MAESTRO
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About Maestro
Continuing on from the hugely successful 2025 Maestro series a new Maestro season beings January 2026, bringing some of the world’s most famous musicians to perform and teach in Somerset each year. Offering music-lovers across the South West a unique chance to hear remarkable performances up close in the award-winning, intimate surroundings of Cedars Hall in Wells.
World-class artists know from their own training that direct contact with the great performers is paramount for exceptional young musicians. These are crucial visits therefore. But despite huge generosity on fees and teaching from the artists themselves, they are also expensive. Ticket sales alone will never cover the costs in full, and Cedars Hall needs your support in bridging this gap by joining our Maestro Membership scheme.
Maestro Membership Opportunities
Maestro Member
£50 per year
Priority booking until 24th November 2025
Access to any public teaching taking place alongside the concerts you attend
The Maestro Season Ticket: opportunity to purchase up to two season tickets with transferable access to all concerts. The Maestro Season Ticket costs £250, which represents a savings of 25% across the whole year. A membership and a season ticket costs less than buying individual tickets.
Online concert programmes and information about other music events in Cedars Hall
Maestro Sponsor
£300 per year
Sponsorships help Somerset’s young musicians, in and beyond the School, to attend concerts and classes free of charge.
Includes all Maestro Member Benefits
Invitations to pre-concert drinks
Acknowledgment of support in concert programmes (if desired)
2026 Maestro Programme
Priority booking for Members and Sponsors only; general booking opens on 25th November 2025
A season ticket is only available to those who have purchased a membership. Please see above.
You will be able to log into your membership and purchase your season ticket by clicking the button below
The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective describe themselves as a “flexible ensemble of wonderful, joyful, kind, passionate musicians who can’t wait to share chamber music with you”. What they modestly don’t say is that Kaleidoscope is a sparky, shape-shifting line-up of some of the most starry young musicians in the country. You will be amazed how brilliant they are….
Their programme will be announced nearer the time.
Talent runs in families, and music history is full of dynasties – the Mozarts, Strausses and Bachs for example. But not even the von Trapp Family Singers can compete with the Bevan family from Croscombe who have sung en masse in Somerset and beyond since the 1970s. The internationally acclaimed lyric soprano Sophie Bevan is one of eight musical children in the current generation which also includes opera stars Mary and Ben. It must be something in the water. For this homecoming recital she is joined by Seb Wybrew in a programme of favourite Schubert and Wolff songs plus doubtless some additional treats.
Staggeringly precocious as a young violinist, Chloë Hanslip made her Proms debut at fourteen and played her first US concerto date a year later. She featured, aged 10, in a BBC documentary Can You Make A Genius? and played a private recital for the late Duke of Edinburgh. Now in her thirties, she’s a mature and remarkable artist whose partnership with Danny Driver is one of the joys of the chamber music world. They play works by Bach and Franck – the full programme will be announced nearer the time.
The acclaimed British cellist and Maestro Series Patron launched his career in 2000 as winner of BBC Young Musician. He is a Classical Brit award winner and a soloist at the Proms. He and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen light the blue touchpaper on Maestro 2026 with an incandescent programme including Beethoven cello sonatas.
In a remarkable coup for Cedars Hall, the legendary pianist returns to Wells to play Beethoven’s E minor piano sonata Op 90, and Schubert’s final piano masterpiece, the Sonata in B flat D960. This is an extraordinary opportunity to hear one of the world’s greatest musicians up close in the UK’s loveliest and most intimate concert hall. Tickets limited to 4 per booking.
BBC Music Magazine describe the Elias as “a tour de force”. One of Britain’s f inest ensembles team up with the violist from the Heath Quartet to perform Mozart string quintets and works that these inspired including Mendelssohn and Schubert.
Roderick Williams is one of the country’s best-loved baritones. In this programme, he and Christopher Glynn present a sequence of 24 English songs, each reflecting a song in Schubert’s Winterreise, a unique musical journey through an English winter. Composers include Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Britten, Bridge and Roddy himself.
If you enjoyed Mike Dawes’s solo Maestro concert last year, you will love Martin Taylor. JazzTimes magazine describes him as “Europe’s Finest Jazz Guitarist”. A warm, funny, breathtakingly virtuosic guitar genius who has collaborated with Jeff Beck, Chet Atkins, Bill Wyman, George Harrison, Dionne Warwick, Diane Schuur and Jamie Cullum among many others.
We couldn’t programme Maestro for long without turning to one of the most exciting saxophonists working today, BBC Radio 3 presenter and Maestro Series Patron, Jess Gillam. Passionate about creativity, education and bringing joy through music, Jess invites us all on a journey of musical discovery through her electrifying performances and eclectic choices of music.
The great British pianist explores Mozart’s keyboard sonatas through the lens of music by other composers. What are the contrasts? Where are the connections? For Maestro, Paul’s focus is bel canto and the opera-infused world of Chopin and Weber. In short, classic repertoire from one of our finest musicians.
“In a few bow strokes, the Briton Timothy Ridout carved out a place for himself in the very closed circle of great violists” Le Monde. With his remarkable range and commitment to expanding the viola repertoire, Ridout’s performances
captivate audiences worldwide.
By irresistible public demand, the award-winning vocalist and broadcaster returns to Maestro for another classy, swinging evening of jazz standards. Her gig was one of the highlights of the 2025 programme. It will be again this year.
The return of any of our great pianists to Cedars Hall is always a special occasion. Described as “one of the busiest pianists on earth”, Angela Hewitt f irst appeared here in 2018 with the complete Bach preludes and fugues. Her 2026 Maestro recital gives a further generous snapshot of her compositional loves of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert.