Concerts
The Lion Ballroom makes a lovely concert venue with seating for an audience of up to 100. There is an ongoing programme of mainly classical concerts featuring a wide range of musicians. To receive our Newsletter on our forthcoming events, please enter your email address in the box below, or look at the events calendar at the top of the page to see our forthcoming concerts.
2025 CONCERTS
Sunday 21st September 2025 3pm - 5pm
Engegård Quartet
Arvid Engegård (violin), Amanda Håøy Horn (violin),
Juliet Jopling (viola), Jan Clemens Carlsen (cello)
Boyce (arr Derek Smith) String Quartet arrangement of Symphony No 2
Andrew Morris String Quartet No 2 (première)
Grieg String Quartet No 1 in G minor Op 27
Beethoven String Quartet in E flat major Op 127
The Engegård Quartet of Norway have already made a huge impact in Herefordshire: in back-to-back concerts in Autumn 2023 at Hellens, Much Marcle and the Lion Ballroom and, earlier this year, at Hay-on-Wye. Formed under the midnight sun in Lofoten in 2005, and now one of Scandinavia’s most sought-after classical ensembles, they have received true international acclaim through their performances at many of Europe’s finest venues and also through their discography. The Engegård are equally at home with the core repertoire and the lesser-known music of their homeland. They have played with some world-famous musicians, including Sir Andras Schiff, Leif Ove Andsnes and Kim Kashkashian.
An arrangement of a very short Boyce Symphony opens the concert: this is music of freshness, fluidity and lively rhythms. Another short work follows, this one the première of Andrew Morris’ String Quartet No 2, dedicated to the Engegård Quartet. Andrew is a Leominster resident and is well known across the county, both as composer and pianist.
Grieg’s G minor String Quartet which follows is his only complete work in this genre to have survived (he left one unfinished and a third one is lost). It is unmistakably Nordic and bears many of the characteristics of Grieg’s genius: songful lyricism, colour, atmosphere, dance-like elements … The work has drama, a certain grandeur, rich sonorities, shimmering writing and much more. Understandably, it is regarded as one of the outstanding string quartets of the late 19th century.
Beethoven’s Op 127 is the first of the composer’s five late string quartets which, by any standard, are among the pinnacles of achievement in Western classical music. In it, the material is reduced to its bare minimum, heightening its impact; a new harmonic language emerges; moments of silence create extraordinary tension; and there are passages of transcendent beauty, especially in the slow movement.
Tickets: £20 (students half-price) from Leominster TIC on 01568 616460 and
The Courtyard, Hereford on 01432 340555 and online at www.courtyard.org.uk
The Engegård Quartet will also be performing at Hellens, Much Marcle on the previous evening at 7.30pm. Tickets from The Courtyard and Hellens.
Sunday 2nd November 2025 3pm - 5pm
Details to be confirmed.
Sunday 25th January 2026 3pm - 5pm
Details to be confirmed.
Sunday 22nd November 2026 3pm - 5pm
Musicians Ben Frith and Heidi Rolfe.
More details to be confirmed.
