Just Beverley - Latest Issue - Flipbook - Page 35
Beverley braces itself for musical ‘hurricane’!
Beverley’s nationally celebrated classical music
festival, New Paths Music, returns to the East
Riding this spring for its fourteenth edition.
Running 2nd - 6th April across six venues, the
festival features 22 performances given by a
handpicked team of star musicians drawn from
across the UK.
Spotlight solo performances feature trumpeter
Matilda Lloyd, clarinettist Julian Bliss, and violinist
Charlotte Scott - all joined by Artistic Director
and pianist Libby Burgess - while Australian
guitarist Craig Ogden and Serbian accordionist
Miloš Milivojević (described by The Times as
‘A hurricane of imaginative invention’) perform
tangos and dances.
New Paths’ Associate Artist Martin Roscoe
performs the three late Schubert piano sonatas
across three different venues, and the festival’s
string players come together to give a shimmering
late-night performance in the Minster - featuring
music by Dorothy Howell, William Lloyd Webber,
Pēteris Vasks and Johann Sebastian Bach.
“The venues of Beverley take our breath away
every year,” says Artistic Director Libby Burgess.
“The stunning medieval architecture of the Minster
and St Mary’s is so inspiring to our musicians, and
the acoustics and atmosphere make these very
special places for our audiences to hear music.
But we use a whole range of spaces - the popular
East Riding Theatre, the larger Memorial Hall, and
of course the quirky pub space Upstairs at the
Monks!”
“Many people each year choose to buy a festival
pass, and come to everything,” says Founder and
Chairman, Roland Deller. “With events from 10am
to 10pm, they don’t want to miss a thing.”
“People travel from across the country to join
the magic,” he adds, “and we’re so proud that,
nationwide, people associate the place of
Beverley with outstanding music and a special
creative spirit. And it’s brilliant for the hospitality
industry in the town too, with festivalgoers
enjoying the many cafes, restaurants, pubs, shops
and hotels the town has to offer.”
Other performers this year include soprano Mary
Bevan MBE - fresh from the stages of English
National Opera and Teatro dell’Opera in Rome
- bass-baritone Ashley Riches, violinist Jamie
Campbell, and violist Jane Atkins.
Two new artists on the roster for 2025
include Principal Cellist of the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra, Jonathan Aasgaard,
and Principal Oboist of the London Symphony
Orchestra, Olivier Stankiewicz.
New Paths’ partnership with the Royal Birmingham
Conservatoire’s organ department continues, with
the festival hosting the final of the Dame Gillian
Weir Messiaen Prize: three young organists put
the Minster’s historic instrument through its paces
as they compete for the accolade in the presence
of Dame Gillian herself.
The competition is adjudicated by a panel of
experts, chaired by former Director of Music at
Westminster Cathedral, Martin Baker.
“Organ music has always played a special role in
our festivals,” reflects Roland Deller. “When we
began back in 2016 we dedicated New Paths to
the memory of Alan Spedding, who was for over
40 years Director of Music at the Minster here, and
nurtured generations of musicians - including me!”
Other local stories feature in the programming:
feminist and writer Mary Wollstonecraft is the
inspiration for a morning concert, while a Minster
lunchtime performance includes the East Riding
folksong, Spurn Point.
The festival’s popular free concert for babies
and toddlers returns, and New Paths’ Golden
Ticket scheme continues, enabling young people
and school groups to hear any of the festival’s
performances for free.
“We believe passionately that music is for
everyone,” says Libby Burgess.
“Our audience is a fabulous mix of lifelong
music-lovers, and people who are totally new to
it. We’re known for our events being welcoming
and accessible, as well as of an exceptional
quality, and the musicians bring such warmth
and brilliance to what they do. It’s a mad, intense
week, with everyone running from one event to
another - but it has the most wonderful fizzing
creative energy and is just a huge amount of fun.
I can’t wait!”
Full programme details are available at
www.newpathsmusic.com. Tickets are available
online or from the Beverley Tourist Information
Centre on 01482 391 672.
www.newpathsmusic.com
or Beverley TIC – 01482 391 672
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