Guildhall School welcomes back alumni and showcases faculty artists at Milton Court Concert Hall

The Faculty Artist Series provides the unique opportunity for students, public and staff to experience performances by senior professors at the School in the intimate setting of the Music Hall.

This year Ethel Smyth: Grasp the Nettle is performed on Wednesday 3 October, with music by contralto Lucy Stevens, and pianist and Guildhall professor Elizabeth Marcus. Imprisoned alongside Emmeline Pankhurst, Dame Ethel Smyth was a suffragette, writer and composer, and wrote the anthem for the suffrage movement The March of Women.

This new play, which forms part of the City of London’s Women: Work & Power season, weaves together Dame Ethel Smyth’s music, including her greatest opera The Wreckers, with anecdotes from her confidants, her letters and her own writing.

As part of the Guildhall Alumni Recital Series leading pianist Sa Chen performs two classic Debussy works: Images Books 1 & 2 and Études Nos 1-12 on Wednesday 14 November. Born in Chongqing, China, Sa Chen came to prominence in 1996 when she was selected for the final of the Leeds International Piano Competition aged 16. She came to Guildhall to study with Professor Joan Havill, and has gone on to perform with prestigious orchestras around the world.

The Alumni Recital Series continues on Tuesday 27 November with the return of the Guitar Spectacular: an exciting evening of music performed by Guildhall alumni. Neus Plana, the Maria Camahort Duo, Duo Atalantica (Gudrún Ólafsdóttir and Francisco Javier Jáuregui), the Mēla Guitar Quartet and Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas perform a programme with music by Walton, Marais, Stravinsky, Bowers, Assad, Brouwer and Martin, as well as Basque and Sephardic songs arranged by Jáuregui.

Faculty Artist Series

Ethel Smyth: Grasp the Nettle, Wednesday 3 October, 7.30pm

Alumni Recital Series

Sa Chen, Wednesday 14 November, 7.30pm
Guitar Spectacular, Tuesday 27 November, 7pm

All at Milton Court Concert Hall

Tickets

£15 (£10 concessions), available from the Barbican Box Office.