Andrew Ward

Composer David Matthews at Folkestone New Music
November 2025

Mayotte Magnus’s portrait of Elisabeth Lutyens is in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Michael Finnissy is performing Lutyens’ Bagatelles at the Grand in Folkestone (where Mayotte Magnus lives)

7.30pm Thursday 13 November
The Grand, Folkestone

David Matthews talks about his music

'One of the leading symphonists of our time, David Matthews is preoccupied with working in the great inherited forms of the past and the task of finding new ways to renew them.'

7pm Thursday 27 November
Kollectiv, 69 The Old High St, Folkestone CT20 1RN

Les Murray’s 'Performance' has long been one of my very favourite poems. Its ironically irreverent take on the self-possessed life of the performing artist has always appealed to my wry side.
(Brett Dean)

Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo) & Brett Dean (viola)

7.30pm Thursday 4 December
The Grand Folkestone

When Brett Dean first played in the Berlin Philharmonic his desk partner was Siegbert Ueberschaer.

‘Sketches for Siegbert’ was written to honour Siegbert's memory 'with music for his (and my) beloved instrument.’

Brett Dean (viola)
7.30pm Thursday 4 December
The Grand Folkestone

Alexandre Benois: sketch of a bear

Stravinsky: The Bear- Tale with a Little Song

Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo) & Brett Dean (viola)
Folkestone New Music

7.30pm 4 December
The Grand, Folkestone

Four composers are talking about and playing their music at Folkestone New Music this autumn:

MORGAN HAYES
7pm 6 November
Kollectiv, Folkestone

MICHAEL FINNISSY
7.30pm 13 November
The Grand, Folkestone

DAVID MATTHEWS
7pm 27 November
Kollectiv

BRETT DEAN
7.30pm 4 December
The Grand

Composer Morgan Hayes talks about and plays his music and music he loves and admires.

'... his music is liquid architecture, never outstaying its welcome and indeed, like the man himself, full of abundant charm.'

Folkestone New Music
7pm 6 November
Kollectiv, Folkestone

photo: Chelsey Browne

One of the most exciting young artists of his generation to emerge from Romania, Vlad Maistorovici is in great demand both as violinist and composer.

He will perform and talk about his music

7pm 21 October
Kollectiv, Folkestone CT20 1RN

Mark Padmore is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest tenors working today, celebrated in the opera house, the concert hall and as a peerless recording artist.

Folkestone New Music
7.30pm Thursday 30 October
The Grand, Folkestone

Vlad Maistorovici is playing Charlotte Bray's Beyond, for solo violin

Folkestone New Music

7pm 21 October
Kollectiv, 69 The Old High Street, Folkestone CT20 1RN

Vlad Maistorovici is playing movements from Sonatas and Partitas by J.S.Bach and his own B.A.C.H., passacaglia for solo violin

Folkestone New Music
7pm Tuesday 21 October
Kollectiv, 69 The Old High Street, Folkestone CT20 1RN

Two composers: Vlad Maistorovici and Mark Simpson

Folkestone New Music

at Kollectiv, 21.10.25

David Hockney: Harrison Birtwistle

Mark Padmore and Andrew West premiered Birtwistle's song cycle 'Songs from the same Earth' at the 2013 Aldeburgh Festival.

They will perform four of the songs at

Folkestone New Music

7.30pm Thursday 30 October
The Grand, Folkestone

Mark Padmore is singing Charles Ives' song 'The Housatonic at Stockbridge'

'Contented river! In thy dreamy realm
The cloudy willow and the plumy elm:
Thou beautiful!'

Folkestone New Music
7.30pm Thursday 30 October
The Grand, Folkestone

Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht

Eisler composed 'On Sprinkling the Gardens' between 1942 and 1943 while living in exile in Santa Monica near Hollywood in California. The lyrics are by Brecht.

Mark Padmore (tenor) and Andrew West (piano)

7.30pm Thursday 30 October
The Grand, Folkestone

Michael Tippett: Full Fathom Five

Mark Padmore (tenor) and Andrew West (piano)

Folkestone New Music
7.30pm Thursday 30 October
The Grand, Folkestone

Mark Padmore is singing Tansy Davies' Destroying Beauty, a setting a words by John Clare:

'…troubling the cornfields with destroying beauty; the different greens of the woodland trees…'

Folkestone New Music
7.30pm Thursday 30 October
The Grand, Folkestone

Andrew Rosner was Luciano Berio's agent for many years.

Andrew talks about Berio

Folkestone New Music

6.30pm Thursday 9 October
The Grand, Folkestone

Is there any coordinated, effective, vocal opposition to Trump in the US or are people - as it seems they are - just rolling over and taking his dangerous crap?

Claire Booth has been widely acclaimed for her ‘radiant, rapturous, wonderfully nuanced performances’ and voice of ‘piercing purity and luscious richness’.
Claire won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer Award this year.

Folkestone New Music
7.30pm Thursday 25 September
The Grand, Folkestone

Canadian/French soprano Sarah Parkin is singing and talking about singing at Folkestone New Music

7pm 4 September
Kollectiv, Folkestone CT20 1RN

Ian Cusson is of Métis (Georgian Bay Métis Community) and French Canadian descent.

His work explores Canadian Indigenous experience, including the history of the Métis people.

Sarah Parkin & Lara Dodds-Eden are performing his Voilà! Une petite fleur

7pm 4 September
Kollectiv Folkestone

Cecilia Livingston's Kalypso is 'about the Odyssey, but it’s also my own love letter to Harold Arlen’s Stormy Weather'.

Sarah Parkin (soprano) and Lara Dodds-Eden (piano)

Folkestone New Music
7pm 4 September
Kollectiv, Folkestone CT20 1RN

Tansy Davies' Destroying Beauty is a setting of John Clare:

'…troubling the cornfields with destroying beauty; the different greens of the woodland trees, the dark oak, the paler ash…'

Sarah Parkin (soprano) & Lara Dodds-Eden (piano)

7pm 4 September
Kollectiv Folkestone

photo: Chelsey Browne

... besides the climate, the very pattern of life in Italy and Spain
is conducive to love and to music,
as it is discouraging to them in England.

John Woolrich: Stendhal’s Observation

Sarah Parkin (soprano) and Lara Dodds-Eden (piano)

7pm Thursday 4 September
Kollectiv, Folkestone

John Woolrich: Unlit Suburbs

'....quintessential Woolrich - filled with ghosts, shadowy half-heard reminiscences, and marked by a laconic, black humour.'

Sarah Parkin (soprano) & Lara Dodds-Eden (piano)

7pm Thursday 4 September
Kollectiv, Folkestone CT20 1RN

After the wonderful concerts in St Eanswhythe Church and The Grand Shaft in Dover last weekend with the superb Lucy Humphris (trumpet) and Benny Vernon (trombone), the soprano Sarah Parkin & pianist Lara Dodds-Eden perform songs by Ravel/Stravinsky/ Feldman/Davies/Woolrich at kollectiv 4/08 7:00.

Great things are happening in FOLKESTONE. The Triennial of outdoor art opened on 19/07 to uniformly positive reviews in the nationals with an impressive number of local, UK & international visitors. Bravo Sorcha Carey & Creative Folkestone! But alongside the visual arts, Folkestone teems with MUSIC!

Meredith Monk's Cow Song is a simple, haunting melody, hummed over a drone. As with many pieces for voice, it translates well to brass, and provides a meditative close to this concert.

Lucy Humphris (trumpet), Benny Vernon (trombone)

7.30pm Friday 22 August
St Eanswythe’s Church, Folkestone