell Music Room they will be giving the premiere of Hive, by postgraduate student Marcello Palazzo, together with Requiem for Gaia, by Oxford alumna Anna Appleby.  Book tickets here.

The Adelphi Quartet (YCAT Hans Keller Artist) won Second Prize and an Esterházy Foundation Prize at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition yesterday. Their performance of Beethoven’s Op.59/3 in the final round of the competition can be viewed online here (1:43:30).

On 21 June, they will make their debut at the Aldeburgh Festival, where they will give another performance of Busha El-Turk’s Saffron Dusk, commissioned for them by the Trust, together with the premiere of a new work by Busha El-Turk.  Book tickets here.