City of Peterborough Symphony Orchestra
Summer Concert
Organissimo!
6th June 2026 - 7pm
Peterborough Cathedral
Conductor: Björn Bantock
Michał Ćwiżewicz (Violin)
David Humphreys (Organ)
Beethoven - Egmont Overture
Bruch - Violin Concerto No. 1
Saint-Saens - Organ Symphony
Next Concert
Summer 2026 - 6th June
Bjorn has an extensive performance schedule conducting ensembles and orchestras internationally. He is principal conductor of the Irish Memory Orchestra and has been a guest conductor for the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town, the European Bienniale in Naples and the Svanker Music Festival. Bjorn was also principal conductor for the St Albans Symphony Orchestra, the London Medical Orchestra, the Huntingdonshire Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, the Europa Ensemble and the Film Score Spectacular Orchestra and the International String Orchestra Festival in Malta.
Passionate about teaching, Bjorn runs the Conducting Course for the National Schools Symphony Orchestra course in Malvern College and the Conducting Course for the Open Strings Festival in Denmark. He also founded and is principal conductor for the London Chamber Strings which showcases London’s finest string professionals. Hand-picked specifically for their musical integrity and stunning virtuosity the London Chamber Strings are led by David Juritz.
Bjorn regularly conducts the Hertfordshire Philharmonia and worked as conductor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the London Contemporary Dance School and the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain. He has broadcast live on the SABC, BBC and S4C and has recorded and produced CD’s for the Kingsway Record label. Bjorn studied conducting with Colin Metters, Head of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has won numerous prizes, bursaries and scholarships including first prize in the Sir John Barbirolli competition, RNCM Contemporary Music Performance Prize and a Full International ABRSM Scholarship.
British-Polish violinist Michał Ćwiżewicz has given concerts across Europe, the Middle-East and USA and his playing has been broadcast on BBC television and Radio and Polish national television.
He performs frequently in the violin duo Cwizewicz Brothers, the acclaimed Minerva Piano Trio and is also concertmaster and co-director of the Górecki Chamber Orchestra and director of the Ognisko Chamber Ensemble. As a sought-after teacher, Michał is a violin professor at the Royal College of Music and the Head of Strings at Uppingham School.
Numerous prizes enabled his studies at the Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Paris Conservatoire, the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia in Madrid and with celebrated musicians Krzysztof Śmietana, Itzhak Rashkovsky and members of the Alban Berg, Arpeggione and Ysaÿe quartets.
In 2007 Michał received his Masters in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College. In 2009 he graduated with distinction as postgraduate at the Royal College of Music. He was presented to Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace’s Young Artist’s Reception and has performed for HM King Charles III.
Other musical passions include the folk music of Eastern Europe (in particular, of the Carpathian Mountains which he has been playing since early childhood - taught by legendary violinists of the Podhale, Eugenius Wilczek and Władysław Trebunia-Tutka) and the music of Javanese Gamelan which he performed throughout his youth as a member of the Southbank Gamelan Players.
David Humphreys is an accomplished organist, conductor and musical director, known for his versatility as both a performer and educator. He currently serves as Musical Director of the Grantham Choral Society, alongside a wide-ranging freelance career as a recitalist, accompanist and conductor.
Humphreys began his musical training in Hertfordshire and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music with leading organists including David Titterington and Thomas Trotter. He was also an organ scholar at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read music and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.
He spent fifteen years working in cathedral music, holding positions at St Albans, St Edmundsbury and Peterborough Cathedrals, where he directed and accompanied choirs in daily services, concerts and recordings. During his time at Peterborough, he also served as Acting Director of Music, overseeing the cathedral’s entire music programme.
As a performer, Humphreys has appeared widely across the UK and internationally, with broadcasts on BBC radio and television, and collaborations with ensembles including Britten Sinfonia and Instruments of Time and Truth. He has performed at major venues such as Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral, and for royal occasions including the Royal Maundy service.
Committed to education, he is an experienced teacher and founder of Peterborough Cathedral’s Youth Choir, and continues to champion the organ through performance, outreach and recording.
The splendid Cathedral organ provides the showpiece for this concert of popular classics. We open with Beethoven's Overture for Goethe's play Egmont, whose ominous atmosphere, mounting tension and exultant climax, depict the struggle and victory against Spanish repression in the Eighty Years War.
Max Bruch's timeless first violin concerto is full of romantic expression and great melodies. At the heart of the concerto is the Adagio with its peaceful yet intense theme which the composer never surpassed.
In 1885 Saint-Saens composed his famous Organ Symphony. After a meditative Adagio and agitated Allegro, the organ leads us into a Poco Adagio. With a Scherzo and Presto the music rushes forward, fades towards silence but is shattered by an outburst from the organ with brass fanfares. In the final surging fugue trombones restate the opening theme with organ at full throttle!
Great chart-topping music to satisfy all the emotions... drama, romance and triumph.