Our fantastic festival programme for 2024. All passes and tickets are now on sale.
FRIDAY 12th APRIL 2024
6.30pm DOORS OPEN
WELCOME DRINKS FOR FESTIVAL PASS HOLDERS
7.30pm OPENING RECITAL:
SURE ON THIS SHINING NIGHT
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
James Newby baritone
Iain Burnside piano
This nocturnal journey starts with Butterworth’s immortal Bredon Hill collection, leading to Ireland, Howells, Rorem and Heggie, and featuring three songs by the newly rediscovered composer Jessy Reason.
9.30pm CABARET: GIRLS WILL BE BOYS
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Jess Walker with Joseph Atkins
A whistle-stop musical tour of cross-dressing in song: from Victorian music hall, through Weimar cabaret of 1920s Berlin and onto the musical stages of the later twentieth century, with Victor Victoria and Peter Pan.
SATURDAY 13th APRIL 2024
11.00am MORNING RECITAL – MARCHING THROUGH TIME
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Harriet Burns soprano
Elgan Llŷr Thomas tenor
Ian Tindale piano
Christopher Churcher’s new commission Skysongs is framed by Finzi and Tippett, songcycles, interspersed with Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s Magic Lantern Tales.
2.30pm FILM: MICHAEL TIPPETT, THE SHADOW AND THE LIGHT
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
John Bridcut’s acclaimed portrait puts Tippett’s life and work in new focus. Priceless archival footage of the composer is combined with interviews with singers, instrumentalists and conductors, all under Bridcut’s masterful eye.
4.30pm JOHN BRIDCUT IN CONVERSATION WITH KATY HAMILTON
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Festival Pass Holder Event
concluding with a performance of Tippett’s Boyhood’s End
Elgan Llŷr Thomas tenor
Ian Tindale piano
7.30PM EVENING RECITAL: THE LAND OF LOST CONTENT
St Laurence’s Church
Roderick Williams baritone
Leon Bosch Double Bass
Iain Burnside piano
South African composer Grant McLachlan chose the intriguing combination of baritone, double bass and piano for his cycle The Silence of the Day. Songs by the African American composer H.T. Burleigh carry us eastwards, together with W.D. Browne, Amy Woodforde Finden and Amy Beach. We end with Arthur Somervell, transporting us back to Shropshire.
SUNDAY 14TH APRIL 2024
10.00am PANEL: CHAIRED BY KATY HAMILTON
Festival Pass Holder Event
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Further details follow
11.30am YOUNG ARTIST MASTERCLASS with Robert Dean and Iain Burnside
Festival Pass Holder Event
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Irreverently referred to by his pupils as The Dean Machine, eminent voice teacher Robert Dean joins forces with our Artistic Director, to put several young artists through their paces.
2.30pm CLOSING RECITAL: CELEBRATING STANFORD
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Harriet Burns soprano
Olivia Ray mezzo
Dafydd Jones tenor
Jerome Knox baritone
Ian Tindale piano
To mark the centenary of Sir C.V. Stanford we place the great man in the context of his contemporaries Parry and Vaughan Williams, while celebrating some of this many pupils: Ireland, Howells, Moeran and Clarke. By contrast Derri Joseph Lewis gets out his stethoscope to celebrate a different anniversary – 900 years of St Bartholomew’s Hospital – with his Songs for Barts.
The above programme is subject to change without notification.