OTHER FORTHCOMING CONCERTS.

Purchasing of tickets for all concerts.

Tickets are available in advance online at  
www.iscaensemble.org.uk or www.ticketsource.co.uk

Sidmouth concert tickets are also available from

Paragon Books, 38 High Street, Sidmouth (01395 514516).

Tickets may also be obtained in person or by phone at

Exeter Visitor and Information & tickets tel. 01392 665885, 1 Dix's' Field, Exeter, EX1 1GF

The Isca Ensemble is delighted to present a stunning programme with the excellent

University of Exeter Chapel Choir and its Musical Director Michael Graham.

Serenade to Music by Vaughan Williams was written in 1938 as a tribute to Sir Henry Wood, and was first performed at the Royal Albert Hall with symphony orchestra and sixteen soloists, for whom the piece was specifically written, each one given a solo passage.  The words… "How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank..." come from Act V of The Merchant of Venice – Lorenzo and Jessica are at Belmont, and sit listening to music, gazing at the stars and revelling in the magic of the night.  The music is exquisitely sweet and tender – at the premiere Rachmaninov, a guest of Sir Henry, listened to it and wept, declaring he had never been so moved by a piece of music.

Fauré's Requiem. Fauré wrote of the work, "Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest.

Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No 8.  Dvořák tried to achieve a marked difference to his Symphony No 7, a stormy romantic work. No. 8 would be: "different from the other symphonies, with individual thoughts worked out in a new way". The Eighth is cheery and lyrical and draws its inspiration more from the Bohemian folk music that Dvořák loved.

Jordan Black enjoys a varied schedule of solo, chamber and orchestral engagements. He has appeared as Guest Principal with the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, alongside work for the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta and City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. 

As a student, Jordan reached the Woodwind Final of the BBC Young Musician 2012. Since then, he has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra of the Swan, the London Mozart Players and the Bristol Ensemble. In summer 2014, he joined the New English Concert Orchestra as soloist for a series of open-air concerts, performing to a combined audience of over 30,000 people, at stately homes around the country.

A passionate chamber musician, Jordan has performed at the Wigmore Hall, Clarence House, St Martin in the Fields, the Purcell Room and Brazil's Festival de Inverno. He has appeared with members of the London Chamber Orchestra, London Conchord Ensemble, Ensemble Cymru and Notus Winds. He also features on a new recording of compositions by Buxton Orr alongside tenor Nicky Spence and members of the Edinburgh Quartet.

Jordan trained at the Purcell School, Royal College of Music Junior Department and as a full-scholar at the Royal Academy of Music, where he graduated with First-Class Honours. He went on to hold a Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music. His teachers have included Timothy Lines, Mark van de Wiel, Andrew Marriner, Patrick Messina and Guy Cowley. More recently, he has studied with Yehuda Gilad in Sweden and Los Angeles. 

Away from the concert platform, outreach and teaching projects form an important part of Jordan's musical philosophy. He has given workshops in schools for the Concordia Foundation, mentored young composers on the Sound and Music Summer School and taught on the National Youth Orchestra of Kenya Residential Scheme.  He currently teaches privately in London and coaches chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music Junior Department.

Luka Okros has established himself as one of the most promising pianists of his generation. Okros’s performances have been praised by critics as “intense, strong and natural, with an impressive creativity”. Lang Lang said about his performance of Liszt’s infamous Hungarian Rhapsody: “In such a technical work, he does not deprive musicality. This is a rarity!”.

By the age of 27, Luka had won many awards, including Piano Award by Tabor Foundation at the Verbier Festival, top prizes at the Hong Kong Inter­national Piano Competition, the Valencia Iturbi Prize International Competition and the Scottish Inter­national Piano Competition.

Luka has already performed in some of the world’s greatest concert halls – Carnegie Hall, Het Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Rudolfinum, Palau de la Musica Valencia, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Liszt Academy, Maison de la Radio. Highlights of the season include performances in Finland, Hungary, Belgium, USA, Norway, UK, China, Georgia, Ukraine, Morocco and Austria.

His first commercial recording of Schumann was recently released on the DiscAuverS label and is available on Amazon, Spotify and Apple Music.

In addition to his career as a concert pianist, Luka works on creating an album of his own compositions. One of the pieces was filmed and premiered by Het Concertgebouw’s Sessions. Scores of his works are published by Master Music Publications.

After graduating from the London Royal College of Music and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the Art Council of England has granted him the Exceptional Talent Visa. Currently Luka is based in London.

As a social media influencer, Luka’s Instagram has more than 50K followers.

Luka Okros performing Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 in C sharp Minor at the

Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition (Tel Aviv).