Musical mastery in Warwick this weekend

The group will perform in a family concert suitable for children aged from three to seven which will feature music about birds by composers like Mozart, Haydn and Saint-Saens and Igor, the bird who couldn’t sing, written by composer Luke Bedford.

Narrator Polly Ives will join the six members - Matthew Hunt on clarinet, Peter Whelan on bassoon, Claudia Ajmone-Marsan and Benjamin Nabarro on violins, Judith Busbridge on viola and Gemma Rosefield on cello are all well known to Warwickshire audiences and children will have an opportunity to meet them and learn more about their instruments after the concert.

At 2.10pm the Leamington-based composer Howard Skempton will talk with Charlie Piper, associate composer to Music in the Round, about his work and in particular about his new sextet Jacaranda, composed specially for Ensemble 360.

Then at 3pm ENSEMBLE 360 will give the second of the Music in the Round afternoon concerts, starting with a witty duo for clarinet and bassoon by Beethoven, to be followed by Britten’s Three Divertimenti for String Quartet.

The performance of Jacaranda will complete the first half and after the interval the audience will enjoy one of the most popular chamber works of all, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A, which will feature Matthew Hunt.

Richard Phillips of Leamington Music which has organised the concert, said: “ENSEMBLE 360 has built up a keen following since it took over from The Lindsays as the resident group in Sheffield.

“They come here twice a year usually and will be back on Sunday March 17 for a family concert, featuring Paul Rissmann’s latest work Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants, and an afternoon concert of music associated with the salon in Paris created by the rich heiress of the Singer sewing machine fortune.”

Tickets for all Leamington Music concerts are on sale at the Bridge House Theatre.

Call 776438 or go online www.bridgehousetheatre.co.uk