Pianist Katya Apekisheva: “Delivered an account of Berg’s single-movement Piano Sonata, Op 1 that you are unlikely to hear bettered”
THE best-kept secret in the world of chamber music is up and running once again. This 18th year’s theme celebrates the wonders of Creation and is titled accordingly. Fittingly, this includes six premieres over the festival fortnight, at all of which the composers concerned will be present.
The sheer statistics are worth a glance. Over the course of 13 concerts, there will be 58 pieces from 32 different composers covering 300 years to the present. Most featured are Thomas Adès and Schumann with six pieces each, followed by Beethoven and Mozart with four apiece.
There are 28 performers involved, all of them outstanding in their field, including many who return year after year and have become audience favourites.
For those new to the festival, it should be mentioned that although the programmes are published in advance, the names of the actual performers are only revealed just before each event – which adds an anticipatory frisson.
This year’s Young Artists Ensemble is the Davidoff Trio, who had the honour of opening proceedings, which encompassed Opus 1 pieces by Beethoven, Schumann, Berg and Mendelssohn. The outstanding feature of the trio’s treatment of Beethoven’s Op 1, No 1 in E flat was the intelligent pianism of Yona Sophia Jutzi. She maintained an ideal balance with her partners along with smooth momentum.
The ‘Mannheim skyrocket’ of the opening theme had a crisp staccato in all three voices. By contrast, the unusual Rondo slow movement was notable for the pianist’s rubato and the cellist’s interjections.
Much was made of the contrast between the pianissimo opening of the Scherzo and the more robust moments later. There was sparkling wit in the finale, taken at particularly brisk pace, with the strings handling its Mozart-style chromaticism with panache.
Roman Kosyakov highlighted the vitality in Schumann’s Op 1, his Abegg Variations for piano, his first foray into musical acrostics, since the letters of the name (with B representing the note B flat) are the theme that he develops. Kosyakov was clearly aware that their style was largely derived from Chopin and he milked it cleverly, particularly in the highly decorated fourth variation.
Katya Apekisheva, a long-time favourite here, delivered an account of Berg’s single-movement Piano Sonata, Op 1 that you are unlikely to hear bettered. She was totally attuned to the idiom of extremely late Romantic harmony composed when Berg was still a pupil of Schoenberg. Her touch and attention to detail were impeccable, notably as she built towards its big climax.
Mendelssohn’s First Piano Quartet, Op 1 in C minor, brought a third pianist to the podium, Daniel Lebhardt, in company with violinist Charlotte Scott, viola player Elliott Perks and cellist and festival director Jamie Walton. It proved a superb combination. Its opus number belies the work’s extraordinary maturity, which was apparent in the relentlessly detailed piano role in the first movement. Lebhardt handled it impeccably.
There was a truly Romantic soulfulness in the Adagio, largely coloured by the lower two strings. The excitement in the scherzo gave it a sense of acceleration and a power cut during the trio was weathered faultlessly. Battery lights were brought on before the finale which, despite its moderato marking, was taken at a fair clip, growing in intensity into a thrilling coda.
Review by Martin Dreyer
North York Moors Chamber Music Festival continues until August 22. For the full programme, visit: northyorkmoorsfestival.com.
Doubles troubles: Husband-and-wife strife for Helen Clarke’s Margo and Jamie McKeller’s ageing club champ, Lionel, in York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets: What the Deuce? Picture: John Saunders
MINISTRY of Sound turning classical, The Magpies’ folk festival, Sue Slack’s landscape paintings and The Basement’s new comedy club should outshine this evening’s solar eclipse, reckons Charles Hutchinson.
New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, until Saturday, 6pm & 7.30pm, plus 4.30pm Saturday show
SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?
Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part are James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Holly Johnson: Frankie says Relax on the Scarborough coast
Coastal gig of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre presents Holly Johnson, ABC and Heaven 17, Friday, gates 6pm
FLAMBOYANT, unapologetically bold Frankie Goes To Hollywood lead vocalist and lyricist Holly Johnson tops the 1980s’ triple bill on Friday, when he performs the chart-topping trio of Relax, Two Tribes and The Power Of Love, further Frankie smashes Welcome To The Pleasure Dome and Rage Hard and solo hits Love Train, Americanos and Atomic City. Sheffield bands ABC and Heaven 17 support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Grim reading: Pandora Clifford’s Mags (a younger Margaret Thatcher) flicking through the headlines in Handbagged at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Political drama of the week: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 29
MOIRA Buffini’s 2013 Olivier Award-winning play imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the 20th century’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, locked handbags. Meeting once a week for 11 years, one believed there was no such thing as society; the other committed her life to serving it.
Spanning 1979 to 1990, Handbagged asks if The Queen and the Iron Lady ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme? Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder directs the SJT cast of Pandora Clifford, Liz Garland, Alexandra Mathie, Deven Modha, Simon Darwen and Meriel Scholfield. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
The Magpies: Hosting their annual folk festival at Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest
Folk festival of the month: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest, near York, Friday and Saturday. SOLD OUT
RUN by the folk trio of Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers, The Magpies Festival presents Friday’s Main Stage bill of Daraa Tribes (6pm), The Magpies (8pm) and headliners Manran (10pm) and Brass Castle Stage bill of True Foxes (5pm), Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe & Daniel Quayle (7pm), SupaLung (9pm) and New York Brass Band (11pm).
Saturday’s line-up on the Main Stage comprises Steady Habits (12 noon), Alex Hart (2pm), Blair Dunlop (4pm), Katherine Priddy (6pm), Gnoss (8pm) and headliners Cut Capers (10pm). The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Songs In The Round, with Katherine Priddy, Blair Dunlop and Chloe Foy (1pm), Tarren (3pm), Ophelia’s Beard (5pm), Around About Dusk (7pm) and Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars (9pm). Box office for returns only: themagpiesfestival.co.uk/tickets.
York River Art Market organiser Caroline Turner with artist Lincoln Lightfoot on the Dame Judi Dench Walk pathway
Open-air art event of the week: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, Saturday & Sunday, 10am to 5.30pm
YORK River Art Market returns for its 11th year, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines to the Ouse riverside each day, this year presenting art and design market stalls on both sides of the pathway.
Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is being run for the first time this summer by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York. Admission is free.
Ministry of Sound Classical: Taking over the Castle Howard grounds on Saturday
Club classics/House/Orchestral party gathering of the week: Ministry of Sound Classical, Grounds of Castle Howard, near Malton, Saturday, 2pm to 10.30pm
ENJOY sweeping views of the Castle Howard Estate while listening to a live orchestra reimagining the greatest dance anthems from the iconic Ministry of Sound catalogue as timeless tracks are brought to life, blending classical musicianship with contemporary dance music for an unforgettable open-air experience.
As well as headline act Ministry Of Sound Classical, artists performing at this festival will be Judge Jules, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Ellie Sax, Smudged Soul and Alex Malam. Box office for last few tickets: skiddle.com/festivals/ministry-of-sound-classical-at-castle-howard/#tickets.
Nice touch: Chloe Petts feeling lippy about playing Basement Comedy Club’s debut gig
Comedy gig of the week: Basement Comedy Club launch gig, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Sunday, 6pm
CITY Screen Picturehouse launches its new monthly comedy event in the redecorated Basement this weekend. Compered by Sara Barron, the debut Basement Comedy Club bill comprises headline act Chloe Petts, addressing lad culture and identity politics, Manchester comic Shah, shedding light on growing up in an immigrant household and mental health challenges, and Lovdev Barpaga, who specialises in crafting one liners and puns. Box office: picturehouses.com.
Hiker and landscape artist Sue Slack painting above Rosedale
Exhibition of the week: Sue Slack, Finding The Dramatic, Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, until August 31
NORTH York Moors landscape painter Sue Slack’s work is inspired by a deep connection with the surrounding landscape. A keen runner and hiker, she draws creative energy from exploring the area close to home.
Working outdoors, Sue embraces the immediacy of being in the landscape and its direct influence on her painting and drawing. In Finding The Dramatic, she presents mixed-media works inspired by the hills, dales and coastline of the North York Moors. Open Saturdays to Thursdays, closed on Fridays; free to visit.
Linda Smith: Bedroom pop at The Crescent
American pop underground act of the week: Please Please You presents Linda Smith, The Crescent, York, Sunday, 6.30pm
HOME recording pioneer Linda Smith has self-released her music since 1987, originally on cassette. In the early 1990s, indie labels Slumberland and Harriet Records expanded her reach with two seven-inch EPs.
Brooklyn, New York label Captured Tracks has reissued two complete albums on vinyl and Smith has begun to tour in the United States and internationally for the first time, now visiting York with her bedroom pop. Support act Troutflies play loose, woozy punk and experimental lo-fi pop, occasionally with duelling melodicas. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.
Donna Maria Taylor in her South Bank Studios studio
GEORGIAN celebrations, a brace of art fairs, Shakespeare sonnets on the tennis court and The Magpies’ folk festival should outshine Wednesday’s solar eclipse, reckons Charles Hutchinson.
Artists in situ: South Bank Studios’ Summer Artists Open Doors, Southlands Methodist Church, Bishopthorpe Road, York, today, 10am to 4pm
MEET the South Bank artists and makers who work in a broad range of disciplines, from textile art, painting, drawing and photography, to mixed media, letterpress and linocut printmaking.
Visit their studios to see their creative processes in a day of art to buy, art demonstrations and activities, including the loft studios, not usually on view to the public. The cafe will be open for refreshments. Entry is free; all welcome.
Masquerade Ball at the 2026 York Georgian Festival tonight
York festival of the week: York Georgian Festival, until August 10
HIGHLIGHTING the sights and sounds of 18th century life, York Mansion House and beyond plays host to the fourth York Georgian Festival in a festival programme that ranges from free displays of dancing and military drills in St Helen’s Square to the York Georgian Masquerade Ball at the Grand Assembly Rooms tonight. Talk, tours, performances and workshops feature too. For full listings and booking details, go to: yorkgeorgianfestival.co.uk.
Carlton Main Colliery Band: Brass At The Proms at Selby Abbey
Rousing concert of the week: Brass At The Proms, Carlton Main Colliery Band, Selby Abbey, tonight, 7pm
JOIN Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band on its return to the former coalfield town of Selby for a Last Night of the Proms brass concert featuring a vibrant mix of rousing favourites. Seating in the Main Nave will be allocated, with seat and row numbers; Rear Nave seating will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Box office: selbytownhall.co.uk.
Futureproof’s logo for a night of poetry, drag, monologues and comedy
Art and science bonding exercise of the week: Futureproof presents Opposites Attract Scratch Night, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight, 7.30pm
EIGHT acts perform a mixture of poetry, drag, monologues and comedy. Expect biochemistry, molecular biology, sewing, chalk stream-inspired dance and more tonight.
The theme, Opposites Attract, derives from the idea that many things will give people joy, purpose, belonging and entertainment — such as maths and science — that seem to be mutually exclusive to theatre. Futureproof invites creatives to consider these ostensible contrasts, alongside the concept that theatre is meant to reflect our world and/or be a tool to create new ones. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Comedy event of the week: Kevin Bridges: Warm Up, Grand Opera House, York, today and tomorrow, 8pm
CLYDEBANK comedian Kevin Bridges performs two warm-up shows in York ahead of his UK stand-up tour Here If You Need Me. Tonight’s gig has sold out but tickets are still available for tomorrow, as well as for his Leeds First Direct Bank Arena tour show on November 19. Box office: York, atgtickets.com/york; Leeds, axs.com/uk/events/1240964/kevin-bridges-tickets?skin=leeds.
On the stretch: Jamie McKeller’s Lionel, left, and Stuart Lindsay’s Charles limbering up for the doubles in York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets: What the Deuce? Picture: John Saunders
New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, until August 15, except August 11, 6pm & 7.30pm, plus 4.30pm Saturday shows
SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?
Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part will be James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The poster fort York River Art Market 2026. Illustration by Elliot Harrison (@York360)
Open-air art event of the month: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, today and tomorrow, then August 15 & 16, 10am to 5.30pm
YORK River Art Market returns for its 11th year, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines to the Ouse riverside each day, this year presenting art and design market stalls on both sides of the pathway.
Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is being run for the first time this summer by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York. Admission is free.
York River Art Market 2026 organiser Caroline Turner with artist Lincoln Lightfoot on the Dame Judi Dench Walk pathway
Tribute gig of the week: SWT presents Pulp’d vs Blur 2, Milton Rooms, Malton, today, 8pm
PULP’D and Blur2 team up for a double-header of Britpop royalty tonight. Born and raised in Sheffield, passionate Pulp fans Pulp’d came together to re-create the hits, passion and Jarvis Cocker moves.
Blur2 bring the very best of Blur to every show: the energy, the fun, the sound, the looks and the musicianship of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and co. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Scissor Sisters: Heading to the Scarborough coast tonight
Coastal gigs of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre presents Scissor Sisters, today; Holly Johnson, ABC and Heaven 17, August 14, gates 6pm
AFTER their 2025 UK arena reunion tour and that summer’s Saturday night Glastonbury set, Scissor Sisters bring their trademark blend of glam, grit and glorious to Scarborough Open Air Theatre this weekend. Jake Shears, Babydaddy, Del Marquis and co will be rolling out such favourites as Take Your Mama, Laura, I Don’t Feel Like Dancin, Let’s Have A Kiki, Only The Horses and Filthy/Gorgeous.
Holly Johnson: Frankie says Relax in Scarborough
Flamboyant, unapologetically bold Frankie Goes To Hollywood lead vocalist and lyricist Holly Johnson tops the 1980s’ triple bill next Friday, when he performs the chart-topping trio of Relax, Two Tribes and The Power Of Love, further Frankie smashes Welcome To The Pleasure Dome and Rage Hard and solo hits Love Train, Americanos and Atomic City. Sheffield bands ABC and Heaven 17 support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
The Magpies: Hosting their folk festival at Sutton Park
Folk festival of the month: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, near York, August 14 and 15
RUN by the folk trio of Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers, The Magpies Festival presents next Friday’s Main Stage bill of Daraa Tribes (6pm), The Magpies (8pm) and headliners Manran (10pm) and Brass Castle Stage bill of True Foxes (5pm), Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe & Daniel Quayle (7pm), SupaLung (9pm) and New York Brass Band (11pm).
Next Saturday’s line-up on the Main Stage comprises Steady Habits (12 noon), Alex Hart (2pm), Blair Dunlop (4pm), Katherine Priddy (6pm), Gnoss (8pm) and headliners Cut Capers (10pm). The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Songs In The Round, with Katherine Priddy, Blair Dunlop and Chloe Foy (1pm), Tarren (3pm), Ophelia’s Beard (5pm), Around About Dusk (7pm) and Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars (9pm). Box office: themagpiesfestival.co.uk/tickets.
Composer Thomas Adès: Presenting new composition at Creation-themed North York Moors Chamber Music Festival. Picture: Marco Borggreve
In Focus: North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, August 8 to 22
THE North York Moors Chamber Music Festival celebrates its 18th consecutive year with the premieres of six works by contemporary British composers.
Aptly named Creation, the 2026 festival will run from August 8 to 22, featuring new compositions by Thomas Adès, Huw Watkins (both of whom will perform at the festival), Charlotte Bray, Tom Coult, Isabella Gellis and Helen Grime.
“Our 2026 festival celebrates the wonder of beginnings and features six newly commissioned premieres that evoke the six days of the universe’s creation, woven through the festival theme, by six of our country’s very finest composers,” says festival director and cellist Jamie Walton.
Charlotte Bray: Premiering That Which You Wove Of Lightest Thread, I Wear To Honour Stone at North York Moors Chamber Music Festival. Picture: David Beecroft
“As part of this narrative, the Sabbath (Sunday) remains a day of rest – and each concert includes works that were themselves groundbreaking or innovative in their time, reflecting music’s timeless power to create, to renew, and to tell a universal story through sound.”
Jamie continues: “Thomas Adès is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest living composers, so it’s a real coup to have him both write for us and come to premiere the piece, Flower Variations [in the Landspeak concert on August 14 at 7pm at Welburn Manor].
“We’re really proud of the fact that, alongside these six outstanding composers, we have such a stellar line-up of international artists.
Helen Grime: Premiering Time Be Brief. Picture: Benjamin Ealovega
“We’re also continuing to champion visual artists from the moors in the brochure, pairing their work with concert titles. We’ve done this for the past two years and it’s a wonderful way to cross-pollinate and collaborate with more artists.”
Charlotte Bray’s piece for horn and string quartet, That Which You Wove Of Lightest Thread, I Wear To Honour Stone, will be accompanied by a collaborative artwork by Caroline Burraway, exhibited on stage at St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge during The Dividing Line performance on August 13 at 2pm.
Isabella Gellis’s Creation will be premiered in August 11’s Dialogue concert at St Hilda’s, Danby, at 2pm; Helen Grime’s Time Be Brief, at Metamorphoses concert, Welburn Abbey, August 15, 7pm; Huw Watkins’s Oboe Quartet, The Architect’s Hand concert, St Mary’s, Lastingham, August 18, 2pm, and Tom Coult’s Two Nocturnes and A Maze, in its UK premiere, Nightfall concert, Welburn Abbey, August 20, 7pm.
Huw Watkins: Premiering his Oboe Quartet in festival appearance. Picture: Benjamin Ealovega
The festival will take place in four historic moorland churches – St Hilda’s, Danby, St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge, St Michael’s, Coxwold, and St Mary’s, Lastingham – along with the majority of concerts being staged in the grounds of Welburn Manor, near Kirkbymoorside, where the acoustically-treated venue has been enlarged this year to reflect the festival’s increasing popularity.
The festival was named a Best of British Fund Winner 2026 by Airbnb, representing Yorkshire as part of the North York Moors Beacon for the Arts.
Jamie says: “Our festival celebrates the art of collaboration in an awe-inspiring setting, taking our audience on a musical quest each year through interwoven themes within a central storyline.
Isabella Gellis: Premiering Creation in August 11’s Dialogue concert at St Hilda’s, Danby. Picture: Ella Pavlides
“Over 18 years, we have built a reputation for breaking down barriers to make exceptional music accessible to all, fostering community and cultural connection through friendship and trust. Uncompromising even amid pandemic challenges, our festival was one of the few to present full, live performances in 2020 and 2021.
“August, when the heather is in full bloom, brings the North York Moors to life. Artists are immersed in the National Park, rehearsing and living in a deeply holistic environment, while audiences are welcome to enjoy picnics on the grounds of Welburn Manor, attend concerts, and explore the region’s historic churches and priories.”
The event continues to attract international artists, 28 this year, many of them committing to the entire fortnight by taking up residencies in a festival of 13 concerts featuring 58 chamber works from 32 composers spanning 300 years to the present day.
Tom Coult: Premiering Two Nocturnes and A Maze on August 20. Picture: Matthew Johnson
This year, these include Alena Baeva, Benjamin Baker, Oliver Cave, Oliver Heath, Alessandro Ruisi and Charlotte Scott (violin); Sascha Bota, Meghan Cassidy, Emma Wernig and Simone van der Giessen (viola); Rebecca Gilliver, Tim Posner and Jamie Walton (cello) and Will Duerden (double bass).
Taking part too are: Thomas Adès, Katya Apekisheva, Joseph Havlat, Roman Kosyakov, Daniel Lebhardt and Huw Watkins (piano); Ben Goldscheider (French horn); Nicholas Daniel (oboe); Matthew Hunt (clarinet); Jonathan Davies (bassoon) and James Gilchrist (tenor). Completing the line-up will be the festival’s award-winning Young Artists ensemble, The Davidoff Trio.
“Our 2026 festival celebrates the wonder of beginnings and features six newly commissioned premieres that evoke the six days of the universe’s creation,” says North York Moors Chamber Music Festival director Jamie Walton. Picture: Matthew Johnson
LAIL Arad first sang a Joni Mitchell song in public at her London school concert at the age of 11. Joni’s biggest British hit, Big Yellow Taxi, was her choice, and it would be her first pick at The Citadel too.
Singer-songwriter Lail first presented The Songs of Joni Mitchell to mark her groundbreaking Canadian counterpart’s 80th birthday, since when she and Manchester-based American singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop have organised two tours and now a summer of special shows and festival appearances.
They have been joined by the varied likes of This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables, cult singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan, Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Irish singer and composer Lisa Hannigan, David Bowie band member (1995 to 2004) Gail Ann Dorsey, Scottish folk and dream-pop singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni, BRIT Award winner Emile Sande and American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon.
The latest addition is former Goat Goal band member and folk singer Naima Bock, whose York appearance was only her second with Lail and Jesca, having met them for the first time to rehearse only the day before her debut.
Rather more settled in the ranks is regular pianist Richard Sears, but he was not the only musician to be seated at last Friday’s concert, played to a full house of Mitchell devotees of differing ages, young and much older, split evenly between women and men.
For each solo number, followed by a song with Richard accompanying her on the keys, Naima brought on a chair, then played her guitar cross-legged in bright socks and afterwards returned the chair to from whence it had come, out of view beyond the door to the side.
“I like sitting down,” she later explained. Certainly it added to her looking and sounding very much at home in this nascent association with “Songs Of”, deeper of voice than Lail and Jesca, when performing Tin Angel and A Case of You in Set One and early Mitchell composition Urge For Going and Shades Of Scarlett Conquering, her best number, in Set Two.
Jesca Hoop: Lail Arad’s collaborator and co-organiser for The Songs of Joni Mitchell shows. The York concert was promoted by Joe Coates and The Crescent
The bright white-walled Citadel was looking spick and span after the £300,000 restoration of its meeting spaces and café, all the more so in the early evening daylight. Built as a place of worship and mission centre for the Salvation Army, and still home to the York City Church, the building’s air or reverence lent itself to the tone of the performance.
Always closer to reverent, never irreverent, but with interpretation rather than impersonation at its root, the approach was typified by Lail slowing down Big Yellow Taxi to a stately glide, eschewing Joni’s trademark laugh at the climax too.
Lail incidentally was wearing a shirt from Saskatchewan, in honour of Joni’s formative years there (playing her first paid gig at the Louis Riel Coffee House in Saskatoon). “I bought it on Vinted,” our host admitted, before performing For Free (which presumably the shirt wasn’t).
Introduced by Lail, Jesca had opened Set One with Morning Morgantown, whose melody had ‘stuck in her head for 38 years’ and was newly released to electric guitar accompaniment. Joined by Richard, Jesca’s take on Lessons In Survival, from her favourite Joni record, 1972’s For The Roses, located that survival instinct.
Richard had one solo number, Little Green, from 1971’s Blue, and by now the concert lighting was taking greater effect, whether bathing the walls in green, blue, pink, red or taxi- yellow.
Your reviewer most enjoyed the climax to each half when Lail, Jesca and Naima (now standing) united in harmony, but switching positions, with Richard to their side, first for Night In The City. “How does the first line go?” said a stage-whispering Jesca, promptly answering her own question by breaking into Rainy Night House.
Lail told a story of mistakenly thinking Joni was singing “’A little money riding on the make-beliefs” on Raised On Robbery, until she married a Canadian who put her straight about the “Maple Leafs”, as Set One closed on a surge of Richard’s boogie-woogie piano.
Naima Bock: Making only her second Songs of Joni Mitchell concert appearance in York. Picture: El Hardwick, for Sub Pop Records
The format remained the same in Set Two, opening with Lail in a cappella mode. “This song is from 1969 but it could have been written today,” she said, introducing the anti-war sentiments of The Fiddle And The Drum, her solo highlight.
Jesca picked Night Ride Home and California, either side of Naima’s Set Two contributions. “I know about this next song,” she said, in a nod to her roots in Santa Rosa, in rural northern California, and her years in Los Angeles. “I’m just learning to strum, it’s true,” she chided herself after “fluffing” (in her words) a guitar line. “Thank you, that’s very generous,” came her response to the audience clapping as appreciatively as ever.
Jesca went on to highlight how Joni had been the first female singer-songwriter to divulge details of family, friends and loved ones in her lyrics. “Now we have permission to spill out our experiences, when previously it wasn’t normal.” Step forward Charlie XCX, Self Esteem, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish et al.
Jesca’s rendition of Amelia ensued and then it was time for the grand finale, all four together again for Joni’s Woodstock Festival anthem, Woodstock, the song she did not perform at the August 1969 gathering on account of her manager, David Geffen, fearing the heavy traffic would prevent her arrival at the ABC Television Center in New York to perform it on The Dick Cavett Show. Ironically, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Jefferson Airplane all turned up straight from the festival to join her.
That song “defined not only the festival but the entire generation”, enthused Lail as she took lead vocals, the stage by now resplendent in golden light. She fronted Carey too, where Naima and Jesca’s harmonising was at its most sublime.
Aptly for Both Sides Now, both sides, audience and performers alike, were invited to sing together. All three protagonists took a lead vocal, one each for “I really don’t know clouds at all/love at all/life at all”.
Joni really does know life at all, of course, as Lail, Jesca and Naima’s performances of The Songs of Joni Mitchell testified. Definitely not a “tribute show”, instead they paid her the highest compliment.
Stanley Chow’s poster illustration for The Songs of Joni Mitchell tour with Naima Bock, including The Citadel, York, on July 31
The Lyons Mouth: Winners of the Main Prize and Friends of York Early Music Festival Prize at York Early Music Festival’s International Young Artists Competition. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
THIS biennial competition, for ensembles of at least three members with an average age no more than 35, attracted 56 entries this year. Nine of these reached the final, three each from the Netherlands and Switzerland and one each from France, Israel and the United Kingdom.
Two featured a solo soprano and one consisted of six unaccompanied singers. The remaining six were purely instrumental. There were three trios, four quartets and two sextets.
So much for statistics. However, they suggest, quite accurately, that there was variety aplenty. Technical standards were extremely high, reflecting the professionalism of early music teaching across European conservatories these days. ’Twas not always so.
Ossian’s Dream: Joint winners of European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) Development Trust Prize. Picture: Shelagh Bourke
Eleven criteria were listed as assessable by the international jury. Only one, however, touched on that indefinable X-factor that marks out a performer as destined for a serious career: presentation. It involves the kind of charisma that conveys a good deal more than merely the music itself and is intertwined with a performer’s personality. Inevitably this was much rarer here.
Each group was allotted 20 minutes to display its wares. The sextet Ossian’s Dream was distinctive in sticking largely to the 19th century, with the historical clarinet of Claudia Reyes Segovia at its centre. After a crisp, not to say dramatic, account of Mendelssohn’s First Walpurgisnacht overture, there was strong contrast in the slow movement of Weber’s Clarinet Quintet, whose jovial centre was much enhanced by the clarinet. The finale of Mendelssohn’s C minor Piano Trio was truly effervescent.
The stand-out player of the quartet I Mastricelli was Bianca Cucini, whose soprano gamba dominated their set. With her colleagues confined to bass gamba, cello and organ, colours were otherwise regularly dark. A Tobias Hume almain and a lively, cross-accented Recercada by Diego Ortíz were but warm-up acts for the increasingly vivid variations in the Diferencias on ‘La dama le demanda’, by Antonio de Cabezón, which featured riffs from all four players.
I Mastricelli, featuring jury prize for the most promising young artist winner Bianca Cucini. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Recorder, harpsichord and cello provided the underlay for soprano Liron Givona in the Nari Baroque Ensemble. She was fuller voiced than one might have expected in this repertory, but her tone was flexible even when slightly diffuse.
She trilled neatly alongside a sopranino recorder nightingale. The cellist was underpowered more than once here, but delivered some very rapid obbligato in a forceful little melodrama from a Pepusch cantata, ‘When Love’s Soft Passion’.
The French quartet La Mandorle – oboe, violin, cello and theorbo – focused on native composers from the generation just before Bach, all played without scores. Victoire Delnatte’s oboe was engagingly clean and full-bodied and Elodie Brzustowsk’s theorbo proved fluent.
Lagrime: Winners of the Cambridge Early Music Prize. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
The ensemble was rhythmically alive in Clérambault’s La Félicité suite and equally idiomatic in a Robert de Visée suite, in whose Gigue the oboist briefly slapped rhythm on the cello. This group was unlucky not to be among the prizewinners. We shall certainly hear from them again.
Bianca Cucini reappeared in the Swiss trio Tra Noi, playing bass gamba and quinton (a descant viol) alongside recorder and harpsichord. A rather pallid Passacaglia by Andrea Falconieri nearly let them down, but ensemble remained taut in the same composer’s Ciaccona at a rapid tempo.
However it was Nicola Matteis’ Diverse Bizzarrie that showed how technically dazzling a chaconne can be in the right hands. Spearheaded by Silvia Berchtold’s recorder, Tra Noi took all its hurdles in their stride.
Tra Noi: Joint winner of the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) Development Trust Prize. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Handel and his Italian rivals, Porpora and Geminiani, all born within two years of each other, were the targets of Dutch quartet Il Parrasio, with a standard line-up of two violins, cello and harpsichord or organ. It was all very stylish but lacking in daring.
There was clarity and balance in a Sinfonia da Camera by Porpora, and a delicately phrased Allegro in Handel’s Op 5 No 1 trio sonata. Geminiani’s Andante affettuoso (The Enchanted Forest) lacked emotion. It was a case of nearly there, but not quite.
Another Dutch quartet, Quarterino, with Tomasso Simonetta Sandri’s flute replacing one of the violins, took a similar tack, this time with Charles Avison heard between Geminiani and Vivaldi. Avison’s two allegros in a G minor trio sonata were impressive, one a snappy fugue, the other with tight-knit accents. But Vivaldi’s trio sonata, RV84 in D, fell down on two counts, a garbled opening Allegro, taken too fast, and an oddly chromatic ending that failed to convince.
Bianca Cucini: Winner of the jury prize for the most promising young artist, who played with both I Mastricelli and Tra Noi at the International Young Artists Competition. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
The Swiss trio Lagrime boasted the unusual line-up of soprano, Baroque trombone and theorbo, neither of the latter two using scores. All five of their pieces were settings of texts from the Song of Songs and some introduced a modicum of stage movement.
Franziska Blömer’s straight-toned soprano was ideally suited to music of the early Baroque, and Maximilien Brisson’s quietly velvety trombone was superbly controlled. The two duetted beautifully, conversing in Claudia Rusca’s Ego dormio and harnessed movingly in Vulnerasti cor meum by Giovanni Sances.
Finally, we had the British vocal sextet The Lyons Mouth, three female voices, three male, whose name derives from their shared background at the University of York. They appeared barefooted, without scores.
Bianca Cucini receiving her prize from Philip Hobbs. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick
Alongside two madrigals from Monteverdi’s Fourth Book, they offered three motets, one of them by the nun Raffaella Aleotti, thought to have been the earliest woman to have sacred music published. The group was remarkable for its ability to maintain a tight blend despite relatively full- throated delivery.
There was nothing precious about Monteverdi’s chromatic Sì, ch’io vorrie morire, nor were they afraid of the scrunchy discords in Sigismondo d’India’s Dispietata pietate. But there was more variation, even tenderness, in Victoria’s Vadam et circuibo civitatem from the Song of Songs.
Perhaps with the advantage of performing last and certainly through their assured ensemble, The Lyons Mouth carried off the overall First Prize, as well as the Friends of York Early Music Festival Prize.
The Lyons Mouth’s profile for the International Young Artists Competition
The European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) Development Trust Prize was shared between Ossian’s Dream and Tra Noi. The jury prize for the most promising young artist was awarded to Bianca Cucini.
The Cambridge Early Music Prize went to the trombone-based Lagrime. As noted above, La Mandorle was unlucky to lose out, but there can be no argument that the rest of the prizes were thoroughly well deserved.
Review by Martin Dreyer
HIGHLIGHTS of the competition will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show on August 30 at 5pm and will be available thereafter on BBC Sounds.
York Georgian Festival, promenading through the streets and taking over York Mansion House
YORK River Art Market’s return, Georgian festivities, Shakespeare sonnets on the tennis court and Britpop tribute acts R catch Charles Hutchinson’s eye as August arrives.
York festival of the week: York Georgian Festival, tomorrow to August 10
HIGHLIGHTING the sights and sounds of 18th century life, York Mansion House plays host to the fourth York Georgian Festival in a five-day festival programme that ranges from free displays of dancing and military drills in St Helen’s Square to the York Georgian Masquerade Ball at the Grand Assembly Rooms on Saturday. Talk, tours, performances and workshops feature too. For full listings and booking details, go to: yorkgeorgianfestival.co.uk.
Oscar Langford, left, and James Robert Ball in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? at Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York. Picture: John Saunders
New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, Friday to August 15, except August 11, 6pm & 7.30pm, plus 4.30pm Saturday shows
SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?
Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part will be James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/
New York Brass Band line up with Hyde Family Jam members Tom Gill (accordion), back row, third from left, and Will Dreyfus (vocals and guitar), front row, left, ahead of Friday’s York Barbican gig
Mash-up of the week: The Crescent presents New York Brass Band & Hyde Family Jam, York Barbican, Friday, 8pm
TWO of York’s biggest, bounciest musical party troupes collide at York Barbican for a co-headline show with a difference. Promoter Joe Coates has decided the four-piece Hyde Family Jam will be on stage first, followed by an eight-piece line up of New York Brass Band, each playing a 40-minute set before rampant folk-rock meets New Orleans brass head on in a collaborative finale of these high-energy street urchins’ biggest hits. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
York Stage’s poster for Raise Your Voice: MTI Broadway Junior Revue at Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York
Musical theatre celebration of the week: York Stage presents brings Raise Your Voice: MTI Broadway Junior Revue, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York,Friday, 7.30pm, and Saturday,2pm and 4pm
THIS uplifting showcase by the next generation of performers features iconic songs from Broadway Junior favourites, showcased by a talented young York Stage cast ready to sing out and shine as they take centre stage with confidence, courage and nascent star quality. Cue big numbers, heartfelt moments and personality aplenty. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
The poster for this summer’s York River Art Market. Illustration by Elliot Harrison (@York 360)
Open-air art event of the month: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, August 8 & 9 and August 15 & 16, 10am to 5.30pm
YORK River Art Market returns for its 11th year, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines to the Ouse riverside each day, this year presenting art and design market stalls on both sides of the pathway.
Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is being run for the first time this summer by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York. Admission is free.
Scissor Sisters: Heading for Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Saturday
Coastal gigs of the week: TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Scissor Sisters, Saturday; Holly Johnson, ABC and Heaven 17, August 14, gates 6pm
AFTER their 2025 UK arena reunion tour and that summer’s Saturday night Glastonbury set, Scissor Sisters bring their trademark blend of glam, grit and glorious to Scarborough Open Air Theatre this weekend. Jake Shears, Babydaddy, Del Marquis and co will be rolling out such favourites as Take Your Mama, Laura, I Don’t Feel Like Dancin, Let’s Have A Kiki, Only The Horses and Filthy/Gorgeous.
Flamboyant, unapologetically bold Frankie Goes To Hollywood lead vocalist and lyricist Holly Johnson tops the 1980s’ triple bill next Friday, when he performs the chart-topping trio of Relax, Two Tribes and The Power Of Love, further Frankie smashes Welcome To The Pleasure Dome and Rage Hard and solo hits Love Train, Americanos and Atomic City. Sheffield bands ABC and Heaven 17 support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Holly Johnson: Frankie says Relax in Scarborough next Friday
Tribute gig of the week: SWT presents Pulp’d vs Blur 2, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 8pm
PULP’D and Blur2 team up for a double-header of Britpop royalty tonight. Born and raised in Sheffield, passionate Pulp fans Pulp’d came together to re-create the hits, passion and Jarvis Cocker moves.
Blur2 bring the very best of Blur to every show: the energy, the fun, the sound, the looks and the musicianship of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and co. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
The Magpies: Hosting their folk festival weekend at Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest
Folk festival of the month: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, near York, August 14 and 15
RUN by the folk trio of Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers, The Magpies Festival presents a Friday Main Stage bill of Daraa Tribes (6pm), The Magpies (8pm) and headliners Manran (10pm) and Brass Castle Stage bill of True Foxes (5pm), Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe & Daniel Quayle (7pm), SupaLung (9pm) and New York Brass Band (11pm).
The Saturday line-up on the Main Stage comprises Steady Habits (12 noon), Alex Hart (2pm), Blair Dunlop (4pm), Katherine Priddy (6pm), Gnoss (8pm) and headliners Cut Capers (10pm). The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Songs In The Round, with Katherine Priddy, Blair Dunlop and Chloe Foy (1pm), Tarren (3pm), Ophelia’s Beard (5pm), Around About Dusk (7pm) and Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars (9pm). Box office: themagpiesfestival.co.uk/tickets.
Katherine Priddy: Saturday set at The Magpies Festival
Match-up of the day: New York Brass Band, featuring Elita, from Rio de Janeiro, on bass drum, with Hyde Family Jam accordionist Tom Gill, back row, third from left, and vocalist Will Dreyfus, front left. Picture: Liam Van Hymus
TWO of York’s bounciest party/function musical troupes collide at York Barbican for a co-headline show with a difference on Friday.
Please Please You promoter Joe Coates has decided the four-piece Hyde Family Jam will be on stage first, followed by New York Brass Band in an eight-piece line-up.
“I can see why Joe’s done that,” says Hyde Family Jam vocalist and guitarist Will Dreyfus. “To go on after an eight-piece band, to try to ramp things up even more…no, it’s better to do it the other way round.”
After each combo plays a 40-minute set, rampant folk-rock will meet New Orleans brass head on in a collaborative finale of the same length in a match-up cum mash-up of their biggest hits from wedding, busking and festival engagements.
“We did play together in the golden days of the Post Office Club, where we used to do it once a year, when we got Hyde Family Jam to support us,” recalls New York Brass Band founder and sousaphone player James Lancaster.
“But this Barbican gig came about totally by accident. It started with sharing a busking pitch in Parliament Street, when New York Brass Band were trying to flog tickets for our show with my son Charlie’s Heavy Beat Brass Band, which he’d started at the Birmingham Conservatoire, where his final project was to create a New Orleans-style brass band – and they’ve been going for ten years now. The family musical links run deep!
“We ended up doing a few songs together and we thought, ‘OK, there’s probably something in this’. Rupert (Engledow, Hyde Family Jam violinist) and I got talking as the band leaders, and then my son Joe [fellow trumpet player Joe Lancaster] was definitely the driving force behind it.”
New York Brass Band founder James Lancaster with the York combo’s signature sousaphone tuba
The next task has been “trying to get 12 grown men together in one room” for rehearsals. “We travel a lot for weddings and festivals, so to get everyone together is a challenge but we’ve managed it a few times,” says James, the latest gathering being on Monday.
An element of unpredictability will frame Friday’s climax. “Hyde Family Jam don’t have a drummer, so importing our drummer into their sound could either be a car crash or a success,” says James.
“It’s been quite an eye opener for us,” says Will. “We normally take all our cues from Kai [West], whose double bass playing is so percussive.” Or as James puts it, “Slapping it!” “We’re so used to taking our cues from Kai that it’s been like, ‘oh drums, I remember them,” rejoins Will.
James considers the possibilities for Friday’s joint set. “I’ve been to New Orleans a few times, and there’s a Zydeco element, where I looked where there could be a crossover with Hyde Family Jam’s line-up. Like Iko Iko – we play the Dr John version – just fitted together, with Rupert’s violin, the brass and the accordion.
“We’re both covers bands with a twist. I’m relatively hard-headed that I make my living as a musician, so my bottom line is that it’s about disguising we’re a covers band by twisting it.”
Will recalls seeing Hyde Family Jam in a socially distanced gig in Covid times at The Crescent. “I thought, ‘oh this is a brilliant way to do covers’,” he says. “I had a conversation with Rupert about being a ‘dep’ for John [frontman John Holt-Roberts] when he had acting commitments. I was working as festival co-ordinator for York Mediale and playing solo gigs at the time.
“John and Kai had played in Dead Drummer, basically heavy metal on acoustic guitar and stand-up bass, playing everything at 3,000 miles per hour – it was a sight to behold – so Hyde Family Jam play very fast too. Coming in to learn the set list was very intimidating, though now it feels very settled as I must have done 300 gigs over four years.”
Hyde Family Jam’s 2026 line-up: Rupert Engledow, violin, Kai West, double bass, Tom Gill, accordion, and Will Dreyfus, lead vocals and guitar
Will has been working with theatre-makers Wright & Grainger too, latterly at Latitude Festival, where they put together a show called Sonder in a day. “We met at ten in the morning, knowing we had to deliver an hour-long show, having a breakdown in the afternoon, then magically it all came together at night, on the theme of Mary Oliver poems.”
Will also joined up with writer, theatre-maker Casey Jay Andrews for her Feast of Words show in Adelaide, Australia, earlier this year and is working on a scratch show with Phil Grainger under the Wright & Grainger umbrella.
New York Brass Band’s upcoming gigs include a late-night party slot at The Magpies Festival on August 14 at 11pm Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest and Lindisfarne Festival on September 3. “It’s a meeting of crazy Geordies and Scots, where they all dress up as Vikings,” says James, whose first Barbican gig came in his days as the trumpet player in Big Ian Donaghy’s Huge, performing the test event at the Barbican Centre, as it was first called, in 1991.
Looking ahead, he says: “We can visualise getting together with Hyde Family Jam again – if it goes well with the audience and with the accountant.”
“Every time I walk past the Barbican, it’s lovely to see the poster up – and the Barbican staff have been very supportive,” says Will.
Friday’s concert will have one other fresh ingredient. “After we played the Rio de Janeiro carnival, I caught my son Charlie learning Portuguese In 300 Days on Duolingo, as he’d met a girl there called Elita. They kept flying over to see each other, and eventually she proposed to him and they married on a beach in Rio last year.
“She now has a visa, so she spends half the year in Rio, half over here playing the festival season, and she’ll be playing bass drum on Friday. She’s an absolute ray of sunshine, and we now have Grace [James’s daughter] and Elita to balance the general maleness of the band!”
New York Brass Band & Hyde Family Jam, York Barbican, August 7, 8pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
John Holt-Roberts
Did you know?
HYDE Family Jam founder member, singer and guitarist John Holt-Roberts still performs with the York band on occasion, when not clashing with his acting commitments. This summer he played Costard in Shakespeare in the Squares’ 10th anniversary tour of Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare’s comedy of flirtation, foolishness and the irresistible pull of love, directed by fellow York theatre alumnus Toby Gordon, from June 3 to July 12.
Will Dreyfus says: “When John doubled down on his acting, it worked out well for me as I love playing with these guys. He still does some gigs with the band, and he’s very much the the consummate actor-muso, hopping around the stage whereas I’m more about the chat than the moves.”
Did you know too?
HYDE Family Jam double bassist Kai West will be flying back from Sorrento tonight in good time for Friday’s gig at York Barbican.
York Georgian Ball: Festival highlight on Saturday at Grand Assembly Rooms
YORK Georgian Festival returns for its fourth year, filling the city with the sights and sounds of 18th century life from August 6 to 10.
Hosted by York Mansion House, the five-day festival programme ranges from free displays of dancing and military drills in St Helen’s Square to the splendour of the York Georgian Ball at the Grand Assembly Rooms, in Blake Street, and includes talks, tours, performances and workshops too at a variety of venues.
York Mansion House manager and curator Richard Pollitt says: “We’re looking forward to another fabulous festival, with a busy programme lined up exploring the fascinating history of this era. We’d like to thank all our partner attractions for supporting the festival once again.
“The popularity of the Georgian and Regency period shows no sign of slowing down with people finding so much joy in recreating the fashions and social occasions of the time, and we aim to bring some of that joy to the streets of York.
Author Terry Deary: Talk on Murder in the Georgian Theatre at York Mansion House on Thursday
“We’re hoping to see the city centre full of Georgian splendour over the weekend with so many people coming to York for the festival.”
The festival promenade will return for a second year on Saturday, starting from Clifford’s Tower at 11am and making its way through the city, via Coppergate and Parliament Street, to York Mansion House at 11.20am, led by red-coated members of Pulteney’s 13th Regiment of Foot, a group of military re-enactors. Anyone interested in dressing up in Georgian and Regency dress to join the promenade is invited to book a free place.
The Pulteney’s regiment will be demonstrating its drills on Saturday and Sunday at 12.15pm and 3.45pm in St Helen’s Square, complemented by displays of Georgian dancing by the Galliard Folk Dancers at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3pm.
The regiment has stepped in to help the festival at the 11th hour, after the previously booked military group, His Majesty’s 33rd Regiment of Foot, cancelled through unforeseen circumstances.
Promenade through York: Passing through Coppergate en route from Clifford’s Tower to York Mansion House on Saturday morning
Visitors to the Mansion House can find out more about the uniform and kit of soldiers of the time in afternoon talks by the visiting redcoats on Saturday and Sunday at 2.30pm.
Richard says: “We’re very grateful to Pulteney’s for helping us out at such short notice and are looking forward to seeing them in action, leading our promenade and recreating military drills in front of the house in St Helen’s Square.”
Saturday’s evening highlight will be the Masquerade Ball, from 7pm to 11pm, traditionally an extravagant occasion when guests would wear elaborate fancy dress and masks to disguise their true identities. Live music will be provided by Eboracum Baroque with guidance from dance mistress Lottie from Dance The Past, all with the support of ASK Italian and York Gin.
The poster for No Priest But Love, the Church Conservation Trust’s fundraising event featuring Helena Whitbread and Angela Clare’s play about Anne Lister
Anyone wanting to prepare for the Masquerade Ball can take dancing lessons at The Guildhall on Friday and there will be free fan language workshops at York Mansion House, where you can learn how to send secret messages across the dance floor.
Talks and tours include the return of Horrible Histories author Terry Deary, who will explore Murder in the Georgian Theatre, at York Mansion House on Thursday from 6pm to 7pm; self-led and bookable festival tours of the Bar Convent; curators’ talks on fashion and dress at Fairfax House and York Castle Museum and an examination of how women were treated by the Georgian justice system in PhD researcher Tom Ellis’s talk Convict Women in York and Beyond at Barley Hall on Friday from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.
One of York’s most famous Georgian visitors, “Gentleman Jack” Anne Lister, will be the subject of Helena Whitbread and Angela Clare’s new play, No Priest But Love, at Merchant Taylors’ Hall, on Sunday at 4.30pm, preceded by a 2pm look around Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, where Anne Lister and Ann Walker celebrated their commitment made to each other on March 30 1834; a 2.30pm to 3.30pm talk by Angela Clare and a guided walk to Merchant Taylors’ from 3.30pm to 4pm.
On the concluding day, Monday, a series of talks at York Mansion House will include York St John University students launching a new edition of correspondence exchanged between writers Charles Ignatius Sancho, one of the first Black Britons known to have voted in a parliamentary election, and Laurence Sterne, vicar of St Michael’s, Coxwold, and author of Tristram Shandy, at 3.30pm. Further topics will be Georgian men’s shoes at 1.30pm and the campaign to abolish the slave trade at 5.30pm.
Lewis Kidd’s Mark Renton in the London run of Trainspotting The Musical at Theatre Royal Haymarket. Picture: Matt Crockett, supplied by Neil Redding PR
TRAINSPOTTING The Musical has been derailed before setting off on a tour that would have disembarked at the Grand Opera House, York, in November.
“Closed” reads the notice on the GOH website after poor reviews of the London premiere and equally poor ticket sales nationwide, not least in Edinburgh, the setting for Irvine Welsh’s story, where the tour’s opening week at the Edinburgh Playhouse from October 19 to 24 had attracted only 19 per cent ticket sales, according to a Facebook post by performer and resident director Keiran Brown.
Tickets for the York run from November 10 to 14 will be refunded. Ticket holders are being contacted by their point of purchase.
The world premiere will continue its London debut at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until September 5, as planned. All tour details have been removed from the official website.
A statement from the production company says: “The forthcoming UK tour of Trainspotting The Musical, which was due to begin on 19 October, has been cancelled.
“We are very grateful to our cast, crew and creative team for their dedication to the production, but the current economic climate has resulted in lower than expected ticket sales. Ticketholders will be contacted by their point of purchase with full refund details. We apologise for any inconvenience and disappointment this may cause.”
The poster for the now-cancelled tour of Trainspotting The Musical
Presented by Phil McIntyre Live, the musical is written by Welsh, based on his 1993 debut novel that was turned into an iconoclastic film by Danny Boyle in 1996 with a script by Welsh, centred on rapscallion heroin addict Mark Renton and his dysfunctional circle of friends navigating the chaotic highs and brutal lows of addiction, poverty and aimlessness in Leith as they struggle to break free from smackhead self-destruction.
Directed and developed by Caroline Jay Ranger – who was at the helm of John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers The Play, whose tour played the Grand Opera House in May – the musical features music and lyrics by Stephen McGuinness and Welsh. Their score includes tracks associated with the original film alongside new material written for the stage.
Boyle’s Trainspotting was the highest-grossing UK film release of 1996, won the BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay and was later ranked in the British Film Institute list of the 100 greatest British films of the 20th century.
The 2026 musical carried the billing: “Thirty years on from the film that changed everything…this show is expected to transport you back to the Nineties”, declaring that that “Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud, Tommy and Kelly, the industrial drug-crazed working-class heroes, are back”.
The Grand Opera House site website’s show details stated: “In 1996, CHOOSE LIFE sounded like a challenge. Thirty years on, the landscape has shifted, but the hunger hasn’t. Addiction hasn’t disappeared – it’s shifted. It’s quieter now, more embedded. Less needle, more screen. Less escape, more repetition. The same restless search for something to fill the space.
“The musical highlights the world we see changing around us, the obscene concentration of wealth, economic and political power in the hands of so few people. It addresses the modern culture of powerlessness. Art the singing-and-dancing Trojan horse that delivers direction and relevance.
Robbie Scott: Cast as Mark Renton for UK tour of Trainspotting: The Musical. Robbie, from Aberdeen, missed out on the West End opening after breaking his back in rehearsals and will miss out on the show altogether. Picture: Matt Crockett, supplied by Neil Redding PR
“This isn’t nostalgia, it’s closer than that. The past isn’t revisited – it lingers. The musical doesn’t tidy it. It sits with it. Listens to it. And lets it sing. New songs, classic songs, a musical like never before. Not for the easily confronted. It’s funny, loud, dynamic, and brings a dark dangerous energy never experienced before on the West End stage.”
In April, Welsh proclaimed: “I believe the musical has a bigger, loudly beating human heart than either the book or the film. People need to think about the world we’re living in, and we offer that inspection, but they also really need to sing their hearts out and laugh their heads off – it’s what being human is all about.”
On Monday morning, before the tour cancellation notice served later in the day, he revealed to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme listeners: “We are in difficult times and we’ve been looking at the numbers and sums. We knew it would be difficult to take a production of that scale on the road. We’ve got 30 cast members. Basically people just don’t have the money. It’s not a great time to be putting a new show on the road.”
Reflecting on the shellacking from West End critics, encapsulated in a one-star Guardian review, Welsh told Today presenter Amol Rajan: “I’m not the kind of writer that is loved by the critics. I tend to be a polarising force. I think it’s the way I go about these things and the way I write.”
Arifa Akbar’s verdict in the Guardian had lamented: “Sadly, the drug-addled escapades and illegal highs here look about as dangerous as a double-dose of Gaviscon.” She deemed McGuinness and Welsh’s songs to be “forgettable at best, or best forgotten in the case of one with a country and western twang”, concluding that “it all seems so tame and commercial for this bunch of anti-capitalists. A bad trip indeed.”
The tour publicity ended: “There are no clean answers here. Only incredible music and flashes of clarity, humour, and the uneasy sense of recognition. CHOOSE LIFE.”
Alas, the tour producers have had to choose premature death instead.
The poster for York River Art Market’s 11th summer season. Illustration: Elliot Harrison (@York360)
YORK River Art Market’s return, Shakespeare sonnets on the tennis court, party bands at the double and a very happy comedian catch Charles Hutchinson’s eye as August arrives.
Open-air art event of the month: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, August 1 & 2, August 8 & 9 and August 15 & 16, 10am to 5.30pm
YORK River Art Market returns for its 11th year from today, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines each day to the Ouse riverside over three August weekends of free art and design market stalls.
Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is now run by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York, in Walmgate, after founder and director Charlotte Dawson stepped down to focus on her teaching role as award leader for York College’s BA (Hons) 3D creative practice course.
Liz Garland, left, and Meriel Scholfield in rehearsal for the Stephen Joseph Theatre production of Handbagged. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
Political drama of the week: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 29
MOIRA Buffini’s 2014 Olivier Award-winning play imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the 20th century’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, locked handbags. Meeting once a week for 11 years, one believed there was no such thing as society; the other committed her life to serving it.
Spanning 1979 to 1990, Handbagged asks if The Queen and the Iron Lady ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme? Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder directs the SJT cast of Pandora Clifford, Liz Garland, Alexandra Mathie, Deven Modha, Simon Darwen and Meriel Scholfield. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.
Mike Skinner of The Streets: Performing A Grand Don’t Come For Free in full at Scarborough Open Air Theatre tonight
Coastal gigs of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre presents The Streets, A Grand Don’t Come For Free, today; Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter, Sunday, gates 6pm
FOR the first time, The Streets’ Mike Skinner is performing his landmark 2004 album A Grand Don’t Come For Free in full on tour. One of the most influential British records of the 21st century, the multi-platinum-selling chart topper delivered era-defining singles Dry Your Eyes, Fit But You Know It and Blinded By The Lights while taking a cinematic journey through the love, loss, chaos, heartbreak, hope and raw emotion of everyday life with poetic wit and honesty.
Original Sex Pistols members Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock are joined by vocalist Frank Turner on Sunday to mark “50 years of chaos and celebration” since the punk iconoclasts’ brace of Summer 1976 gigs at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall. The Stranglers and The Undertones are special guests. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Maggie Wakeling: Singing ABBA hits aplenty at York Minster tonight
Candlelit concert of the week: Ignite Concerts presents The Music of ABBA, York Minster, tonight, 7.30pm
VOCALIST Maggie Wakeling, from Channel 4’s Your Song and last summer’s Greatest Shows at York Minster, unites with a band and The Ebor Quartet string ensemble to perform the Seventies and Eighties’ hits of ABBA.
Host Alistair Griffin will be inviting the audience to sing along to Dancing Queen, Waterloo, Mamma Mia, The Winner Takes It All et al at this concert by candlelight. Box office: 07966 959427 or https://igniteconcertsyork.com/events/the-music-of-abba-at-york-minster/.
Paul Smith: Radiating comic warmth twice in a week at York Barbican
York comedy gigs of the week: Hot Water Comedy Club presents Paul Smith, Happy, York Barbican, today and August 5, 7.30pm
PAUL Smith, resident MC and compere of Liverpool’s Hot Water Comedy Club, is heading to York for two nights in his biggest, boldest tour show, Happy: fearless stand-up at full throttle, brimful of observations, true stories and audience interaction. Pulling tales from real life, Smith finds joy in the chaos, laughter in the everyday and comedy in absolutely everything. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Oscar Langford, left, and James Robert Ball in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? at Holy Trinity Churchyard. Picture: John Saunders
New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, August 7 to 15, except August 11, 6pm & 7.30pm, plus 4.30pm Saturday shows
SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?
Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part will be James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/
New York Brass Band’s James Lancaster: Knees-up with Hyde Family Jam at York Barbican
Mash-up of the week: The Crescent presents New York Brass Band & Hyde Family Jam, York Barbican, August 7, 8pm
TWO of York’s biggest, bounciest musical party troupes collide at York Barbican for a co-headline show with a difference. Promoter Joe Coates has decided the four-piece Hyde Family Jam will be on stage first, followed by an eight-piece line up of New York Brass Band, each playing a 40-minute set before rampant folk-rock meets New Orleans brass head on in a collaborative finale of these street urchins’ biggest hits. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
A wedding dress on display at St Helen’s Church
Wonderful wedding dress exhibition of the week: St Helen’s Church, Sheriff Hutton, near York, August 8 and 9, 11am to 3pm
STEP back in time for a spectacular display of wedding dresses from every decade since the 1920s at St Helen’s Church. Stroll through a century of wedding style with elegant “going away” outfits,mother-of-the-bride ensembles and men’s morning suits, as well as shoes, hats, bouquets and treasured keepsakes.
“Last year’s exhibition was atremendous success,” says Jill Donaldson Hodges. “Visitors were captivated by the changing styles, the intricate design and the delicate fabrics that have shaped wedding fashion for over a century. So why not come along and take a trip down memory lane, or get some ideas for an upcoming event?” Admission is free. The Bluebell Cafe will be open on both days, serving homemade cakes and refreshments.
York Stage’s poster for Raise Your Voice: MTI Broadway Junior Revueat the JoRo
Musical theatre celebration of the week: York Stage presents brings Raise Your Voice: MTI Broadway Junior Revue, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York,August 7, 7.30pm, and August 8,2pm and 4pm
THIS uplifting showcase by the next generation of performers features iconic songs from Broadway Junior favourites, showcased by a talented young York Stage cast ready to sing out and shine as they take centre stage with confidence, courage and nascent star quality. Cue big numbers, heartfelt moments and personality aplenty. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
