Oxford University Orchestra Concert

Clara Schumann

Schumann, R.: Manfred Overture | Schumann, C.: Piano Concerto, Op. 7 | Brahms: Symphony No. 4

Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey, conductor | Carson Becke, piano

Tickets £15 (adult) / £10 (Conc) / £7 (student) available at www.ouo.oums.org/tickets or on the door


All are welcome to attend this interactive workshop convened by Dr Joe Davies, Dr Ponchione-Bailey, and Professor Susan Wollenberg. It will include discussion of Clara Schumann's life and work, as well as an analytical synopsis of her Piano Concerto in A minor, with live excerpts from the University Orchestra.

Clara Schumann (neé Wieck) (1819-1896) was a musical force of nature and a child prodigy. At the age of 13 (1832) she began composing her first piano concerto, which, rather than being derivative like many pieces of juvenilia, is a unique and bold artistic statement. The three-movement concerto took its final form by 1834 and was premiered at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1835 with herself at the piano and Felix Mendelssohn conducting. Despite the excellent quality of the work and her international reputation as a performer, like many works written by female composers in the 19th century, it has seldom been performed after her death. In her bicentennial year, the Oxford University Orchestra will undertake a rare performance of this concerto under the direction of conductor Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey with pianist Carson Becke. As part of the rehearsal process, Clara Schumann scholars, Dr Joe Davies and Professor Susan Wollenberg, will lead a public performers’ workshop, bringing to life the musical world in which Clara Wieck created this wonderful work and giving a tour of the concerto’s compositional structure with live examples performed by Carson Becke and OUO.

This project is sponsored in part by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities and the Faculty of Music.