Award-winners and innovators feature in the latest season at Turner Sims, which gets underway this weekend with an appearance from the world renowned London Mozart Players.
The University of Southampton music venue has announced events through to June 2024, a season celebrating classical masters, cultural diversity, and youth leadership.
London Mozart Players launch the season on Sunday (January 28) with a special Mozart birthday celebration. The concert features four works composed by the child prodigy before he turned 20. Among them is his first symphony, written at the age of eight.
READ MORE: Noel Gallagher's first live show of 2024 will be a South Coast date
Further classical highlights include a celebration of Shostakovich with the Carducci Quartet and actor Anton Lesser (Game of Thrones, Endeavour, The Crown). Innovative solo-voice ensemble I Fagiolini make their long-awaited return with a programme of Monteverdi.
Piano fans have plenty to look forward to with Leeds International Piano Competition winner Alim Beisembayev, Schubert expert Paul Lewis, and concert pianist Samantha Ege.
Samantha Ege, a musicologist and research fellow at the University's Department of Music, is joined by Boston-based string quartet Castle of Our Skins for African Tales. The concert will shine a spotlight on Black Composers from Africa and the Diaspora.
Throughout the season, Turner Sims will celebrate a world of artists and musical influences. N'Faly Kouyate, of Afro Celt Sound System fame, is joined by his extraordinary ensemble for a night of Afrotronix.
Syrian-born Maya Youssef performs music from her second album Finding Home, which explores her grief in leaving Syria and a sense of calm found through music.
Camilla George fuses African and Western Music to create a hypnotic blend of Afrofuturism, hip hop and jazz.
Partnerships with Jazz Danmark and Asian Arts Agency bring Danish trombonist Lis Wessberg and Indian sitar star Niladri Kumar to the stage.
The season also marks the launch of a new youth leadership initiative, The Vibe. Fourteen young people aged 18 - 25 from across Southampton will work with the Turner Sims team to plan and present gigs for young people at the venue.The Vibe is one of a series of programmes launching in 2024 to enable young people to shape their local music scene.
To buy tickets, visit turnersims.co.uk
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here