Sarajevo-born pianist Ivana Gavrić makes a welcome return to Luton with a fascinating programme.  On her last visit she offered us perfect miniatures from the Bedford-based composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, and now she features two other remarkable female composers.  Dora Pejačević is an increasingly admired Croatian composer, writing in a late Romantic idiom in the early years of the 20th Century; Cécile Chaminade was an internationally feted pianist and composer from the second half of the 19th Century – she was a particular favourite at the court of England’s Queen Victoria and her Prélude for Organ was played at that great monarch’s funeral in 1901.  This will perhaps be a chance to hear less well known repertoire alongside the more familiar masterpieces by Grieg and Ravel that complete this dazzling programme.

Richard Sisson (Chair of Luton Music)