Gemini presented a concert on December 3rd in honour of LeFanu's 75th birthday; Martin Dreyer reviewed it:

Unitarian Chapel, York, December 3

Nicola LeFanu’s 75^th birthday earlier this year was celebrated in fine style by one of our most distinguished and long-lived groups, Gemini, itself only a year short of its half-century. Two of her own works framed eight others, including one by her husband David Lumsdaine.

            Gemini is a flexible ensemble led from the clarinet by Ian Mitchell. Here he was joined by a piano trio for the premiere of LeFanu’s appropriately titled Gemini Quartet, newly commissioned and written only this summer. As an opener it was designed to reflect how we welcome others, in a dozen or so brief “bagatelles” (her word), some of only a few seconds.

            It charms with surprises, moving seamlessly between comfort and anguish, impressionism and rhythm, sometimes noisy, more often gentle, using the instruments in a variety of different groupings. Gemini delivered it with loving care. I could only have wished its 13 minutes had lasted longer. 

            At the end of the evening, more than two hours later, we heard her Piano Trio of 2003. Its single movement is rhapsodic, all its material developed from high harmonics and tremolos, which are soon amplified by a piano solo. It charts a fascinating course between nerviness and relaxation, the two moods changing between strings and piano, as dialogue influences their responses to one another. As always with LeFanu, her orchestration is imaginative. It eventually reaches a harmonious conclusion, with trills in the piano as the strings disappear into the ether. Gemini interacted intuitively throughout.

…most of all we were reminded just how valuable an asset Nicola LeFanu is to York, Yorkshire and well beyond. Many happy returns!          

Thursday November 10^th Sir Harlequin Amy Thompson (bassoon). Tailleferre Ensemble, St Johns Smith Square, 1.05pm.

Thursday November 17^th the forest, the strand the sea.. James Willshire (piano).  Stoller Hall, Chetham’s School, Manchester 7.30 pm.

Saturday November 19^th In the Forests of the Night Nürnberg and Wurzburg saxophone ensembles. Nürnberg Hochschule für Musik, 7.30pm.

Sunday November 20^th In the Forests of the Night Nuremberg, Wurzburg and Lübeck saxophone ensembles. Lübeck Hochschule für Musik, 7.30pm.

Saturday December 3rd  Piano Trio and premiere of Gemini Quartet.

Gemini: Nicola LeFanu at 75: A portrait and a celebration. York Late Music series, 

St Saviourgate Chapel, York. 7.30 pm.

Sunday September 11^th But Stars Remaining Mimi Doulton (soprano). 

Colourscape Festival, Clapham Common London, c.1.30pm.

Saturday October 1^st String Quartet no2 Bingham String Quartet. York Late Music series , St Saviourgate Chapel, York. 7.30 pm.

Saturday October 15^th In the Forests of the Night RWCMD saxophone ensemble. Whirlwinds Festival, RWCMD Cardiff, 3.30 pm

Tuesday October 18^th Songs for Jane Heloise Werner (soprano), Rosalind Ventris (viola).  Oxford Lieder Festival, J du Pre Music Building, St Hilda’s College, 5pm..

'Triptych' received another fine performance in Wales on May 23rd: WCO, conductor Anthony Hose, soloist, Jeremy Huw Williams.

Two chamber works, 'Songs without Words' and 'The Swan', were broadcast on Portuguese radio on May 2nd and May 9th.

 On April 2nd, Steve Bingham played 'A Cherub Dances' for solo violin, at Late Music York. On April 5th, as well as performing 'The Bourne' in Cardiff, Heloise Werner (soprano) and Anne Denholm (harp) performed it at the Leicester Music Festival.

 James Willshire gives the premiere of 'the forest, the strand, the sea' for solo piano, on Saturday March 26th 2022, 4pm at St Philip and St James' Church, Leckhampton, Cheltenham.

On March 17th, Aleksander Szram played 'Chiaroscuro' in a recital at Trinity Laban.

 March 3rd, 2022, 'On the Wind' (SATB) was broadcast on BBC R3 by the BBC Singers. A fine new CD recording of Misterium Mirabile (SSA) has been made by the In Mulieribus choir from Portland, Oregon; and there is also a link to a lovely performance of it on the website of the Chapter House Choir of York Minster.

Live performances of solo voice pieces include  March 5th, Anna Snow in York (from 'A Penny for a Song'), March 19th, James Gilchrist in Oxford (Auden, 'Lullaby') and April 5th, Cardiff,  Heloise Werner (Rossetti, 'The Bourne').

 Triptych  received its live premiere on 26/11/2021, Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone) with the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, conductor Anthony Hose. Triptych sets three poems by Rowan Williams.

There are further performances at Rhyl, Holyhead and Blackwood. 

The Holyhead performance on December 4th will be live-streamed: https://www.facebook.com/ucheldre.holyhead

Quintet for strings 

Premiere: Sacconi Quartet with Tim Lowe, cello. BMS Commission

Friday October 1^st, York, Lyons Concert Hall

In the Forests of the Night, for saxophone orchestra. 

Premiere: Megalopolis saxophone orchestra commission 

Saturday October 9^th Di Menna Center, New York City

(live and live-streamed) 

Sunday Oct 10^th – Roulette, Brooklyn, NY.

(live and live-streamed) 

The Bourne arr. Denholm, for soprano and small ensemble

Tuesday October 19^th, Hermes Ensemble 

Oxford, JdP.

(live and live-streamed)

The Moth Ghost for soprano and piano. Text: James Harpur

Premiere: Gabriella Di Laccio and Clelia Iruzun;  Di Laccio commission

Thursday October 21^st London, St James's Church, Surrey Gardens

Wednesday Oct 27^th Oxford, Wolfson College.

 'Harlequin Memories' for bassoon and string quartet has two performances on Saturday Sept. 25th at the Oxshott and Cobham Music Society: Holy Trinity Church Claygate, 5pm and 8pm. Catriona McDermid, bassoon, with the Florian quartet.

'Three Piano Miniatures' - after Bach's Goldberg Variations - will be played by Rachel Fryer in her 'Variations Down the Line' project. Sept. 10th, Brighton, Sept. 20th, Hurstpierpoint and Sept 25th, Trunch (Norfolk).