Reviews of Prog Rock, Classical Music, Art Rock and Jazz
Tuesday 30 June 2026 Aviva Studios, Manchester ★★★★ The music of four titans of contemporary classical music, including a new piece from Cassie Kinoshi that was remarkable in more ways than one Manchester Collective. Image © Mike Skelton Tuesday evening’s concert by Manchester Collective at Aviva Studios in Manchester was titled ‘Patterns in Repeat’ with …
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Manchester was the place to be for superb performances in 2025 The Year in Classical Music Sometimes going abroad reminds you how good things are at home. In the spring of 2025, I went to the Shostakovich Festival in Leipzig, featuring world-class performers such as the Gewandhausorchester and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. So it was …
Thursday 27 November 2025 Stoller Hall, Manchester **** Samantha Fernando's new piece Wintering celebrates winter's withdrawal from daily life Wintering with Samantha Fernando © Mike Skelton On an unseasonably warm winter's night, Manchester Collective returned to their home city for the second leg of their Wintering tour. The ensemble's co-artistic director, Jasmin Kent Rodgman, introduced …
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Sunday 5 October 2025 RNCM, Manchester **** A tribute to the variety of sounds that strings make, and the human connections that music brings Manchester Collective Some concerts are about the music only, the sheer joy of music-making. Others have an external framework, which may be emotional, intellectual, musicolgical, or even spiritual; or a mixture …
Continue reading "Manchester Collective – Shaker Loops – Live Review"
25 April 2025 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester ***** Refractions: A Unique Concert Journey Beyond Genres A refracted image of Clark and Rakhi Singh This Blog has sometimes considered the definition of music beyond the convention that it must contain melody, rhythm, or harmony. Ambient music like Steven Wilson’s Ghosts on Magnetic Tape, which he recorded under …
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Sunday 17 November 2024 Stoller Hall, Manchester ***** Cellist Abel Selaocoe and Manchester Collective stand on the shoulders of ancestors to create an evening of joyous, life-affirming music Ruth Gibson, Simmy Singh, Rakhi Singh, Abel Selaocoe, Sidiki Dembele, Alan Keary 'Home is where one starts from.'T.S. Eliot East Coker (Four Quartets) In his poem East …
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Friday 10 May 2024 Bridgewater Hall Manchester ***** A musical art installation brings 'a stillness that moves' to Manchester Manchester Collective first appeared on this Blog in December 2019, a review of a concert at The White Hotel in Salford, a small and (on the evening of the performance) very cold venue. Since then, this …
Continue reading "Manchester Collective: Rothko Chapel – Live Review"