Hebden Bridge Piano Festival
Wednesday, 6 April 2016
Tickets are selling well for the 2016 Hebden Bridge Piano Festival (22-24 April 2016) which starts in a fortnight at Hebden Bridge Town Hall. One concert, given by the Russian star Anna Tsybuleva, has already sold out, with others, including the solo concert by jazz pianist Jason Rebello and the Friday afternoon children's show, set to follow very soon.
Will Pickvance
However there are still a dozen or so other concerts for which a good number of tickets are still available from the Box Office at the Town Hall and via the Festival website. These include the opening night concert on April 22nd given by the acclaimed and highly experienced pianist Benjamin Frith, an all-Polish recital performed by the outstanding virtuoso Alicja Fiderkiewicz on the 23rd and the Festival's closing concert on Sunday April 24th when the exceptional young pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen (incidentally the niece of author Salman Rushdie) takes to the stage with a performance of music by Beethoven, Schubert, Janacek and Ligeti.
Alongside these concerts can be found other events intended to be interesting, entertaining or just plain fun! One such is Coffee Contemporary: a light-hearted presentation of pieces by contemporary composers, introduced and compered by Festival Director Dave Nelson and performed by members of the Piano Club including Dave himself. Free coffee and croissants will be served at the interval.
Perhaps more zany but equally interesting, entertaining and definitely great fun is Alchemy of the Piano in which virtuoso maverick pianist and raconteur Will Pickvance performs a great collection of tunes and delivers witty insights into the nature of his beloved instrument. Embracing theatre and comedy as well as music, this brand new show, which was a sell-out success at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe, takes the audience deep into the magic to be found in a piano and shares the spells that it casts via some superb playing and charmingly intelligent humour.
As in previous years there are free concerts featuring non-classical piano music each evening in the café and, in the expectation of a fine sunny weekend, there'll be a piano out on the riverside terrace for anyone to play.
More information about the Festival, including the programmes for each concert, can be found at www.hebdenbridgepianofestival.com