John Scarland’s Christmas card of The York Waits: On sale through Kentmere House Gallery
KENTMERE House Gallery has produced its own exclusive Christmas card featuring The York Waits, one of the world’s longest-established Renaissance music ensembles.
Designed by artist John Scarland, the 7” x 5” card is printed on good-quality card in packets of five priced at £2.50, available in person from the gallery at 53, Scarcroft Hill, York, Y024 1DF, or by post by phoning gallery owner Ann Petherick on 01904 656507 or emailing her at [email protected] . Postage and envelopes are included in the price.
The York Waits have performed continuously since 1977, bringing sounds such as the shawm and sackbut band and the “great consort” of recorders, plus mixed ensembles that include voices and violins, crumhorns and curtails, to audiences throughout the UK and in several European countries.
Naturally, there have been personnel changes, bringing in younger musicians with new skills, ideas and repertoire, but one founder member remains and others have performed with The York Waits for more than 20 years.
The York and Yorkshire group was formed by seven young men who developed a passion for the music of the Medieval and Renaissance periods and for its instruments, at a time when accurate reproductions were becoming more widely available.
The ensemble gave itself a powerful raison d’être by setting out to re-create the salaried city band of York, which existed from medieval times to the early 1800s. Many municipalities in England and continental Europe employed such ensembles, each with a range of civic duties, such as bringing music to the masses.
For many years, The York Waits performed in carefully researched and re-created clothing of the Renaissance period, and the band still clambers into costume for traditional processions and historical re-enactments.
The York Waits have made ten recordings inspired by historical themes, including the Spanish Armada, the life and times of Richard III and Henry VIII, plus York’s most notorious native, Guy Fawkes, complemented by a sequence of recordings of early Christmas music.
Concert programmes have been constructed around such varied themes as pilgrimage and the Gunpowder Plot. Sometimes there are readings drawn from original sources, but the emphasis is always on the music of the chosen period and the instruments that were heard at the time, providing a vivid soundtrack to the past.
In the 2026 line-up are Tim Bayley, Lizzie Gutteridge, Anna Marshall, Susan Marshall and William Marshall, who will join forces with Ex Corde Vocal Ensemble to perform Christmas In Renaissance Rome under the direction of Paul Gameson at the National Centre of Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, on December 11 at 6.30pm as part of the York Early Music Christmas Festival 2026.
The programme will combine large-scale sacred polyphony with traditional Italian seasonal songs and instrumental music. Selections from two Christmas masses frame the evening: Arcadelt’s Missa Noe Noe and Palestrina’s Missa Hodie Christus Natus Est.
Motets by de Silva, Victoria, lullabies and instrumental pieces, reflecting both formal liturgical practices and more domestic Christmas traditions, complete the festive celebrations. Tickets are on sale at 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk.
Kentmere House Gallery will be open this weekend, November 7 and 8, from 11am to 5pm each day.