Julian Bliss(clarinet) & Tim Horton(piano)

Event information

Programme
Poulenc Sonata
Debussy Premiere Rapsodie
Faure Apres un Reve
Messager Solo de Concours
Schumann Selection of Songs
Brahms Sonata in F minor

Julian Bliss is one of the world’s finest clarinettists, excelling as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, jazz artist, and masterclass leader. Julian started playing the clarinet aged four and went on to study in the United States at the University of Indiana and in Germany under Sabine Meyer.

In recital and chamber music he has played at the world’s leading festivals and halls, including Gstaad, New York’s Lincoln Center, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Verbier and London’s Wigmore Hall. As a soloist, he has appeared with a wide range of international orchestras, including the Auckland Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Paris, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sao Paolo Symphony and the Queensland Symphony.

This season, Bliss performs Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He visits New Zealand to participate in the At The World's Edge Festival and performs the world premiere of Ross Harris’ Clarinet Concerto as well as Artie Shaw's Clarinet Concerto with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.

Bliss ended last season at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, followed by a return to the Mondsee Festival in Austria. Other highlights included a tour across the UK with Royal Northern Sinfonia and performances of a new concerto for Clarinet and Wind Orchestra, composed for him by John Mackey, which he premiered with the Dallas Winds; the album was released earlier this year. He appeared at various festivals worldwide, including returns to Risør, East Neuk, and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Throughout the season, Bliss performed numerous recitals and chamber music pieces with regular collaborators James Baillieu and the Carducci Quartet, as well as other esteemed colleagues. He was the first Artist in Residence at Yehudi Menuhin School, regularly working with the students there, and taking part in performances.

Excellent reviews, record of the week spots and media attention flow from his recording output. He adds to his discography in 2024 with the new Mackey concerto and a Schumann recital album. This follows previous releases on Signum Records in 2021 which included Brahms Clarinet Sonatas with pianist James Baillieu, and an EP of Julian’s arrangements for clarinet of wind ensemble works by legends of the US band world John Mackey, Frank Ticheli and Eric Whitacre. Other recent albums include Mozart and Weber Quintets with the Carducci String Quartet; Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock with Ailish Tynan (soprano) and Christopher Glynn (piano); Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint; Mozart and Nielsen’s Clarinet Concertos with the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

In 2010, Bliss established the Julian Bliss Septet, creating programmes inspired by the King of Swing, Benny Goodman, and a show built around the extraordinary musical output of George Gershwin. A recording of the Gershwin programme “I Got Rhythm” released in 2021 received rave reviews – “impressive recording by talented clarinettist Julian Bliss and his excellent Septet [...] Bliss’s quick-fire clarinet starts weaving free-flowing improvisational lines around the tune from the very outset [...] jaw-dropping, side-stepping vibes solo [...] the whole ensemble is on fire” – Gramophone. The Septet has performed to packed houses across the US and in European festivals, at Ronnie Scott’s (London) and Live from Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola (Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York).
With the launch of Bliss Music in 2020, Julian’s arrangements of a selection of pieces for clarinet and piano have been made available as sheet music. These include Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata Op. 19, the third movement of which has been set as a Grade 6 piece on the new London College of Music clarinet syllabus. Julian is a Buffet Crampon and Vandoren performing artist.

Tim Horton is one of the UK’s leading pianists, equally at home in solo and chamber repertoire. He is a founder member of both the Leonore Piano Trio and Ensemble 360 and has been a regular guest pianist with the Nash Ensemble. He was invited to make his solo debut at Wigmore Hall in 2016, and presents his complete Chopin Cycle there over the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 seasons.
Between 2011 and 2015 Tim presented a complete Beethoven Sonata cycle at Sheffield’s Crucible Studio for Music in the Round, who asked him to return for a cycle of Schubert Sonatas 2017-2019, and a Chopin cycle which he concluded in 2024.
Following two performances of Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle at Symphony Hall, Birmingham and at the Royal Festival Hall, London in 1995, at the recommendation of Alfred Brendel, Tim was asked to give concerts with the RLPO, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra.
The Leonore Piano Trio has produced seven discs for Hyperion, including the complete Parry Trios and the Piano Quartet. They have also recorded the complete Piano Trios of David Matthews for Toccata Classics and Huw Watkins’ Piano Trios for Resonus. With Ensemble 360, a mixed group of strings, wind and piano that took up residency at the Crucible Studio in Sheffield in 2005, Tim has performed to great acclaim throughout the UK and abroad. He is also a member of Trio Meister Raro alongside violist Rachel Roberts and clarinettist Robert Plane.