Baroque, contemporary, rock, improvisation… expect everything from Eric Vloeimans, Joanna MacGregor and Brighton Philharmonic Strings, returning after a triumphant Kings Place debut last year.

One of Europe’s biggest jazz stars, the brilliant Dutch musician, Eric Vloeimans, is a trumpeter, composer, record producer and songwriter extraordinaire; he builds timbral textures of the modern, early, traditional and experimental, all underpinned by the poetic beauty of his sound. Fresh from commissions from Holland Baroque and the Calefax Reed Quintet, Eric premieres his new work Innermission for BPO, as well as a fresh jazz take on Purcell’s immortal Dido and Aeneas: the tragic Trojan love story of Dido, Queen of Carthage.

Kicking off with Desyatnikov’s gritty, sexy reimagining of Ukrainian folksong, we’ll also hear Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D – one of Baroque’s most beloved works – and a sassy dance number from Les Indes galantes, a 1735 ballet héroïque by Frenchman Jean-Philippe Rameau.

‘Eric Vloeimans is a disrupter – he’s an improvising trumpeter and composer who regards the term jazz as too limiting to describe his music.’ Positive Feedback

This event will last for approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes, including an interval.

Eric Vloeimans

The remarkable trumpeter Eric Vloeimans’ music spans all possible genres: from classical to pop, film music, world and jazz. A composer, curator and record producer, he works regularly with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw orchestras, as well as Metropole, Marinierskapel and Paradiso orchestras. His collaborations include UK jazz giants John Taylor, Andy Sheppard, Byron Wallen, Peter Erskine and many others. Eric has toured the US with his chamber/jazz Fugimundi trio; his other band Gatecrash – whose music ranges from lazy lounge with Zappa-influenced hard core – has toured throughout Europe, Asia and the USA. His most recent CD recordings include Live at the Concertgebouw with the German pianist Florian Weber, his trumpet concerto Evensong with the Netherlands Symphony, Two for the Road with accordionist Will Holshouser, and Carrousel with Holland Baroque. In between playing all over the world, being on tour and picking up Edison Awards, he shares his talent with the students of the Codarts College for the Arts in Rotterdam, and the Royal Conservatory in the Hague.

Joanna MacGregor CBE 

Described as ‘a brilliant light in the music world,’ Joanna MacGregor CBE is one of the world’s most innovative musicians, appearing as a concert pianist, curator and conductor. As a solo pianist she has appeared with leading orchestras, performing in over eighty countries; in 2026-7 she will tour Europe, Scandinavia, US, Canada, South America, India and China. Joanna is Dame Myra Hess Chair of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music and runs two annual piano festivals for young musicians, as well as a year-round series at the Wigmore Hall; she has been Artistic Director of Dartington International Summer School, Bath International Festival, and Deloitte Ignite at the Royal Opera House, as well as a curator for festivals around the world. She has released over forty solo recordings – many of them on her own award-winning record label SoundCircus – ranging from Chopin and Piazzolla to Bach and John Cage. Joanna has commissioned and premiered many landmark works, and is a regular broadcaster, appearing many times at the BBC Proms. Her collaborative/composition projects encompass jazz, film, visual art, contemporary dance and electronica, and she is overseeing the music for forty-seven silent Sherlock Holmes films with the BFI. From 2015-2021 she chaired the Paul Hamlyn Composers Awards and has been a Booker Prize Judge. Joanna MacGregor has five Honorary Doctorates in music, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. A regular conductor, she is Music Director and CEO of Brighton Philharmonic, conducting bold, innovative concerts as they enter their second century. She is a judge on the 2026 BBC Musician of the Year, broadcast on BBC2 in the autumn.