Ukraine Benefit Event

May 2022

Sold out event fundraiser supporting the people of Ukraine with a concert of folk, spoken word and classical music created by the Bozarts Band. For a link to a video summary click here. 

Winter Special

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With Three Cane Whale and Bristol Baroque Soloists, St. George’s Bristol (Sold Out)

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12th December, 2014

The multi-instrumental acoustic folk trio Three Cane Whale joined the gut-string quartet of Bristol Baroque Soloists for a sparkling wintry journey.

Think of the rusticity of a Thomas Hardy village band gate-crashing a classical chamber concert.

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With special arrangements for 3CW and strings, 3CW’s uniquely fragile and eclectic sound-world and BBS’s dark lushness makes a potent brew to ward off the winter cold.

Bozarts' David Adams curated the first half, and co-ordinated the combined forces of the pieces throughout in close collaboration with 3CW.

“Expect some surprises - and reassurances. Some old wine in new bottles, certainly – and some new flavours to add zest to the season”.

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The Grand Tour Part 1,

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With Bristol Baroque Soloists, The Victoria Rooms, University of Bristol Music Department

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2nd October, 2013

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This programme explores the development of The Grand Tour in the latter part of the 17th century – when Englishmen of means travelled to Italy and Europe to complete their education and art, architecture, manners and music – and much more.
The vogue for The Grand Tour became established from 1660 onwards and came to dominate European culture for well over a century.

Young men finished their education with an extensive trip to Italy and Europe to experience its natural beauties, its cultural treasures and, if they were lucky, its sexual permissiveness. 
One contemporary commentator described The Grand Tour as “a heady combination of aesthetic, social and political experience – providing its alumni with a life-long source of cultural and political authority.”

La Folia

With Bristol Baroque Soloists

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24th June, 2013

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Bristol Baroque Soloists bring the sunlight of the Mediterranean to Clifton Cathedral with this wonderful violin and harpsichord lunchtime programme centred around Corelli's La Folia.

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Originating on the Iberian Peninsular in the late Middle Ages, La Folia is a framework for improvisation - much like the Blues in jazz.

Corelli's famous version of the melody and chord progressions was written in 1700, and its popularity has endured across Europe and beyond ever since.  Music by Handel and Biber complete this beguiling programme.

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The Heart of Christmas

With Bristol Baroque Soloists, St George's Bristol

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23rd December, 2012

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The Heart of Christmas uses period strings, songs and readings to touch the perennial and enduring experience of rebirth in the human and natural world.
As with all BBS projects, we mix music with theatre - and entertainment with education.

Education workshop – based on the Bozarts play Dmitri & Uncle Joe

PM workshop and evening student presentation at Cotham School, Bristol

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8th November, 2012

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Designed in close co-ordination with the client, this format was developed as a workshop experience for secondary school Performing Arts students.

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For more details and a testimonial please view Bozarts Education Workshops.

Diva Britannia

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With Mhairi Lawson & Bristol Baroque Soloists, All Saints Church, Long Ashton, Bristol

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27th April, 2012

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Featured on BBC Radio 3, Scintillating Baroque diva Mhairi Lawson joins the Bristol Baroque Soloists for an outstanding programme of British arias and music from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Purcell’s Dido’s Lament and Handel’s opera share the bill with enduring melodies from Britain’s much-loved vernacular and folk culture – the post-Puritan flowering of British culture is laid out in all its glory.

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Diva Britannia offers a fulsome portrayal of a gloriously creative century.

• The period from 1650 to 1750 was marked by extraordinary innovation and revolution in British social, commercial and cultural life.

• Following the Restoration, entrepreneurs and creative artists from across Europe were drawn to London – a city of myriad opportunities.

• Unprecedented social mobility was a characteristic of this period, and colourful women such as Nell Gwynne are a feature of this engaging programme.

Bozarts on BBC Radio 3 In Tune​

With Mhairi Lawson, Purcell & The Beggar's Opera, BBC

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26th April, 2012

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Bozarts performed live from BBC Radio 3 studios, with Soprano Mhairi Lawson singing choice arias from Purcell and The Beggar's Opera, along with instrumental numbers and interviews..

Handel’s Messiah

With Cantemus Choir and Bristol Baroque Soloists, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff (Sold Out)

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31st March, 2012

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This Cardiff Messiah combined gorgeous period orchestra sound with fine chamber vocal skills – all in the outstanding acoustic of the RWCMD’s new multi-million pound state-of-the-art Dora Stoutzker Hall.

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Formed in 2010 by Roger Huckle and Bozarts’ orchestra manager David Adams, the Bristol Ensemble Baroque Band performs exclusively on period instruments.

A Musical Tribute to Margaret Gregory

With Will Gregory and Charles Hazlewood at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

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19th February, 2012

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Margaret Gregory was a poet and painter, and an active member of the RWA.  A year after her death, her son Will Gregory (co-member of music duo Goldfrapp) is presenting a retrospective exhibition of her paintings and drawings.

The exhibition recreates a flavour of Margaret’s much-loved studio, and includes a combination of key works charting the last 30 years hanging alongside previously unshown pieces.

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Margaret Gregory was passionate about music.  In addition to the exhibition, Will has arranged a unique Sunday evening concert at the RWA featuring performances of some of her favourite pieces.

The concert is conducted by Charles Hazlewood, and features his Army of Generals chamber orchestra and outstanding soloists.  Bozarts is providing the musicians as well as managing the concert.

Dmitri & Uncle Joe

A play with music at Bristol Old Vic Ferment Festival (Sold Out)

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14th January, 2012

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Dmitri & Uncle Joe fuses great music with compelling theatre.
Set in 1950, this play-with-music explores an imagined late-night encounter between the tyrannical Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and the great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich – both unexpectedly stranded and sharing a bedroom together in a snow-bound dacha.

The personal drivers, shadows and demons that pursue the Absolute Ruler and his prodigious People’s Artist are laid bare.  As the night progresses, outside reality blurs and startling consequences are revealed.
Dmitri & Uncle Joe blends the absurdly comic with chillingly disturbing events in a visceral collision of cultures.
Live Jewish, Russian and Georgian music permeates the production throughout.  Music informs the action – mirroring the conflicting personalities and cultures within this microcosmic encounter – as well as invading and disrupting the narrative.
Stalin wants to talk music – and Shostakovich wants to escape with his life.

Siren Songs

St George's Bristol

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16th September, 2010

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The interweaving themes of women and birds provide the inspiration for a rich seam of evocative songs and readings – with birds as the eternal metaphor for freedom, beauty, flight and caged imprisonment.

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Siren Songs was Venue magazine’s Recommended Show, described as ‘Baroque meets cabaret, Shakespeare shakes hands with visuals, a multimedia celebration takes wing on an entwining theme of birds and women."

Bristol Evening Post wrote:

"An imaginative, expertly presented evening………[writer, producer and director] David Adams gave himself the widest of bases to work from, choosing material ranging from Greek Mythology up to 2008.  Prose, poetry, popular, classical and more experimental music with beautifully conceived art and video images."

Suzanne Rolt, Director of St George’s wrote:

"This is a programme that stood out for all the right reasons.  Siren Songs is a  cleverly crafted sequence of words and music offering episodes of tenderness, intimacy and joy mingling with ‘laugh out loud’ moments. 

The visual projections of artists Kathy Hinde and Laura Cramer enhanced the performance beautifully, drawing an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from young and old and leaving the audience calling for more.” 

Shostakovich - The Joker in the Pack

With the Bristol Ensemble and actor / singer John Telfer, at St George’s, Bristol

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27th March, 2010

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The great Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich was a brilliant humorist, writing jaunty jazz, farcical songs, satirical ballets and surreal operas – all with stonking good tunes. Shostakovich was forced to play the court jester to Josef Stalin’s dictator, and it’s this dynamic that produced some truly outstanding music.

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John Telfer (the Vicar in The Archers) and the 15-piece Bristol Ensemble explored the essence of Russian humour – performing songs, poems and café band pieces by Shostakovich’s precursors and contemporaries, as well as a selection of the great man’s most entertaining pieces. The show included Shostakovich’s bitter-sweet waltz made famous by Stanley Kubrick’s film Eyes Wide Shut.

Drawer of Dreams

With Cirque Bijou, Circomedia, Kathy Hinde (artist) and the Bristol Ensemble

September, 2009

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This show portrays the twists and turns of building greatness in times of adversity and challenge.Premièred at the 2009 Colston Hall Celebration, the conductor and presenter Charles Hazlewood described Drawer of Dreams as:

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“This show breathes new life into entertainment. The format of funky Classical music with physical theatre and visual projection works a treat. It is strong, original, and a bit of theatrical dynamite. Congratulations for a fabulous show.”

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Written by David Adams and Circomedia’s Kate Webb, Drawer of Dreams is a collaboration with Cirque Bijou, Kathy Hinde and the Bristol Ensemble.

Danny Boyz

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4th May 2006

Working with the young teenage artists platinum-Cd-winning Sam Adams-Nye (voice), Emil Huckle-Kleeve (violin) and leading Bristol music arrangers, Bozarts created a Musicians’ Choice lunchtime programme for Bristol’s St. George’s.

Contemporary interpretations of British folk music in ensemble and solo settings were the core of the programme - which also included pieces such as Britten’s Ceremony of Carols.

After winning the prestigious BBC 2005 Chorister of the Year title Sam Adams-Nye sang as soloist live on BBC TV and for BBC Radio broadcasts from Canterbury Cathedral and Bath Abbey - as well as concerts in Australia and South West England.  

The composer John Rutter, head of the BBC competition judging panel described Sam as having "a remarkable interpretative gift."

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Sam’s other projects included a BBC Royal Albert Hall Prom - singing the treble solo in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Martyn Brabbins.  The Observer wrote: ".........a true highlight was the singing of 13-year-old treble Sam Adams Nye, which held the audience spellbound."  

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Sam was a platinum Cd-selling artist from his work with Simon Cowell’s Angelis project.