In the final concert of the OCMS 2026/2027 season we are delighted to welcome Maria Włoszczowska (violin) and Jâms Coleman (piano) who will perform their programme ‘Suite’.
This programme explores many of the ways composers have engaged with older musical forms and traditions. Bach’s Sonata in E major, BWV 1016 opens the recital with music of balance, energy, and lyricism, in which violin and keyboard converse as equal partners. Schnittke’s ‘Suite in the Old Style’ reflects on Baroque and Classical dance forms from a twentieth-century perspective.
The atmosphere softens with Debussy’s ‘Clair de lune’, presented here in an arrangement for violin and piano that heightens its vocal lyricism and quiet, impressionistic textures, before Coleridge-Taylor’s graceful Cavatina offers warmth and intimacy rooted in late Romantic songfulness.
Following the interval, Korngold’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ suite combines elegance, wit, and theatrical character. Two contrasting lullabies by Grażyna Bacewicz and Rebecca Clarke explore tenderness through subtly different harmonic languages: Bacewicz restrained and haunting, Clarke deeply lyrical and introspective. The programme concludes with Britten’s youthful Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 6. By turns playful, lyrical, and dramatic, it brings together many of the themes heard throughout the programme: tradition, reinvention, and the expressive possibilities of the violin and piano duo.
This concert promises to be a superb finale to our season.
Polish violinist Maria Włoszczowska is recognised for her versatile musicianship, performing as soloist, director/concertmaster, and chamber musician. Recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Emily Anderson Prize, the Hattori Foundation Senior Award and Poland’s Minister of Culture and National Heritage Prize, she based herself in the UK after completing her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 2018 she won both First Prize and Audience Prize at the XXI Leipzig International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition.
Maria made her solo debut at the BBC Proms in the 2022/23 season. She gave her New York recital debut at 92NY with Jeremy Denk, performing all six Bach Sonatas for violin and keyboard. As Leader of the Royal Northern Sinfonia, she also directs a number of programmes; one of the highlights includes directing and performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Further afield, Maria made her Hong Kong debut at the Hong Kong Musicus Festival and joined the violin faculty at Yellow Barn, Vermont.
Maria appears regularly at the Wigmore Hall and at international festivals such as Musikdorf Ernen in Switzerland, Lammermuir Festival and IMS Prussia Cove. Ahe has performed with many distinguished artists including Thomas Adès, Alasdair Beatson, Steven Isserlis, Steven Osborne, Hyeyoon Park, and Timothy Ridout. She leads the newly formed Valo Quartet, who made their debut appearance in Brussels under the auspices of the Festival Resonances.
From Anglesey, North Wales, Jâms Coleman is a pianist who has established a notable reputation as a soloist, chamber musician, and vocal accompanist. He read Music at Girton College, Cambridge, where he was also a Choral Scholar. He graduated with a Masters from the Royal Academy of Music and was awarded an ARAM in 2023. He will be taking over as Artistic Director of the Fishguard Festival of Music – a two-week festival of orchestral and chamber concerts in Pembrokeshire – from 2027.
Jâms regularly performs at prestigious festivals and venues in the UK and internationally and recent highlights include recitals at the Aldeburgh Festival, BBC Proms, Champs Hill, Cello Biënnale (Amsterdam), Cheltenham Festival, Kings Place, Leeds Lieder Festival, LSO St Luke’s, Ortús Chamber Music Festival (Cork), Oxford International Song Festival, Petworth Festival, Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, The Royal Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), and Wigmore Hall.
He has performed with BBC NOW, Britten Sinfonia, the Elias Quartet, Karski Quartet, Kleio Quartet, Maxwell Quartet, and Marmen Quartet; and in many recitals with instrumentalists including Hélène Clément, Simon Crawford-Phillips, Brett Dean, Vashti Hunter, Guy Johnston, Jonian Ilias Kadesha, Braimah Kanneh-Mason, Jennifer Pike, Timothy Ridout, and Jonathan Stone. He has played in recitals with singers Claire Booth, Katherine Broderick, James Newby, Nicky Spence, Sir John Tomlinson, Sir Bryn Terfel, and Elizabeth Watts.
Maria Włoszczowska (violin), Jâms Coleman (piano)
Maria plays on a violin by Francesco Stradivari.
Photos: © Maria Włoszczowska and Jâms Coleman