A Musical Evening with Fanny Mendelssohn

Information

Doors open 30 minutes before advertised event start time

This unique musical performace-lecture brings to Edinburgh the acclaimed Spanish cellist Beatriz González Calderón, founder of the women’s orchestra Almaclara, together with filmmaker and writer Sheila Hayman, great-great-granddaughter of Fanny Mendelssohn and acclaimed Glasgow-based pianist Karolina Kubalkova.

Through performance, storytelling and conversation, this exceptional trio explore the remarkable life and music of Fanny Mendelssohn — a composer of extraordinary originality whose voice was long overshadowed by history — alongside reflections on other pioneering women, including Clara Schumann, and the zeitgeist of the incipient creation of European culture in the mid-19th century.

Part concert, part living history, this is a rare opportunity to encounter great music in a new light, and to hear a family story carried across generations. Following acclaimed performances in Seville, Valencia, Leipzig and London, this inspiring collaboration comes to Pianodrome Bruntsfield for a very special Edinburgh appearance.

Expect passionate performance, fascinating stories, and the chance to rediscover music history through voices too often left unheard.

More about the artists:

Beatriz González Calderón

Beatriz González Calderón was born in Cádiz (Spain) in 1985 and began her musical studies at the age of four with her father, the pianist Alberto González Calderón. She completed her cello degree in 2007 under the guidance of Ivo Cortés and Israel Fausto Martínez. She later studied with Andreas Greger at the Barenboim-Said Foundation Academy and with Luiza Nancu, thanks to a scholarship from the Friends Association of the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville.

Between 2003 and 2008 she was a member of the Andalusian Youth Orchestra, with which she performed in several international festivals and toured France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, under the direction of Michael Thomas, Gloria Isabel Ramos, Enrique Mazzola, José Luis Temes, Pablo González, and Daniel Barenboim. In 2013 she was invited by the Programme as a cello and chamber music teacher and, since 2021, she has held the position of Music Coordinator of the Andalusian Youth Performers Programme.

In 2008, Beatriz founded Almaclara, the only all-female chamber orchestra in Spain, which she has directed both artistically and executively since its creation. She is responsible for the ensemble’s artistic programming, which focuses on contextualising the repertoire of significant women composers throughout music history, while also engaging with chamber and solo works, maintaining an intense career as a performer. More information about the project is available at www.almaclara.es.

She has also toured nationally and internationally with the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville and the Galician Symphony Orchestra, working with conductors such as George Pehlivanian, Anne Manson, Ralf Weikert, Pedro Halffter, John Axelrod, Frühbeck de Burgos, and Pablo González. She is also frequently invited by international orchestras, such as the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, to participate in numerous recitals and festivals.
In addition, she has broadened her training through courses in Theatrical Performance at the Viento Sur School and in Theatre and Stage Design at the Higher School of Dramatic Arts of Seville, which has enabled her to lead creative workshops in cultural and educational institutions. She is also continuing her musical training by specialising in orchestral conducting with maestros Juan Luis Pérez and Pablo González.

Beatriz holds a Master’s degree in Cultural Management, which allows her to combine artistic work with the business management of projects, and a Master’s degree in Musical Performance and Research from the International University of Valencia. She has participated as a speaker in conferences, such as the 2022 IMS symposium in Athens, and focuses her efforts on the dissemination of the role of women such as Clara Schumann and Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn. She is currently pursuing her PhD in the Art and Heritage programme at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Seville, focusing her research on the musical influence of Clara Schumann on the work of Johannes Brahms. For this, she has received research fellowships from the European Union as well as from the Brahms Society in Baden-Baden (Germany).

In November 2024, she was awarded the ROMA Women, Art and Culture Prize, granted by Pablo de Olavide University of Seville, the Provincial Council of Seville, and the Cajasol Foundation.
In March 2025, she was appointed Full Member of the Spanish Academy of Performing Arts, in the fields of performance and research in music.

Sheila Hayman

Sheila is a BAFTA and BAFTA Fulbright winning documentary filmmaker, specialising in films about culture and technology, as Director's Fellow at the MIT Media Lab and currently at Cambridge University's Minderoo Centre.
She made her first film about the stupidity of robots in 1985; in 1988 'The Big Company', about American corporations, won Documentary Series of the Year, and her 1993 BBC film 'The Electronic Frontier' foresaw ubiquitous surveillance via smart devices, the death of Main St, the computer in your pocket, and DeepFakes - including their political risks.

In 2012 she wrote, produced and directed a multilingual miniseries about the Enlightenment which reached 150m people, and in 2014 she wrote and produced a major drama-documentary about the Targa Florio motor race in Sicily.

She also makes films and digital projects about music, with films, apps and other projects for the LSO, Arensky and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

In 2010 her BBC film ‘Mendelssohn, The Nazis and Me’ was nominated for Best Arts Documentary, and in 2023 she released its sibling, 'Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn' to four-star reviews. As a writer she's been Young Journalist of the Year, a Hodder Headline Lead Title novelist and a Guardian columnist.

She also runs the therapeutic creative writing group at Freedom from Torture. Other favourite jobs: creative director of Cake in the Clouds for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Fair in 2012 , and fiddle player in Gaelic Storm, the below stairs band in 'Titanic'.

Karolína Kubalkova

Karolína is an acclaimed concert pianist and the daughter of internationally celebrated, twice Juno nominated, UNESCO recognised Czech pianist, Antonín Kubálek. She is an alumna of the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Prague Academy of Music, and the Glenn Gould School of Music.

Now based in Glasgow, Karolína proudly contributes to the UK music community - not only as a solo and collaborative artist but also as the Artistic Director, Curator, and Founder of Music in the Mearns.

Her artistry has earned international recognition. Karolína’s memorable 2009 debut in Prague’s famous St Lawrence Church of the Prague Spring Festival left a lasting impression on audiences and critics alike, as noted in Hudební Rozhledy, the Czech national music magazine: “…her performances prove again and again that she carries the precious gift of being able to communicate with the audience… (giving) the impression that she has always belonged to the stage.”

In March 2025, her recording of Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor—released under her own white-label imprint-was broadcast on BBC Radio along with an interview about her curatorial work with Music in the Mearns, affirming her growing presence in the UK classical music community.

Karolína has performed across Europe and beyond, including Germany, Croatia, Hungary, England, Scotland, the People’s Republic of China, Canada, the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Portugal, and The Netherlands. Notably, she has performed concertos by Beethoven and Mozart with prestigious orchestras such as the Toronto Concert Orchestra under the baton of the late Kerry Stratton, and Symphony in the Barn in Ontario, Canada under the baton of Irish conductor Kevin Mallon in 2021. She will make her debut in Italy, Ireland, and France in 2026.

Karolína is currently touring the UK with a wide-ranging programme of solo and chamber music, performing at venues such as St Giles’ Cathedral, the Pianodrome in Edinburgh, and St Mary’s Cathedral. Her 2025/26 programmes feature music by Rachmaninov, Debussy, Beethoven, Schubert, Glass, Mozart, Chopin, and contemporary Scottish-inspired works. She is also performing across Scotland with a quintet formed of Royal Conservatoire alumni, spearheaded by the widely praised Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor by W.A. Mozart, presented at Music in the Mearns in Glasgow and St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh in August 2025. In 2026, Karolína will make her debut at Falkirk Live! Music Festival, followed by a solo tour in London and Southern England in November.

Karolina joined Live Music Now Scotland in 2026, work that reflects her belief in music as a vital, human connection that extends beyond the concert hall and into everyday life.
Venue Info

Pianodrome Bruntsfield is at The St.Oswald's Center at 41 Montpelier Park, Bruntsfield, Edinburgh EH10 4NB, at the corner of Montpelier and Montpelier Park and next to the Bruntsfield primary school.

The Pianodrome is based in a 130 year old ex church building, and currently the space is unheated, so please remember to wrap up warm.

Concessions
We do not check your right to a concession or name your price ticket. If you feel you can afford the full price please select this ticket. However, concessions prices are there to help anybody attend the show - if you need a lower cost ticket you are in the best position to determine that. No questions asked.

Accessibility
There is ramped access to the main hall of the Pianodrome on Montpelier (the entrance to the South-East of the building ///circle.item.tidy).

We have an accessible toilet and space for wheelchairs. Most of our performances are relaxed performances. If you have any access requirements please feel free to email us at boxoffice@pianodrome.org.

Babes in arms
You do not need a ticket for babies, but if your child is likely to take space in a seat then please book them a ticket.

Non-human visitors
Pets are welcome if they are well behaved.