Two FREE Notting Hill Concerts 21st August 2008

At this thursday's free 1-1.55pm recital at St. John's Church Lansdowne Crescent The Will Butterworth Trio (Will Butterworth, piano; Marcus Penrose, bass and Josh Morrison, drums) will perform Jazz standards and improvisations on classical pieces.

"One of the scene’s rising stars, the pianist Will Butterworth.... thoughtful and creative piano playing has earned him considerable respect and admiration on the local scene. A fluent player he mixes standards, jazz standards and his own originals to great effect in a set that it is both musically intricate and at the same time direct and swinging. A really exciting musical prospect Will is unquestionably in the vanguard of UK modern jazz performers. One of the most talented young players on the scene." Steve Ruby, owner of London’s 606 Club

"Intelligently balancing structure and freedom is half the battle in piano-trio music of this sort, and by pulling off this difficult feat, Butterworth and his rhythm section provided yet more positive evidence for those wishing to claim that there is currently a heartening resurgence of youthful talent and originality discernible in the contemporary UK jazz scene." Chris Parker

Later at another free concert (7pm-8.30pm) in the Notting Hill Community Church on Kensington Park Road Russian pianist Natalia Loresch will play:

Johann Sebastian Bach - Chorale Preludes, Books 1 & 2 (arr. Busoni)
Claude Debussy - Selected Preludes
César Franck - Prelude, Chorale and Fugue

Natalia Loresch lives in London where she studies with Piers Lane and Kathryn Stott at the Royal Academy of Music and harpsichord with Virginia Black. Natalia has won prizes including the Steinway International Piano Competition and the Hastings Centenary Festival International Piano Concerto Competition. She has also been the recipient of the Oscar und Vera Ritter Scholarship, the Paul Hindemith Scholarship, the Myra Hess Award and the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust Award. Natalia has given solo and chamber music performances in the Musikhalle in Hamburg, the Philharmonie Berlin, the Messiaen South Bank Festival 2008 and she appeared in St. John’s Smith Square playing the Schumann Concerto. She is researching Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier in the context of historical and religious correlations as her MMus project.