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.
The Bundestag in Berlin, in the presence of its President, Frau Bärbel Bas, saw the opening today of an important exhibition of Milein Cosman’s portraits.
At the centre of this exhibition are Milein Cosman’s historic drawings of the members of the first postwar government of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. These portraits have recently been acquired by the German Government Art Collection and this is their first public showing as a collection.
Read more here
It is with great sadness that the Trust has learned of the death last week of another of our Patrons, the composer and conductor Joseph Horovitz.
Joe first met Milein Cosman at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford during the war, and was a close friend of hers and Hans’s for many decades.
The Adelphi Quartet (YCAT Hans Keller Artist) will be performing Busha El-Turk’s Saffron Dusk, commissioned for them by the Trust, at the Wigmore Hall on Tuesday 15 February.
Their recital also includes Haydn’s String Quartet in C, Op.20 No.2 and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in A minor, Op.13.
Wednesday 2 February at 7:30 pm
Mathematical Institute
Mozart Quartet in D minor K.421
Fanny Mendelssohn Quartet in E flat major
Felix Mendelssohn Quartet in F minor, Op.80
Book tickets here
Wednesday 9 March at 7:30 pm
SJE Arts at St John the Evangelist Church
Mozart Quartet in F K.590
Elgar Quartet in E minor, Op.83
Sibelius Quartet in D minor Op.56 ‘Voces Intimae’
Book tickets here
Milein Cosman lived in Hampstead for over 70 years. In honour of the centenary of her birth, the Hampstead School of Art is showing a special exhibition of her work in a range of different media. The exhibition features drawings, prints, paintings and sculpture, together with some of her sketchbooks, materials and mementos, including the easel made for her by the American artist Robert Indiana.
The exhibition will continue until 21 February 2022. Further details here.
On Thursday 9 December, the Trust marked the close of Milein Cosman’s centenary year with a memorial concert at the Royal College of Music, in which Sini Simonen, David Waterman and Jean-Sélim Abdelmoula gave a wonderful performance of piano trios by Haydn and Brahms, together with the César Franck violin sonata.
The occasion also marked the arrival in the College’s newly refurbished Museum of the final instalment of Milein Cosman’s drawings of musicians – making this the largest institutional collection of her art anywhere in the world.
View the collection online here.
On 26 October the Castalian String Quartet will arrive in Oxford for the first of 15 stays as the university’s Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence. In their opening recital at the Holywell Music Room they will be playing:
Janácek – String Quartet No.1, ‘Kreutzer Sonata’
Ligeti – String Quartet No.1, ‘Métamorphoses nocturnes’
Schubert – String Quartet No.15 in G, D.887
Wednesday 27 October at 4 pm
Holywell Music Room, Oxford
Castalian String Quartet
Hans Keller’s Functional Analysis No.7
Haydn String Quartet in D minor Op.76 No.2
Further details here
Saturday 13 November 2021 at 7:45 pm
All Saints Centre, Lewes, BN7 1LE
Musicians of All Saints
Hans Keller’s Functional Analysis No.13
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G
Further details here.
The Düsseldorf Stadtmuseum saw the opening today of a special exhibition celebrating the centenary both of Milein Cosman and her childhood friend and fellow artist Ilde Schrader.
Milein and Ilde went to school together in Düsseldorf from 1927 until the threat of persecution and war separated them in 1937. Milein came to England and Ilde to Italy, but they were reunited after the war and remained close friends throughout their lives.
The exhibition will continue until 29 November. Further details here.
After undergoing extensive redevelopment, the Royal College of Music Museum reopened today — with a new exhibition of Milein Cosman’s work on permanent display in the Lavery Gallery.
The Royal College of Music holds the largest collection of Milein Cosman’s drawings of musicians, containing over 1,300 individual works. The whole collection has been digitised and can be viewed online here.
Viola player Thomas Kettle has been awarded a second year as the RAM’s Hans Keller Scholar for 2021-22.
This year he will be taking the Academy’s Professional Diploma course in Historical Performance.
For more information about Thomas, see his new website here.
The Trust is delighted to announce its support for an exciting new partnership between the Castalian String Quartet and the Faculty of Music at the University of Oxford.
Read more here.
