This performance is now sold out, but please see Event 13 on Monday 15th July or Event 19 on Wednesday 17th July for alternative performances Eamonn Dougan musical director Monica Nicolaides movement director Henry Purcell Dido and Aeneas ‘Remember me but ah, forget my fate…’ In the first great English opera, Dido, Queen of Carthage, […]

An event unique to the Ryedale Festival, the Triple Concert features three contrasting concerts in different parts of Castle Howard, each performed three times, with the audiences changing places between performances. The concert will be preceded by a Patrons Reception at 6pm.   CHAPEL: echo Choir Sarah Latto director   Purcell Hear my prayer Roxanna Panufnik O […]

Coffee Concert Lauren Zhang piano   Beethoven Piano Sonata no.31 in A flat, op.110 Brahms Variations on a theme of Paganini Chopin Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat, op.61   The winner of the 2018 BBC Young Musician competition performs a scintillating set of variations nicknamed ‘Witchcraft’ for their diabolical nature and fearsome technical challenges, as well […]

A Community Opera by Richard Shephard Em Whitfield Brooks director Eamonn Dougan musical director Join Rat, Mole, Badger and Mr Toad for a series of riotous adventures on the river bank, as Richard Shephard recreates Kenneth Grahame’s classic story of friendship and bravery as a community opera. An all-age cast from across the region join […]

  This performance is now sold out, but please see Event 6B on Sunday 14th July for a repeat performance Jess Gillam saxophone Zeynep Özsuca piano Iturralde Pequeña Czarda Ravel Vocalise en forme de habanera Britten  Temporal Variations Nyman ‘If’ from The Diary of Anne Frank John Harle  Rant Marcello  Concerto for Oboe in C Minor Graham Fitkin […]

Late-Night Candlelit Concert Fantasias and folk Elias Quartet Purcell Fantasias Donald Grant Scottish folk tunes suite   Like Purcell, who often borrowed traditional tunes of his day, the Elias Quartet see no hard border between folk and classical music. Interleaving dazzling fantasias with Scottish traditional tunes, they relish the unstuffy blend of complexity and immediacy, […]

A Community Opera by Richard Shephard Em Whitfield Brooks director Eamonn Dougan musical director Join Rat, Mole, Badger and Mr Toad for a series of riotous adventures on the river bank, as Richard Shephard recreates Kenneth Grahame’s classic story of friendship and bravery as a community opera. An all-age cast from across the region join […]

Jess Gillam saxophone Zeynep Özsuca piano   Iturralde Pequeña Czarda Ravel Vocalise en forme de habanera Britten  Temporal Variations Nyman ‘If’ from The Diary of Anne Frank John Harle  Rant Marcello  Concerto for Oboe in C Minor Graham Fitkin Gate Dowland Flow my tears Wiedoeft  Valse Vanité Milhaud  Scaramouche   In 2016, Jess Gillam made […]

J.S. Bach Orchestral Suite no. 1 in C J.S. Bach Sinfonia BWV 42 J.S. Bach Violin Concerto in E J.S. Bach Orchestral Suite no. 2 in B minor J.S. Bach Concerto in D minor for two violins   Order and moderation versus rebellion and sensuality. In between those battling forces lies that elusive ideal we […]

Late-Night Candlelit Concert Young Artist Platform Flora Curzon violin Pawel Siwczak harpsichord   J.S. Bach Violin Sonata in G Trad. Sephardic Lullaby from Andalusia Pandolfi La Cesta Trad. British folk songs suite Böddecker Sonata in D minor   ‘I love playing different styles of music – for fun, to hear how different genres talk to […]

The public and private faces of Johannes Brahms Katy Hamilton speaker How do we think of Brahms? The beard, the belly, the cigar? A buttoned-up, beer-drinking bachelor? In the first of four talks, Katy Hamilton joins pianist Jonathan Plowright to look beyond the clichés and caricatures, exploring fresh perspectives on this misunderstood composer and the […]

Brahms at the piano Jonathan Plowright piano   Brahms Piano Sonata no. 1 in C Brahms Waltzes op. 39 Brahms Four pieces for piano op. 119   Jonathan Plowright explores Brahms from first to last opus. A simple German folk song provides the seed for a heroic first piano sonata. Brahms the pleasure-seeker beguiles the […]

Eamonn Dougan musical director Monica Nicolaides movement director Henry Purcell Dido and Aeneas ‘Remember me but ah, forget my fate…’ In the first great English opera, Dido, Queen of Carthage, loves the Trojan prince Aeneas, but fate conspires to keep them apart, along with boisterous sailors and cackling witches. It’s a tale of duty and […]

Sledmere House and Church are the venues for two concerts, both performed twice, with the audience changing places after a picnic interval   HOUSE Schubert and Co.   Schubert Lieder and part-songs   An exciting new vocal ensemble recreates the spirit of the Schubertiade – the intimate and informal atmosphere of music-making that was so […]

The public and private faces of Johannes Brahms Katy Hamilton speaker   Katy Hamilton continues her search for the real Brahms, inviting us to listen to his music with fresh ears and decoding secret messages hidden within two great chamber works for strings.

Coffee Concert Signs and secret messages Esme Quartet Rosalind Ventris viola Camille Thomas cello   Brahms String Quartet in A minor Brahms String Sextet in G   Brahms as musical cryptographer. The motto ‘Free, but lonely’ runs through one of his most deeply felt string quartets, whereas an ethereal string sextet enshrines a tender message […]

joinedupwriting   Roger McGough is one of Britain’s best-loved poets, host of the long-running Radio 4 series Poetry Please and poet in residence at this year’s Ryedale Festival. For more than fifty years, he has entranced generations of readers with poetry that is at once playful and poignant, intimate and ambitious in its scope. From […]

Roderick Williams baritone Rowan Pierce soprano Katie Bray mezzo-soprano Nicky Spence tenor James Newby baritone Christopher Glynn piano Jeremy Sams and Louise Shephard directors   For his final masterpiece, Hugo Wolf looked south – to Italy – and produced a collection of tiny jewel-like songs that paint a kaleidoscopic portrait of village life. The men and […]

Eamonn Dougan musical director Monica Nicolaides movement director Henry Purcell Dido and Aeneas ‘Remember me but ah, forget my fate…’ In the first great English opera, Dido, Queen of Carthage, loves the Trojan prince Aeneas, but fate conspires to keep them apart, along with boisterous sailors and cackling witches. It’s a tale of duty and […]

North Africa from Dido to the Arab Spring Lucy Beckett speaker The novelist and historian Lucy Beckett talks about North Africa as part of the Greek, Carthaginian and Roman worlds, taking in the story of Dido, Virgil, Rome’s African emperors and St Augustine, and then the Arab invasions, Barbary pirates, and the story of French, […]

The public and private faces of Johannes Brahms Katy Hamilton speaker   Katy Hamilton, author of the recently published Brahms in Context, invites us on holiday with Brahms, finding him at his most genial and optimistic.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen violin Camille Thomas cello Mario Häring piano   Brahms Cello Sonata in F op. 99 Brahms Violin Sonata in A op. 100 Brahms Piano Trio in C minor op. 101   In the summer of 1886 Brahms took a much-needed holiday near Lake Thun in Switzerland. ‘It’s magnificent here’ he wrote on a […]