Festivals 2010
Scroll down for the list of festivals arranged by start date or jump to a month using the links below:
April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
All festivals are in the UK unless otherwise stated
April
St Endellion Easter Festival
1–11 Apr
Collegiate Church of St Endelienta, St Endellion, Cornwall
This year’s programme is wide ranging, from Handel and Mascagni to Duke Ellington. There are many choral evensongs and eucharists, Brahms’s German Requiem will be performed on 9 April and there will be an open performance of Part II of Messiah on 2 April.
www.endellion.org.uk
St Martin-in-the-Fields Handel Festival
5–10 Apr
St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London
The annual Handel festival opens with a performance of Messiah on 5 April and ends with Music for the Royal Fireworks on 10 April. Vox Cordis and the Belmont Ensemble will perform Acis and Galatea on 8 April, and there will be lunchtime concerts from The Meridian Consort and students from the Royal College of Music’s Department of Historical Performance.
www.smitf.org
Cirencester Parish Church Organ Festival
17–24 Apr
Cirencester Parish Church
With an opening recital by David Briggs (17 Apr) and recitals to follow including, among others, Ashley Grote (19 Apr), Cameron Luke (20 Apr) and the church’s own Organist and Director of Music, Anthony Hammond (24 Apr).
www.cirencesterorganfestival.co.uk
Chicago Early Music Festival
20–25 Apr
Chicago, USA, various venues
In which vocal ensemble Liber’s programme explores the repertoire of 14th-century Italy and France in settings of poetry by Petrarch, Sacchetti, Boccaccio and others (23 Apr), and The Newbery Consort presents a concert of William Byrd (25 Apr). Plus the Ensemble Lipzodes runs a workshop in vocal performance of music from the Middle Ages (22 Apr).
www.chicagoearlymusicfest.org
Cork International Choral Festival
28 Apr–2 May
Cork, Ireland
The 56th festival sees many performances across the city, opening with a Gala Concert to mark the centenary of Aloys Fleischmann (the festival also hosts the annual Fleischmann International Trophy Competition). Other highlights include the regular concert given by the National Chamber Choir of Ireland, a return to Cork from Belgian youth choir Scala, a number of high-quality free performances and a closing concert featuring a dozen choirs from as far afield as the Philippines and Singapore.
www.corkchoral.ie
May
Brighton Festival
1–23 May
Brighton
Featuring Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra on 11 May, while on 14 May the Brighton Festival Chorus, with soloists Juliette Pochin and Christopher Lemmings, will be conducted by James Morgan in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Vespers.
www.brightonfestival.org
Brighton Fringe
2–25 May
Brighton
Performances of interest include a 400th anniversary performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers by the Brighton Early Music Festival’s Consort of Voices on 8 May, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater by the choir of Saint Michael & All Angels on 15 May, a debut concert for new group Taliesin Consort on 17 May, and a pair of Rossini masses: the Sussex Phil Chamber Choir singing the Messe Solennelle on 1 May is followed by the Petite Messe Solennelle, sung by the East Sussex Bach Choir a week later. John Rutter’s Requiem will be performed by Sussex Voiceworks on 8 May at St Paul’s Church, and the Brighton Fringe also hosts lunchtime organ recitals at St Bartholomew’s (4, 11 and 18 May).
www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk
Norfolk & Norwich Festival
7–22 May
Norwich
Including a performance of Beethoven’s first and ninth symphonies by the English Chamber Orchestra and Norwich Festival Chorus conducted by David Parry. Meanwhile Robert Hollingworth’s singing group I Fagiolini has teamed up with the Dutch sound installation team Artery for ‘Tallis in Wonderland’ on 20 May, an innovative reworking of works by Josquin, Gombert, Tallis, Byrd, Gesualdo, Monteverdi and others masters of the age.
www.nnfestival.org.uk
Sounds New Contemporary Arts Festival
7–16 May
Canterbury
Basing its programme on the theme ‘Symbolism and Numerology in Music: The Number Seven’, this festival includes Canterbury Cathedral Quire performing a festival evensong entitled ‘The Psalms for the Seventh Evening’ on 7 May, and Croatia’s Cantus Ansambl performing works by British and Croatian composers in a concert themed on the seven wonders of the world on 10 May (with world premieres of works by Berlslav Slpus and Paul Max Edlin). Vocal group Juice will give premieres to Paul Robinson’s The Seventh, an as-yet unnamed composition by the group itself, and to a new arrangement of Lla Pas’s Tongues in Seven on 12 May.
www.soundsnew.org.uk
Newbury Spring Festival
8–22 May
Newbury
With Stile Antico performing Monteverdi’s Missa in illo tempore which was written in tribute to the composer’s Rennaissance forebears (particularly Palestrina) on 9 May; the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford giving a concert of early English secular and non-secular music, interspersed by organ pieces by Byrd and Carlton, at Douai Abbey on 10 May; and the 1607 ensemble bringing its jazz-influenced performance of early music to the Newbury Corn Exchange on 19 May.
www.newburyspringfestival.org.uk
London Festival of Contemporary Church Music
8–16 May
London
World premieres of works by Elizabeth Winters, Gregory Rose, Robert Bousiekowicz, Graham Ross, T.A.P. Bennett, Giles Swayne and Phil Cooke. Cooke’s Verbum caro factum est was commissioned by C&O and featured in the Nov/Dec 2009 issue. The festival, which takes place in venues around the capital, includes performances of LFCCM commissions by Kerry Andrew, Cecilia McDowall, Robin Walker, Andrew Simpson and Tim Ambler, and five London premieres, including Patric Standford’s A Mass for Hildegard of Bingen (9 May).
www.stpancraschurch.org
Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music
13–22 May
St John’s, Smith Square & Westminster Abbey, London
Taking as its focus the 400th anniversary of Monteverdi’s Vespers, La Venexiana’s performance of which, directed by Claudio Cavina, opens the festival on 13 May, the festival also includes La Risonanza performing chamber cantatas by Handel and his rivals on 14 May, I Fagiolini singing madrigals by de Wert, Rore, Marenzio, Gesualdo and Monteverdi on 16 May, the Choir of Westminster Abbey with a concert of Venetian and Roman music on 20 May, and the Gabrielli Consort & Players with Handel’s La Resurrezione on 20 May. I Fagiolini’s Director, Robert Hollingworth, will deliver the Lufthansa Lecture on the subject ‘Monteverdi the Modern Man’ on 15 May.
www.lufthansafestival.org.uk
Bury St Edmunds Festival
14–30 May
Bury St Edmunds
Including a Festival Eucharist on 16 May with an address given by Humphrey Burton, former BBC Head of Music and Arts, the Bury Bach Choir and Suffolk Baroque Players performing Mozart’s Requiem on 20 May, the Cathedral Choir with a concert including works by S.S. Wesley in celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth on 23 May, the Dante Quartet and the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge performing Roxanna Panufnik’s This Paradise on 24 May, and the Armonico Consort with the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble celebrating the 400th anniversary of Monteverdi’s Vespers on 25 May.
www.buryfestival.co.uk
Ely Festival of Church Music
15 May
Ely
A feast of church music at Ely Cathedral, with anthems including Mendelssohn’s Let all men praise the Lord, Stanford’s Lighten Our Darkness and Peter Aston’s The True Glory, Herbert Sumsion’s Benedicite, Omni Opera as a canticle, and organ voluntaries before and after the service: Denis Bénard’s Fantaisie sur Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, César Franck’s Prélude, Fugue et Variation Op.18 and Percy Fletcher’s Festival Toccata. The cathedral’s Organist and Director of Music is Paul Trepte and its Assistant Organist is Jonathan Lilley.
www.ely.anglican.org
Salisbury International Arts Festival
21 May–5 Jun
Salisbury
Another festival celebrates the 400th anniversary of Monteverdi’s Vespers with a performance by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Choir of the Enlightenment on 26 May, directed by Robert Howarth. Another highlight is the visit by the Russian Patriarchate Choir, performing Russian Orthodox choral music at Stonehenge by lamplight on 3 June and at Salisbury Cathedral by candlelight on 4 June.
www.salisburyfestival.co.uk
Salzburg Whitsun Festival
21–24 May
Salzburg, Austria
With Paul Agnew directing Les Arts Florissants in a concert of ‘Lamentations’ from Domenico Scarlatti, Leonardo Leo and Antonio Caldara.
www.salzburgerfestspiele.at
Leicester Early Music Festival
23 May–12 Jun
Leicester
Including a choral workshop on Palestrina’s Missa Aeterna Christi Munera with John Bence, Master of the Music at St Mary de Castro (27 Mar), a talk on ‘Palestrina and Rome’ given by David Lamb (27 Mar). Also Festival Beer Tasting (14 May), Festival Whisky Tasting (4 June) and Festival Wine Tasting (11 Jun).
www.earlymusicleicester.co.uk
Bath International Music Festival
26 May–6 Jun
Bath
Exaudi perform a concert of English madrigals, from Thomas Tomkins to Judith Weir, on 30 May, and Weir will also be appearing to discuss her inspirations with Joanna MacGregor on 5 June, with help from the Vayu Naidu Company and Bath Spa University Choir. Handel’s Israel in Egypt will be performed by the Bach Camerata and Alcina Ensemble at the town’s Roman Baths over two nights on 2–3 June, and a Festival Service at Bath Abbey on 6 June will include the Abbey’s choir singing anthems by Liszt and Weir and the Kyrie from Britten’s War Requiem.
www.bathmusicfest.org.uk
Bergen International Festival
26 May–9 Jun
Bergen, Norway
Opening with a showing of the 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi with a new orchestral arrangement of Philip Glass’s score on 26 May, other highlights will include a concert of traditional songs from Corsican masses by the Corsican male voice choir A Filetta on 5 June, and the premiere of Åresong, a commissioned work by Gabriel Fliflet and Jon Fosse, on 28 May.
www.fib.no
Beverley & East Rising Early Music Festival
28–30 May
East Riding
Including Stile Antico’s programme ‘Monteverdi’s tribute to the Renaissance’ on 28 May, a Monteverdi workshop with Clive McClelland, Chorus Master of Leeds Baroque on 29 May, the Beverley Early Music Festival Schools’ Chorus returning after a successful inaugural year to perform Haydn and Mozart on 29 May, and finally a performance of Handel’s Acis & Galatea by the Dunedin Consort and Players on 30 May.
www.ncem.co.uk
Galway Early Music Festival
28–30 May
Galway, Ireland
With the theme ‘Music and Madness’, highlights will be Cantoral presenting a programme of chant repertoire by Hildegard von Bingen and his contemporaries on 28 May, a staged performance of Tarantellas and Folias from the 15th to 18th centuries by Ensemble eX on 29 May, and a talk by theatre and opera director Eric Fraad on the subject of ‘the nature of madness as understood from the medieval through the baroque eras’. This talk will be followed by a screening of his own production of Messiah, which was set in Bedlam.
www.galwayearlymusic.com
English Music Festival
28–31 May
Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
The City of London Choir, directed by Hilary Davan Whetton, performs a concert of music by Holst and his contemporaries on 29 May, followed by Oxford Liedertafel exploring English part-song ‘through the ages’. The Elysian singers give an afternoon concert of Bantock, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Stanford, Britten and Howells’s Requiem on 30 May, with a semi-staged performance of Holst’s opera Savitri to follow in the evening; the festival concludes with a ‘Come and Sing’ performance of Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs and Elgar’s Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands, directed by Brian Kay, on 31 May.
www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk
St Davids Cathedral Festival
28 May–6 Jun
St Davids, Pembrokeshire
Opening with a concert given by the Children’s Festival Chorus, the Cathedral Choristers and the Cathedral Boys’ Choir on 28 May, the festival sees the Cathedral Choir and The Corelli Orchestra performing Peroglesi’s Stabat Mater and J.S. Bach’s Cantata 147 on 29 May, the premiere of a festival commission by David Bednall as part of Choral Evensong on 30 May (proceeded by an organ recital by David Lumsden), The King’s Singers on 31 May (SOLD OUT), Stile Antico performing its programme ‘Song of Songs’ on 2 June and the Festival Chorus and Orchestra performing Mozart’s Mass in C and Dominican Vespers on 5 June. Edward Dean gives a recital as part of the Young Organist Platform on 1 June, and David Goode performs William Matthias’s Organ Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales as part of a concert on 4 June.
www.stdavidscathedral.org.uk
June
Pipeworks Festival Organ Marathon
5 Jun
Dublin, Ireland
The triennial Pipeworks festival (next in 2011) will hold a one-day Organ Marathon in Dublin (5 Jun).
www.pipeworksfestival.com
Stockholm Early Music Festival
9–13 Jun
Old Town, Stockholm, Sweden
With a concert of Hymns by the 9th-century Byzantine composer Kassia by German ensemble VocaMe (10 Jun), La Vennexiana performing madrigals by Gesualdo (11 Jun) and renaissance repertoire performed by Spanish instrumental and vocal group Capella de Ministrers (13 Jun). Also featuring a rehearsal masterclass with Ton Koopman (11 Jun).
www.semf.se
Bachfest Leipzig
11–20 Jun
Leipzig, Germany
Taking place at a variety of venues in Leipzig, including Bach’s own former church the Thomaskirche, this year’s focus is on Bach, Robert Schumann and Brahms. Opening with Bach’s St John Passion (17 Jun), the festival continues with performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass and Schumann’s Requiem op.148 (18 Jun), and a particular highlight will be the world premiere of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s new choral work Angelfighter, conducted by Stefan Asbury (13 Jun).
www.bach-leipzig.de
Spitalfields Music Summer Festival
11–26 Jun
London
With Harry Christophers and The Sixteen as Associate Artists, the vocal group features heavily in this year’s programme to give various performances in various locations of work from John Dowland and William Cornysh (13 Jun) and Monteverdi (23, 24 Jun, featuring jazz pianist Julian Joseph) to the UK premiere of James MacMillan’s Miserere (18 Jun). The choir of Clare College, Oxford performs ‘Farewell Tunes’ (19 Jun), La Nuova Musica give a concert performance of John Blow’s Venus & Adonis (22 Jun) and the Royal Academy of Music’s Baroque Orchestra & Chorus, directed by Laurence Cummings, performs Handel’s Saul, preceded by an open rehearsal (25 Jun).
www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk
Aldeburgh Festival
12–28 Jun
Aldeburgh, Suffolk
La Nuova Musica performs music by Schütz and Giovanni Gabrieli (13 Jun) and Exaudi, the Britten-Pears Chamber Choir, North Suffolk Youth Choir and The Abbey Chapel Choir join to perform Britten’s 1930s Choruses alongside other pieces by Berio, Copland, Nicholas Maw and Stravinsky (20 Jun). Organists may care to put their boots, or at least their special organ-playing shoes, into the discussion ‘The Pianist’s Brain: A Two-Part Invention’, at which Pierre-Laurent Aimard and neuroscientist Eckart Altenmueller discuss ‘manual independence’ (20 Jun).
www.aldeburgh.co.uk
Gwyl Gregynog Festival
12–21 Jun
Gregynog Hall, Newtown, Powys
The Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips, round off the festival with a concert of renaissance music by Palestrina, Guerrero and Vivanco (20 Jun), before which the Musicians of the Globe will have premiered its reconstruction of Elizabethan garden music (18 Jun).
www.gwylgregynogfestival.org
Grant Park Music Festival
16 Jun–21 Aug
Chicago, USA
Mostly taking place at Frank Gehry’s Jay Pritzker Pavillion, choral highlights of the season include Haydn’s Te Deum, Hindemith’s Nobilissima Visione and Beethoven’s Mass in C Major (18, 19 Jun), a performance of William Schuman’s A Free Song with Copland’s Appalachian Spring (25, 26 Jun), and Sir Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time (23, 24 Jul) and Dvořák’s Requiem (13, 14 Aug). The Grant Park Festival Chorus, conducted by Christopher Bell, also has the stage to itself for two unaccompanied concerts of French choral music (6, 8 July).
www.grantparkmusicfestival.com
St Magnus Festival
18–23 Jun
Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland
Representing the conclusion of Polska! Year, some non-Polish highlights of this year’s festival include the St Magnus Festival Chorus and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performing Poulenc’s Gloria and the world premiere of a new work by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (20 Jun), and I Fagiolini performing ‘Cries from the Heart’ – a programme made up of Monteverdi’s Lamento D’Arianna as well as selected madrigals, Poulenc’s Sept Chansons and Berio’s Cries of London (22 Jun). The group also performs for the festival’s regular excursion to Orkney’s north-west tip to sing at St Magnus’s Church (23 Jun) and the film ‘The Full Monteverdi’, I Fagiolini’s production of Monteverdi’s fourth book of Madrigals, is showing at the Phoenix Cinema (22 Jun).
www.stmagnusfestival.com
City of London Festival
21 Jun–9 Jul
London
Confirmed highlights include an anniversary performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers by the Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral and His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts (22 June) and a concert exploring ‘Restoration’, with English and Portuguese music by, among others, Purcell, Byrd, Pedro de Cristo and Duarte Lobo sung by A Capella Portuguesa (25 June). Look out too for an appearance from the acclaimed (by their own publications) Rhinegold Singers (TBC).
www.colf.org
Oregon Bach Festival
25 Jun–11 Jul
Oregon, USA
With performances of Verdi’s Requiem (25, 27 Jun), and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (9, 11 Jul) anchoring this festival’s sites in Oregon and Eugene respectively, other highlights include the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra giving a concert of Bach’s Cantatas O ewiges Feuer and Aus der Tiefe rufe ich with Brahms’s Hungarian Dances and Liebeslieder Waltzes (29 Jun), a number of free concerts and the chance to explore Bach’s B Minor Mass in detail as it becomes the focus for the festival’s flagship Discovery Series of lecture-concerts (28, 30 Jun, 2, 5 Jul).
www.oregonbachfestival.com
East Neuk Festival
30 Jun-4 Jul
East Neuk, Scotland
Tallis’s Spem in Alium, as well as Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten and Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen feature in ‘Collosus’, a concert of epic repertoire performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Tallis Scholars and East Neuk Singers (2 Jul). The Tallis Scholars will also perform Tomas Luis de Victoria’s Requiem (3 Jul), interspersed with reflections by Dr Richard Holloway on life and death.
www.eastneukfestival.com
July
Cheltenham Music Festival
2–17 Jul
Cheltenham
Including a performance of early choral music by Trinity College Choir, Melbourne (7 Jul) and the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum directed by Ben Nicholas in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, followed by the Magdalena Consort performing Monteverdi’s 400-year-old Vespers. The Lion’s Face, a new opera by Elena Langer and with libretto by Glyn Maxwell, is also premiered (16 Jul).
http://cheltenhamfestivals.com/music/
Deal Festival
3–17 Jul
Deal, Kent
Details TBA
www.dealfestival.co.uk
Winchester Festival
9–18 Jul
Winchester
Opening with a choral concert from the Bach Choir and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, other highlights will include Southern Voices presenting ‘A Little Late Night Music’ at Winchester Cathedral, a concert from the Ashton Singers and Young Musicians Lunchtime Concerts. Details TBA
www.winchesterfestival.co.uk
York Early Music Festival
9-17 Jul
York
Opening with a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers which moves from York’s Minster for Part 1 to the magnificent Chapter House for Part 2 (9 Jul) and continuing with I Fagiolini performing Vecchi’s madrigal comedy L’Amfiparnaso (10 Jul).The University of York’s Baroque Ensemble and Chamber choir present a concert named ‘Three Weddings and a Birthday’ at the National Centre for Early Music (14 Jul), and The Sixteen stop in York as part of their annual choral pilgrimage (16 Jul).
www.ncem.co.uk
Petworth Festival
10-31 Jul
Petworth, West Sussex
A terrific opportunity here to take part in a ‘Come and Sing’ day with John Rutter. People of all abilities are welcome to St Mary’s Church, with morning and afternoon sessions culminating in a performance at 5pm (17 Jul). Contact Kate Wardle, Festival Manager to register interest. Remaining festival programme yet to be announced.
info@petworthfestival.org.uk
www.petworthfestival.org.uk
Westminster Abbey Summer Organ Festival
13 Jul–10 Aug
London
This year’s guest organists are Thomas Trotter (13 Jul), John Scott (20 Jul), Robert Quinney (27 Jul), James O’Donnell (3 Aug) and James McVinnie (10 Aug). Recitals start at 7pm.
www.westminster-abbey.org
Southern Cathedrals Festival
14–18 Jul
Chichester Cathedral
On rotation at Chichester, Salisbury and Winchester, Chichester hosts this time, celebrating S.S. Wesley’s bicentennial with a concert given by the boy choristers and lay vicars of Chichester and Salisbury Cathedrals (15 Jul). Later, the girl choristers of Salisbury and Winchester and lay vicars and lay clerks of all three explore ‘Robert Schumann’s Musical World’ (16 July).
www.southerncathedralsfestival.org.uk
BBC Proms
16 Jul–11 Sep
London
Programme announced on 22 Apr.
www.bbc.co.uk/proms
Cambridge Summer Music Festival
16 Jul–17 Aug
Cambridge
With a largely as-yet-unconfirmed programme, one highlight is sure to be an anniversary performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers with the Academy of Ancient Music and King’s College Choir at King’s College Chapel (9 Jul). Also confirmed is a concert of African music given by the festival’s Chorus and featuring Patti Boulaye (11 Jul), and also appearing at the festival will be the Orlando Consort and comedy songsmiths Instant Sunshine.
www.cambridgesummermusic.com
Harrogate International Festival
16 Jul–1 Aug
Harrogate
Details TBA
www.harrogate-festival.org.uk
International Music Choir Festival
16–19 Jul
Rome & Vatican City, Italy
Choirs perform in churches and open spaces of the Eternal City and in villages in the Roman countryside.
www.amicimusicasacra.com
International Organ Festival Haarlem
16–31 Jul
Haarlem, The Netherlands
The organ at the Cathedral of St Bavokerk, where many events take place, is used in Moby Dick to describe the inside of the whale’s mouth: ‘seeing all these colonnades of bone so methodically ranged about, would you not think you were inside of the great Haarlem organ, and gazing upon its thousand pipes?’ Playing highlights at this year’s festival will include Olivier Latry’s recital (22 Jul) and the interpretation concert given by organists Jean-Baptiste Robin and Lorenzo Ghielmi and harpsichordist Pieter Dirksen (29 Jul). The festival also plays host to the International Organ Improvisation Competition, with preliminary rounds (16, 17 Jul) building to a grand final at St Bavokerk (21 Jul).
www.organfestival.nl
King’s Lynn Festival
18–31 Jul
King’s Lynn
Celebrating its 60th Anniversary, the festival’s choral highlight will be a concert of Mozart and Handel given by the English Chamber Orchestra and King’s Lynn Festival Chorus (25 Jul), the Chorus now with a new Director in 25-year-old Tom Appleton.
www.kingslynnfestival.org.uk
St Endellion Summer Festival of Music
28 Jul–7 Aug
St Endellion, north Cornwall
Mark Padmore is artistic director for this Summer’s festival, and highlights will include, on the first night, Poulenc’s Gloria (28 Jul), the Gloria and Bach Magnificat performed in Truro (2 Aug) and the Magnificat again, back in St Endellion (6 Aug). The Festival Chorus will also perform one late night concert (TBA).
www.endellion.org.uk
Tallinn International Organ Festival
30 Jul–8 Aug
Tallinn, Pärnu, Tartu – Estonia
With organ trips and masterclasses accompanying recitals and concerts with choral ensembles such as the Tallinn Boys’ Choir (4 Aug) and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (5 Aug). ‘From the Elder to the Younger or from the Organ to the Piano’ looks at the development of keyboard instruments with Ivo Sillamaa (harpsichord), Peep Lassmann (piano) and Andres Uibo (organ) and the organ festival chamber orchestra (31 Jul), and the final concert is an improvisation gala featuring Peter van Dijk, Guy Bovet, David Timm, Toomas Trass and Pierre Pincemaille (8 Aug).
www.concerts.ee
August
Three Choirs Festival – Gloucester
7–15 Aug
Gloucester
As ever there are many highlights, among which are Elgar’s The Kingdom at the festival’s first evening concert (7 Aug), an evening choral concert featuring Elgar’s Sea Pictures and Gerald Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality (13 Aug), and a newly commissioned selection of Gospel-style songs by Scott Strotman entitled Jazz Psalms (15 Aug). John Joubert is composer in residence, and the festival includes the premiere of his festival commission An English Requiem (9 Aug). These may be highlights, but there is an excellent choral orchestral concert every evening. Note the four RCO Young Organist Recitals at St Peter’s Church (10, 11, 12, 14 Aug), with performers selected based on the RCO’s examination results, as well as Ashley Grote (9 Aug) and Simon Preston (13 Aug) playing Gloucester Cathedral’s Nicholson-restored Downes and Sanders organ. Simon Carrington will conduct several choral masterclasses and also performing, in addition to the Three Choirs Festival Chorus and the newly-formed Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir (13 Aug), are The King’s Singers (7 Aug) and the Orlando Consort (12 Aug).
www.3choirs.org
Edinburgh International Festival
13 Aug–5 Sep
Edinburgh
John Adams’s nativity oratorio El Niño opens the festival with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Edinburgh Festival Chorus, National Youth Choir of Scotland and Theatre of Voices (13 Aug), while The Tallis Scholars perform Spanish renaissance music (17 Aug), baroque ensemble Florilegium is joined by four Bolivian singers for ‘Bolivian Baroque (19 Aug), The Sixteen present the music of Tomás Luis de Victoria and Juan Gutiérrez (20 Aug) and Ex Cathedra present baroque and renaissance music from Mexico, Bolivia and Peru in the style of a service of Vespers (23 Aug).
www.eif.co.uk
Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts
26–31 Aug
Presteigne, Powys
An as-yet unconfirmed schedule will include performances by The Joyful Company of Singers conducted by Peter Broadbent and the Presteigne Festival Orchestra conducted by George Vass, at this bucolic, acclaimed annual festival.
www.presteignefestival.com
Musikfest Stuttgart
28 Aug–19 Sep
Stuttgart, Germany
This year’s festival will have the theme of ‘Night’. Details TBA.
www.musikfest.de
September
Ripon International Festival
5–23 Sep
Ripon
Details TBA.
www.riponinternationalfestival.com
International Organ Festival ‘Città di Treviso e della Marca trevigiana’
11 Sep–17 Oct
Treviso, Italy
Concerts at a variety of different organs, including Saki Aoki at Ponzano Veneto (1 Oct) and Gilles Leyers at Conegliano (10 Oct).
www.organidimarca.it
Saint-Eustache Festival
18 Sep–26 Oct
Saint-Eustache Cathedral, Paris, France
Jean Guillou is the artistic director of this 21-year-old festival, and he celebrates his 80th year with six concerts centred around the 1989 Van den Heuvel Grand organ at Saint-Eustache. The opening concert, with Guillou himself joined by contemporary dance outfit Retouramont (18 Sep), is followed by Winfried Bönig (23 Sep), Pierre Charial and Vincent Crosnier (30 Sep), Alexandre Kniazev (4 Oct), Sarah Kim and Jean Baptiste Monnot (22 Oct) and Jean-Pierre Leguay (26 Oct).
www.orgue-saint-eustache.com
International Folksong Choir Festival ‘Europe and its Songs’
22–25 Sep
Barcelona, Spain
Competition and concerts focused on folk music in Europe and the rest of the world. For male, female, mixed, youth, children and gospel choirs.
www.amicimusicasacra.com
Calgary Organ Festival and Symposium
29 Sep–4 Oct
Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada
With celebrity recitals from David Briggs (1 Oct) and Alan Morrison (3 Oct), Margaret Philips playing for the festival’s opening gala concert (29 Sep), a performance of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony by Frédéric Champion and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and a series of lunchtime concerts and young artist platforms. The Symposium’s keynote speaker will be Marva Dawn and topics of discussion may include organ pedagogy and repertoire, the changing nature of its profession, the changing role of the organ in worship, and the history of the solo organ concert.
www.mtroyal.ca/organfestival
October
Toulouse les Orgues International Festival
7–17 Oct
Toulouse, France
Details TBA.
www.toulouse-les-orgues.org
Isle of Man Festival of Choirs
15–17 Oct
Isle of Man
The vehicle for a new choral competition to be judged by Alwyn Humphreys MBE, the first night will see choirs performing their party pieces before a day of competion on Saturday (16 Oct) and the Festival’s Final on Sunday, after which all participants may enjoy ‘a flavour of the music and dance of the Isle of Man’ (17 Oct).
www.gov.im/tourism/events/choirfestival.xml
International Gregorian Chant Festival
21–24 Oct
Bratislava, Slovakia
Applications are sought from choirs to take part in a programme of workshops and services to take place in churches in Bratislava.
www.choral-music.sk
November
American International Choral Festival
17–21 Nov
St Louis, USA
Choral festival based around competition and Interkultur’s Musica Mundi evaluation system, with workshops, seminars and visits from other Musica Mundi choirs around the world. The jury at St Louis will include the Charles Bruffy, Anders Jalkéus, Zimfira Poloz, André de Quadros and Hak-Won Yoon, each of whom will also be giving coaching to individual choirs over the course of the festival.
www.interkultur.com
December
Fifth International Festival of Advent and Christmas Music
2–5 Dec
Bratislava, Slovakia
Applications are sought for competitive and non-competitive choirs to perform at various secular and communal locations throughout the historic capital of Bratislava.
www.choral-music.sk
