We successfully presented the new programme Universe of Neoclassics: Contemporary Music & Dance in two UK cities, bringing contemporary music, choreography and immersive visual atmosphere to Cheltenham and Coventry.
The programme premiered on 24 April at Princess Hall, the cultural heart of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, one of the UK’s most respected educational institutions with a long-standing commitment to the arts, intellectual curiosity and creative excellence. The following evening, on 25 April, Universe of Neoclassics continued at Coventry Central Hall — a historic venue in the centre of the city. This performance became especially meaningful for us, as it marked our first concert in Coventry.
This new format marks an important step in our work with contemporary classical music. For more than a decade, we have been presenting the music of the 20th and 21st centuries — works by composers who are our contemporaries and whose language has already become part of the cultural memory of our time. With the Universe of Neoclassics, this music moved beyond the concert format and entered a dialogue with the body, space and visual form.
At the centre of both evenings was Mystery Ensemble, joined by contemporary dance created by Riccardo Ardusso from Italy, with support and supervision by Ilaria Giardina. Through choreography, the programme opened another way of listening: sound was not only performed, but embodied. Movement revealed the inner pulse of the music — its fragility, pressure, stillness and emotional force.
The concerts featured works by Ludovico Einaudi, Hans Zimmer, Max Richter, Ólafur Arnalds, Michael Nyman and Enya. Pieces such as Time, Experience, Divenire, May It Be, Only Time and music from Interstellar and Pirates of the Caribbean shaped an evening full of cinematic scale, intimacy and quiet tension.
In Coventry, the performance gained an additional visual dimension through a floating Earth installation suspended inside the venue. It became a silent centre of the evening — not a decoration, but part of the artistic landscape. Under its luminous presence, music and dance seemed to orbit one another, creating the feeling of a single universe unfolding around the audience.
In Cheltenham, the refined atmosphere of Princess Hall gave the premiere a different tone: more chamber-like, elegant and focused on the direct connection between performers and listeners. In Coventry, the first concert in the city opened a new page for us, allowing the programme to meet a new audience in a venue shaped by history, community and shared experience.
Universe of Neoclassics is not a traditional concert. It is a meeting point between sound and gesture, silence and motion, music and physical presence. The successful evenings in Cheltenham and Coventry confirmed that contemporary neoclassical music can be experienced not only by ear, but through space, movement and the shared attention of the audience.
