Eccentric English composer, Ethel Smyth, wrote her opera The Wreckers after a visit to the Isles of Scilly.  It is a tale of love, violence and betrayal and the overture depicts the sea in all its moods as a metaphor for the powerful emotions portrayed.

We are delighted to welcome Charlie Lovell-Jones as soloist in Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto.  It was written in 1939, while the composer was in the USA and combines virtuostic brilliance with elegiac lyricism.  The mournful character reflects Britten’s sense of looming catastrophe, as the world spiralled into war.

Elgar’s Symphony No. 2 was dedicated to the memory of Edward VII, but the brilliant orchestral writing expresses much more personal emotions, both joy and sadness.  Like the composer himself, it is full of contradictions and complexities, referencing Shelley’s poem ‘Rarely, rarely comest thou/Spirit of Delight’.

Welsh violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones has been recognised as one of the most promising international soloists of his generation. Since his sold-out Royal Festival Hall debut aged fifteen, Charlie has appeared as soloist with orchestras across the UK and beyond, including the Sinfonia of London, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, English Chamber Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, Yamagata Symphony Orchestra, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Sinfonietta Cracovia, and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Charlie has appeared live on radio in broadcasts of Waxman Carmen Fantasy (RTÉ Radio), Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending (BBC Radio 3), Karl Jenkins Violin Concerto (BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Wales) and his own composition, Cariad Cyntaf (2017), for which he was joined by soprano Rebecca Evans (BBC Radio Wales). He has worked with conductors such as John Wilson, Rumon Gamba, Delyana Lazarova, Edward Gardner, Sir Mark Elder, Ken Takaseki, Michael Seal, Lee Reynolds, Moritz Gnann, Ben Gernon, Grant Llewellyn, Stephen Bell, and Jonathan Mann. Charlie is also a Beare’s International Violin Society Artist.

Charlie is in demand as both a soloist and recitalist. His 2024–25 season featured performances of concertos by Sibelius, Gipps, Britten, Brahms, Bach, Bruch and Vivaldi, a duo recital with pianist Ariel Lanyi at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and quartet concerts with the award-winning Barbican Quartet at the Lake District Music Festival. He debuted as soloist at the Snape Maltings in 2021, Wigmore Hall in 2022, Birmingham Symphony Hall and De Oosterpoort in 2023, the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Krakow Philharmonic in 2024, and in 2026 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and, as the opening concert of Classical Pride, Kings Place London.

Charlie plays a 1777 G.B. Guadagnini violin on loan from a generous benefactor. Beyond the violin, Charlie was Music Director of the all-male a cappella group, The Oxford Commas (with whom he toured the east coast of America and produced a music video) and sang tenor in Oxford’s most acclaimed student chamber choir, Schola Cantorum.

For further information, please visit www.charlielovelljones.com