Mary James looks forward to Empirical at the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford-on-Avon. She writes:
Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford-on-Avon kicks off its 2022 spring/summer season with Empirical on Saturday 29 January 2022.
The Centre is a community hub, hosting events as diverse as baby sensory activities, specialist music classes for toddlers and all genres of music. The journey there is always worth it: the sound and lighting is perfect, the auditorium size just right for jazz, and the very reasonably priced bar is manned by charming volunteers.
Empirical will be preview a collection of new pieces from a new album set for release in March 2022. Written by each individual band member in isolation during lockdowns throughout the pandemic, the music reflects the desire and joy to perform and improvise together as a collective.
Other events coming up include the Wiltshire Youth Jazz Orchestra on 6 March, a concert and livestream by Maya Youssef, virtuoso of the 78 stringed qanun, performing her latest album Coming Home on 26 March, and two good friends and top-flight musicians, pianist Gwilym Simcock and violinist Thomas Gould on 10 June, premiering a new work by Simcock.
