York String Quartet: Performing at the World of James Herriot’s 25th anniverrsary gala dinner in October
YORK String Quartet will play at the World of James Herriot’s 25th Anniversary Black Tie Dinner at The Garden Rooms, at Tennants, Leyburn, on October 5.
The 6.45pm to 11.45pm event will feature a live performance by tenor Sean Ruane too. Special guests will include late author James Herriot’s son and daughter, Jim Wight and Rosie Page, family and friends and Yorkshire Vet and Channel 5 TV teams, hosted by BBC Radio York’s Elly Fiorentini. Fans from Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Germany, Japan and the USA will be attending.
Managing director Ian Ashton said: “The 25th anniversary gala dinner will be a fabulous evening and it’s especially pleasing that it will bring together so many family, friends, fans and colleagues of Alf Wight, some of whom will have travelled thousands of miles for the event.
“It all adds up to a fantastic tribute to a very special man, vet and author and to the vision of the then Hambleton District Council in setting up the attraction in his original surgery and home in 1999, following the Skeldale surgery’s move to new premises.”
Tenor Sean Ruane
The 25th anniversary coincides with the attraction recording record numbers of visitors of around 43,000 in the past year, up from around 15,000 when the attraction was taken over to be run as a private sector business in 2012.
“Alf’s books, films and TV series were the biggest thing to ever have happened to promote the dales and moors of North Yorkshire, which have become world renowned as ‘Herriot Country’,” said Ian.
“The recent Yorkshire Vet and remake of All Creatures Great And Small TV series have contributed in no small measure to the continuing success of his legacy, which would probably not have happened had the attraction closed in 2012.”
A fund-raising auction will be held during the evening and proceeds from the event will be donated to Herriot Hospice Homecare
Alf Wight, author James Herriot, after receiving his OBE
Looking forward to the gala, Jim Wight and Rosie Page said: “This is a lovely opportunity to celebrate our father’s legacy and to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the opening of the World of James Herriot. Our father would be proud to be associated with this initiative and we are delighted that the dinner has been organised and supported by so many friends and colleagues.”
Alf Wight’s stories, based on his experiences of being a young veterinary surgeon who worked among the North Yorkshire farming communities, have sold in their millions and have touched readers from all over the world.
James Alfred Wight was born on October 3 1916 in Sunderland (at his mother Hannah’s former home before she married Alf’s father James in July 1915). When Alf was only three weeks old, the family moved back to their own home in Glasgow and Alf remained there for most of his young life.
In December 1939, at the age of 23, Alf qualified as a veterinary surgeon with the Glasgow Veterinary College, taking on a brief post in January 1940 in a veterinary practice in Sunderland. He moved on in July 1940 to work in the rural practice of Donald J Sinclair in Thirsk, located close to the sweeping hills and rich valleys of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors National Parks, where he remained for the rest of his life, writing under the name of James Herriot.
IN evocation of La Belle Époque – roughly 1871 to 1914 – the festival focus turned to French composers. A Fauré song cycle followed Debussy’s late violin sonata, with a second half devoted to Chausson: an extended song and what amounts to a double concerto.
Debussy’s Violin Sonata in G minor dates from 1917, the year before he died, so falls technically outside the belle époque. Nevertheless, its nostalgia harks back to an earlier age, more in regret for the ravages of war than self-pity at his terminal illness.
In a piece where you never quite know where the composer is going next, Charlotte Scott’s violin and Katya Apekisheva’s piano were alive to the many moods of the opening Allegro vivo.
There was dizzying staccato and pizzicato in the dry intermezzo, carrying more than a hint of its origins in fantasy. Apekisheva contrived to be both intimate and expansive at the start of the finale, with Scott scouring the lower regions of her instrument before soaring majestically into the concluding Presto. They remained in close harness, however, and revelled in the fireworks at the finish.
Violinist Charlotte Scott. Picture: Matthew Johnson
It is good that this festival remembers that the voice, too, is an instrument and includes vocal music especially when accompanied by more than ‘just’ a piano. Fauré was not the only composer to sense that extra instruments often suited the voice, and he expanded his 1892 song-cycle La Bonne Chanson by adding a string quintet (including double bass) six years later.
Conditions were particularly gusty for this recital. Even though mezzo-soprano Anna Huntley battled bravely, her words were not always easy to discern against the flapping of the tent. It became necessary to treat her voice as just another instrument in a septet – at which point the music became thoroughly satisfying.
Behind Verlaine’s nine poems lie strong undercurrents of romantic love, which suited Fauré’s affaire with Emma Bardac (who was to become Debussy’s wife). Huntley did her very best to explore the many facets of emotional entanglement, from early stirrings to full-blown ecstasy, reserving glorious full tone, for example, for ‘Ô Bien Aimée’ (O My Beloved) but toning it down for a confident C’est l’heure Exquise’ (Exquisite Hour).
The strings masterfully reflected the ebb and flow of excitement, not least in tremolo associated with a whirring flock of quails. Daniel Lebhardt’s piano carried the burden of the argument with subtlety and the instrumental postlude spoke of ultimate contentment, whatever the season.
Mezzo-soprano Anna Huntley: “Battled bravely with the gusty conditions”. Picture: Kaupo Kikkas
The wind had abated during the interval, when Huntley returned with Chausson’s Chanson Perpétuelle, this time with piano quintet in support. She brought fuller tone to Charles Cros’s picture of a woman abandoned in love and with it greater intensity, helped by individual instruments acting as her alter ego. Apekisheva’s agitated piano completed a well-rounded portrait.
Chausson’s Concert, Op 21 is a concertante piece for violin and piano (to all intents a concerto, here with Alena Baeva and Vadym Kholodenko respectively), with accompaniment from a string quartet rather than a full orchestra.
A bold duo-cadenza was the highlight of the portentous opening movement, followed by a pensive Sicilienne that threatened to wind up into a full-blown allegro but never quite managed it.
After a darkly elegiac Grave, which came to an anguished climax, all six players were asked to stretch themselves to the limit in the finale’s variation form. Marked ‘trés animé’, its thrills were much enhanced by the tautness of the ensemble. The soloists had previously predominated, but here they were subsumed into a glorious tutti.
Miles And The Chain Gang: “It’s a lot more guitar orientated than the original”
YORK band Miles And The Chain Gang release a cover of Griff’s 2021 hit, Black Hole, as their eighth standalone track on September 6.
“I loved the song,” says band leader Miles Salter. “I thought it was one of the best pop songs of the last few years. It absolutely epitomised the sensation of heartbreak and loss at the end of a relationship.
“I wanted to see what we could do with it. I wanted to do a guitar band version. We changed one or two things – our version is slightly quicker, it’s a lot more guitar orientated than the original. I really like what we’ve done with it.”
Miles continues: “It’s nice to do something different. It’s a little darker than the other songs we’ve released, and Griff is not an act you’d associate with guitar bands.
“I’ve discovered music via having a teenage daughter. She’s introduced me to various things in the last four years. She’s very aware of female singer-songwriters. We’ve been to see gigs by Olivia Rodrigo, Caity Baser and Olivia Dean. A lot of the best pop that’s been released recently has come from female solo acts, it seems to me.”
Miles And The Chain Gang have released eight songs in total, clocking up 24,000 Spotify streams and 60,000 video views on YouTube and other platforms. “We play gigs in Yorkshire and are working on our debut album,” says Miles. “It’s taken ages, but we’re nearly there.”
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Miles is joined on the recording by Mat Watt (bass), Mothers stalwart Rob Wilson (guitar), Ava Hegarty (backing vocals) and renowned York musician Charlie Daykin (keyboards), as well as Anthony Thompson (trumpet) and Jonny Hooker (drums).
“Jonny produces our music at Young Thugs Studio, in York, and always works hard to get great results,” says Miles. “The video was made my animator, Jamie Scrutton, and the song is distributed digitally by Kycker Music, a Sheffield-based company. I’ve worked hard to build a team and it’s starting to pay off.”
Miles And The Chain Gang play the York Food and Drink Festival, in the Parliament Street marquee, on Thursday, September 26 at 8pm. Entry is free. Watch the video for Black Hole at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYLCkbb1I2Y
Shaparak Khorsandi: “Letting you back into her mind after ADHD diagnosis”
AFTER reassessing her life through the prism of an ADHD diagnosis in last year’s Fringe show, ShapChat, and her Scatter Brain memoir, Shaparak Khorsandi lets you back into her mind in her new show at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre on October 2.
“Warning: it’s cluttered in there,” says the 51-year-old British Comedy Award-nominated comedian, raconteur, I’m A Celebrity contestant and author of fiction and non-fiction.
Among other things, her Scatterbrain show will be a love letter to letter-writing, a trip back through Khorsandi’s early years as a comic and woman-about-town, and a whirlwind tour of her “hilarious and sometimes frantic brain”. At least, it might be, given the promise of “delightfully shambolic” comedy.
As the tour publicity puts it: “Although it might not be remembered by Shaparak herself, that’s part of how ADHD works. And actually, we’ll probably check in with her in case she’s decided to start a career as an antique furniture expert instead.
“The diagnosis has helped Shaparak make sense of many aspects of her behaviour and personality, as movingly chronicled in Scatter Brain (subtitled How I Finally Got Off The ADHD Rollercoaster To Become The Owner Of A Very Tidy Sock Drawer, published by Penguin Books).
“In this national tour of the same name, a woman who deserves the tag of national treasure uses her newly liberated mind as a springboard for a comedic rollercoaster ride.”
Impatient Productions present Shaparak Khorsandi: Scatterbrain, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, October 2, 7.45pm. Box office: 01723 370541or sjt.uk.com. Khorsandi’s 23-date September 11 to December 3 tour also visits Hull Truck Theatre, October 3, 7.30pm, and Old Woollen, Farsley, Leeds, October 16, 8pm. Box office: Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk; Farsley, oldwoollen.co.uk.
In the red: Brothers AJ, right, and Curtis Pritchard team up for Come What May this autumn
AJ and Curtis Pritchard bring the sultry, mysterious atmosphere of Paris to York Barbican on September 29 on the 24-date of Come What May.
A cast of West End performers will join the terpsichorean Stoke-on-Trent brothers in a song-and-dance show inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 jukebox musical romantic drama Moulin Rouge.
“Come What May is going to get myself and Curtis back on stage performing together and that’s exactly what we love doing,” says Strictly Come Dancing alumnus AJ, the elder sibling at 29.
“This show embodies the big musical numbers we have all come to love with the dance routines that I love to watch, but I much prefer being on stage, which is exactly where I’ll be.”
2019 Love Island contestant, Dancing With The Stars dancer, choreographer and actor Curtis, 28, enthuses: “I’ve loved performing and entertaining an audience since my Ballroom and Latin dancing days, so this is the perfect tour for me: singing and dancing!”
“We’re ‘Irish twins’! Born 15 months apart. Everything done together,” says AJ Pritchard
Ahead of rehearsals starting in London on Sunday, he adds: “Having gone through the full show I know that you will be entertained start to finish. Come What May is going to blow you away, I guarantee it.”
In the week when sibling rivalry has been all the rage with the feuding Gallagher brothers announcing “the guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned” for the return of Oasis next summer, how do the Pritchard brothers rub along?
“To be honest, Curtis and myself always perform together, having been brought up together,” says AJ. “We’re ‘Irish twins’! Born 15 months apart. Everything done together.
“When we’re performing, Curtis is more like controlled chaos, milking a number for two hours, whereas I’ll be saying, ‘Come on, we have to go on to the next number’, and that contrast works really well because we can play to each other’s strengths.
“Myself and Curtis competed all over the world, both training to the highest levels in Latin and ballroom, representing our country. We’ve always had a competitive relationship, doing extreme, high-adrenaline sports, and also to get the best audience reaction.
“We’ve always got each other’s back,” says Curtis Pritchard. “When working, be as competitive as you like, but when you are out and about, look after each other”
“Anything fun and dangerous we like to do, both of us breaking our arms. Curtis once broke his arm and leg at the same time.”
Curtis chips in: “We’ve always got each other’s back. When working, be as competitive as you like, but when you are out and about, look after each other.”
The brothers look forward to being on the road, away from the prying lens of the television camera that has charted their deeds, whether on Strictly or Love Island, Celebrity SAS or Dancing With The Stars.
“Doing a show like this with a different audience every night, you can always tweak things, and every night it should be slightly different,” says Curtis. “I love performing on stage and the competitive side of that is so stimulating…feeding off the adrenaline of a live audience.
“Though they say, ‘never break the fourth wall’, let’s be honest: you can break that wall if the audience gives you something.”
The tour poster for Come What May, featuring AJ and Curtis Pritchard
The spirit of Moulin Rouge, a Luhrmann film the brothers love for its dancing and costumes, will be evoked in Come What May, capturing the “sexy and disreputable underbelly of the city to the glamour and glitz of the Moulin Rouge, where you’ll be transported back in time to a place of dreams, adventure, and most importantly, love”.
Expect such songs as Come What May, Lady Marmalde, Your Song and Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend from the film soundtrack, together with hits from other modern movie musicals, such as The Greatest Show, Like A Virgin and The Show Must Go On.
“I will not be singing,” says AJ, “It’s not my forte! But we’ve got a fantastic band and singers. Fundamentally, Curtis and I will do what you see on the big numbers on Strictly.”
Now come the rehearsals and the tour run from September 20 to October 24, with the need to stay in tip-top condition. “If you have the best technique and really high-quality dancers, with lifts or without lifts, if you’re physically and mentally fit, the injuries don’t come,” says AJ. “You always have to be fit and ready”…come what may!
Sisco Entertainment, Cuffe & Taylor and Live Nation present AJ and Curtis Pritchard in Come What May, York Barbican, September 29, 7.30pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Also: Sheffield City Hall, September 26, 7.30pm. Box office: sheffieldcityhall.co.uk.
Cira Robinson in rehearsal for her role as Eve in London City Ballet’s Resurgence
LONDON City Ballet is touring again after a 30-year break, returning York Theatre Royal next Friday and Saturday on the aptly named Resurgence tour.
Heading to York as part of Theatre Royal chief executive Paul Crewes’s drive to bring more dance to the city, the revived touring company will present works by acclaimed British choreographers, under the direction of artistic director Christopher Marney, former principal dancer at New Adventures and director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company of Chicago.
After Kenneth MacMillan’s 1972 one-act ballet Ballade, unseen in Europe for more than 50 years, Ashley Page’s Larina Waltz on its 30th anniversary, and the premiere of Arielle Smith’s Five Dances, the programme will close with Marney’s full company work Eve, premiered at Sadler’s Wells in 2022.
Taking the lead role in Eve will be Cira (pronounced Cheera) Robinson, the former Ballet Black luminary, who has renewed creative acquaintance with Marney after he choreographed her Lady Macbeth in Fabula Collective’s Human Dancing in 2020 at the New National Theatre in Tokyo and first appearing as Eve in the 2022 premiere.
“Chris let me know, maybe at the end of 2022, that he had the idea of creating a small company to play small-scale theatres, touring with just a couple of chairs and some lights, which is pretty much all you need, and it’s important to go to these theatres because not everyone can afford to go to London or Birmingham,” she says.
Marney spent two years rebuilding London City Ballet with insights from its early pioneers, selecting works for the 2024 international tour that pays homage to the company’s roots in the form of rarely seen archival footage.
“The work is child-friendly too, and everyone likes a bit of nostalgia, don’t they. York Theatre Royal is the perfect place for that.”
Cira speaks from experience, having performed there regularly with Ballet Black since 2012. “It’s like a third home to me,” she says. “I love the Theatre Royal and the city has such a historic feel, a quaint villagey feel. I don’t know if the stage is raked any more…”
…Be assured, Cira, that notoriously steep rake has gone! She smiles at that revelation but is always happy to adapt to whatever a stage demands. “For this tour, there are only 12 of us in the company touring to smaller theatres, and you just get on with it. As long as there are dressing rooms, toilets and wings, we’re ready to go!”
Describing the role of Eve, Cira draws breath, then says: “Wow! OK, OK, she’s the first woman in the world and basically this dance tells that story. She’s in this world that’s completely new, seeing birds and nature for the first time, and she’s obviously innocent.
“When she sees the Serpent, she experiences this feeling, I would say lust. The way Chris has choreographed it, one dancer (Arthur Wille) switches between the Serpent and the Man, which adds another layer.
“Like the touch of a hand. ‘What is this,’ she thinks. ‘Is it right? Is it wrong? What is it doing to me?’. There’s a battle going on between innocence and intrigue.”
Cira thrives on working with Marney. “Chris is great because he knows what he wants but is open to the dancer’s artistry after building the first floor, especially with new pieces. In my dancing I try to be as honest as possible. I judge that honesty on how aware I am of things around me, taking Cira away and diving into the character of Eve, feeling like I’m in this world as the only woman on stage, the only woman in the world.”
Auditioned by Ballet Black in 2007, Cira left the United States for the United Kingdom in 2008, beginning a long association with the London company until retiring in December 2022, taking up the post of director of Yorkshire Ballet Seminars, who bring hundreds of young ballet students to Yorkshire each summer.
Now she returns to the stage for London City Ballet’s renaissance. “I’ve danced since I was eight. My first love of dancing was definitely its sense of expression without words. I already expressed myself enough in words, but now I could do it with joy without having to say anything,” she says.
“I always had a sense of rhythm and movement, and you learn that at the beginning it’s about repetition. I still teach at junior school, where they’ll say, ‘I want to do gymnastics’ or ‘I want to play football, but once they get past that, they find that repetition is vital – and it still is.
“I just fell in love with dancing, with my teacher saying, ‘you moved your arm beautifully’. I thought, ‘if I can do that, maybe I can get praise for more movement’.
“Dancing is a love affair for me and it’s been the most constant thing in my life.”
London City Ballet, Resurgence, York Theatre Royal, September 6, 7.30pm, and September 7, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Copyright of The Press, York
Making her pointe: Additional questions for Cira Robinson
What are your recollections of arriving in London to join Ballet Black?
“I auditioned in 2007, and that was the first time I got my passport. Prior to that I danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem, surrounded by dancers of colour.
“When I came here to dance with Ballet Black, I knew they catered for black and brown dancers, when there was a lack of opportunity for those dancers elsewhere. Cassa Pancho [company founder and artistic director] made a point of that.
“I had this safety of Ballet Black having people who looked like me, and I realised how important the representation of colour was, and that has grown since then.”
How did you come to work with Freed of London on creating the first brown and bronze pointe shoe for the celebrated shoemakers?
“There is the skill of ‘pancaking’, to make a pointe shoe match your skin colour, and even white dancers have to do this. I had to do it for many years, and it was something passed down as a ritual, where you’re putting make-up foundation on the pointe-shoe satin.
“You apply it in a thin layer, making the shoe softer, and while the colour would look great, after a rehearsal or two, the shoes would start to dye, and those shoes are not cheap to replace.
“I’m a Freed of London shoe wearer and have been for years. There were these swatches of fabric, and I asked, ‘could I have a pointe shoe made of that?’, and though the initial reaction was they didn’t think it was possible, I went round six or eight fabric shops, and I could only find dark or light colours, but my friend said, ‘let’s try two more’, and in the next one I found the perfect colours.”
“The next day I went into Ballet Black and told Cassa Pancho about it, who said, ‘that’s great, but you shouldn’t be doing that. I’ll do it’!”
And so, Freed of London’s brown and bronze point shoes were born. “It’s been great. Lessening the time to prepare a show, and the feedback has been phenomenal.
“That’s the thing. Once someone starts something, it forces everyone to get into gear because dancers come in many shapes and colours.”
How do you retain your physical condition through all these years of dancing?
“It’s sheer will, but there are going to be injuries, there are going to be niggles, because it’s unnatural turning out our legs, and with that, our bones and muscles take a beating. As much asdancing is my force for existing, there needs to be time for balancing the things you do.
“I’ve had shin splints and stress fractures, and with dancers our pain threshold is a bit different. We can take more pain, but sometimes you have to say, ‘hold on, I need a break, so I can come back stronger’.”
How did the chance to perform with grime star Stormzy on the main stage at Glastonbury emerge?
“Specifically through Ballet Back. Maybe Cassa followed Stormzy on Instagram. The fact that Freed of London’s brown pointe shoes had come out was something to highlight, and Stormzy made a point of wanting to highlight ballet dancers of colour dancing in those shoes and loving it.
“It was over in seconds! I’ve danced in front of big audiences, but this was like nothing I’d experienced before. The crowd went on for miles and miles.”
Describe your experience of playing Lady Macbeth in Japan under the shadow of Covid.
“It came about through Yukiko Tsukamoto. We were friends and she’d started this small performing group [Fabula Collective] and wanted me to perform as Lady Macbeth, with Chris Marney directing.
“That was in 2021. I’d never been to Japan before. We had to quarantine for 14 days, then had five days out for maybe two performances. There were just three of us in the cast, with me playing Lady Macbeth going mad, seeing the dagger before her, seeing all these hands coming out of pockets.
“It was really interesting, showing her quick rise and drastic fall in 20 minutes, and then ultimately dying, giving so much information in that short time in Chris’s choreography.”
How did you feel about leaving Ballet Black?
“It wasn’t a difficult decision because it was something I was preparing for, after 14 years with that company, wanting to step out and explore other opportunities…and that’s when I joined Yorkshire Ballet Seminars.
“I’d come up in teach the summer seminars at Askham Bryan, at the farm – I remember it was smelly! – and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed teaching. It’s not a normal vocational school, it’s a summer intensive, residential seminar where the children are able to run around the fields.
“In 2021, I ended up getting Covid two days before I was due to teach there again, and that year Iain Mackay let me know he was retiring as the director and said I should apply. I didn’t think I was ready to be director and hadn’t thought about leaving Ballet Black yet, but I did go to a couple of meeting, thought I didn’t get the job.
“I thought, ‘OK, I’ll continue my freelance life’ and then one day I was in Derby, and the girl in front of me in the dance class broke her ankle and you think ‘that could have been me’. When I got back to the dressing room, there was a missed call from Iain [Mackay] saying the person they had chosen hadn’t worked out.
“I played it in my mind for 24 hours, thinking about that broken ankle, and I decided I should take the director’s job. My last show with Ballet Black was on December 5 2022 and I started the directorship on the 12th…but I was also pregnant!
“Retirement. New job. Baby. I’d been learning the ropes and then took maternity leave and started back in August 2023, still picking up skills. All those things I didn’t study for.
“Yorkshire Ballet Seminars have been held at Ashville College, in Harrogate, since 2021 and it’s been an amazing, insightful experience being the director since 2022. It’s not for the faint-hearted but I love what I do as a teacher, and the future of young dancers in this country means a lot to me, being impactful that way, especially with Yorkshire Ballet Seminars. The sessions are serious but the dancers can also be a kid there, finding their individuality.
Cira Robinson: the back story
BORN in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, where she began dancing at the age of eight.
After graduating from the School for Creative and Performing Arts in 2004, she moved to New City as an apprentice with the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble.
After a few months, she became a full member, dancing many works from the DTH repertoire under the guidance of Arthur Mitchell.
In 2008, she joined Ballet Black in London, where she created many roles with numerous choreographers from around the world, such as Liam Scarlett, Richard Alston, Antonia Franceschi, Christopher Hampton, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Christopher Marney and Gregory Maqoma, in her 14 years with the company.
Nominated in 2013 for Outstanding Classical Female at Critics Circle National Dance Awards, then Best Female Dancer nominee in 2021 awards.
In 2017, Cira worked with Freed of London and Ballet Black to create the first brown and bronze pointe shoe for the shoemakers.
In 2019, she danced on Glastonbury Pyramid stage with headline act Stormzy.
Teacher for Ballet Black Junior Ballet School and Yorkshire Ballet Summer Seminars and at open classes throughout UK.
Joined Fabula Collective in 2021 as guest artist in lead role of Lady Macbeth in Human Dancing, choreographed by Christopher Marney at New National Theatre, Tokyo, Japan.
Premiered lead role in Christopher Marney’s Eve at Sadler’s Wells, London, in September 2022. Won award for Best Soloist in Dance Production at Black British Theatre Awards.
Since retiring from Ballet Black in December 2022, Cira has become director of the charitable organisation Yorkshire Ballet Seminars.
In 2024, she returns to the stage as Eve in London City Ballet tour of Resurgence.
Regia Anglorum members Wilfred Somogyi, left, Catherine Stallybrass, Jenny Kell, Michael Stallybrass and Matthew Greatrex on the Saint Aelred’s Pilgrim Trail acros the North York Moors. Picture: Valerie Mather
YORKSHIRE documentary, travel and portrait photographer Valerie Mather will produce a photo essay to mark the September 14 launch of the Saint Aelred’s Pilgrim Trail in the North York Moors.
To promote the launch, Valerie already has photographed the Regia Anglorum mediaeval reenactment group on the new trail in Upper Ryedale and at Rievaulx Abbey in their 12th century medieval costumes.
She has taken on the trail commission after her Fields, Folds and Farming Life exhibition, capturing the heart of farming on isolated Yorkshire moorland in a year in the life of Bransdale, drew 26,000 visitors to Nunnington Hall, the National Trust country house in Ryedale, last year.
“The trail images were taken at Murton Grange, en route to Rievaulx Abbey and at the abbey itself, with the kind permission of English Heritage,” says Valerie, whose photographs can be seen on the Gallery section of the trail website at saintaelredspilgrimtrail.com.
Regia Anglorum’s Jenny Kell, in the guise of an Anglo-Saxon pilgrim, on the Saint Aelred’s Pilgrim Trail. Picture: Valerie Mather
“Regia Anglorum translates as ‘of the English’; their headquarters are in Canterbury, in a nod to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and they have members who gather from all over the country and dress in totally authentic costumes and shoes.”
Taking part in the photoshoot were Regia Anglorum members Jenny Kell, Catherine Stallybrass, Michael Stallybrass, Wilfred Somogyi and Matthew Greatrex; English Heritage volunteer Tony Powell; trail planning group members Kate Senior and Anne Stewart and Rievaulx Abbey visitors Louise Southwell and her children Agnes and Jim.
Starting and ending in Helmsley, the 41-mile trail links all the churches in the Benefice of Helmsley and Upper Ryedale, taking walkers, runners, cyclists and horse riders on a scenic pilgrimage through the southwest of the North York Moors National Park.
“We hope to revitalise interest in our historic rural and hamlet churches and chapels,” says George Gyte, parochial church council secretary of the Parish of Upper Ryedale. “However, the trail is for people of all faiths and none, who love the opportunity that pilgrimage offers for spiritual experience and well-being, meeting fellow pilgrims and enjoying our beautiful countryside.
Regia Anglorum member Catherine Stallybrass, in the guise of a nun, climbs a style on the Saint Aelred’s Pilgrim Trail. Picture: Valerie Mather
“There is something for everyone: those who are up for a challenge, those who seek places of peace, contemplation and prayer, and those want to hike and ‘stand and stare’ whilst absorbing the remarkable sights and sounds of our moors.”
George adds: “We’ve completed this new trail for walkers, runners, horse riders and cyclists, waymarked it and produced a guidebook with a foreword by the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell.
“We’ve also produced a Pilgrim Passport, to be stamped at the end of each stage, and have created a lovely website: https://www.saintaelredspilgrimtrail.com. Our horse riders ‘version was produced for us by Bill Tait – aka ‘the Helmsley Cowboy’ – and the Ryedale Bridleways Group. The one for cyclists is thanks to John Ellison, a local cyclist.”
The trail is named in homage to the celebrated saint, Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx Abbey from 1147 to 1167. “He was one of the finest of scholars: a writer, spiritual director, poet, preacher, historian, adviser to monarchs, peacemaker and walker,” says George. “His teachings are emblematic of our mission and the renewed interest in pilgrimage.”
Matthew Greatrex’s young pilgrim and Jenny Kell’s Anglo-Saxon pilgrim, from Regia Anglorum, enjoy a rest on the Saint Aelred’s Pilgrim Trail. Picture: Valerie Mather
To launch the trail, a Gathering Walk/Ride will be the focus of the Yorkshire Churches Day’s Ride and Stride and Heritage Open Days 2024 celebrations on September 14 to raise funds for the Yorkshire Churches Historic Trust and the renovation and repair of rural and historic churches in the Benefice of Helmsley and Upper Ryedale.
The Gathering Walk will start at 8.30am in the pastoral setting of All Saints Church, Hawnby, picking up striders and riders in the moorland villages of Old Byland, Scawton and Cold Kirby before descending the Cleveland Way to Rievaulx Abbey for a celebration service in the abbey nave with the Bilsdale Silver Band at 4pm, followed by a launch reception of fizz and canapés in the abbey café.
Walkers and riders are invited to walk all or part of the 12-mile route that day. “You can join in at several places and walk 12, seven, five or four miles or just a few hundred metres to end at Rievaulx Abbey for our service and reception,” says George. “Please bear in mind this is the North York Moors and so be prepared for all weathers! Walking boots are recommended.”
Regia Anglorum member Wilfred Somogyi’s young monk crosses the river on the Saint Aelred’s Pilgrim Trail. Picture: Valerie Mather
The Saint Aelred’s Pilgrim Trail has been supported by the North Yorkshire Moors Association, Helmsley Town Council, North Yorkshire Council, North York Moors National Park, Diocese of York, landowners along the trail and the parochial church councils of the parishes of Helmsley and Upper Ryedale.
Exhibitions are to be mounted in churches on the trail route, with more details to be announced, and the trail organisers are looking into the possibility of exhibiting Valerie’s prints from the photo essay at some of the churches for the heritage festival week.
For more information about Valerie Mather’s photography, head to: www.valeriematherphotography.co.uk or valeriematherphotography on Facebook and Instagram.
Approximate timings for the Gathering Walk/Ride Day, September 14
Walking time of approximately 4 hours 45 minutes to 5 hours. Leave Hawnby at 8.30am. Arrive at Old Byland by 10am for drinks and cake. Leave Old Byland, 10.30am. Arrive at Scawton, 11.40am. Leave Scawton, 11.45am. Arrive at Cold Kirby, 12.45pm. Space in village hall for packed lunches and hot drinks. Leave Cold Kirby, 1.45pm. Arrive at Rievaulx by 3pm to 3.15pm. Gather at Rievaulx Methodist Church/Church of Saint Mary the Virgin to process to the Abbey
Service in Rievaulx Abbey nave from 4pm.
Regia Anglorum member Catherine Stallybrass’s nun is greeted by English Heritage volunteer Tony Powell’s monk at Rievaulx Abbey. Picture: Victoria Mather
York actress Frances Marshall in rehearsal for Alan Ayckbourn’s 90th play, Show &Tell. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
ALAN Ayckbourn’s 90th play and the Fangfest arts weekend lead Charles Hutchinson’s recommendations for the weeks ahead.
Premiere of the week: Alan Ayckbourn’s Show & Tell, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, September 5 to October 5
BILL Champion, Paul Kemp, Frances Marshall, Richard Stacey and Olivia Woolhouse will be the cast for the 90th play by Scarborough writer-director Alan Ayckbourn, a love letter to theatre entitled Show & Tell.
In a delightfully dark farce that lifts the lid on the performances we act out on a daily basis, Jack is planning a big party for his wife’s birthday. Pulling out all the stops, he has booked a touring theatre company to perform in the main hall of the family home. Unfortunately, Jack is becoming forgetful in his old age, rendering him unable to remember all the details of the booking.
The Homelight Theatre Company is on its knees, desperately needing a well-paid gig – and Jack’s booking is very well paid. Pinning him down on the details has been tricky, however and something does not feel quite right. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Allied Air Forces Memorial Day at the Yorkshire Air Museum, pictured in 2023
We will remember them: Allied Air Forces Memorial Day, Yorkshire Air Museum, Halifax Way, Elvington, near York, Sunday, from 1.45pm
THE Yorkshire Military Marching Band will lead the 1.45pm parade featuring standard bearers from 16 Royal British Legion and RAF Association branches in one of the biggest events in the museum’s calendar.
Representatives of the RAF will join with counterparts from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and France in honouring the bravery and sacrifices of the allied air crews who flew from the airfield during the Second World War, many of whom did not survive. The day will climax with a 2.15pm service in the main hangar, under the nose of Halifax Bomber Friday the 13th. Open to museum visitors and invited guests.
Busted: Concluding the 2024 season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Saturday
Coastal gig of the week: Busted, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Saturday, gates open at 6pm
BUSTED close Cuffe & Taylor’s summer of outdoor gigs in Scarborough 22 years after first bouncing into the charts with the pop-punk energy of What I Go To School For and a year on from releasing Greatest Hits 2.0, an album of re-recorded hits with guests to mark the reunion of James Bourne, Matt Willis and Charlie Simpson.
Expect number one smashes Crashed The Wedding, Who’s David, Thunderbirds Are Go and You Said No to feature in Saturday’s set list, along with Year 3000, Air Hostess, Sleeping With The Lights On, Loser Kid and Everything I Knew. Support comes from Skinny Living and Soap. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com/busted.
William Dalrymple: Reflecting on India’s impact on the ancient world in his Grand Opera House talk
History talk of the week: William Dalrymple, How Ancient India Transformed the World, Grand Opera House, York, September 2, 7.30pm
HISTORIAN William Dalrymple, co-host of the Empire podcast, tells the story of how, from 250BC to 1200AD, India transformed the world: exporting religion, art, science, medicine and language along a Golden Road that stretched from the Red Sea to the Pacific, creating a vast and profoundly important empire of ideas.
Dalrymple explores how Indian ideas crossed political borders and influenced everything they touched, from the statues in Roman seaports to the Buddhism of Japan, the poetry of China to the mathematics of Baghdad. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Tales of a foster parent in her Peacock show at Pocklington Arts Centre
Comedy gig of the week: Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Peacock, Pocklington Arts Centre, September 5, 8pm
KIRI Pritchard-McLean has had a busy few years, hosting Live At The Apollo, fronting the BBC Radio 4 panel show Best Medicine, co-hosting the All Killa No Filla podcast, starting a comedy school and becoming a foster parent.
After a couple of the eggiest gigs of her career in boardrooms to social workers, a show about being a foster carer has been signed off, wherein she lifts the lid on social workers, first aid training and what not to do when a vicar searches for you on YouTube. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Tribute acts at the treble: Coldplay It Again, Stereoconics and Oasis Here Now re-heat the hits at Milton Rooms, Malton
Tribute gig of the week: Coldplay It Again, Stereoconics and Oasis Here Now, Milton Rooms, Malton, September 7, 7pm
THIS tribute triple bill brings together Coldplay It Again replicating the look, sound and spirit of a Colplay show, Stereoconics’ faithful versions of Stereophonics’ songs and Oasis Here Now’s devotion to the style and swagger of Oasis in their Nineties’ heyday, just as the Gallagher brothers announce their first gigs since 2009 for next summer. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Gerry Grant: Demonstrating Raku firing at Fangfoss Pottery
Festival of the week: Fangfest Festival of Practical Arts, Fangfoss, near York, September 7 and 8. 10am to 4pm
TWENTY-FIVE years on from its inception, the annual Fangfest returns with its celebration of traditional and contemporary art and craft skills as creatives, businesses and charities gather next weekend.
The festival features a flower festival, vintage and veteran cars, archery, Stamford Bridge History Society, music on the green, the Story Craft Theatre Company, a teddy bear trail, produce stalls and free craft activities, as well as 30 working craft exhibitors and workshops in needle felting, wood carving, spinning and embroidery. Entry to Fangfest is free; parking is £2 per vehicle in aid of Friends of St Martins School.
Bjorn Again: Thanking Abba for the music in York and Hull on their 2025 tour
Gig announcement of the week: Bjorn Again, York Barbican, September 28 2025, and Connexin Live, Hull, October 29 2025
AFTER festival appearances at Wilderness and Glastonbury this summer, Bjorn Again announce a British and Irish tour from September 26 to November 2 2025, taking in York Barbican on the third night and Connexin Live, Hull.
Founded in 1988 in Melbourne by Australianmusician/manager Rod Stephen, the tribute show carries the endorsement of Abba’s own Agnetha Fältskog. Designed as a tongue-in-cheek, rocked-up, light-hearted ABBA satire, the show is in its 37th year, having seen more than 100 musicians and vocalists and 400 technical crew/support staff contribute to 5,500 performances in 75 countries. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am at yorkbarbican.co.uk and connexinlivehull.com.
Violinist Charlotte Scott. Picture: Matthew Johnson
THE two Viennese Schools – the classical and the post-romantic – were brought into sharp contrast in this succulent programme, in which works by Mozart and Schubert framed music by the big three of the Second Viennese Schoool, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern.
Charlotte Scott and Joseph Havlat took the stage for Mozart’s two-movement Violin Sonata in E minor, K.304, which he wrote in the wake of his mother’s death. Scott’s perceptive violin has long been a favourite with this audience, whereas Havlat’s piano is a relative newcomer, but they blended sympathetically.
They treated the Allegro’s development section as a clear attempt by the composer to exorcise his grief, its storminess bordering on anger here. The tender, sighing motif in the succeeding trio had great feeling, although the minuet – hardly a dance – was much more fiery.
Webern’s Langsamer Satz (‘slow movement’) in C minor is a student piece for string quartet. With Scott at the helm, the ensemble worked its way urgently to its central unison before a muted elegy and a satisfyingly tender final pianissimo.
In similar vein was Berg’s Adagio, a distillation for trio of the slow movement of his Chamber Concerto. Here Scott’s violin was joined by Matthew Hunt’s clarinet, the two phrasing sensitively while Ariel Lanyi’s piano was intuitive in initiating mood changes.
Webern saw the commercial sense of thinning down Schoenberg’s First Chamber Symphony from the original 15 players to a mere quintet. Here we had the rare chance to hear the version with flute and clarinet alongside piano trio.
Forthrightly led by Alena Baeva’s violin, with Lanyi at the piano, the ensemble delivered clarity and vigour in equal measure, with contrastingly elegant lines in the Adagio before an exciting climax.
But the best was, incredibly, yet to come. Schubert’s Fantasy in C major, D.934 is rightly regarded as an Everest of the violin and piano repertoire, not to be undertaken lightly. Benjamin Baker’s violin was on fire and he played with assuringly few glances at his score.
Vadym Kholodenko recorded this work last year with his regular duo partner Alena Baeva. So we were in the hands of experts: both clearly knew the score in every sense. There was an immediacy here that felt utterly spontaneous, from the teasingly enigmatic opening to the spine-tingling final Presto.
En route, Baker was amazingly fluent, throwing off the variations on Sei Mir Gegrüsst (I Greet You), a song of romantic yearning, with carefree abandon after a gaily dancing czardas: we had eloquent rubato, dazzling pizzicato, breathtakingly accurate moto perpetuo, it was all there.
Kholodenko was with him every step of the way, indeed spurring him on: their relish was intoxicating. They were not afraid to be coolly meditative in the Allegretto before a finale of heart-stopping virtuosity. This was a sensational performance, surely destined to be the highlight of the festival.
The Paddington Trio: North York Moors Chamber Music Festival’s Young Artists for the 2024 festival
IT is not often the opportunity arises to hear a 19th-century work for the first time, especially one by a composer whose music rarely graces concert platforms.
Juliusz Zarębski, a Pole born in what is now Ukraine, died in 1885 at the age of 31, leaving a host of piano pieces – apart from a piano quintet written in the final months of his terminal battle with tuberculosis.
It was the highlight of this programme, whose backbone was provided by the Paddington Trio, the festival’s Young Artists. The added guests were violinist Benjamin Baker and viola player Max Mandel.
The evening had opened with Liszt piano music and included Shostakovich’s Second Piano Trio. Zarębski’s Piano Quintet in G minor is in the conventional four movements, but in other respects it strays from the norm.
For a start, this is no piano concerto with added strings: the keyboard role is beautifully integrated into the whole. Furthermore, its opening theme is given to the viola and only the second theme taken by the first violin, its long, lyrical lines contrasting well with the viola’s earlier probing. The composer cleverly thinned the texture right down – drawing our attention – before a huge climax at the close of the first movement.
The Adagio’s opening sounds as if improvised before growing increasingly anguished, with folk-like harmonies. Here we heard strings alone more than once. Its three-part shape petered into a quiet ending with cello and piano, gently treated here.
The ensemble was sprightly in the jaunty scherzo before a smooth trio over rippling piano. There were more than a few shades of Dvořák in the finale, with Bohemian themes always close to the surface.
After a quiet interlude, the ebb and flow became quite volatile right up until a closing race for the tape. The ensemble, persuasively led by Baker, seemed to relish this rare opportunity, their lively approach evoking the spirit of the dance.
The Paddingtons were equal to the challenges of Shostakovich’s E minor trio, spearheaded by the tricky harmonics of Patrick Moriarty’s cello at the start. The fugue accelerated neatly and pizzicato was always taut. The group was fully alive to the quirks of the madcap scherzo, with its constant swerving between major and minor keys.
The elegiac Largo reflected the composer’s mood in 1944, in the wake of the tragic siege of Leningrad, but there was a contrasting urgency in the finale, with its elements of gypsy dance. The Paddingtons showed themselves to be a well-knit ensemble, even if occasionally Tuulia Hero’s violin might have been a touch more daring.
The group’s pianist, Stephanie Tang, had given us Liszt’s original version of La lugubre Gondola, written in the aftermath of Wagner’s death in Venice. It is so bare it sounds almost like doodling and Tang’s deliberately harsh tone did nothing to alleviate the composer’s evident grief. But it swayed smoothly enough, in true barcarole fashion.
