Torbay Musical Weekend
13th-16th November 2026
URGENT
Please Help secure TMW by sending us your deposit ASAP!
To secure the Grand Hotel booking for this year’s TMW we need to pay the hotel a 25% deposit on our event charge (£165 per person) by the new financial year in April.
This only comes to £41.25 per person and we need a minimum of 55 people to make the weekend financially viable. The remainder of the event charge and TMW subscriptions can be paid at a later date.
Please help secure the weekend by sending us a cheque for £41.25 made out to Torbay Musical Weekend to Hill House, Coombe Hill, Ninfield, TN33 9NH. Or email [email protected] or phone 01424 893598 to request BACS payment details.
2026 sees Torbay Musical Weekend return for the 56th year. We celebrate with an exciting programme of events and this new website, which features online booking. If you still prefer our traditional personal approach then email your requests to: [email protected] Or phone (leaving message) 01424 893598
Our Friends’ subscription offers great value for money. It includes tickets to all events and access to the special inclusive residential rates for the Grand Hotel, plus Friends’ updates throughout the year.
Online Box Office: If you want to book tickets for the whole weekend’s events just select the “FOTMW Subscription” if you also want one of the residential packages select “Hotel Deposit”, we will then contact you about hotel preferences.
John Isaac, Chairman of the Friends of Torbay
Events Programme (TBC)
Concert 1.
Harry the Piano
Programme
Harry’s extraordinary talent and breathtaking creativity have earned him a reputation as perhaps the most gifted improvising pianist in the world. Celebrities and critics alike have lined up to shower him with praise often smacking of astonishment. No other musician can spontaneously reinvent Michael Jackson in the style of Mozart, recreate a night at the Groucho club through the TV themes of its actor members, and improvise a medley of audience requests ranging from James Bond to Shostakovich via West Side Story.
9:30am
From Mic to CD Part 1 Richard Hughes (CEO Meridian Records)
Programme
From Mic to CD Part 2 Editing. Susanne Stanzeleit
Programme
Part 2. Editing and Mastering the track.
Q&A.
Events Programme
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Brahms Horn Trio with Stephen Stirling and The Primrose Trio
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Schumann Adagio & Allegro Op.70 for Horn & Piano
Kodály Duo Op.7 for Violin & Cello
Brahms Horn Trio Op.40
The horn trio, written in memory of his mother, remains one of Brahms’s greatest chamber works, and the most popular for the genre.
The concert opens with classic Schumann: the stormy Allegro preceded by a beautifully sentimental Adagio.
The Duo by Zoltán Kodály is a stunningly colourful work. Written as Word War I was looming, it contains proud Hungarian melodies and rhythms, a harrowingly emotional central movement and a frantic folk dance in the last.
The French Horn, Stephen Stirling
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Stephen Stirling is a renowned horn soloist and much in demand as principal horn with orchestras such as Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, BBC SSO, BBC NOW, City of London Sinfonia and many others.
Stephen has a world-wide reputation as a chamber musician and is in constant demand at festivals in the UK and abroad. He is a member of Endymion Ensemble, The Fibonacci Sequence, Capricorn, Arpège and the New London Chamber Ensemble.
His many critically acclaimed CDs include Mozart’s entire output for wind ensemble and numerous works by British composers. His recordings of the complete Mozart Horn concertos with the City of London Sinfonia are frequently broadcast on Classic FM and his second recording of the Brahms Horn Trio was nominated for a Gramophone award.
He enjoys an enormously varied career travelling all over the world, particularly relishing playing in unusual and far-flung places.
Events Programme
Concert 3.
John Mills & Cobie Smit
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We welcome back John Mills to give a concert of guitar duos with his wife and duo partner Cobie Smit.
My life playing & teaching the Guitar.
John Mills in conversation
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John Mills in conversation with John Thwaites
In a remarkable performing career spanning some 50 years and over 25 countries, John Mills has continued the tradition of his own legendary teachers, Andrès Segovia, Julian Bream and John Williams.
His extensive discography features a wide range of works from the 19th and 20th guitar repertoire as well as many of his own arrangements and works by living composers. He is also the author of several guitar tutorials and frequently writes for specialist publications.
He has held senior teaching positions at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Academy and the Nelson School of Music in New Zealand, and he was Head of the Guitar Department at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama for many years.
Concert 4.
Mendelssohn D Minor trio
And Showpiecess
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The Primrose Piano Trio
Susanne Stanzeleit, violin, Andrew Fuller, cello and John Thwaites, piano are members of the Primrose Piano Quartet. All three have enjoyed busy performing careers worldwide and have a huge, critically acclaimed discography between them and with the Quartet.
They will present a programme of chamber music favourites and dazzling showpieces. To include Mendelssohn Piano Trio D minor, Sarasate Carmen Fantasy and Chopin Introduction & Polonaise Briliiante
2026
Full Residential Programme
Friday 13th November
5:45pm
Welcome Reception
Drinks in the Devonshire Suite with FOT Chairman’s welcome at 6pm.
6:30pm
Dinner
8:30pm
Concert 1.
Harry The Piano
Saturday 14th November
7:30-9:15am
Breakfast
9:30-10:45am
From Mic to CD Part 1
Richard Hughes & Susanne Stanzeleit
10:45am
Coffee
11:30-1PM
From Mic to CD Part 2
Richard Hughes & Susanne Stanzeleit,
1.15pm-2:30pm
Lunch
2:30-4:00pm
Free Session
Enjoy a walk on the beach, shopping in town, visit the hotel spa or just have a siesta!
4:00-5:30pm
TBC. Presenter from within Friends of Torbay
6:30pm
Dinner
8pm
Concert 2: Brahms Horn trio. Stephen Stirling -French Horn, The Primrose Piano Trio
Schumann Adagio & Allegro
Kodaly Duo for Violin & Cello
Brahms Horn Trio, Op40
Sunday 15th November
7:30-9:15am
Breakfast
9:30-10:45am
The French Horn, Stephen Stirling
10:45am
Coffee
11:30am-12:45pm
Concert 3. John Mills & Cobie Smit
1:15-2:30pm
Lunch
3-4:pm
My life playing & teaching the guitar
4:30pm
Friends of Torbay Musical Weekend AGM
6:30pm
Dinner
8:30pm
Concert 4. Mendelssohn D minor Piano Trio
And showpieces. The Primrose Piano Trio
Monday 16th November
7:30-10am
Breakfast
Friends' subscription & Residential Rates 2026
Friends of Torbay Musical Weekend Annual Subscription
So we decided to increase it to £115 per person, with the voluntary option to give more to help further support the weekend by choosing either £125 or £135 per person.
2026 residential rates are structured a little differently but are very reasonable this year and are as follows:
Hotel events charge to cover use of events’ spaces and all other meals
(buffet lunches, tea&coffee breaks and three-course-dinner)