National Centre for Early Music launches new season on October 1. Who’s playing?

Saxophonist Jean Toussaint: First blast of brass in the NCEM’s autumn season on October 1

THE National Centre for Early Music autumn season will open next Wednesday with Grammy-winning saxophonist, composer and bandleader Jean Toussaint’s 7.20pm concert at St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York.

Born on the Dutch Antilles island of Aruba, Toussaint grew up in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, and studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

He moved to London in 1987, since when he has used the capital as his base. For his return to York with his latest project, JT5, he will share the stage with emerging British jazz talent, performing material from his latest album, JT5 Live At The Vortex 10/08/2024, recorded at the London jazz club last summer.

Supported by Ronnie Scott’s Charitable Trust, York Music Forum students will be working with Toussaint earlier in the day to share their work on the NCEM stage from 7.20pm to 7.40pm.

Trumpet player Byron Wallen: Raising the Black Flag at the NCEM on October 24

“Our autumn season welcomes a host of artists from across the world, bringing the highest-quality music-making to the city and continuing to share opportunities for the young, and the not so young, to get involved,” says NCEM director Delma Tomlin.

Pianist Jonny Best will be joined by violinist Susannah Simmons, cellist Liz Hanks and percussionist Trevor Bartlett for Frame Ensemble’s live accompaniment of Northern Silents’ presentation of Julien Duvivier’s 1929 French silent film The Divine Voyage on October 6.

As with Northern Silents’ sold-out performance of South in 2023, Frame Ensemble’s improvised score will capture the atmosphere of Duvivier’s lushly photographed tale of faith and hope about rapacious businessman Claude Ferjac sending his ship, La Cordillere, on a long trading journey, knowing it has been repaired poorly and is likely to sink. An entire village of sailors, desperate to support their families, has no choice but to set sail.

Virtuoso guitarists Gordon Giltrap & John Etheridge team up for 2 Parts Guitar on October 14; Damien O’Kane’s Irish tenor banjo and Ron Block’s five-string bluegrass banjo link up the following night to showcase their third joyously innovative album in seven years, Banjovial, the sequel to the ground-breaking Banjophony and Banjophonics.

Heidi Talbot: Previewing November 21 album Grace Untold at NCEM on October 23

On October 23, Irish singer-songwriter Heidi Talbot returns to the NCEM ahead of the November 21 release of her new album, Grace Untold, a collection of songs based around Irish goddesses and inspirational women, performed in York with Toby Shaer on fiddle and flute and Innes White on guitar.

Byron Wallen, London-born composer, traveller, educator and trumpet and flugelhorn player, heads back to the NCEM on November 24 with a very personal project: an exploration of childhood memories and the emotional strains between a mother and her son, separated by the Atlantic Ocean.

Performed with pianist and keyboard player Nick Ramm, Black Flag is in part a response to the photographic work of Annabel Elgar, whose images will be shared on screen. Emotional, searing, poignant and tough, this will be an evening to reflect and explore the shifting balance of power between the urban and the rural, together with the toxicity of colonialism, but with a glimpse of light before the sun.

“As our 25th year draws to a close, we are particularly pleased to welcome trumpeter and composer Byron Wallen as he shares his very personal exploration of childhood in Black Flag,” says Delma. “Likewise to invite you to enjoy an extraordinarily upbeat show of rhythms in the company of N’Faly Kouyaté and to share the haunting tapestry of sounds from Armenia and Iran with duduk player Arsen Petrosyan.”

N’Faly Kouyaté : Showcasing new album Finishing on November 12

Booked in for November 12, Songlines Music Awards winner N’Faly Kouyaté is a living bridge between ancestral heritage and future sounds, inviting you to a musical odyssey of songs that stir the soul, inspire reflection, elicit smiles and set bodies moving.

Playing balafon, kora, n’gonin, djeli doundoun, djeli tamamba and the toumba (congas), Guinean musician Kouyaté will be showcasing music from his September 12 album Finishing, with Afro Celt Sound System, where Celtic voices and instrumentation meet the vibrant heartbeat of African rhythms.

On November 17, Arsen Petroysan will be joined by Mehdi Rostami, on setar, and Adib Rostami, on kamancheh, to perform haunting melodies and intricate improvisations in a meditative and emotional journey through the ancient Armenian and Iranian cultures.

On November 16, at 6.30pm, wry Kent folk musician Chris Wood – a six-time BBC Folk Award winner and key member of The Imagined Village alongside North Yorkshire’s Martin and Eliza Carthy – offers reflections on minor league football, empty nest syndrome, learning to swim, Cook-in-Sauce and the Gecko as a  metaphor for contemporary society in celebration of “the sheer one-thing-after-anotherness of life”.

The folk focus next falls on The Jeremiahs, the Irish band of Joe Gibney, vocals, Matt Mancuso, fiddle and vocals, Conor Crimmins, flute, and James Ryan, guitar, in their NCEM debut on December 3.

Chris Wood: Celebrating “the sheer one-thing-after-anotherness of life” on November 16

The NCEM teams up with Explore York library service and Mayfield Valley Arts Trust for Baroque Around The Books on December 8 and 9, when Dowland’s Foundry, with tenor Daniel Thompson and lutenist Sam Brown, presents  Facets Of Time in various York libraries to explore the meaning of time through music and poetry. Full details can be found at ncem.co.uk/baroque-around–the-books.

York Early Music Christmas Festival 2025 will run from December 5 to 14, featuring Fieri Consort& Camerta Oresund, Consone & Chiaroscuo Quartets, Marian Consort & ECSE, Apollo’s Cabinet, Helen Charlston, Joglaresa and Apollo5. A full preview will follow in The York Press soon.

Festive folk fixtures Green Matthews – modern-day balladeers Chris Green and Sophie Green – will see out the old year at the NCEM with their Midwinter Revels concert of Christmas carols and winter folk songs on ancient and modern instruments on December 16.

“Our autumn season is creative, engaging and will be hugely rewarding,” says Delma. “We look forward to welcoming you.”

Concerts start at 7.30pm unless stated otherwise. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

More Things To Do in York and beyond, whether Unfortunate or fortunate to be here. Hutch’s List No. 24, from The Press

Swing when you’re singing: Ryedale Primary Choir schoochildren doing their vocal exercises for Across The Whinny Moor

MUSICAL moorland mermaids and a villainous sea witch, motion in art and a Mozart mass, vintage Pink Floyd and a Louise Brooks silent movie set up Charles Hutchinson’s week ahead.

Ryedale Festival community event of the week: Across The Whinny Moor, St Peter’s Church, Norton, today, 4pm

THE world premiere of the Community Song Cycle: Across The Whinny Moor follows the trail of North Yorkshire’s Lyke Wake Walk, meeting cheeky hobs, angry mermaids, resourceful giants and wise witches along the way. 

The all-age cast for a walk through stories and songs by John Barber and Hazel Gould includes the schoolchildren of the Ryedale Primary Choir, the Ryedale Voices, Harmonia and The RyeLarks choirs, Kirkbymoorside Town Junior Brass Band, storyteller Rosie Barrett and mezzo-soprano soloist Victoria Simmonds, conducted by Caius Lee. Box office: ryedalefestival.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173652657. 

Tim Pearce’s poster artwork for Life Forms In Motion at Blossom Street Gallery

Six of the best: Life Forms In Motion, Blossom Street Gallery, Blossom Street, York, until June 30

SIX Yorkshire artists give individual responses to the challenge of interpreting the motion of life forms in a range of static media. In a nutshell, time and space condensed into single, dynamic images.

Taking part are Tim Pearce, painting and sculpture; Cathy Denford, painting; Jo Ruth, printmaking; Adrienne French, painting; Mandy Long, ceramic sculpture, and Lesley Peatfield, photography. Opening hours: Thursday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm; Sundays, 10am to 3pm.

Robert Hollingworth: On baton duty at the University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra’s concert at York Minster tonight

Classical concert of the week: University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra, York Minster, tonight, 7.30pm

UNDER the direction of Robert Hollingworth and John Stringer, the University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra perform Mozart’s ‘Great’ Mass in C minor, widely considered to be among his supreme choral works.

This will be complemented by a selection of works by Anton Bruckner, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Austrian composer’s birth, including the Te Deum, “the pride of his life”. Box office: 01904 322439 or yorkconcerts.co.uk.

Across The Fields To The Sea, by John Thornton, from his Kentmere House Gallery exhibition

“Favourite artist” of the week: John Thornton, Across The Fields To The Sea, Kentmere House, Gallery, Scarcroft Hill, York

BORN in York and now living in Selby, seascape and landscape artist John Thornton has opened his latest show, Across The Fields To The Sea, at his regular York gallery.

“John is everyone’s favourite painter,” says gallery owner and curator Ann Petherick. “I’m delighted he has produced a new and exciting collection of paintings of Askham Bog and Skipwith Common woodlands and meadows and the occasional seascape, inspired by his travels in Yorkshire since the end of Covid.” Opening hours: First weekend of each month, 11am to 5pm; every Thursday, 6pm to 9pm; any other time by appointment on 01904 656507 or 07801 810825.

Louise Brooks in Diary Of A Lost Girl, showing at the NCEM on Tuesday

Film event of the week: Diary Of A Lost Girl (PG), with pianist Utsav Lal, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, June 11, 7.30pm

TRAILBLAZING New York raga pianist Utsav Lal improvises his live score to accompany Diary Of A Lost Girl, a rarely shown gem of German silent cinema starring American icon Louise Brooks.

Presented by Northern Silents, G W Pabst’s 1929 film traces the journey of a young woman from the pit of despair to the moment of personal awakening. Box office: 01904 658338 and at ncem.co.uk.

Sex, sorcery and suckers: Shawna Hamic’s filthy-humoured Ursula in Unfortunate: The Untold Story Of Ursula The Sea Witch. Picture: Pamela Raith

Musical discovery of the week: Unfortunate: The Untold Story Of Ursula The Sea Witch, Grand Opera House, York, June 11 to 15, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee

AFTER a hit London season, Yorkshire writer-director Robyn Grant heads north with her raucously rude, wickedly camp parody musical Unfortunate, wherein Disney diva Ursula, the villainous sea witch, rules the waves and waves the rules.

New York actress Shawna Hamic’s Ursula gives her filthy-humoured take on what really happened all those years ago under the sea in a bawdy tale of sex, sorcery and suckers. Age recommendation: 16+, on account of strong language, partial nudity and scenes of a sexual nature. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.

Courtney Broan as Ado Annie in Pickering Musical Society’s Oklahoma!

American classic of the week: Pickering Musical Society in Oklahoma!, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, June 11 to 15, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

LUKE Arnold directs Pickering Musical Society in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 love story of Curly (Marcus Burnside) and Laurie (Rachel Anderson), set in the sweeping landscapes of the American heartland. 

Further roles go to Courtney Broan as Ado Annie, Stephen Temple as Will Parker, Michael O’Brien as Mr Carnes and Rick Switzer-Green as AliHakim, joined by dancers from the Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.

Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets: Re-visiting Pink Floyd at York Barbican

Rock gig of the week: Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets, York Barbican, June 12, 7.45pm

NICK Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets follow up their April 2022 appearance at York Barbican with Wednesday’s date on their Set The Controls Tour.

Once more, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason will be joined by Spandau Ballet guitarist Gary Kemp, bassist Guy Pratt, guitarist Lee Harris and keyboardist Dom Beken to perform vintage Pink Floyd material. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.   

The poster artwork for Calamity Jane, starring Carrie Hope Fletcher, on tour at Grand Opera House next spring

Show announcement of the week: Carrie Hope Fletcher in Calamity Jane, Grand Opera House, York, April 29 to May 3 2025

IN the week when Nikolai Foster’s production of An Officer And A Gentleman The Musical is on tour at the Grand Opera House, the York theatre announces the booking of another show with the North Yorkshire director at the helm, this one bound for the West End.

Three-time WhatsOnStage Best Actress in a Musical winner Carrie Hope Fletcher will star in the whip-crackin’ musical as fearless Dakota gun-slinger Calamity Jane. “She is one of those roles that doesn’t come around all too often,” she says. “She’s action, romance and comedy all packed into one character, and I can’t wait to take on the challenge of filling her shoes.” Box office: atgtickets.com/york.