Month: October 2025

The 2026 Southwold New Year’s Day Concert has been announced and tickets are now on sale! This year Southwold welcomes the superb Suffolk-based choir Concordia, led by their director John Witchell and accompanied by Nathan Williamson.

Concordia gave their debut in 2010, since when they have developed a strong and enthusiastic following at venues across Suffolk and further afield. A mixture of both keen amateurs and professionals, they perform a wide range of familiar choral classics, church music, and music in more contemporary styles.

Their concert in Southwold will include music about the changing of the year, seasonal classics, light music, contemporary music, featuring composers as diverse as Brahms, Morley, Rutter, and the Beatles! Nathan Williamson will also provide some magical musical interludes on the piano.

Nathan Williamson writes, ‘I heard Concordia perform for the first time last spring, and was deeply impressed by their technical skill and musical flair – as well as their novel and ambitious choices of repertoire. I had no hesitation in inviting them to perform for the New Year’s Day Concert, and am sure they will delight the audience in Southwold and give us all the perfect start to the New Year.’

The concert will last approximately one hour. Younger audience members are welcome, with tickets for 16s and under completely free. Seats are reserved and demand is expected to be very high, so prompt booking is advised.

All proceeds from the concert will go to the Southwold Music Trust – for more information please visit www.southwoldmusictrust.co.uk or on Facebook @southwoldmusictrust.

Nathan’s opera for young people, The Quest, commisioned by London Youth Opera and to a libretto by Megg Nicol, has been nominated for Best Community and Participation Composition at the 2025 Ivor Classical Awards.

Presented by The Ivors Academy, The Ivors Classical Awards celebrate creative excellence in British and Irish composing. Judged by composers for composers, the awards recognise excellence in craft and creativity.

This year, 34 composers and librettists have been nominated for an Ivor Novello Award, representing an inspiring range of voices and styles that reflect the richness of contemporary classical music.

Hosted by Tom McKinney and Kate Molleson, the ceremony is supported by PRS for Music and in association with BBC Radio 3. The event will bring together leading composers, music industry figures and cultural sector guests to celebrate outstanding contemporary classical music.

Follow @IvorsAcademy on social media from 8pm on 11 November to find out who’s won and listen to ceremony highlights on BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show from 10.30pm on Saturday 15 November and BBC Sounds.

Nathan is music director for Jubilee Opera this term, conducting their production of Michael Hurd’s Hip Hip Horatio! in Aldeburgh Jubilee on Sunday December 7th – with two performances, at 3pm and 5pm. The show is directed by the exciting young director Katie Kim Hackman.

Hip Hip Horatio! is an entertaining and dramatic piece, starting and ending in Trafalgar Square, charting Admiral Lord Nelson’s life and achievements. The music is lively and engaging, exploring songs of different genres in the choruses and, with a narrator and solo parts, allowing opportunities for cameo roles and a number of choreographed dances.

Jubilee Opera’s work is rare, if not unique, in Suffolk. Working with children and professional practitioners from different areas of performance art, the standard aimed at is exacting and rewarding, giving opportunities to a wide range of young people who would not otherwise have such a chance. Around 30 children aged from 7 to 17 will perform the piece, with a special arrangement of the score made by Timothy Henty specially for Jubilee Opera.

To book for the show click here, and to learn more about Jubilee Opera please visit their website.