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| Ryedale Festival at Lastingham Church |
The Ryedale Festival is in its 44th year and under the guidance of pianist Christopher Glynn, returns from 11 to 27 July 2025 for 57 performances in 33 spectacular locations right across the county, from the seaside charm of Scarborough to the historic market town of Skipton.
This year’s artists in residence are saxophonist Jess Gillam, composer and conductor Eric Whitacre, soprano Claire Booth and viola player Timothy Ridout, with ensembles in residence string quartet Quatuor Mosaïques and vocal ensemble VOCES8. Other visitors include pianists Stephen Hough and Imogen Cooper, and organist Thomas Trotter. Chamber music highlights include a musical journey through the final string quartets of Haydn and Schubert. Orchestral concerts include Royal Northern Sinfonia in Norton, Orchestra of Opera North in Ripon, Arcangelo in Selby, and a Festival debut for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at the festival’s closing concert when Chloe Rooke directs them in Poulenc’s Sinfonietta and music by Mozart and Mendelssohn.
New venues for the festival this year include Ripon Cathedral, Skipton Town Hall, Malton’s Wesley Centre and All Saints Church in Northallerton, as well as a return to Selby Abbey and a ‘Troubadour Trail’ by mandolinist Alon Sariel that brings music to tiny and remote country churches across the county.
The festival features the premiere of Gavin Higgins’ major new song cycle, Speak of the North, performed by soprano Claire Booth and Christopher Glynn. Inspired by Grieg and setting texts from the Bronte sisters to the present day, Higgins comments that the cycle is about place and what it truly means to be Northern, described by the composer as ‘a sprawling journey through physical and imagined landscapes of the North. It includes songs about the Peak District, Manchester as seen from above, Northumbrian folk heritage and coal mining landscapes – plus an argument between Hadrian’s Wall and the Sycamore Gap tree’.
Another premiere at the festival is a newly orchestrated work by Arthur Bliss. Fifty years after his death, composer Philip Wilby has honoured Bliss’s original vision for his passionate post-war Viola Sonata, transforming it into a concerto to be performed by Timothy Ridout with the Orchestra of Opera North, conducted by Tom Featherstonhaugh, alongside Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
Eric Whitacre conducts the National Youth Choir of Scotland in a programme focusing on his own works including Lux Aurumque and Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine alongside Bach and Moses Hogan. Whitacre will also be leading an open entry choral workshop, and conducting VOCES8 in his moving collaboration with poet Charles Silvestri, The Sacred Veil.
There is also a rare performance of Michael Tippett’s cantata Crown of the Year settings texts by Christopher Fry, written in 1958 and premiered by the composer with Badminton School Choir. At the festival Oliver Soden conducts Ryedale Festival Ensemble with Claire Booth and Rowan Pierce (sopranos) and Alexander Chance (countertenor) in a programme that brings together more of Tippett’s less-known works.
The festival’s Young Artist Platform, relaunched this year in association with the Waverley Fund, offers performance, mentoring and career-shaping opportunities for exceptionally talented performers at the beginning of their careers. This year’s Young Artists are guitarist Jack Hancher, pianist Firoze Madon, recorder player Hassan Marzban, pianist Ethan Loch and the Fibonacci Quartet.
Over 2,000 heavily discounted tickets will be made available through the Ryedale Rush scheme, while anyone under the age of 25 can attend nearly all events for £5 or less.
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| Ebberston Church |
Further ahead, the festival’s Winter Weekend, 21-23 November 2025, will feature a recital by pianist Ethan Loch, and baritone Roderick Williams and Christopher Glynn in Schubert’s Winterreise, plus a new Community Song Cycle inspired by Katherine May’s book Wintering co-created with participants by composer John Barber and writer Hazel Gould.
Full details from the festival website.
