At the November meeting of the Shipston Music Society, musician Howard Skempton gave a talk entitled “What makes a composer?” Howard has worked as a composer, accordionist and music publisher. He studied in London with Cornelius Cardew and has won several awards for some of his compositions. He is now a lecturer in composition at […]

October saw our annual Young Musicians’ concert and we were delighted to welcome back Jessica Madden, a young pianist currently at King Edward VI School, Stratford, who had played for us last year. Jessica had used the fee she received last year to purchase music by Clara Schumann, a composer who is enjoying a revival […]

At the first meeting of the new 2019/2020 season members of the Shipston Music Society were pleased to welcome a young classical guitarist. Michael Matthews was seven years old when he began to play the guitar and was immediately “hooked”! By 2018 he had been selected by the Concordia Foundation to perform in London and […]

The June meeting of the Shipston Music Society was held in St. Edmund’s Church as part of the Shipston Proms fortnight. The performers were Craig Ogdon and his wife Claire Bradshaw. Australian born classical guitarist Craig is one of the most exciting artists of his generation and in 2004 became the youngest instrumentalist to receive […]

At the Society's April meeting, Charles Matthews displayed his superb skill as an accompanist. This month we welcomed him back as a solo pianist with “Impressions of Spain”. The programme contained a variety of pieces by Spanish composers and others from France, Poland and England/Australia. In the opening piece, “Waltz from the Canary Islands” by […]