Coffee, Croissant and a Concert comes to Park Theatre for a relaxing and social morning of pastries, coffee and music. Park Theatre is hosting three live concerts with Ostara Chamber Players. The musicians, all regular players with top London Orchestras, formed a string quartet during lockdown and embarked on a series of ‘doorstep concerts’ to bring live music to the N4 area.
Now, with three, star, guest musicians, they continue to bring classical music to an easy-going setting in the intimate Park200. The programmes will include some light arrangements too and ticket prices include the refreshments.
The quartet comprises Sijie ‘Susie’ Chen and Lucy Waterhouse, violins, Judith Busbridge, viola and Penny Driver, cello. Susie is co-leader of the London Mozart Players and was a string finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. Lucy is a freelance violinist (London Mozart Players, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment), teacher and workshop leader. Judith is principal viola in the Royal Opera House and in the London Mozart Players. Penny is a renowned teacher and chamber musician who also performs regularly with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the London Symphony Orchestra.
For each Sunday performance they will be joined by a special guest. On 24th October, they will perform Mozart’s glorious Clarinet Quintet K.581 with Sacha Rattle (clarinet). On 14th November they celebrate Schubert, playing his final chamber work, the sublime and monumental String Quintet in C major D.956 (Desert Island Discs favourite), with Richard Lester as guest cello; and on December 5th they return to Mozart with his breath-taking String Quintet in C major K.515 (one of the very greatest of his chamber music masterpieces), Jenny Lewisohn joining them on viola.
Judith Busbridge from Ostara Chamber Players said, “We are thrilled to be presenting these three, classical masterworks in the intimate setting at Park Theatre. Forming Ostara Chamber Players out of a sheer need to play music together during lockdown, we discovered, by performing concerts on my doorstep, a mutually strong desire within our local community to experience the intimacy and revelation that chamber music can bring. We hope that the relaxed nature of these Sunday morning coffee concerts, and the inclusion of some lighter music, will encourage audience members of all ages to try chamber music, even if they haven’t experienced it before.”
Coffee, Croissant and a Concert is at Park Theatre Sunday 24 October, 14 November, 5 December
