Madeleine Mitchell was due to perform Grace Williams Violin Concerto live with BBC NOW on BBC Radio 3.

Great Success in Turkey

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 09:25:46 GMT

Madeleine Recital British Embassy & Masterclasses

Madeleine Mitchell was honoured to be invited to give a violin recital of British music hosted by her Excellency the British Ambassador of Turkey (pictured) at the British Embassy residence, Ankara. This included music by Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Frank Bridge and Judith Weir and pieces written for Madeleine by Errollyn Wallen, Michael Nyman, Howard Blake and Stuart Jones, whose virtuosic Turkish Gypsy Dance (featured on her NMC album) was a highlight of the evening. The event was attended by distinguisged guests and received wide media cpverage.

Madeleine also gave violin masterclasses at Bilkent University Faculty of Music and Arts with a student concert at the end of the week.

Classical Music Magazine: Red Violin re-launches

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 08:16:22 GMT

Classical Music Magazine: Red Violin re-launches

I founded the Red Violin festival with Yehudi Menuhin as patron in 1997. Inspired by Le Violon Rouge paintings by Pougny, Dufy and others, I had the idea to bring everything together across the arts celebrating the violin in its different guises. We had a very successful festival throughout Cardiff in partnership with the BBC and many other organisations over 10 days and the following year the Red Violin film came out so we showed that in the second festival. The 2007 festival was a collaboration with BBCNOW, as well as Cardiff University, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. For it, I curated daily concerts at the Wales Millennium Centre and devised a giant violin which was on display as an installation throughout the festival. However, both festivals were a huge amount of work and, with all my performing and recording, I haven’t been able to present the Red Violin since.

Fast forward to five years ago, when I gave a recital as part of the University of Leeds International Concert Series where I was introduced to former Opera North chairman Michael Beverley who, when I told him about the Red Violin festival, said, ‘Why don’t we do it in Leeds?’ With the pandemic and the closure of Leeds Town Hall for conservation work, it’s taken five years to come to fruition, but we’re delighted that many of the arts organisations in the city have partnered with us and that Lord Michael Berkeley agreed to be our president.

"I like the fact that this festival celebrates local people as well as being international in flavour"

What’s new in our relaunched festival is a collaboration with Opera North ’s education department, In Harmony whose 10th anniversary we attended. It’s both impressive and poignant that they are filling the music education gap, enabling children in deprived areas who wouldn’t otherwise have access to music lessons to learn instruments. Having started learning the violin myself in free shared lessons in a junior school in Romford, Essex and then as a junior exhibitioner at the RCM, paid for by the local authority, this wouldn’t happen now, so this is dear to my heart. We’re programming Peter Maxwell Davies’s Sanday Tunes for a large group of young violinists to play at the upcoming festival. The work brings my career full circle in a way because my first job was as violinist/violist in Max’s groundbreaking group The Fires of London.

During my time as a Fulbright Scholar to New York I became friends with Gene Scheer (pictured below) – then a baritone, now a world-renowned librettist – who suggested we give the European première of his work with Jake Heggie, Intonations: Songs on the Violins of Hope (which the title quote of this feature is taken from) at this year’s festival. The piece, inspired by James A Grymes's book Violins of Hope: Violins of the Holocaust, Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind's Darkest Hour , will be performed by the London Chamber Ensemble, violinist Chloe Hanslip and mezzo soprano Sian Griffiths. The incorporation of string quartets is a new element for the 2024 festival. In the other half of their concert, the London Chamber Ensemble’s Quartet and I will launch our album of Howells and Wood Quartets for SOMM.

Wanting to make the festival as inclusive (and fun) as possible, in partnership with Leeds Conservatoire we came up with A HundRED Violins of all ages and abilities in a new piece to be performed as a Flashmob in Leeds’s Trinity shopping centre, supported by the Leche Trust. This year we build on the presence of Indian Carnatic Violin in previous iterations of the festival with an evening of both North and South Indian violin in collaboration with Leeds’s South Asian Arts . Leeds International Concert Season were happy to feature the violin in four of their concerts, from violin and organ to Anglo-French quartets, Roma violin and jazz-inspired pieces.

With the support of the Vaughan Williams Foundation, I was able to commission a new work from James B Wilson (pictured below). Love is Sleeping for violin and piano will be premiered on 18 October at Leeds University’s Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall – where the idea for this venture originated in 2019.

Inspired by my time as artistic director of Music in Quiet Places , during which we had guided walks of the villages before the concerts in rural churches, we’re partnering with Leeds City Walking Tours to create a violin soundtrack relating to parts of Leeds. This can be heard on two guided walks during the Festival, and includes Paganini and Sarasate who both played in Leeds.

In earlier festivals, I didn’t play a concerto, but I love the Bruch Violin Concerto so I’m very pleased to have been asked by the Sinfonia of Leeds to join them and their director David Greed in the festival’s grand finale where Greed and his son will also perform Vivaldi Double Concerto. I like the fact that this festival celebrates local people as well as being international in flavour.

We were sadly unsuccessful with an Arts Council England application, so a lot of work has been done voluntarily and we are now a registered charity. Economically it’s sound, having ‘umbrella’ events within the Red Violin which are mutually beneficial, enhancing existing series, without the risk of promoting ‘from scratch’ for most events. The 2024 Red Violin festival is therefore presented in partnership with Leeds International Concert Season, University of Leeds International Concert Series, South Asian Arts, Leeds Conservatoire, In Harmony Opera North, Everyman Cinema, Leeds City Walking Tours, Sinfonia of Leeds, Hobgoblin Music and Leeds Libraries.

Violinist Madeleine Mitchell is artistic director of the Red Violin Festival which is set to take place in Leeds from 14 to 19 October

Madeleine Mitchell on forming musical conversations

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2023 - Madeleine Mitchell & Errollyn Wallen

Ahead of the release of her latest album, Violin Conversations, the violinist talks about her...

Review Music Opinion April-June 2024

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 10:58:48 GMT

Madeleine's recital in St Andrew's Festival, Sheffield: 'Imaginatively interpreted...in this satisfying and enjoyable recital, consummate musicianship was placed entirely at the service of wide-ranging and stimulating repertoire.' Brahms etc, Franck Sonata with Nigel Clayton 'The palpable reciprocity and sense of unity between both players enhanced their closely argued, convincingly paced performance. There was grace and elegance as well as passion and rapture, the last quality most evident in the radiant finale’s canonic writing. The interpretation found a satisfying balance between improvisatory licence and adherence to the score’s almost classical restraint. In other words, the artists presented a reading in which head and heart were ideally combined.' Paul Conway

Read complete review:

Recital by Madeleine Mitchell and Nigel Clayton. St Andrew’s Church, Sheffield

A highlight of the 2023 St Andrew’s Music Festival was a concert given by violinist Madeleine Mitchell and pianist Nigel Clayton on 25 November which took place in St Andrew’s Church, Sheffield. The enticing programme consisted of two major violin sonatas from the late nineteenth century framing works by contemporary, Sheffield-based composers.

A tautly dramatic account of Brahms’s Violin Sonata in D minor, Op.108 benefitted from an instinctive, close collaboration between two players who have been performing together for more than three decades. The opening Allegro suggested immense power held in check, the strikingly static development section unfolding enigmatically over the piano’s persistent, tolling pedal note. After a lyrically expressive Adagio came a delicate, airy reading of the intermezzo-like third movement, followed by a fierce, but controlled finale, with a satisfying contrast achieved between the main subject’s vigorous, galloping rhythms and the serene, chorale-like secondary theme introduced by the piano. This searching performance was notable for its clarity and fluency, the disparate elements in Brahms’s music drawn convincingly together.

Madeleine Mitchell then took centre stage to play George Nicholson’s Spindrift , a substantial piece for solo violin in seven interrelated, but stylistically diverse movements, the last three of which were receiving their first public performance, according to the programme note. Taking its title from sea spray, Spindrift was written for Madeleine Mitchell between Autumn 2021 the end of 2022 and the music suited admirably the violinist’s impressively broad expressive range, from intimate musing to bold, sweeping gestures. Each movement offered different challenges for the player, from the second’s furtive opening in very high register to the third’s extreme dynamic contrasts and the fifth’s relaxed, hushed series of harmonics to the sixth’s carefully placed pizzicato statements. Forming an impassioned central climactic point, the fourth movement presented imposing chordal sequences enclosing a softly eloquent, directly expressive episode. The final seventh movement was the most extended and varied, encapsulating all the previous material in a deeply considered summation. In the closing bars, the solo line faded away with an illimitable, ever-ascending glissando, the last of several inventive effects in the score, imaginatively interpreted by Madeleine Mitchell. It is a tribute to the refinement and subtlety of her artistry that this often demanding and intricate music was able to unfold with a feeling of exploration and interpretative freedom within the context of a cogent, carefully planned framework.

Nigel Cayton joined Madeline Mitchell in the Waltz No.5, for violin and piano by Ray Kohn. This delightful, harmonically restless miniature made a virtue of its own lyrical directness and lucidity of utterance, the violin’s ascending scale rounding off the score with a gesture of heart-stopping simplicity and tenderness.

After the interval there was just one work, the Sonata in A major for violin and piano by César Franck. The palpable reciprocity and sense of unity between both players enhanced their closely argued, convincingly paced performance. There was grace and elegance as well as passion and rapture, the last quality most evident in the radiant finale’s canonic writing. The interpretation found a satisfying balance between improvisatory licence and adherence to the score’s almost classical restraint. In other words, the artists presented a reading in which head and heart were ideally combined.

In this satisfying and enjoyable recital, consummate musicianship was placed entirely at the service of wide-ranging and stimulating repertoire.

Paul Conway

Is Madeleine Mitchell the future of classical music?

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 11:09:40 GMT

Reviews for Violin Conversations

Ivan Hewett, (Critic, The Telegraph)

Many classical musicians are content to spend their careers in the snug embrace of the great or not-so-great works of the past. There’s no shame in that. Bringing those dots on the page to life needs not just the mastery of an instrument but deep cultural and historical imagination, as well as a capacious emotional responsiveness.

Fortunately for the health of classical music, there are those other performers who are keen to go further. They conjure new works into being by asking composers to write pieces for them. It’s potentially rewarding – the result might be a masterpiece into being – but also enormously taxing. Money has to be raised, because composers do after all need to be paid, and a venue or promoting organization must be found to host this untested piece. Probably they’ll have to answer numerous email queries from the composer, along the lines of – is this chord possible? Can I follow this note with that one? And when the piece is delivered it could turn out to be of finger-twisting difficulty.

One of these intrepid souls is the violinist Madeleine Mitchell. Though she’s no slouch when it comes to the canon, with a particular fondness for Brahms and Russian music, she’s also a tireless promoter of new composers. A small fraction of the pieces she’s commissioned or requested appear on her new CD Violin Conversations, and if you didn’t know about the personal connection you’d probably guess it from the warmth of the playing. There’s the soulful melancholy of Dybbuk, composed by Mitchell’s one-time teacher at the Royal College of Music Joseph Horowitz, best known for innumerable film and TV theme tunes including Rumpole of the Bailey. There’s the Ice Princess and the Snowman by Mitchell’s old friend Howard Blake, and a very entertaining piece combining the violin with those exasperating automated “on-hold” phone messages, by Kevin Malone.

More emotionally stirring is the evocation of the life of black American civil rights campaigner Sojourner Truth by Belize-born British composer Errolyn Wallen. More astringent in sound, but in a rewarding way, are the two “historic” pieces on the CD: the 1958 Violin Rawsthorne by the fine, now neglected composer Alan Rawsthorne, its finely honed passion beautifully revealed by Mitchell and pianist Andrew Ball, and Colloquy composed in 1960 by the 95-year-old Thea Musgrave. My own favourite alongside Rawsthorne’s sonata is Mist Waves by Cincinatti-based Douglas Knehans, its vastly slow, gentle unfolding sustained with unflagging concentration by Mitchell and the pianist Nigel Clayton. In all this is a recording of subtle charm, which shows just how approachable and various that apparently scary thing called “contemporary music” has become. Ivan Hewett

New Album Praised in the Press

Fri, 18 Aug 2023 09:22:05 GMT

Reviews for Violin Conversations

Madeleine's new album, Violin Conversations , released by Naxos, has received glowing reviews by respected critics Ivan Hewett in The Telegraph and Fiona Maddocks in The Observer.

"Whether as soloist or chamber musician, the British violinist Madeleine Mitchell has expanded the frontiers of music for her chosen instrument, through playing unfamiliar works and commissioning new ones. Her wide-ranging album Violin Conversations (Naxos) draws on recordings from 1996 to 2022 and features 10 composers, all born in the 20th century. Alan Rawsthorne’s Violin Sonata (1958), enriched by the late Andrew Ball on piano as duo partner; Errollyn Wallen’s Sojourner Truth (2021) for solo violin, named after the American abolitionist and women’s rights campaigner , which takes a spiritual as its starting point, mixing drones and jazz-hued idiom. Caprice, by Wendy Hiscocks, inspired by a bird in flight, makes a wistful nod towards the soaring, trilling string writing of Vaughan Williams. Douglas Knehans’s seductive Mist Waves (2019), Thea Musgrave’s Colloquy (1960) and works by Martin Butler, Richard Blackford and Howard Blake combine to make a fresh and challenging recital, beautifully played. Kevin Malone’s witty Your Call Is important to Us (2022) will delight those who have been driven mad by being put on hold: surely every one of us." The Observer

Is risk-taking Madeleine Mitchell the future of classical music?

"Many classical musicians are content to spend their careers in the snug embrace of the great or not-so-great works of the past. There’s no shame in that. Bringing those dots on the page to life needs not just the mastery of an instrument but deep cultural and historical imagination, as well as a capacious emotional responsiveness.

Fortunately for the health of classical music, there are those other performers who are keen to go further. They conjure new works into being by asking composers to write pieces for them. It’s potentially rewarding – the result might be a masterpiece into being – but also enormously taxing. Money has to be raised, because composers do after all need to be paid, and a venue or promoting organization must be found to host this untested piece. Probably they’ll have to answer numerous email queries from the composer, along the lines of – is this chord possible? Can I follow this note with that one? And when the piece is delivered it could turn out to be of finger-twisting difficulty.

One of these intrepid souls is the violinist Madeleine Mitchell. Though she’s no slouch when it comes to the canon, with a particular fondness for Brahms and Russian music, she’s also a tireless promoter of new composers. A small fraction of the pieces she’s commissioned or requested appear on her new CD Violin Conversations, and if you didn’t know about the personal connection you’d probably guess it from the warmth of the playing. There’s the soulful melancholy of Dybbuk, composed by Mitchell’s one-time teacher at the Royal College of Music Joseph Horowitz, best known for innumerable film and TV theme tunes including Rumpole of the Bailey. There’s the Ice Princess and the Snowman by Mitchell’s old friend Howard Blake, and a very entertaining piece combining the violin with those exasperating automated “on-hold” phone messages, by Kevin Malone.

More emotionally stirring is the evocation of the life of black American civil rights campaigner Sojourner Truth by Belize-born British composer Errolyn Wallen. More astringent in sound, but in a rewarding way, are the two “historic” pieces on the CD: the 1958 Violin Rawsthorne by the fine, now neglected composer Alan Rawsthorne, its finely honed passion beautifully revealed by Mitchell and pianist Andrew Ball, and Colloquy composed in 1960 by the 95-year-old Thea Musgrave. My own favourite alongside Rawsthorne’s sonata is Mist Waves by Cincinatti-based Douglas Knehans, its vastly slow, gentle unfolding sustained with unflagging concentration by Mitchell and the pianist Nigel Clayton. In all this is a recording of subtle charm, which shows just how approachable and various that apparently scary thing called “contemporary music” has become.

Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph

“ Madeleine Mitchell has been described on BBC Radio 3 as ‘the consummate violinist’. Proof of that comes royally throughout this CD where she performs the music of ten 20th century and contemporary composers…always fascinating and often delightful”

British Music Society

Violin Conversations - Madeleine Mitchell's New Album out 23 June

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 12:54:22 GMT

Following Madeleine Mitchell's outstandingly successful previous Naxos album, no.2 in the Classical Charts and Guardian CD of the Week, this deeply personal collection includes 8 world premiere recordings in an appealing range of styles. Violinist Madeleine Mitchell has inspired new works from a variety of composers, many of whom share connections of various kinds. ‘Conversations’ sit at the heart of an album in which four pianist composers* join Mitchell to perform their works. The music encompasses Alan Rawsthorne’s quicksilver 1958 Violin Sonata , heard here in a BBC broadcast to honour Mitchell’s two-decade partnership with the late Andrew Ball, to Thea Musgrave’s vivid Colloquy . The sequence of atmospheric, communicative pieces from contemporary composers explores natural phenomena, songs of freedom, telephonic frustration and a pas de deux love duet.

Music by: Richard Blackford Worlds Apart , *Howard Blake The Ice Princess and the Snowman , *Martin Butler Barcarolles, *Wendy Hiscocks Caprice & Dry White Fire , Joseph Horovitz Dybbuk Melody, Douglas Knehans Mist Waves, Kevin Malone Your Call is Important to Us , Thea Musgrave Colloquy , Alan Rawsthorne Violin Sonata, *Errollyn Wallen Sojourner Truth. With pianists Andrew Ball, Nigel Clayton and Ian Pace. Supported by the Royal College of Music, Vaughan Williams Foundation, Rawsthorne Trust, City University of London and many of the composers gifting their pieces/services.

Videos: Mitchell and Wallen https://youtu.be/0psZ1NtT97g Mitchell and Blake https://youtu.be/ZG14HuHum3Q

Pre-order link: https://naxosdirect.co.uk/items/violin-conversations-604482 Free postage UK

Michael Berkeley CBE New Piece for Mitchell - Notes on the Loss of a Friend: In Memoriam Nicholas Snowman OBE

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 05:43:53 GMT

Premiere Radio 3 In Tune 31.3 6pm and St John's Smith Square 2.4

Following the sudden death of the well known arts figure on 2nd March, Michael Berkeley has composed a new unaccompanied 3 minute solo violin piece for Madeleine Mitchell - Nicholas Snowman OBE served on the board of her Red Violin festival and was an admirer of her work and a friend of both the violinist and Lord Berkeley.

Violinist Madeleine Mitchell opens the Easter Festival at St John’s Smith Square on Sunday 2nd April at noon

featuring the Easter piece James MacMillan wrote her in 1994 (recorded on her NMC album In Sunlight: Pieces for Madeleine Mitchell), with pianist Nigel Clayton in a typically mixed programme, together with Brahms Violin Sonata no.2, The Lark Ascending in the original version for violin and piano and short pieces by Schubert and Rachmaninov for his 150th anniversary.

Madeleine will perform the new Berkeley puece and a movement of Brahms Violin Sonata no.2 on BBC Radio 3 In Tune on Friday 31st March c6pm with Sean Rafferty. She has also been invited onto Ed Vaizey's programme on Times Radio the same evening, Fri 31.3 c8.30pm.

The Red Violin festival, Chairman Michael Beverley pays tribute to Nicholas Snowman for serving as a founder board member for their next venture in Leeds under Artistic Director Madeleine Mitchell. Nicholas helped so many arts organisations and brought his enthusiasm, wide experience and generosity. He will be much missed. www.redviolin.co.uk

Madeleine wins RPS Enterprise Award for Film: Music & Art - V&A Fabergé & Anglo-Russian Music - click to see video

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 10:47:16 GMT

London Chamber Ensemble concert with Wartski Fabergé slides + fascinating RCM archive material

I was thrilled to win a Royal Philharmonic Society Enterprise Award and very grateful to Harriet’s Trust for making possible my creative idea linking art and music in film. I’ve learnt a great deal in the process.

The initial idea stemmed from a meeting I had at the V&A before the pandemic to do some concerts with my London Chamber Ensemble combined with exhibitions and the Fabergé: Romance to Revolution sparked my imagination the most. During the lockdowns I did some live streamed concerts and thought how interesting it would be to combine my longstanding passion for art with music on film. After months of research and negotiations with the V&A, where there were staff changes, we were invited to give a concert for the Membership on a cold day in January - 21.1.22 during the exhibition and were able to film the event. Whilst it was not possible to perform or film in the exhibition itself I was able to project slides of Fabergé objets d’art kindly provided by Wartski, who were closely involved in the exhibition. The string quartet concert which I introduced, was sold out within 2 days. Only being able to have use of the V&A auditorium to film, I had the idea of using 2 other locations close by, on the same day as the concert - doing pieces to camera at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral - linking the fellow Huguenot architect Lewis Vulliamy with Fabergé) and the Royal College of Music, where I’ve been a professor for many years. A conversation with the Chief Librarian about my project produced fascinating archive material, in the treasured Visitors’ Book is the signature of Tchaikovsky in 1893, adjacent to the page witnessing the official opening of the College by Edward, Prince of Wales, closely connected with Fabergé, and also letters to Stanford, all of which I didn't know about previously.

In my research for the music to go with the exhibition, which spanned from St Petersburg in the 1880s and setting up a Fabergé shop in London in 1903, to the Revolution of 1917, I discovered Les Vendredis, the salon featuring and publishing the latest musical works for quartet. I also knew the Russian Lament, Luchinushka by Herbert Howells of 1917, originally for violin and piano which I’d played many times, both for BBC Radio 3 and in the USA and Russia where I'd presented works by several RCM composers. I got permission to arrange this for string quartet.

I enjoy introducing concerts and was very pleased to do the commentary for the film, all of which we somehow did in one take on the day. Simon Wall of TallWallMedia made the film, there were many delays in editing it and I had to get some help doing the final editing. I think it's important in future to have a clear contract with a finish date and funding permitting, not to have to do everything on the day of a concert so one can concentrate on the performance! The filmed concert took place before the invasion of Ukraine and we hope people will appreciate that the wonderful music and art therein should not be associated with the current regime in Russia. We added #StandwithUkraine at the end of the film.

I very much want to do more of this sort of thing, presenting concerts with music which relates to art and giving the context.

"Madeleine Mitchell, as to be expected, proved a superlative soloist". Radio 3 live recording Grace Williams Violin Concerto and Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending BBC NOW

Thu, 19 May 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Full review here: https://seenandheard-international.com/2021/11/bbc-now-play-grace-williams-and-ralph-vaughan-williams/

Madeleine Mitchell was invited by Meurig Bowen last year to broadcast live and to make the first recording of Grace Williams Violin Concerto, after he heard her Grace Williams chamber music album for Naxos. This finally took place in Cardiff with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Jamie Phillips, as BBC Radio 3 Evening Concert 9.11.21. Madeleine introduces the work and there was an interval talk featuring her recording of the 1st movement of Grace Williams Violin Sonata. She also broadcast live Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending in a second concert with BBC NOW. " Mitchell, as one might expect, proved to be a superlative soloist"

London Chamber Ensemble - Highgate Festival Quartets

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 19:42:01 GMT

https://salonmusic.co.uk/highgate-festival-music-ends-with-a-flourish-of-debussy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=highgate-festival-music-ends-with-a-flourish-of-debussy

Delighted to have a full house for our concert - the final in this festival, with good colleagues Gordon MacKay, Bridget Carey and Joseph Spooner in Schubert A minor and Debussy string quartets

"The ever energetic violinist and British music advocate Madeleine Mitchell’s laudable programme marking IWD21 featured committed performances in a fascinating collection of works" The Guardian

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 21:22:56 GMT

Featured on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour highlights, Radio 3 In Tune, Classic FM, Scala Radio, The Strad Premiere of the Month

Madeleine Mitchell's International Women's Day concert programme 'A Century of Music by British Women' (1921-2021) with her London Chamber Ensemble at St John's Smith Square, received wide coverage and enthusiastic reviews. Madeleine was featured on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour weekend highlights, BBC Radio 3 In Tune, Scala Radio and Classic FM. The new piece which Mitchell commissioned from Errollyn Wallen was selected by The Strad magazine as their Premiere of the Month.

'The London Chamber Ensemble played with flair, commitment and virtuosity...a very impressive programme' - read Arcana.fm's complete review here: https://arcana.fm/2021/03/09/madeleine-mitchell/

https://www.sjss.org.uk/century-music-british-women-1921-2021-international-womens-day-directed-made...

Available till 8th April. Please support the artists and the venue by making a donation if you can.

Hear Madeleine Mitchell's latest live-streamed concert

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 16:16:53 GMT

Hear Madeleine Mitchell's latest live-streamed concert 09/11/2020 of Elgar, Ravel, Strauss Violin Sonatas and Massenet Meditation here:

Madeleine Mitchell records new piece for album for HelpMusiciansUK and gives first solo violin concert since lockdown

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 14:26:31 GMT

Madeleine recorded a new piece for solo violin specially written for her by Richard Blackford during lockdown 2020 called Worlds Apart for the Musicians for Musicians eclectic album Many Voices on Themes of Isolation - available here: https://musiciansformusicians.bandcamp.com/releases She gave the private premiere of the work on 12th August in a new solo violin programme of music spanning 300 years - from Bach's great Chaconne of 1720 to 2020, also including Caprices by Wendy Hiscocks and Grazyna Bacewicz, Elliott Carter Riconoscenza per Goffredo Petrassi, Stuart Jones Kothektche (Turkish Gypsy Dance https://www.nmcrec.co.uk/recording/sunlight-pieces-madeleine-mitchell ) and Joseph Horovitz Dybbuk Melody . The concert had a unique platform of scaffold boards against the wall of a Victorian House in Highgate, hosted by the widow of well known recording producer James Mallinson, for whom Madeleine made her very first album - Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time with Joanna MacGregor, in 1994. The select group of guests listened to the programme, spread out in the garden.

RIP Michael Tumelty - Review The Herald (archive)

Thu, 21 May 2020 08:08:20 GMT

RIP Michael Tumelty, Reviewer The Herald

Sad to hear of the death of Michael Tumelty on 19.5.20. Very grateful for this and other of his reviews.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales interviews Madeleine Mitchell about Grace Williams

Sat, 11 Apr 2020 20:30:05 GMT

"Romantic and virtuosic" https://www.facebook.com/bbcnationalorchestraofwales/posts/10163040369850408?__tn__=K-R Madeleine Mitchell was due to perform Grace Williams Violin Concerto live with BBC NOW on BBC Radio 3. This has had to be postponed and re-scheduled. Meanwhile she speaks about her relationship with this fine composer

Grace Williams Chamber Music Album released IWD19 - Guardian CD of the Week & no.2 in the Classical Charts

Sun, 10 Mar 2019 22:28:46 GMT

'All recorded for the first time...The players of the London Chamber Ensemble make the writing sing, providing unflagging rhythmic drive...a persuasive disc'

Madeleine Mitchell's major project to record unpublished chamber music by Wales's foremost female composer, Grace Williams including the Violin Sonata, Sextet, Suite for 9 Instruments, Romanza, Sarabande and Rondo for Dancing, has sparked much interest in the media with coverage by Classic FM: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=328001604496142 and https://twitter.com/ClassicFM/status/1107355924543520768
BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour 28.2.19 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002r5z
The Strad https://www.thestrad.com/artists/the-chamber-music-of-grace-williams/8703.article
Featured on BBC Radio 3 Sarah Walker 10.3.19 11.45am
Gramophone podcast with James Jolly https://www.gramophone.co.uk/podcast/madeleine-mitchell-on-the-chamber-music-of-grace-williams
BBC Radio 3 Record Review 23.3.19 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0003rr0
Presto Classical interview https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/articles/2512--interview-madeleine-mitchell-on-grace-williams

Madeleine Mitchell and Howard Blake perform Walking in the Air and The Ice Princess and the Snowman https://www.facebook.com/ClassicFM/videos/637435499992955/

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 22:08:21 GMT

Madeleine Mitchell and Howard Blake perform Walking in the Air and The Ice Princess and the Snowman https://www.facebook.com/ClassicFM/videos/637435499992955/

Howard Blake has arranged two beautiful numbers from The Snowman, specially for Madeleine Mitchell, recorded live by Classic FM from St John's Smith Square, London. Watch here: https://www.facebook.com/ClassicFM/videos/637435499992955/

Madeleine Mitchell interviewed on London Live TV

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Madeleine talks about her American Night Music programme in London's Fall Festival

Madeleine Mitchell is interviewed on London Live TV about her programme of American Night Music at St John's, Smith Square with festival curator David Wordsworth. Violin music by Copland, Cage, Crumb, Bloch, Bolcom and Rorem with Nathan Williamson, piano https://www.sjss.org.uk/events/fall-festival-night-music

News Update - Recording, International Festival Concerts

Mon, 13 Aug 2018 21:21:26 GMT

Featured in BBC Music Magazine

New Album for Naxos of chamber music by Grace Williams (1906-77) is in process. A very exciting project - all world premieres, with superb line-up, supported by BMS, RVW Trust, Ambache Charitable Trust, Ty Cerdd, City University.
Fantastic audience appreciation for Festival Concerts " Thank you for a wonderful performance. The audience loved your choice of programme " Chairman Buxton International Festival - recital of Elgar, Brahms sonatas and Lili Boulanger on the centenary of her death. Orfeo Music Festival - chamber music in the Dolomites Italy, American Independence Day at St John's Smith Square, London - London Premiere of Mitchell's arrangement Gershwin An American in Paris

Praise for Violin Muse - "an eloquent testimony to the dedication and artistry of Madeleine Mitchell. An enchanting disc" MusicWebInternational

Sat, 10 Feb 2018 16:29:02 GMT

"World premiere recordings from some of the UK's finest contemporary composers and performers" BMS

"Superbly played by all concerned...Superlatively athletic playing of Madeleine Mitchell, every note perfectly in its proper place" Live recording with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conductor Edwin Outwater - MusicWebInternational
Complete review: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Jan/Violin_muse_DDA25160.htm

"World premiere recordings from some of the UK's finest contemporary composers and performers...tremendously effective..superb violinist Madeleine Mitchell; throughout her playing is a total wonder" British Music Society Feb 2018

"The English violinist Madeleine Mitchell is not only a very talented performer of classical repertoire, but also..she's become a reference point for several living composers..Mitchell's striking ability to make the violin sing, with the eloquence and sound of the great interpreters of the early 20th century" Music Voice Italy

"Strong pieces..range from beautiful violin concerto by Puw to the no less beautiful work 'Taking it as Read' by Nyman...interesting piece by Weir, passionate Rhapsody by Poole, lyrical Harrison.." Remy Frank, Pizzicato Magazine, Luxembourg

"Fantastic album..exquisite playing" Fab Radio International

On Violin Muse the British violinist Madeleine Mitchell presents a program of world premiere recordings of works by British composers (Divine Art dda 25160).
The major work here is the two-movement Violin Concerto “Soft Stillness” by Welsh composer Guto Pryderi Puw, commissioned by Mitchell and heard in a live BBC Radio recording from 2016. It’s an effective piece, with Mitchell accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Edwin Outwater.
Mitchell is joined by Cerys Jones in Judith Weir’s delightful Atlantic Drift – Three pieces for two violins, based on Gaelic folk tunes.
Pianist Nigel Clayton is the accompanist in the remaining works: Geoffrey Poole’s Rhapsody; David Matthews’ Romanza Op.119a; Sadie Harrison’s lovely Aurea Luce; Michael Berkeley’s Veilleuse; and Michael Nyman’s Taking it as Read.
There’s excellent playing throughout by all concerned.
Terry Robbins , The Whole Note (Canada)

Violin Muse Review The Strad Dec 2017

Sat, 23 Dec 2017 16:16:19 GMT

"A winning disc with much to enjoy"

" Nicely paced collection of contemporary violin music...seven premiere recordings of works by British composers, five of them written for Madeleine Mitchell...underlines her credentials as a persuasive advocate...Mitchell navigates its high- wire virtuosity with aplomb..a winning disc with much to enjoy"
https://www.thestrad.com/reviews/madeleine-mitchell-violin-muse--contemporary-violin-music/7390.arti...

VIOLIN MUSE - out now on Divine Art

admin@ciutz.co.uk (Blog Admin) — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

New violin works by established UK composers, all world premiere recordings

Madeleine Mitchell violin
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Edwin Outwater conductor
Nigel Clayton piano
+with Cerys Jones violin

*Guto Puw Violin Concerto Soft Stillness
* Michael Nyman Taking it as Read
* David Matthews Romanza - released as a digital single Oct 2016 https://divineartrecords.com/recording/david-matthews-romanza/
*Sadie Harrison Aurea Luce
*Geoffrey Poole Rhapsody
+Judith Weir Atlantic Drift Violin Duos
Michael Berkeley Veilleuse (NightWatch)

* Written for & premiered by Madeleine Mitchell
Supported by the Arts Council of Wales, RVW Trust, patrons and the composers