In the press
Yorkshire’s boldest festival
The Times
The jewel in Yorkshire’s cultural crown
The Guardian
Every summer music festival proclaims the richness and variety of its musical menu. Ryedale, under the artistic directorship of Christopher Glynn, competes with the best…ambitious in programming…ticket prices so reasonable that southerners will gasp at such northern value
The Spectator
quality artistic direction and an inclusive rather than exclusive approach to audiences
Opera Now
Festivals rise and fall, usually depending on the imagination of the artistic director and the fervour of the fundraisers. The Ryedale Festival, which animates the churches, stately homes and spas of North Yorkshire each summer, seems alive and sprouting – not least due to the visionary direction of Christopher Glynn, a distinguished piano accompanist who has turned into an inspired programmer and a canny spotter of rising young talent.
The Times
A revelation by the name of Ryedale…this festival has something real to offer. The programming is good, the artists well-chosen, the locations fabulous: an unbeatable package
Catholic Herald
One of the most memorable projects that I’ve ever witnessed in a music festival: the kind of life-changing event that concert-goers always want but rarely find . . . these concerts ran in places of extraordinary beauty – as does everything at Ryedale, which brings music into perfect churches, villages and stately piles across North Yorkshire
Classical Music
‘Artistic Director Christopher Glynn has done wonders here…quality artistic direction and an inclusive rather than exclusive approach to audiences’
Opera Now
For two weeks in July music-lovers in North and East Yorkshire have to pinch themselves to check they haven’t gone to heaven. For this is when a host of world-acclaimed musicians arrive on their doorstep to perform in some of the most spectacular venues in the country.
Country Life
Prayers were offered to Paris before Wednesday’s Ryedale Festival performance of the Prelude to Act 1 and Act 3 of Parsifal in York Minster…Mark Elder, our leading Wagnerian, conducted the Hallé orchestra and choir, with singers from the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of York, drawing a massive, slow-reverberating sound from his performers. Music and silence, gothic architecture and Wagnerian grand structure, met as one.
The Observer
Ryedale Festival floated a powerful reminder of its status in the community with this world premiere of a new song-cycle written by a Pickering-born composer and largely performed by inhabitants of Ryedale…an occasion that both highlighted an important piece of local history and underlines what a force for good the Ryedale Festival continues to be.
Martin Dreyer, CharlesHutchPress