This year’s Newbury Spring Festival celebrates some big birthdays: from the 45th Festival and the 25th Anniversary of the Festival’s own Chorus, to the 15th Anniversary of their Sheepdrove Piano Competition, there is a celebratory feel to this year’s two-week Festival. From film showings, rollicking folk music, jazz and cabaret, choral delights and orchestral greats, there really is something on this year’s programme for every taste.
This anniversary year continues the Festival's long-standing tradition of bringing the best artists from around the world to Newbury and its immediate area as they welcome musicians from as far afield as India and Japan, USA, Argentina, Spain, Ukraine, Holland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and of course the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The popular orchestral concerts at St Nicolas’ Church this year include the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Mozart Players. The Mozart Players play host to a stellar line up of soloists: young horn player Ben Goldscheider returns to Newbury to perform Benjamin Britten’s iconic Serenade for tenor, horn and strings with tenor Allan Clayton.
Performances at the Corn Exchange include folk band National Youth Jazz Orchestra’s tribute to Dizzy Gillespie, the big beats of the Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers, folk-influenced outfit Kabantu and a delightful evening of Indian Classical Music with masters of the genre Kousic Sen (tabla) and Jonathan Mayer (sitar).
There is plenty on offer for families to get stuck in with; shows specially devised with children in mind will introduce the next generation to the joy of live music through audience participation, imagination and plenty of fun. Wether they’re setting sail with groovy pirates or exploring the world from Thumbelina’s perspective, children - and their grown-ups - will love this year’s family events.
Newbury Spring Festival’s international programme, “two weeks of world-class music” also continues to feature some of the finest young artists emerging on the international scene in its popular Young Artist Recital Series (lunchtime concerts at the Corn Exchange, Newbury) and within the evening concerts, as soloists and ensembles alongside some of the greatest and most established musicians working today. The Festival’s evolving education programme offers young people from thew local area opportunities to experience workshops and performances by Festival musicians, as well as to perform themselves within the main Festival programme.
Newbury Spring Festival 2024 runs from 11 to 25 May. T
ickets go on public sale on Tuesday 5 March via the Corn Exchange Box Office newburyspringfestival.org.uk
Image credit: Nikolaj Lund, Monika Jakubowska
