Tuesday 29 th September Helen Porter Hall, Dean Close 7pm– 8.10pm Tickets: £12 Join us for a recital by British pianist Clare Hammond of music that demands a union of exceptional technical skills and deep artistic sensibility, qualities she possesses in abundance. This programme reflects her profound interest in the music of Poland and determination to broaden the keyboard repertoire with new work, present in the form of three etudes by Emma-Ruth Richards, jointly commissioned by the Wigmore Hall and Presteigne Festival. Inspired here by the flight patterns of birds, Richards has been praised by Musical Opinion for the ‘exceptional refinement and subtlety’ of her music. Acclaimed as a “pianist of extraordinary gifts” (Gramophone) and “immense power” (The Times), Clare Hammond is recognised for her imaginative playing, visionary programming, and communicative performance style. She won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award in 2016 and an Edison Klassiek Award in 2024. 2024 saw her debuts at the BBC Proms, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Salle Bourgie in Montreal, and return visits to the Wigmore Hall, London’s National Gallery, and Raritäten der Klaviermusik in Husum. The programme is as follows: Chopin – Barcarolle, Op.60 (1845, 9’) Bacewicz – Sonatina (1955, 7’) Rachmaninov – Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 33, Nos. 1-2, 5-9 (1911, 19’30) Emma-Ruth Richards – Etudes Nos. 1-3, ‘Escape’, ‘Bounding’ and ‘Apodidae’ (2025, 10’) Stravinsky, arr. Agosti – The Firebird Suite: ‘Danse infernal du roi Katschei’, ‘Berceuse’, ‘Finale’ (1910 / 1918, 12’)