Saturday, 27th September at 7.30pm

Leora Cohen (violin) and Adrian Partington (organ/piano)

The YMS starts its autumn season at St Mary’s with a prestigious concert by the brilliant violinist Leora Cohen who graduated with a double first class from Cambridge University and was awarded two Diplomas with Distinction by the Royal College of Music. Her accompanist will be Adrian Partington who is Gloucester Cathedral’s Director of Music, a celebrated choir conductor and an organ soloist. The first half of the concert will be the violin with organ, and the second with piano accompaniment.

Tickets £15 non members £10 society members and students over 16, accompanied children free. Unreserved seating – Tickets on the door (card, cash or smart phone).

Click here for concert programme

Leora Cohen is a British-American violinist praised as a “brilliant player” (Suzy Klein), with a “natural feel for melody” (Nicola Benedetti), and the “sound of heavenly beauty” (Maxim Vengerov). A double-first graduate of the University of Cambridge and a postgraduate of the Royal College of Music, Leora now enjoys a richly varied career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, performing internationally. She thrives on musical collaboration and regularly performs with a wide range of duo partners.

As Leora’s recital work across the UK continues to grow, she has become known for her imaginative and thought-provoking recital programming. These are often built around innovative themes, and actively champion under-represented composers and contemporary music. Leora has performed for MOOT (Music of Our Time) with pianist Jonathan Powell, and several composers have written and dedicated new works specifically for her.

This year she founded the Jozef Chasyd Quartet, who perform works by composers who have suffered from disabilities and mental illness to help raise awareness for today’s musicians. 

Adrian Partington has had the privilege of a long and varied career, as a pianist, organist and conductor. He has been Director of Music at Gloucester Cathedral since 2007 and since then he has introduced Girl Choristers into the Cathedral Choir and taken the choir to the USA, Canada, Sweden, and Germany where the Choristers sang with the Berlin  Philharmonic Orchestra

Adrian has been Artistic Director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales since 1999. He has prepared the chorus for hundreds of concerts, (including dozens of BBC Proms). For many years, Adrian was conductor of Bristol Choral Society with whom he performed all the great oratorios, mostly with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Adrian was educated at the Royal College of Music and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was the Organ Scholar for the famous College Choir. He has had fruitful partnerships with many great singers and instrumentalists over the years, including Emma Johnson (Clarinet), Maggie Faultless, (Violin) and James Gilchrist (Tenor). He is pleased now to be accompanying Leora Cohen, with whom he is sharing a number of concerts this year.