About

Up Close and Musical was founded in 2020 by violist Shiry Rashkovsky to bridge the gap between audiences and artists endemic in the classical music industry. She wanted to create a space where audiences can step into the music world by getting rid of the physical distance found in conventional concert venues, and inviting world-renowned artists to share the kind of stories about their experiences that can only be told in words, up close. The festival’s events defy genre boundaries, with collaborations between classical and electronica, jazz and world musicians, and take place around food and drinks at the Fidelio Café, just down the road from where Shiry was living at the time, which is the perfect place for encounters to continue between performances.

The inaugural festival saw sold out performances and candid interviews with Abel Selaocoe, Héloïse Werner, Misha Mullov-Abbado, Huw Watkins, Gabriel Prokofiev, Chloë Hanslip, and Trio Klein, and workshops with Jessica Duchen and Nimrod Borenstein. In 2022, Up Close and Musical hosted an all-female roster with a guest appearance by the composer Deborah Pritchard.

Up Close and Musical has been featured in the Strad, BBC Music Magazine, BBC Radio 3 and Scala Radio.