Somewhere for the Weekend: Dartington Summer School & Festival

Dartington Summer School & Festival

This year's Dartington Summer School and Festival will be Joanna Macgregor's fifth and final year as artistic director. Open to the Summer School's course participants and the general public, the concerts range from opera, orchestral music and chamber music recitals to jazz, folk, gospel and more. This year Macgregor has included music and composers that she has found influential, including Moondog (paired with Bach's Art of Fugue), Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, Britten's Turn of the Screw and Saint Nicholas, John Cage's Musicircus and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring as well as 85th birthday celebrations for Sir Harrison Birtwistle.

Visiting performers including conductors Stephen Barlow, Laurence Cummings and Graeme Jenkins, performance poet Caroline Bergvall, tenor Tom Randle, Alfred Brendel, Stile Antico, and Škampa Quartet. Emma Kirkby will be celebrating her 70th birthday in a concert given with counter-tenor Nicholas Clapton, lutenist David Miller and students from vocal and lute masterclasses.

Opera this year includes Handel's Agrippina with Robert Howarth as musical director, and Graeme Jenkins conducts Britten's The Turn of the Screw with tenor Tom Randle. Laurence Cummings directs Handel's Saul with Dartington Choir and Dartington Baroque Orchestra. Tom Randle and Joanna Macgregor will perform Janacek's The Diary of One who Disappeared with singers from the Advanced Opera Course. Students from the musical theatre course will be presenting scenes from Annie Get Your Gun and Calamity Jane.

Steuart Bedford will be conducting Britten's Saint Nicholas with Tom Randle alongside Adriano Adewale's Percussion Concerto conducted by Steve Drummer.

The Summer School and Festival runs from 27  July to 24 August 2019, full details from the Dartington web site.