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The fifth Young Artist Showcase concert, hosted by Chamber Music Weymouth (formerly Weymouth Lunchtime Chamber Concerts) took place at St Mary’s Church, Weymouth, on Sunday 6 July.

Devised by CMW Artistic Director and concert pianist Duncan Honeybourne and Concerts Manager Frances Wilson, these events offer young musicians who are still in full-time education or are just embarking on a professional career the opportunity to perform in a formal concert setting. They also offer audiences a chance to enjoy a range of music, performed by these talented young people.

This year’s concert included a varied and impressive range of music and talents. Opening with Michael Howell, a composer and singer from West London who was a finalist in Channel 4’s The Piano (season 2), the audience were treated to Michael’s own compositions, which blend influences from both classical music (especially Bach) and jazz, together with his extraordinary, other-worldly countertenor voice.

The Alma Trio from Poole/Bournemouth impressed with their confidence and musical maturity in Rachmaninoff’s Trio élégiaque No. 1. It was especially fitting that this work, written when the composer was just 18, yet already showing immense talent and emotional depth, was performed by a trio of very poised young musicians of a similar age and equal talent. All three are heading to music college in the autumn.

Edie Wells, a pianist studying with Duncan Honeybourne at the University of Southampton, treated us to her Diploma programme, which presented a range of music, from Bach to Gershwin, and allowed Edie to showcase her ability to handle works of different styles and eras. I particularly enjoyed her Beethoven (Piano Sonata in E major, Op 14, No 1), but the highlights were the two pieces by George Gershwin: the romantic The Man I Love followed by I Got Rhythmn, which got the audience’s feet tapping!

Finally, Lia Matos Wunderlich, a prize-winning teenage cellist who performed in the CMW Young Artist Showcase in 2024, gave a vibrant, heartfelt performance of Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro op.70, accompanied by Duncan Honeybourne (with whom she studies piano at the Junior Royal Academy of Music). Ending with a spirited flourish, Lia brought this splendid recital to a close.

Michael Howell
Lia Matos Wunderlich

Chamber Music Weymouth was founded in 2002 by Duncan Honeybourne. Monthly lunchtime concerts take place in St Mary’s Church in the centre of Weymouth, together with a short summer season of Sunday concerts. Find out more here

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Described by superstar pianist Lang Lang as ‘A genius…The new Bach’ during his performance on Channel 4’s popular and inspiring programme The Piano, Michael Howell is a young self-taught composer, singer and pianist from a working class Caribbean-Jamaican background in west London.

Praised for his other-worldly counter-tenor voice and his ability to touch audiences with his lyrical Latin-esque operatic language and Baroque-inspired piano accompaniment, Michael’s performance in London’s Victoria Station had the audience spellbound and secured him a place in the programme’s final, where he performed his own composition, ‘Great Is The Grief’.


‘Are you telling me he’s an amateur musician? This is incredible, this is not amateur….This is a pure talent. This is really something that’s very rare. It sounds like a new Bach is born from the middle of a train station in London.’ – Lang Lang

‘It’s gorgeous. That’s gorgeous!’ – Mika, singer-songwriter and co-judge of The Piano

‘Phenomenal’, ‘Sensational!’, ‘just incredible’ – audience/viewer comments via TwitterX

Find out more about Michael in this Meet the Artist interview:

Michael Howell’s website