Hastings Chamber Music Festival - Rautio Piano Trio, Hannah Deans-Williams, Steve Williams

Curated by violinist Jane Gordon, this year’s ‘Transfiguration’programme features outstanding international artists, rising talent and extraordinary music shaped by change, reflection, conflict and pacifism.

Programme: Voices Across Time - Amy Beach; World Premiere of Akhmatova Requiem by J. Rautio

Violinist Jane Gordon brings her critically acclaimed Rautio Piano Trio with special guests Hannah Deans-Williams, soprano and Steve Williams, clarinet, for the festival finale, bringing together the voices of two remarkable women and celebrating creative voice,resilience and the power of artistic expression.

At the heart of the programme are two distinctive creative voices that emerged in very different circumstances. Amy Beach forged a path as a composer in a musical world largely closed to women, while Anna Akhmatova gave voice to individual and collectivesuffering under repression. Separated by time and circumstance, their work shares a profound sense of resilience and a belief in the enduring power of artistic expression. This concert sees the world premiere of Jan Rautio’s Requiem, a setting of Akhmatova’spoetry for soprano and ensemble.

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) was one of Russia’s most important poets of the twentieth century. Her poetry combines emotional intensity with an extraordinary economy of language, exploring love, loss, memory and the passage of time. As Soviet repressionintensified, her work became a powerful witness to personal and collective suffering, shaped by war, persecution and the imprisonment of her son. Despite censorship and suppression, Akhmatova continued to write, and her poems were memorised and passed from person to person.

Amy Beach (1867–1944) was the first successful American woman to make a career as a composer and concert pianist. Largely self-taught as a composer, she overcame the restrictions placed on women in musical life at the time to establish an internationalreputation. Her music combines the harmonic language of late Romanticism with influences from American folk music and her own experiences as a pianist. 

Hannah Deans-Williams is a London-based soprano working across Europe as a soloist and ensemble singer, specialising in contemporary music. From 2026 she is an Equilibrium Young Artist and was also selected for Glyndebourne Opera Lab. Recent highlights include her debut at the Salzburger Festspiele in Nono’s Io Frammento del Prometeo, performances with London Sinfonietta and EXAUDI, and Brett Dean’s Wolf Lieder with Riot Ensemble, conducted by the composer.

Clarinettist Steve Williams has performed with many of the UK’s leading symphony, chamber and opera orchestras and ensembles including the Britten Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, English Touring Opera, Manchester Camerata, Haffner Wind Ensemble, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Sinfonia among others.

The Rautio Piano Trio is a London-based ensemble that has performed extensively across the UK and Europe for over a decade. The Trio is currently recording the complete Beethoven piano trios on fortepiano for Resonus Classics, with the first volumes receivingfive stars in BBC Music Magazine. Their repertoire spans 18th- and 19th-century works on period and modern instruments, alongside contemporary music and an increasing focus on works by women composers.

Full Programme:
Amy Beach Piano Trio in A minor Op. 150
‘Requiem’ by J. Rautio for soprano, piano trio & bass clarinet. *World premiere*
Artists in Conversation: Composer Jan Rautio discusses setting Akhmatova’s poetry for his new work, Requiem.