Music Durham
Upcoming events
There are plenty of musical concerts coming up next term including our extremely exciting Festival of the Arts!
This will take place from the 30th May to the 15th June
Tickets:
Front Nave - £20/£17
Back Nave - £15/£10
Join us, Music Durham, for the launch evening of the 'Festival of the Arts' in Durham Cathedral. The University Symphony Orchestra, Palatinate Orchestra, Chamber Choir, Northern Lights A Cappella, Light Opera Group, Opera Ensemble, Big Band, Brass Band and the Music Durham Chorus will all perform in this musical spectacular, taking you to a night at the movies. This evening will represent the very best of music at Durham and is a night not to miss.
1st June - 7.30
Caedmon Hall
Palatinates Live
Tickets (all proceeds to charity):
£5
Palatinates Live will showcase the musical talents of Team Durham, Durham University's sporting body, with contributions from star performers from Music Durham and DULOG.
1st June - 5.15pm
Durham Cathedral
Joint Evensong
The Chapel Choirs of Grey, Hatfield, St Chad's, St Hild and St Bede, St John's, St Mary's and University Colleges and St Cuthbert Society lead evensong at Durham Cathedral, conducted by the Cathedral's Master of the Choristers, James Lancelot. This is the first time that all the chapel choirs have gathered together to sing.
2nd June - 3pm
Fonteyn Ballroom
Fusion
Tickets:
£4/£3/£2.50
Durham University Concert Band and Durham In-Step are joining together for this unique concert where music and dance will be fused together for some pieces as well as some individual pieces. Showcasing our best pieces from this year, this is an opportunity none of you will want to miss!
3rd-6th June
Concert Room
KLANG
Tickets - Free
DurhamKLANG is the city's own, and the North-East's only, festival for contemporary art music. Run by staff and students at Durham University Music Department it combines professional recitals with student performances, presenting a diverse programme of works from 20th and 21st centuries. This year the festival includes more than 20(!) prèmieres, a lot of which are written especially for E7B SoundLab, the university's professional ensemble in residence. This is sure to give the audience a unique insight into the cutting edge of art, dipping their toes into the musical tide as it surges forward towards an unknown horizon.
6th June - 8pm
Riverside Cafe
Battle of the Big Bands
Durham University Big Band battle it out against the Seven Steps Big Band for jazz supremacy. Join both bands as they showcase Big Band classics, latin and funk charts as well as some brand new tunes.
6th June - 7.30pm
Dowrick Suite
Classical Ensemble
Tickets - Free
Durham University Classical Ensemble (DUCE) presents its debut concert, featuring music spanning a century.
Including movements from:
Beethoven – 5th Symphony in C minorMozart – 25th Symphony in G minorGrieg – Peer Gynt Suite No. 1Other works (TBC)
DUCE is a non-auditioned chamber orchestra, founded in 2014, aiming to fill a gap in the orchestral portfolio exhibited at Durham by focusing on a historically informed performance of Baroque and Classical orchestral music.
7th June - 7.30pm
Durham Cathedral
Chamber Choir
Tickets - £15/£10/£5
Durham University Chamber Choir returns to the Cathedral to perform Bernstein’s ‘Chichester Psalms.’ Bernstein was one of the post prolific conductor and composer of the 20th Century, best known for musicals such as West Side Story. The Chichester Psalms is one of his greatest works, set for boy treble, solo quartet and orchestra and is sung in Hebrew. With this being the main ‘attraction’ the Chamber Choir are set to contrast this with a cappella music such as by Eric Whitacre, including the fitting ‘When David Heard’ whilst also featuring alumni Ben Rowarth’s award winning motet ‘Where is thy God?’
The Chichester Psalms is one of his greatest works, set for boy treble, solo quartet and orchestra and sung in Hebrew. The Chichester Psalms are a compelling blend of Bernstein’s Broadway style with lyrical, intimate settings of three complete psalms in their original Hebrew, plus stray verses from several other psalms. Bernstein used music that had been cut from West Side Story, as well as material he had composed for a musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth (this project was never completed). The overall mood alternates joyful exuberance with moments of violent frenzy and tender entreaties for peace promising an evening of varied emotional states. The choir will also be performing a cappella music by Eric Whitacre such as his ‘When David Heard’ and ‘Sleep’ whilst also featuring alumni Ben Rowarth’s award winning motet ‘Where is thy God?’
9th June - 1pm
Dowrick Suite
VC Music Scholars
10th June - 7.30pm
Prebends Bridge
Music on the River
Tickets - Free
The Vice Chancellor Scholars for Music show off their high level of music performance in this recital together at Treveylan College.
Tickets - Free
Durham University Chamber Choir performs their annual concert of Music on the River. This is a lighter selection of music sung from boats to a picnicking audience on the riverbank at Prebends Bridge. Don't miss this final opportunity of the year to hear Durham's premiere choir.
10th June - 1.15pm
Hatfield Chapel
Hatfield Flute Choir
Tickets - Free
The Hatfield Flute Choir will present a selection of music written and arranged for flute choir, from favourites by Handel, to relatively unknown gems by Kuhlau. The programme will offer a variety of genres and styles of flute music, in the Hatfield Chapel acoustic, which is particularly suited to dulcet tones of the flute.
10th June - 2pm
Concert Room, Music Department
Jazz afternoon
Tickets - Free
Join college ensembles from across the university to hear an afternoon of jazz, featuring ensembles from St Cuthbert's Society, Josephine Butler College, Van Mildert College and Collingwood College
12th&13th June - 6.30pm
Botanical Gardens
Opera Ensemble
Tickets - £7.50/£6.50/£6
Christoph Gluck's best-known opera charts the myth of Orpheus and his decent into the underworld to retrieve his wife, Eurydice. Following their tradition of outdoor Easter term opera, DOE present this beautiful work to be accompanied by picnics on the lawn.
12th June - 7.30pm
St Oswalds Church
University Voices
Tickets - £3/£2
DUV is proud to present its summer concert! Featuring a mix of traditional and modern music, join the main Choir and Chamber Choir for an evening of musical fun!
15th June - 7.30pm
Durham Cathedral
Orchestral Society
Tickets - £20/£17/£15/£10
On Monday 15th June, Durham University Orchestral Society will be celebrating 50 years of music making, marking the occasion with the world premiere of John Casken's The Trackway of Time, a song-cycle for baritone and chamber orchestra, commissioned specially to mark the occasion. Nearly one hundred of the University's most accomplished orchestral players will be involved ni this celebration of grand proportions that also marks the close of Durham University's inaugural Festival of the Arts. The concert will take place in Durham Cathedral and, alongside the Casken, will include Beethoven's light-hearted 8th Symphony, Saint-Saën's Piano Concerto No 2, with soloist Jonathan Whittaker and Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé Suite No. 2