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Concerts are given in The Old Chapel a few steps across from the hotel. Much careful restoration work has been done in recent years and the chapel is now an attractive and welcoming venue. The wooden interior and floor ensure that the chapel has a fine acoustic for chamber music.
Olga and Alex Polizzi unveiled their latest venture to enormous critical acclaim in the summer of 2021. Dating back to 1345, this was a historic hostelry on the route between Battle Abbey and Chichester, and its 15th Century façade remains unchanged, as does the extravagantly beamed bar. Behind this, a charming, leafy courtyard now leads to 30 comfortable and stylish bedrooms, each combining new and antique furniture alongside works by local artists. The hotel has an elegant restaurant and cosy lounges. There is no lift at The Star but staff are there to help you with your luggage. There is a gated private car park right behind the hotel. The Star is located on Alfriston’s famously picturesque high street with its selection of galleries and shops, notably the wonderful Much Ado bookshop, one of the finest in the country.
...when you travel with Kirker
Members of the Marmen Quartet come from the four corners of the globe; the violinists Johannes Marmen from Sweden and Laia Valentin Braun from Switzerland, cellist Sinéad O’Halloran, from Ireland and from New Zealand, the violist Bryony Gibson-Cornish.
The quartet was formed at the Royal College of Music in 2013 and were mentored by a number of leading players including Peter Cropper and Simon Rowland-Jones. The next six years were spent building up their career and in 2019 they won first prize at two of the world’s most important quartet competition – in Banff and in Bordeaux. This led to a series of international engagements around the world including at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Lucerne, Dallas, concerts throughout Germany and Austria and at the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon. At home in the UK they will appear at Oxford Lieder Festival, the Sage and many other music festivals.
They are currently Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. This season they have given concerts in Milton Court in the City of London, Eindhoven, Sweden, Wigmore Hall and the Lake District Music Festival.
Robert Plane won the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition in London in 1992 and has since enjoyed a career encompassing solo and chamber work, as well as holding the principal clarinet positions of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. His recording of Messiaen’s ‘Quartet for the End of Time’ with the Gould Trio was praised by BBC Music Magazine as the ‘best modern account’ of this monumental work.
"Performer, editor, composer and teacher, Simon Rowland-Jones has always led a very busy, all-embracing musical life. He was founder violist of the Chilingirian Quartet, in which he played for a total of ten years, and subsequently performed with many other leading chamber groups.
His solo CDs, on the Meridian and Etcetera labels, include the first-ever complete version of the Bach Cello Suites on viola. Peters Edition published his viola transcription of the suites shortly after the recording was made and he then went on to make a new critical/performing edition of the Haydn String Quartets. His many works include pieces for viola, four string quartets, a string trio, a piano quartet, songs and ‘A Turn Outside’, a musical adaptation of a play by Stevie Smith commissioned by Dame Josephine Barstow. He teaches viola and chamber music at the Royal College of Music and is co-director of the North Norfolk Music Festival."
Marmen Quartet
Robert Plane, clarinet
7 November
Haydn: String Quartet in D, Op.33 No.6
Takemitsu: A Way A Lone
Beethoven: String Quartet in E minor, Op 59, No.2
8 November
Mozart: String Quartet in B flat, K159
Stravinsky: Three Pieces for solo clarinet
Bliss: Clarinet Quintet
Debussy: String Quartet
9 November
Haydn: String Quartet in B flat, Op.64 No.3
Janacek: String Quartet No. 2 ‘Intimate Letters’
Brahms: String Quintet In F, Op.88
String Quartet
Members of the Marmen Quartet come from the four corners of the globe; the violinists Johannes Marmen from Sweden and Laia Valentin Braun from Switzerland, cellist Sinéad O’Halloran, from Ireland and from New Zealand, the violist Bryony Gibson-Cornish.
The quartet was formed at the Royal College of Music in 2013 and were mentored by a number of leading players including Peter Cropper and Simon Rowland-Jones. The next six years were spent building up their career and in 2019 they won first prize at two of the world’s most important quartet competition – in Banff and in Bordeaux. This led to a series of international engagements around the world including at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Lucerne, Dallas, concerts throughout Germany and Austria and at the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon. At home in the UK they will appear at Oxford Lieder Festival, the Sage and many other music festivals. They are currently Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. This season they have given concerts in Milton Court in the City of London, Eindhoven, Sweden, Wigmore Hall and the Lake District Music Festival.
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