Behind The Mirror

Home
Behind The Mirror

A unique & intimate series of concerts in Berkhamsted founded and curated by Clare O'Connell, pres

29/05/2026

Looking forward to playing again at wonderful on Saturday June 13th for their Midsummer Ballet curated by and .

A beautiful programme which I’ll be sharing with Viv Mclean (piano) and soprano of music by Bach, Purcell, Marais, Moeran and Chopin amongst others, and involving and

Tickets are selling fast - to book please visit
http://www.midsummerballet.eventbrite.co.uk

This picture was taken by at last years beautiful event celebrating the life of Frederick Ashton.

26/05/2026

So excited to have Eloisa Fleur Thom and Luba Tunnicliffe back for this month’s Behind the Mirror Concert: a wild programme for string trio tracing the musical heritage of Eastern Europe, with music by Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, György Kurtág, Ernö Dohnányi and Dobrinka Tabakova.

Please come and join us in Berkhamsted on Sunday 28 June at 4pm, for an afternoon where we share with you a myriad of extreme feelings and sound worlds.

www.behindthemirror.org

28/04/2026

Thrilled to be performing Natalie Klouda’s work for solo cello ŪhtĊeare in my next Behind the Mirror concert with harpist Eleanor Turner this coming Sunday, alongside works by Delius, Vaughan Williams and Henry Purcell.

I commissioned and recorded this with NMC records two summers ago, and yet it is still essential to me to give as many repeat performances as possible, allowing the music not only to be heard again live but also to live and breathe and evolve.

This work is a passionate through composed movement mirroring the emotional rollercoaster and progression of a looming and yet enchanted midsummer’s day. Beginning the hour before dawn, with a delicate opening the piece itself wakes up gradually flowing and growing with increasing intensity.
The word ŪhtĊeare is an old English/ Anglo Saxon word meaning “sorrow before dawn.
It appears in the poem “The Wife’s Lament” from the Exeter Book compiled 960-990 CE.

Please join us on Sunday 3 May at 4pm in Berkhamsted to hear this piece alongside other works devoted to and inspired by the English landscape.

www.behindthemirror.org

26/04/2026

In just one week I play a completely new programme with my dear friend and collaborator Eleanor Turner - a celebration of English music old and new arranged for cello and harp.

Join us for an afternoon of music by Frederick Delius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Henry Purcell and John Dowland amongst others, music given a new life through the sound world of cello and harp.

Also in the programme is Natalie Klouda’s Uhtceare for solo cello - a piece which evokes the English landscape in the moment before dawn and R M Schaefer’s labyrinthian work for harp and percussion - The Crown of Ariadne.

4pm Sunday 3 May 2026
Berkhamsted town hall

Tickets: www.behindthemirror.org

25/03/2026

This Friday 27 March I join chamber choir Londinium for an evening of luminous and meditative music exploring themes of conflict, loss, resilience, and hope.

Our programme is anchored by two masterpieces for cello and choir: John Tavener’s haunting Svyati, in which the cello represents the Ikon of Christ, and Richard Rodney Bennett’s warm-hearted A Farewell to Arms, in which it embodies a war-weary soldier. Woven around them is a sequence of classic motets by Tallis, Dering and Schütz, heartfelt works by Joubert and Mauersberger, and radiant recent music by Gabriel Jackson, Howard Skempton, and Lucy Walker.

Looking forward to this very much!

St John’s Church
Waterloo
7.30 pm
Ticket link in my stories

📷

18/03/2026

Very excited to be performing at Presteigne Festival Springboard Weekend on Sunday19th April 2026:

Between Heaven and Earth: Sacred Music for solo cello
a recital which brings together very old and very new music by J S Bach, Dietrich Stoeffken, Marian Marais, Edmund Finnis, John Tavener, James MacMillan and Natalie Klouda.

I’m also really looking forward to working with composers Sam Buttler,
Matthew Elderton-Lewis, Delyth Field, Niamh O’Donnell, Richard Peat, and Ella Roberts on their new works for cello during my stay in Presteigne. A brilliant scheme set up by the festival to support a new generation of music creators. 📷 Amadeo Castellani

08/02/2026

🩷

06/02/2026

I am beyond excited to be making my next Behind the Mirror concert with my amazing friend and collaborator Liam Byrne.

We are creating an afternoon of music and words, read by Nada Sharp, which celebrate a different side of the French court of Louis XIV, a world of cultivated beauty, secrecy, devotion and quiet sensuality, with music that breathes, whispers and glows.

A programme in which music by François Couperin and Marin Marais is entwined with the hushed voices of Linda Catlin smith and Hildur Guðnadottir - music shaped by patience, fragility and an almost tactile sense of time - creating an atmosphere of intimate dialogues and darkly glowing timbres.

Please join us on March 22nd at 4pm in Berkhamsted
For tickets visit: www.behindthemirror.org

📷 by
Design by

02/02/2026

Some pictures from our concert yesterday - huge thanks to .tony for taking them, to Eva Nick and Mark for their brilliance, and to our lovely audience for supporting us.
Also to Ashlyns School for hosting - we couldn’t have wished for a more beautiful acoustic to perform in, and hope to come back soon!

www.behindthemirror.org

22/01/2026

I am so thrilled that Mark Bonnar is going to be joining Eva, Nick and I for our concert celebrating the life and works of Mozart next weekend.
I can’t think of a more perfect person to read the extraordinary letters which Mozart prolifically wrote to his family, wife and friends during his short life.
Delving back into Robert Spaethling’s sparkling translations, I am reminded of his wildness, his fun, his foul mouth, his wit and humour, his kindness, his responsibility towards his loved ones and ultimately to music. What an extraordinary man he was and what a legacy he has left us.

We will be performing his transcriptions of Bach of three preludes and fugues - “I assure you, dear friend, no one has given so much care to the study of composition as I. There is scarcely a famous master in music whose works I have not frequently and diligently studied” - followed by his great string trio in Eb major, a gift to his friend and benefactor Michael Puchberg, to whom he wrote the most heartbreaking letters begging for money.
“Oh god, the situation I am in, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy; and if you, my best friend and brother, foresake me I … will be lost, together with my poor sick wife and child”

Please join us if you can!
4pm Sunday 1 February Ashlyns school, Berkhamsted
Tickets: www.behindthemirror.org

Address

Website

http://www.behindthemirror.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Behind The Mirror posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Establishment

Send a message to Behind The Mirror:

Shortcuts

Want your establishment to be the top-listed Arts & Entertainment?

Country:

City: