Wednesday 12th March 2025  
Keele University Chapel  
Aaron Azunda Akugbo recital with Zeynep Özsuca (trumpet and piano) 

Trumpet and piano duo recitals are rare in a chamber music series and the repertoire is less familiar to audiences.  

Born in 1998 and of Nigerian-Scottish descent, Aaron Azunda Akugbo hails from Edinburgh and is poised as a future leading exponent of his instrument. He brings a wide-ranging musical taste to his artistry and despite being classically trained, cites Louis Armstrong as his biggest musical inspiration. He is a charismatic performer with an abundance of natural humour which translates into an effortless engagement with people and audiences. 

Turkish pianist Zeynep leads a very busy life as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist, working as a sought-after repetiteur with leading opera companies, as well as playing frequently in duos with her clarinettist husband Sasha Rattle or other wind players such as saxophonist Jess Gillam. 

Programme:  

Honegger: Intrada 
Lily Boulanger: Nocturne 
Turnage: True Life Stories: Elegy For Andy 
Vivaldi: “Agitata da due venti” 
Eugène Bozza: Aria 
Françaix: Sonatine 

Interval 

Hubeau: Trumpet Sonata 
Florence Price: The Glory of the Day was in Her Face 
Turnage: True Life Stories: Tune for Toru 
Florence Price: Song to the Dark Virgin 
Mahler: Ich atmet' einen linden Duft! 
Ropartz: Andante and Allegro 

Tickets:
£16 or FREE for students and ages 16 & under. 

Wednesday 21st May 2025, 7:30pm  
Keele University Chapel 
Alexandra Whittingham – Guitar Recital 

Recognised by The Guardian as “a young 21st-century virtuoso”, Alexandra Whittingham’s creative spirit is reshaping classical music and defying conventions. At the age of 16 she began to film her performances of popular guitar repertoire as a personal project, rapidly creating a large community of fans worldwide with over 50 million views.  

Having just signed exclusively to Decca Classics, recording continues to play an important part in Alexandra’s career. Her debut album ‘My European Journey’, released in 2021, was described as “a superb debut” by BBC Music Magazine and lead to her being chosen as one of Classic FM’s ‘Rising Star’ artists in 2022. Alexandra has enjoyed recent performances at the Cayman Islands Arts Festival, Texas’ South by Southwest Festival and Rome Guitar Expo with recitals in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and London, a tour across Ireland, and will embark on a 30-date North American tour in early 2025. 

Tickets:
£16 or FREE for students and ages 16 & under. 

Wednesday 30th October 2024, 7:30pm 
Keele University Chapel 
Celoniatus by candlelight 
 
Internationally acclaimed violinist Harriet Mackenzie and Celoniatus string quintet present ‘Angels and Devils’. Join us in the stunning surroundings of Keele University Chapel for a spine-tingling and fiendishly good opening to this year's Concerts at Keele season. Biber’s Passacaglia is known as the 'Guardian Angel' Sonata, Paganini, was believed to have sold his soul to the devil to get his incredible skills. The Dance Macabre is self-explanatory! With a special arrangement of the incredible Tartini/Kreisler's Devil's Trill Sonata for strings and an exciting premiere of Tango with the Devil written for Harriet Mackenzie by Ariel Pirotti. 

Programme:  
Biber - Passacaglia (solo violin) 
Paganini – Cantabile 
Ariel Pirotti - Tango with the Devil (written for Harriet Mackenzie Premiere)  
Interval 
Saint-Saens - Dance Macabre 
Tartini/Kriesler - Devil's Trill Sonata 

https://arielpirotti.com/en/bio/ 

Internationally acclaimed violinist Harriet Mackenzie - “Searing Intensity... A performance full of panache.... captivating” - directs the Celoniatus Ensemble - "...a freshness and dynamism rarely experienced... The whole programme was delightful, brilliantly played with passion, breath-taking virtuosity, imagination and intelligence" - Amanda Cook, Amici Concert Series, Chichester Cathedral. 

Tickets:
£16 or FREE for students and ages 16 & under. 

Wednesday 2nd April 2025, 7:30pm 
Keele University Chapel 
Fibonacci Quartet 

The Fibonacci Quartet are one of Europe's leading young string quartets. Based in the UK and formed at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the quartet hold residencies at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid with Günter Pichler and at the Dutch String Quartet Academy with Marc Danel, and frequently perform in association with ProQuartet in Paris. 

Prolific competition winners, the Quartet have received numerous awards including both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 13th ‘Premio Paolo Borciani’ International String Quartet Competition in 2024, First Prize in the Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Competition, First Prize in the Cavatina Chamber Music Competition, First Prize in the International Triomphe de l’Art Competition in Belgium, The Kirckman Society Award, Audience Prize at the Schiermonnikoog Festival and the Special Prize of the Shostakovich Association in Paris.  

A busy 2024/25 season sees the Quartet perform extensively throughout the UK and mainland Europe. They will also have residencies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff and Britten Pears Arts in Aldeburgh. 

The Fibonacci Quartet are generously supported by the Escuela Reina Sofía, the Hattori Foundation, Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre in Paris and Talent Unlimited.  

Kryštof Kohout – Violin 
Luna de Mol – Violin 
Elliot Kempton – Viola 
Findlay Spence - Cello 

Programme:  

SCHULHOFF: 5 Pieces 
SMETANA: Quartet No. 1 
BEETHOVEN: op. 131 

With interval. 

Tickets:
£16 or FREE for students and ages 16 & under. 

If you’re considering joining us for a few concerts this season, it might be worthwhile considering one of our special subscription packages for brilliant savings on full ticket prices. NOTE: the 8 concerts included in this package are listed here: Keele Concerts 2024-25.

GOLD – £90 
This subscription gives you entry to all 8 evening concerts featured throughout the season, saving you over £40.

ANY5 - £60
Come along to any 5 evening concerts from the 8 we have available this season, between October 2024 and March 2025. 

KEELE CONCERTS PATRON - £50
Become a patron of the concert season. Your generous support plays a vital role in helping us to continue bringing music to our community and enables us to continue to offer free entry to full-time students and young people aged 16 or under. 

NOTE: You do not have to subscribe to attend our concerts if you are unsure how many you might attend, if you think you may attend a few it might be worth considering one of the packages. Individual tickets are available here. 

Also its worthwhile to remember - students and 16 & under go FREE
An amazing offer for students and young people. Entry to all Concerts at Keele Wednesday evening concerts.  (Subject to presentation of student card)

Thursday 12th December 2024, 7:30pm 
Keele University Chapel 
Papagena by Candlelight 

Programme: The Darkest Midnight  

The Darkest Midnight is a sublime collection of songs for winter from the Middle Ages to the modern era embracing the secular and the sacred. Casting a dark glamour all of its own, the bleakness of winter has prompted some of the most bewitching, brittle and bright songs. Alongside traditional Christmas anthems can be found legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell’s The River in an achingly melancholic arrangement and American composer Don Macdonald, whose When the Earth Stands Still is movingly poignant and still, twilit and shining. Celebratory songs marking the Christmas season are heard alongside lilting Irish songs and music from England, Germany and Spain. 

Performers: 
Lizzie Drury 
Imogen Ram-Prasad 
Sarah Tenant-Flowers 
Shivani Rattan 
Suzzie Vango 

Tickets:
£16 or FREE for students and ages 16 & under. 

Wednesday 12th February 2025, 7:30pm
Keele University Chapel 
The London Tango Quintet by Candlelight 

The London Tango Quintet is a unique group of five internationally acclaimed musicians performing tango music at the highest level. Music by the legendary Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla is interspersed with stunning instrumental solos, traditional tango and original works composed specially for the group.  The result is an energetic, inspiring and thoroughly enjoyable concert of relaxed virtuosity. 

Chart topping guitar virtuoso, Craig Ogden, is joined by the extraordinary accordionist, Miloš Milivojević, described by the Times as ‘a hurricane of musical invention’. Pianist/composer David Gordon tours as a jazz musician, harpsichordist and director of internationally renowned ensembles while bassist, Richard Pryce, works with artists from the Jamie Cullum to Shirley Bassey. Violinist and founder of the quintet, David Juritz, made headlines when he busked around around the world for charity. His playing has been described as having a quality of ‘aching lyricism … naked expression in the grip of an icy control’ Strad Magazine. 

David Juritz Violin 
Craig Ogden Guitar 
Miloš Milivojević Accordion 
David Gordon Piano 
Richard Pryce DoubleBass 

“Sheer tango dynamite” 

“One of the best concerts in my fifty plus years of seeing live music.

Tickets:
£16 or FREE for students and ages 16 & under.