The Galliard Ensemble with Simon Callaghan (piano)

Sunday 14 September 2025, 3.00pm

Poulenc Sextet for Piano and Wind in C

Beethoven Quintet for Piano and Wind in E flat, Op.16

Français L'heur du Berger Suite

Mozart Quintet for Piano and Wind in E flat, K.452

Pre-concert talk by Richard Wigmore at 1.15pm

About

Former BBC New Generation Artists, the Galliard Ensemble is established as one of Britain’s leading chamber groups, with repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Berio and Birtwistle.

Now in its 30th year, the ensemble has performed in many of the world’s leading venues and festivals, including Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Bridgewater Hall, Sage Gateshead and at the BBC Proms.

They have also performed in Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland and Slovenia and are frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and around the World.

The Galliard Ensemble is known for its virtuosic, entertaining and distinctive performance style and its recordings have been widely praised; the Sunday Times, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, and BBC Radio 3 have all selected a Galliard Ensemble CD as “outstanding” or as Critics’ Choice.

They have worked closely with many leading contemporary composers, including György Ligeti and with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, on his quintet Five Distances (for their performance at the BBC Proms) which led to their award-winning CD of Birtwistle’s chamber music for winds.

The Galliard Ensemble is passionate about bringing music to a diverse audience realising the positive impact that music can have on learning and personal development. Their educational work ranges from concerts for children to masterclasses at leading conservatoires and universities such as Royal Northern College of Music, University of Cardiff, Trinity Laban, and at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with a highly successful career as a recording artist. He has developed a wide following and appears on a regular basis in the UK’s major concert halls, and on tours to Asia, North America and Europe. Recital partners have included Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Nicholas Daniel, Adrian Brendel, Feng Ning, Samuel West, Prunella Scales and Timothy West. BBC Young Musician of the Year Finalist Coco Tomita and Callaghan have a successful duo partnership which saw their first record released in 2022 on Orchid Classics. He is also a founding member of the London Piano Quartet, joining colleagues from the renowned Piatti Quartet to showcase the repertoire for piano quartet with a particular focus on revivifying works that have fallen into obscurity.

Simon Callaghan’s distinguished and eclectic discography includes recordings for Hyperion, Nimbus and Lyrita. He has a strong profile on BBC Radio3 and on a variety of streaming platforms, his most recent single on Apple Music with Coco Tomita surpassing 1 million streams in the first month of its release. He is a strong social media enthusiast, using it as a form of promotion for classical music in general but seeing it as a particular tool in his advocacy of the rare and unexplored.

Callaghan’s broad repertoire encompasses the standard works of the 19th and 20th centuries and increasingly concentrates on much that is little known, examples including Bernhard Scholz, Josef Rheinberger and Carl Reinecke. A cornerstone of his work is his commitment to British music, and he has begun a series on Lyrita, recording world premieres of British concertos with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Callaghan has also made first recordings of the complete piano music by Rebecca Clarke, George Dyson and William Busch. He has recorded four albums for Hyperion’s celebrated The Romantic Piano Concerto series. His first disc for Hyperion, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins, formed part of his PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music and was praised by BBC Radio 3’s Andrew McGregor: “I have nothing but praise for the performances… impressive pianism”.

He is Professor of Piano at the Royal Northern College of Music, and was elected a Steinway Artist in 2012