Samantha’s response? An intimate, glacial orchestral piece, performed by one Manchester’s leading musical ensembles.

Wintering is a special commission by the Wigmore Hall in London and sees the Manchester Collective’s string quartet join The Marian Consort vocal ensemble on a national two-week tour. Part-meditation, part-monologue, Wintering channels the near-universal sense of melancholy that settles over the year’s end, mulling it over through strings and voice before freeing it once again. The performance is a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of holiday shoppers outside, and a gentle reminder of the value of rest and retreat.

Wintering is much like a cold wind – deeply felt, but impossible to catch hold of. The music sweeps between low, threatening notes that evoke the feeling of looking into a gaping abyss to sounds that would be unobtrusive at heaven’s gate. In Vista, Wintering’s opener, such is the harmony between vocals and violin that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

Breezing forward, Wintering’s fourth number – ‘To Do: Do Less’ – marked itself as a particular standout piece. A duet of spoken word and guided meditation in song, To Do: Do Less struck as an intimate look inside an anxious, but universally relatable mind. “Collect prescription, find a babysitter, laundry, living room, groceries…” echoes in the silence, only to be answered by gentle lyrics of breaths returning to a natural rhythm. Particular applause is reserved for The Marian Consort’s soprano Caroline Halls, who was effortless moving between both roles in her performance.

In the performance, Wintering is enveloped by four other pieces from various composers across history. Orlando di Lassus’ 1570 piece Prophetiae Sibyllarum (‘Sybylline Oracles’, or ‘Sibylline Prophecies’) opens the concert to a dazed, stuttering prologue – a masterclass in key changes that looks back on the sibyls of Ancient Greece, a group of pagan prophetesses said to have foreseen Christ. The National Anthems from David Lang follows behind, bearing vulnerable anxieties of the uncertainty of freedom, and Jonathan Dove’s Out of Time uses strings alone to sketch a memory of a much-missed husband.

With Wintering continuing the introspection after the interval, the performance rounds off with Andrzej Panufnik’s Song to the Virgin Mary. As Polish society collapsed with 1939’s Nazi invasion, Panufnik’s response was to form a boogie-woogie-playing piano duo with fellow composer Witold Lutosławski, touring Warsaw’s bars under increasing Soviet censorship before making a daring escape to Britain in 1954. Song to the Virgin Mary was conceived during his exile in fond memory of the country he left behind: an abstract love letter to, as he described, “the naïve beauty of the religious folk art of Poland”.

The themes of rest, reflection, and the surrender of productivity are as resonant now as they ought to be the rest of the year. In a landscape of rising traditionalism, conformity, and financial slashing for the arts, it’s a real treat to see a personal, more conceptual performance not only included, but tightly embraced in concert halls across the country. Wintering is best enjoyed with a programme in hand to truly appreciate the stories behind each piece. A delight to experience.

Wintering was performed at Stoller Hall on the 27 November 2025 and tours until December 5.

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What can we expect at this year’s Manchester Guitar Festival?

Vicky: “The second Manchester Guitar Festival takes place at The Stoller Hall on Friday 19 – Sunday 21 May, and is a full weekend celebrating everything guitar!

“Alongside the three headline performances from Eric Bibb on the Friday, Espíritu Flamenco Presenting Miguel Pérez on the Saturday and Manchester’s own classical stars the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet on the Sunday, there will be daytime activities across the weekend including performances from professional musicians, talented students from the RNCM and BIMM, a set of workshops and masterclasses and participation events for young people”.

Spanish virtuoso guitarist, Miguel Pérez and finger-style guitar expert, Jon Gomm are just two of the musicians running masterclasses as part of Manchester Guitar Festival this year. Can you tell us a little about how these classes work and what to expect?

Vicky: “The classes will be available for festival-goers to sign up to when they arrive, and there will be a variety of workshops across both the Saturday and Sunday, covering a huge range of different styles, techniques and sounds. Each of the workshop leaders involved will be showing off their own particular expertise – for example, Miguel Pérez will be walking participants through some of the techniques of flamenco guitar performance, while Jon Gomm will demonstrate his own brand of fingerstyle technique.
They, and several of the other class leaders, will also be performing as part of the festival, so you’ll have a chance to see their styles in action too!”

How good a guitar player do you have to be to get involved?

Vicky: “We’re aiming the masterclasses and workshops for all abilities, from beginner to advanced and we’re sure that whatever level you are, you’ll leave having learned something new”.

What about people who are just starting out, is there something for them?

Vicky: “Definitely – beginners are very welcome at all of the workshops. And you don’t have to play at all to come along – If you enjoy listening to this wonderfully versatile instrument, there are performances throughout the day that people can watch whilst enjoying a drink at our Atrium bar, and a snack from our festival food supplier HM Pasties.
Plus, if you’re inspired by what you’ve seen and heard to get started on the instrument, the team from Forsyth’s Music Shop will be at the festival throughout the weekend with advice, instruments and accessories to try out”.

It sounds like there are a lot of different ways people can get involved in the Manchester Guitar Festival this year. Why was it decided to develop the festival in this way?

Vicky: “We know that Manchester is an incredibly musical city – think how many great bands and guitarists have come out of Manchester over the years, and we were looking for a way to celebrate that. The guitar also gives us a chance to bring together so many different genres under one roof – we have classical, jazz, flamenco guitar, electric guitar, all linked by a passion for the same instrument”.

What is the Guitar Choir and how can young people get involved? Do you have to play guitar or can you join as a singer?

Vicky: “Despite the name, it’s definitely for young guitarists, as a chance to perform in a big group alongside other musicians. The participants will take part in workshops during the day, run by experienced professional musician and teacher, Mike Ciuputa, where they’ll get to learn new pieces and practise different techniques in a fun and relaxed environment. They’ll get to share what they’ve learned in a performance as part of the festival at the end of the day”.

The Chetham’s Guitar Academy is new for this year too. What does this involve?

Vicky: “The Guitar Academy is being run by a team of tutors from Chetham’s School of Music alongside special musical guests. It’s for young guitarists aged 9-17 who are a little more advanced and want to improve their playing through masterclasses, ensemble playing, and lively group discussions”.

And have you got something for pre-schoolers as well?

Vicky: “Absolutely – we welcome families to the festival. Stoller Story Sounds: The Little Green Dragon is for little ones aged 3-5. Through illustrations, storytelling and a dash of flamenco music and dance, help the scared Little Dragon, scared to breathe fire, find her courage and her treasure. Families are also welcome to enjoy the performances throughout the day”.

Is there anything else you would like people to know about the festival?

Vicky: “Whether you play the guitar or love hearing the guitar, we hope that you’ll find this a chilled and enjoyable weekend – and perhaps one where you’ll get to hear something totally new to you!”

How can people find out more?

Vicky: “People can head to The Stoller Hall’s website for more information and they’re also welcome to drop any questions to the team there at boxoffice@stollerhall.com”.

The second Manchester Guitar Festival takes place at Stoller Hall on 19-21 May 2023.

Read our interview with composer and flamenco guitarist Daniel Martinez

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What music will you be playing at the concert and how have you chosen it?

Daniel: “I will be playing my own compositions that form part of my production ‘Art of Believing’. I composed this body of work in 2017 over a couple of months and presented it in October of that same year to a sold out audience in Edinburgh‘s Lyceum Theatre. It all happened so quickly and naturally; from the composing, to the decision to present it, to recording a live album… it just flowed, it was a really special time”.

What attracted you to the flamenco guitar as an instrument?

Daniel: “From a very early age I was surrounded by music, my father plays the guitar and the piano (not professionally) and my uncle plays classical guitar, the lute and is a teacher at the Royal Conservatoire of Music of Cordoba where I studied for 14 years. At the age of seven I already knew I wanted to be a flamenco guitarist as I had fallen in love with the emotion and the harmonies of flamenco guitar. My parents nurtured this love I had for music and learning to play and I truly believe I have them to thank for such a great start in what’s turned out to be a wonderful music career so far”.

What do you wish more people knew about flamenco guitar?

Daniel: “My goal and dream is to continue to make flamenco guitar, music and culture accessible to music lovers across the UK! I still feel it’s a relatively unknown art form in this country and nothing makes me happier than showcasing my guitar and spreading awareness of this beautiful music”.

What does it mean to you to perform as part of the festival at Stoller Hall?

Daniel: “It’s fantastic to form a part of Manchester’s first ever Guitar Festival! Really happy that I will there to see the first edition and hopefully this will be a brilliant yearly guitar event we can all look forward to!”

What’s next for you?

Daniel: “We are embarking on our 2022 ‘Art of Believing’ tour and actually the guitar festival is our first weekend! We will be visiting many cities including Poole, Exeter, London, Bristol, Swansea, Cardiff, Norwich..to name only a few! Then in February 2023, straight after our last concert of the tour in London’s Sadlers Wells, I will be presenting my second production ‘Andalucia’ with a Chamber Orchestra in Edinburgh‘s Usher Hall”.

Daniel performs on Saturday 21 May – the Daniel Martinez Flamenco Company, concert – where audiences can experience vibrant and authentic Flamenco music and dance from this spectacular and award-winning Spanish group. Their Art of Believing production won the prestigious Herald Angel Award at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and is bursting with truly stunning flamenco music, bringing to Manchester the passion and fire of Andalucia. Composer and Flamenco guitarist Daniel Martinez presents his unique musical production, where the audience will enjoy a rich variety of Flamenco styles; from the intense emotion of Seguiriyato to the joyful sounds of Alegria. The show hosts an exceptional group of musicians; flamenco singers, guitarists, a violinist and a dancer, joining Daniel in a must-see powerful Flamenco performance bursting with life and authenticity.

The Spanish theme continues throughout the Festival, with Spanish food and drink available to enhance the experience.

There is even an Early Years Flamenco Workshop on Sunday 22 May, complete with story-telling, music and art where pre-school aged children and their families can learn about the artform. See Stoller Hall website for details.

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Can you tell us a bit about the show?

Hollie: “The show, curated by Nic Pendlebury, Head of Strings at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and performed by Trinity Laban String Ensemble, is called A Change of Season and will feature a re-imagined performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons directed by Anna Morrissey, with Production Design by Carla Goodman, as the first half. The second half of the concert features my immersive piece Melting, Shifting, Liquid World which is a stand alone piece and is not based on the Vivaldi, but instead explores ideas relating to the spatialisation of sound, of performers and the audience, and draws on data and sounds relating to climate change”.

Looking at climate change and the seasons as they may become, do you see the piece as a call to action?

Hollie: “I would describe the piece as a collaborative exploration of some of the issues relating to climate change, with a particular focus on the rising temperature and increased pollution of the oceans. When working on the piece I collaborated with many cross-discipline contributors including poet, Maura Dooley who wrote the eco-political poem that can be heard at the end of the work Still Life with Sea Pinks and High Tide (Blood Axe Books 2016), scientist Dr Hayley Evers-King who contributed a text that is included in the programme and helped me to work with and access Ocean Monitoring Indicators that I used to generate some of the sounds, and with a team of wonderful costume designers who created costume using repurposed and recycled materials, woven and patched to create new fabrics. The intention was to stimulate thought and discussion through creating the work with this team”.

How important is it for you to produce work that speaks to social issues and why do you think music is such an effective medium for encouraging change?

Hollie: “Music is a social art form and as such it feels very natural to me, for that to expand to influence the creative processes as well as the performative. Music also often carries wider messages, be those programmatic, narrative, political, physical – I don’t necessarily think it is a requirement to make work that engages with the outside world – but engaging with society and issues outside of just ‘sounds’ can often be inspiring to me”.

The piece grew out of your PhD. How does it push the boundaries and add something new to classical music?

Hollie: “The piece explores new technology, bone-conduction headsets, to create a multi-layered sound world that the audience can move around and within. This also means that sounds can happen very close to, far from and all around the listener. I love the idea of offering audience a more active participatory listening experience. I am certainly not the first composer to engage with this type of immersive spatial set-up but I am the first to try it with this technology”.

What are bone-conduction headphones and what is the idea behind the audience wearing them during the performance?

Hollie: The bone-conduction headsets, provided by Shokz headphone company, are a really innovative piece of technology. Transducers send mini vibrations through the cheekbones and deliver sound directly to the inner ear, bypassing the eardrum. This leaves the ears open to experience the surrounding environment. In this case the surrounding environment contains sounds from the string ensemble and electric viola, so there are many layers to the sonic experience”.

What is the importance of the piece being performed in the atrium?

Hollie: “The piece was originally written to be performed at the National Maritime Museum on their iconic Great Map. The space has a very particular acoustic – it is very resonant and reverberant but also very open. The atrium acoustic shares some of these sound qualities, so it felt to be a good fit!”

Performers and audience are free to move during the piece. Are there any rules for the audience or anything they need to be aware of?

Hollie: “The audience should feel able to move or sit as they wish during the performance. At times the string players will also be moving around in the space, so the only thing to be mindful of is not bumping into anyone”.

Is there anything you would like to say about the performance?

Hollie: “It has been fantastic to have the opportunity to have this piece performed again as part of a UK tour. It wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible support of Trinity Laban, Nic Pendlebury, the wonderful student performers and production team. I hope that you will enjoy the show!”

Trinity Laban String Ensemble: A Change of Season is at Stoller Hall on March 23 2022 as part of its Sounds of Nature Programme.

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Freedom to Roam: The Rhythms of Migration, an evening of music and film, arrives at Manchester’s Stoller Hall as part of a tour, providing a space that sparks both an appreciation of our planet and a motivation to protect it.

“Imagine a world where 80% of our news is about the positive things people are doing in the world?” asks Eliza Marshall when introducing the event she was inspired to create after a visit to the Inner Hebrides. Her call to action is passionate, idealistic and not without humour. The next two hours is spent imagining such a world.

The evening starts with ‘Connected’ – a half-hour documentary directed by award-winning director, Nicholas Jones’s and co-produced by Eliza. In a series of vignettes it explores issues around rewilding, conservation, migration, mental health and climate change. Watching a lone kayaker off the Isle of Mull feels a million miles from the busy streets of the city we’ve just left outside. But even if there is no immediate recognition for the typical city dweller, the film sparks a longing and a recognition that we are all connected. The conservationist reintroducing Beavers into the rivers of Devon to help prevent flooding feels particularly pertinent.

‘Feels’ is the optimum word because the evening is all about emotion and the transporting power of music. After the interval, Eliza, on flute, leads a six-piece orchestra to play her Rhythms of Migration album, in full, live on stage. She is joined by co-writers, harpist Catrin Finch, violinist Jackie Shave and Dónal Rogers on guitars/bass who all also take turns on piano; and guests Kuljit Bhamra on percussion and Robert Irvine on the cello.

The album’s 14 tracks range from joyfully optimistic, to quietly meditative and then jarringly brutal with the music overlaid by the sound of hammers, tin cans and chains. The music itself is migratory in influence encompassing classical, folk, new age, world music, African, Indian, and Native American styles.

During the concert the screen from the earlier film becomes a projector for visual art, which is partly abstract in its layering of landscapes, people and animals as it takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the planet. The colours and scenes become hypnotic, but our eyes are always drawn back to the musicians whose energy and range of instruments from the majestic grand piano to the quirky waterphone are fascinating to watch. It is also a real treat to see and hear the other worldly, ethereal sound of the harp in a solo that showcases its full range.

The album and the evening ends with each musician pounding a beat that resonates inside and bursts out again in the stamp of feet. It’s the sound of drums, the beat of a heart – it’s the rhythm of life and it’s wonderful.

Freedom to Roam: The Rhythms of Migration launched a year long Sounds of Nature programme at Stoller Hall, Manchester on 24 February 2022.

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Nico’s reputation as a film actress, model and a singer with The Velvet Underground gave her an allure that fascinates fans to this day. Her bio from the 60s reads like a surreal name-dropping fest, from lovers Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Jim Morrison and Brian Jones to influential links with film-maker Federico Fellini, novelist Ernest Hemmingway, artist Salvador Dali and pop art’s Andy Warhol.  

It seems in life Nico, a talent in her own right, was surrounded by talented people, for whom she brought a spark of creative inspiration. The Nico Project confims her long-standing intrigue, except this time it is female rather than male artists who have taken her for their muse.

Here we have two long-standing collaborators on Manchester International Festival: actor, Maxine Peake and director, Sarah Frankcom, combining their talents to co-create an hour-long piece inspired by Nico’s 1968 album The Marble Index. Joining them is a team of highly talented female artists including: Grammy-nominated composer, Anna Clyne; award-winning playwright, EV Crowe; choreographer, Imogen Knight, and two-time Tony-award winning Lighting Designer, Paule Constable.

The Stoller Hall, at Chetham’s School of Music, is, as you would expect, a concert hall venue. It’s a harsh, exposing setting for a solo performer. And Peake, electrifying as ever, owns the space with a vulnerability and intensity that is mesmerising. There is no straight-forward narrative, and it’s not clear if Peak’s monologue is portraying Nico during her 40s when she lived in Manchester or an amalgam of ghostly memories. One moment she’s Mancunian, the next a deep German voice booms from the depth of her diaphragm as if possessed.

This is a portrait of a deeply disturbed soul, and at times it is painful to watch. As we imagine in her life, the angst is somewhat lightened by the music as 15 wonderful young female musicians join Peake on stage. Clyne has incorporated the memorable viola and glockenspiel sounds from the album. The haunting sound builds atmosphere and adds as a distraction from Peake’s intense tremors.

Centre stage is a harmonium – the quirky instrument which was one of few belongings Nico kept with her to the end of her life. Peake tinkles it occasionally, but it doesn’t seem to give comfort. The underlying darkness is pervasive, with the band wearing uniforms similar to Hitler Youth – a reference to Nico’s Nazi soldier father and her troubled childhood.

There is some tortured artistic posturing about what it means to give yourself on stage; the search for a tangible truth through artistic expression, and what happens in the magical space between performer and audience. At times Peake dances as if in ecstasy at other times she slides down walls, or crawls the floor in despair.

In the end, what emerges is a bleak and haunting picture of loneliness and inescapable sadness, that, like the shadow of a ghost, may leave you cold .

The Nico Project is at The Stoller Hall as part of MIF19 from 12-21 July 2019.

Read our review of Tree at MIF19.

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