Six Days of Sensational Live Music

Southwell Music Festival is back with its first full-scale festival in three years, featuring over 40 unmissable live events.

From 24th – 29th August enjoy sensational live music, in indoor and outdoor locations across the town. You’ll find choral and orchestral music, jazz and folk, ancient, modern and everything in between.
Resident ensembles; the Festival Voices, Sinfonia and Chamber Soloists, are at the heart of the programme and will join forces in a performance of Mendelssohn’s dramatic oratorio, St Paul on the Saturday evening in the stunning setting of Southwell Minster’s Nave.

The Festival also welcomes celebrity guests, including Northumbrian piper and folk star Kathryn Tickell and British pianist Martin Roscoe.

The Festival opens on Wednesday 24th August with a recital by star organist Anna Lapwood. Alongside her role as Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Anna enjoys a varied career as a performer, broadcaster and conductor.
Other 2022 highlights include composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s new song cycle, Everything Grows Extravagantly; a celebration of Ralph Vaughan Williams featuring the poetry of his wife Ursula Vaughan Williams; and a performance of James MacMillan’s seminal work Seven Last Words from the Cross alongside music from Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov.

With jazz from Magpie Trio and Alice Zawadzki, a visit from Custard the Dragon at the Family Concert, and a Jubilee themed Come & Sing, there is something for everyone.

Southwell Music Festival is committed to supporting the future generation of music-makers. This year the Festival welcomes early career apprentices to play alongside its professional ensembles; runs a Masterclass session for selected young musicians and showcases young musical talent through the Young Artists Series.

And don’t forget the homegrown talent showcased at the free Festival Fringe. The popular outdoor picnic concert ‘Brass on the Grass’ makes a welcome return on Saturday afternoon, and proceeds from all fringe events go towards local disability charity, Reach Southwell.

The Festival Guide is available in outlets in Southwell and the local area or visit southwellmusicfestival.com

Tickets are on sale now. Book online at southwellmusicfestival.com/onlinebooking or call the Box Office on 01636 330014 (Monday – Friday, 9am – 7.30pm).

Published July 2022