Stevens and Pound

Friday 28 June, 7.30pm

Image © Alex Moldovan

ASCEND: Holst and Vaughan Williams re-imagined. Virtuoso percussionist Delia Stevens and melodion/harmonica player Will Pound join to celebrate Holst and Vaughan Williams in the folk idiom which was so dear to both composers.

Award-winning virtuoso percussionist Delia Stevens, together with BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year nominee Will Pound, combine to create a completely new world of sound woven by their modern instruments (percussion) and traditional instruments (melodeon and harmonica) around the compositions of Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Delia Stevens is an Associate Artist of the Royal Northern College of Music, and is double winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Award. Will Pound has worked across genres with artists including Dame Evelyn Glennie and Robbie Williams, and has appeared many times on radio and TV. During 2024 they are collaborating with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Northern College of Music, together with the youth-led global climate activism organisation Force for nature, to launch The Silent Planet, celebrating Holst’s music in the context of his vision of The Planets.

Delia and Will’s performance will be a fitting 150th anniversary tribute to Gustav Holst, who so valued the folk music tradition, together with his close friend and musical advocate Ralph Vaughan Williams. It will include Holst’s St Paul’s Suite, Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, and movements from The Planets, together with Delia and Will’s own composition Earth – the Silent Planet.

‘…percussion from Delia Stevens, whose thoughtful, insistent playing is crucial’ The Guardian
‘Will Pound is a master of the mouth harp’ UNCUT Magazine

Venue: Thaxted Parish Church
Tickets: £26*, £22, £16, £12, £10. Age 30 and under: £10
*Premium seating in centre front rows.

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“[The Tippett Quartet] concert as part of the 2023 Thaxted Festival revealed a group of musicians of profound interpretative depth, and capable of traversing a wide range of repertoire.”
Colin Clarke, Classical Explorer

“A positively life-enhancing performance of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love in English with reduced ensemble by Wild Arts…”
Colin Clarke, Classical Explorer

“The performance was a joy … and the quartet brought out its sense of both structural and linear perfection.” Holst’s Phantasy Quartet Op 36 performed by the Tippett Quartet.
Colin Clarke, Classical Explorer

“The Tippett Quartet and Emma Abbate have performed Schumann’s Piano Quintet together many times. On this occasion they combined flawless execution with instinctive – and utterly engaging – musicianship.”
Claire Seymour, in Seen and Heard International.

“…this was a wonderfully enjoyable and engaging performance that really punched above its weight. The audience in Thaxted clearly loved it and were fully engaged, whilst this experienced reviewer was carried away as well.”
Wild Art’s production of The Elixir of Love, reviewed by Robert Hugill in Planet Hugill

“2 terrific concerts I heard with London Mozart Players.”
Thaxted Festival concertgoer

“I think Gustav is smiling down to see how his memory and that of his best friend and colleague Ralph Vaughan Williams are honoured by the expertly played pieces they both composed.”
Thaxted Festival concertgoer

“It's always the variety and quality which keeps me coming back.”
Thaxted Festival concertgoer