Featuring Jacqui Dankworth, Dame Sarah Connolly, Dame Imogen Cooper, Fantasia Orchestra and Matthew Parris.
Tickets for one of Yorkshire’s leading classical music festivals, the Northern Aldborough Festival, go on sale this March.
Sopranos, operatic stars, jazz vocalists and choral acts turn the idyllic rural North Yorkshire village into an unlikely epicentre for music from 12 to 21 June.
This year’s programme celebrates the artistry and power of the human voice, centred on the annual New Voices Singing Competition, which boasts a star-studded judging panel.
Putting the voice centre stage, the UK-wide hunt for the year’s finest vocal classical talent is a showcase of the hottest rising stars and offers a prize fund of £7000 and performances at leading festivals for the winners.
2025’s judging panel features arguably England’s most famous living operatic baritone, Sir Thomas Allen, the pioneering female conductor Dame Jane Glover, and pianist and founder of the Oxford Lieder Festival Sholto Kynoch.
Audiences experience acts normally seen on the cosmopolitan stage in the intimate setting of the ancient St Andrew’s village church. Now in its 31st year, a charity, the festival’s mission is to bring world-class acts to rural audiences, and provide a platform for rising stars of the classical scene.
A very special headline act features two musical luminaries: the mezzo soprano Dame Sarah Connolly with Dame Imogen Cooper on piano. Their programme includes the romantic and beautiful ‘Woman’s Life and Love’ (Frauen-Liebe und Leben) by Schumann, and much-loved songs by Brahms and Duparc.
Opening the festival fresh from their Proms debut is the dynamic Fantasia Orchestra. Home to some of the best of young British classical music talent, they will be joined by leading violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen, performing Vaughan Williams’ stunning Lark Ascending. Under the baton of Tom Fetherstonhaugh, the programme includes Elgar’s elegiac Serenade for Strings and Dvorak’s Nocturne.
Tickets are on general sale 28 March, but Friends of the Festival benefit from a two-week priority booking period, starting Friday 14 March.
The festival also welcomes the leading British jazz vocalist Jacqui Dankworth and her Trio. She’ll showcase her unique vocal mastery in an intimate venue, with a set featuring her favourite classics that have inspired her incredible career.
One of the UK’s most exciting opera companies, Wild Arts, performs Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love. Attracting five-star reviews, the semi-staged comedy reimagines the legendary story in a dreamy 1950s seaside setting. Audiences can picnic in the beautiful surrounds of Aldborough Manor before the performance.
Described as a ‘musical Bear Grylls’ the world-leading French horn player Ben Goldscheider teams up with the acclaimed Heath Quartet to perform Mozart and Haydn.
Audiences can expect a spine-tingling evening with the critically-acclaimed singers of Armonico Consort as they sing Rachmaninov’s Russian masterpiece, The Vespers. Considered simply the most gorgeous choral music ever written, the piece was so personal to Rachmaninov he requested a section of the Vespers to be sung at his funeral.
BBC Proms star, vocalist Thanda Gumede has a heartfelt, beautiful baritone-to-falsetto voice. He performs with a pianist and bassist bringing Neo-soul and Gospel to a Grade II listed venue – The Old Hall in North Deighton.
The headline speaker this year is the respected journalist and Times columnist, Matthew Parris, who has spent over 35 years writing about politics. Expect an entertaining and insightful evening.
Closing the festival is the popular Last Night Outdoor Concert, set in the grounds of Aldborough Manor. This year’s headline act is the Killerz Tribute, one of the original tribute acts to The Killers, who will perform to circa 1,000 festival-goers. Audiences are invited to bring a picnic and dance the night away, ending with a spectacular orchestrated firework display.
Aldborough’s late-night venue ‘The Shed’ also returns for concert goers who want to continue festivities after the evening concerts in a relaxed environment, with a variety of live entertainment and refreshments.
For the full programme and to book tickets, go to: https://aldboroughfestival.co.uk/
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