There are few places where music can be experienced quite like Tremenheere.
Across this summer, internationally acclaimed violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved has presented a series of performances that have transformed the gardens, gallery and James Turrell’s Skyspace into places of listening as much as looking. Rather than existing separately, music, architecture, landscape and contemporary art have come together, inviting audiences to experience each in new ways.
For Peter, these performances are more than concerts. They are conversations between artists, composers and places, drawing together centuries of music with new commissions inspired by Cornwall’s landscape and creative community.
The Skyspace, in particular, offers a remarkable setting for performance. James Turrell’s work encourages us to slow down and become aware of changing light, colour and perception. Introducing live violin into this environment creates an experience that is both intimate and expansive, where sound seems to inhabit the architecture just as light does. As the sky shifts overhead and the surrounding landscape changes with the evening, no two performances are ever quite the same.
Recent performances at the world premiere of James Turrell’s newest Skyspace, As Seen Below – The Dome in Aarhus, Denmark, highlighted the extraordinary relationship between live classical music and Turrell’s immersive environments, an experience audiences can also discover at Tremenheere.
Alongside music by Baroque masters Giuseppe Tartini and Niccolò Paganini, Peter’s programmes have championed contemporary composers whose work grows through long-standing artistic relationships. Among them is Robert Saxton, one of Britain’s most distinguished living composers.
Peter and Robert have collaborated for more than thirty years, developing new works through an ongoing dialogue between music, painting, literature and conversation. Over the past two years, Robert has composed a series of miniatures inspired by Peter’s drawings and paintings, alongside their shared interests and exchanges. Their creative partnership demonstrates how new music can emerge through friendship, trust and sustained artistic curiosity.
That collaboration reaches a new milestone on Friday 4 September with Seascapes and Love Songs, the final concert in this year’s Tremenheere series.
The evening begins in James Turrell’s Skyspace with music inspired by birds, nature and poetry, including the world premiere of Robert Saxton’s A Local Train of Thought (after Siegfried Sassoon), alongside works by Tartini and Paganini.
The performance then moves to the Tremenheere Gallery, where audiences will hear music by Tartini, Paganini, Benjamin Britten and Elisabeth Lutyens, culminating in another world premiere: Robert Saxton’s Seascape with Love Song. Written especially for Tremenheere, the work responds to Peter’s paintings of the nearby Atlantic Ocean, continuing the dialogue between music, image and landscape that has characterised this summer’s performances.
These concerts are a reminder that music does not exist in isolation. At Tremenheere, it becomes part of a wider experience of architecture, light, art and the natural world, creating moments that encourage us to look, listen and notice more deeply.
Join us on Friday 4 September for the concluding performance of Peter Sheppard Skærved’s 2026 concert series and experience an evening where centuries of musical tradition meet new artistic voices in one of Cornwall’s most extraordinary settings.
