Tag: Katie Stillman

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Who’s taking part in 2026 Northern Aldborough Festival? Find out here

Katie Stillman: Directing the Orchestra of Opera North from the violin in tomorrow’s opening concert, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons

NORTHERN Aldborough Festival opens tomorrow in the North Yorkshire village near Boroughbridge.

Now in its 32nd year, the festival turns its focus on classical music for ten days, from June 18 to 27, opening with the Orchestra of Opera North performing one of the world’s most-loved works, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, directed from the violin by Katie Stillman, at St Andrew’s Church, Aldborough, at 7.30pm.

Leading British clarinettist Emma Johnson returns to Aldborough on Friday with her star-studded trio, featuring pianist Andrew West and cellist Thomas Carroll, performing masterpieces by Beethoven, Brahms and Shostakovich at St Andrew’s Church at 7.30pm.

Clarinettist Emma Johnson: Performing works by Beethoven, Brahms and Shostakovich at St Andrew’s Church on Friday

Pianist, academic and artistic director Lucy Parham performs her remarkable piece, I, Clara, telling the extraordinary life story of Clara Schumann – musician and composer’s wife – in a blend of words and music, narrated by actress Joanna David, at St Andrew’s Church on June 24 at 7.30pm.

A stalwart of screen and stage, Joanna David is known for her TV roles in Downton Abbey and Inspector Morse and is matriarch of one of Britain’s most acclaimed acting dynasties: married to Edward Fox and mother to Emilia and Freddie.

Pianist Sarah Beth Briggs, the Newcastle-born, York-based former child prodigy, who was the youngest finalist in the history of the BBC Young Musician competition, makes her Aldborough debut at The Old Hall, North Deighton, on Saturday at 11am.

Cellist Enjuan Han: Performing in Young Artists’ Showcase on Sunday

Northern Aldborough Festival has built a reputation for supporting the UK’s rising stars with its annual New Voices Singing Competition, now entering its fourth year with semi-finals on June 22 at 4pm and 6pm, followed by the grand final on June 23 at 7pm, all at St Andrew’s Church.

A highlight of the classical calendar, the competition attracts a panel of world-renowned judges. Past judges include luminaries such as Dame Felicity Lott, Sir Thomas Allen, Edward Gardner and Dame Jane Glover. This year’s judging panel comprises conductor and former musical director of Opera North Paul Daniel CBE, soprano Carolyn Sampson OBE, accompanist Anna Tilbrook, festival director Robert Ogden and festival chair Sir Andrew Lawson-Tancred.

Audiences have the rare chance to glimpse tomorrow’s stars compete in the hunt for the UK’s best classical vocal talent, with a prize fund of £7,000 and performances at leading festivals for the winners.

Soprano Rachel Munro and pianist Jia Ning Ng: Recital at St Andrew’s Church on June 23

In addition, the 2025 Winner’s Recital will be performed by soprano Rachel Munro and pianist Jia Ning Ng at St Andrew’s Church on June 23 at 11am.

Festival director Robert Ogden says: “As a charity, the festival’s mission is to bring high-end live music to a rural location. We’re proud to bring the kind of world-leading acts normally seen on cosmopolitan stages to our village church, in a gorgeous countryside setting.

“Nothing beats the truly uplifting and transformative experience this level of artistry and music offers. We really hope those who might be new to – or even feel a bit intimidated about classical music – to come along, experience and fall in love with it.”

Drummer Clark Tracey: Leading his quintet at The Old Hall, North Deighton, on Saturday

Violinist Harriet Mackenzie, leader of the Kosmos Ensemble, and award-winning Mexican guitarist Morgan Szymanski team up for Serenata!, a romantically themed programme of Vivaldi, Piazzolla and Paganini, in the ballroom of HMP Askham Grange, a former private country manor house, on June 24 at 11am.

A sublime blend of voice, double bass and guitar comes in the form of Eleanor Grant and Gus McQuade, performing pieces from Benjamin Britten to Joni Mitchell in the genre-defying Jim Bolland Memorial Concert at Farnley Hall, Otley, on June 25 at 11am.

Wild Arts return to Aldborough after last year’s triumph with another sparkling production, Mozart’s The Marriage Of Figaro, at St Andrew’s Church on June 26 at 7pm.

Amol Rajan: Sharing perspectives on journalism, media trends and the changing role of news in public life at St Andrew’s Church on June 25

The Jazz Champions concert, featuring drummer and bandleader Clark Tracey’s quintet, at The Old Hall, North Deighton, on Saturday at 7.30pm, has sold out.

Mezzo-soprano Rose Ritson, cellist Enjuan Han, pianist Evie Lu and trumpet player Gabriel Serrano-Medina take part in the Young Artists’ Showcase at St Andrew’s Church on Sunday at 3pm.

An Evening With Amol Rajan, BBC Radio 4 Today programme presenter, The Today Podcast podcaster, University Challenge question master and cricket enthusiast, at St Andrew’s Church on June 25 at 6.30pm has sold out.

Eleanor Grant and Gus McQuade: Jim Bolland Memorial Concert at Farnley Hall, Otley, on June 25

Rajan, who edited the Independent at the age of 29, will share his perspectives on journalism, media trends and the changing role of news in public life.

Closing the festival on June 27 will be the sold-out Last Night Outdoor Concert, headlined in the grounds of Aldborough Manor by tribute band Definitely Oasis, supported by singer-songwriter Pearl Natasha & Band.

Audiences are invited to bring a picnic and dance the night away from 6pm, climaxing with a spectacular orchestrated firework display.

Aldborough’s late-night venue, The SHED, returns for concert-goers who want to continue festivities after the evening concerts in a relaxed environment, with a variety of live entertainment and refreshments.

Tickets are on sale at https://aldboroughfestival.co.uk/. Find the full line-up at https://aldboroughfestival.co.uk/line-up/).

Definitely Oasis: Festival finale in the grounds of Aldborough Manor on June 27

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Opera North in The Magic Flute, Leeds Grand Theatre, September 28

Opera North in James Brining’s revival of The Magic Flute. Picture: Tristram Kenton

FOR the start of her first full year as general director, Laura Canning is presiding over an autumn of three revivals, of which this production by James Brining is the first.

Doubtless she had no say in the schedule, but it still looks cautious, especially when viewed in the wake of, for example, Buxton Festival’s five new productions this summer.

Brining operates as artistic director of Leeds Playhouse, just a short walk away from the Grand Theatre, and this had been his first full operatic production. It still shows signs of over-calculation.

Before the curtain we are treated to a welcome designed to embrace newcomers. Old-stagers might have regarded it as patronising but, seen alongside a bare-bones outline in the programme of what constitutes opera in the first place, it is arguably a useful introduction to an artform that too many have found intimidating: an attempt to cast the audience net more widely, in other words.

This process must be treated gingerly, however, if the company’s core audience is not to be deterred. The overture is intended as an introduction, presenting themes and building anticipation.

All of that is dissipated when it is overlaid with a dumb show, based on Bergman’s cinematic view of the whole work being a child’s dream/nightmare, that has little or nothing to do with Mozart. So, overture and dumb show are at odds with one another: in our screen-obsessed age, the eyes take over and the overture goes for naught.

As it was, Christoph Koncz, making his Leeds debut, opened the overture very slowly and followed with an extremely rapid allegro, which the orchestra – now under its new leader Katie Stillman – handled with panache. Thereafter Koncz impresses with the transparency of the textures he conjures.

Egor Zhuravskii has graduated from Fenton in Falstaff to Tamino here, and does so smoothly enough. Narrow at the start, his tone opens out over time but remains a little dry, albeit stylish. There is not much genuine feeling between him and Claire Lees’s admirable Pamina, but she entrances with every appearance and sounds ready for greater things.

Leaning heavily on his Welsh lilt, Emyr Wyn Jones makes an affable dunderhead of Papageno, almost taking the pantomime route, while Anna Dennis makes an imposing Queen of Night, edgy, determined and accurate.

Msimelelo Mbali, as Sarastro, lacks the gravitas shown by Andri Björn Robertsson’s Speaker, but his bass grows in authority in Act 2. Colin Judson offers an apt irritant as Monostatos, in place of the repellent figure we had last time.

Pasquale Orchard makes a charming Papagena, although she is introduced to Papageno early and deprived of her ‘old lady’ disguise. Many of the lesser roles are ably assumed by members of the chorus, proving its versatility.

Colin Richmond’s flexible set proves its worth once again, as does Douglas O’Connell’s high-impact video effects.

Brining envisaged Blakean poles of innocence and experience. He might instead have allowed Mozart and Schikaneder – in Jeremy Sams’s colloquial translation – to speak for themselves. The plot is complicated enough as it is.

Review by Martin Dreyer

Performances: Leeds Grand Theatre, February 12, 13, 15 and 22 2025, 7pm. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or leedsheritagetheatres.com. Hull New Theatre, March 27 and 29 2025, 7pm. Box office: hulltheatres.co.uk.