Freedom: Natalie Clein's Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival

Cellist Natalie Clein is artistic director of the Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival which presents a programme of classical music, improvisation and spoken word in eleven concerts over four days from 1 to 4 September 2022 in venues across Dorset including Worth Matravers, Corfe Castle, Swanage, Lulworth and the Dorset Museum in Dorchester.

The artists performing at the festival come from around the world and include Max Baillie (violin & viola), Ruby Hughes (soprano), Hayden Chisholm (saxophone), Nurit Stark (violin), Stephan Braun (cello), Cedric Pescia (piano), Deborah Pritchard (composer), Dave Neita (poet & lawyer), and Natalie Clein (cello & artistic director). 

The theme of this year’s festival is Freedom; freedom of thought, freedom through creativity and freedom beyond boundaries of all kinds. Events open with a pair of concerts in Lulworth and Swanage, Bach's Goldberg Variations in an arrangement for string trio then Debussy's Preludes and Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 alongside improvisations from festival musicians and poetry by Dave Neita. And performances of two further Bach Cello Suites thread their way through other festival concerts.

Events include a concert devoted to the music of Deborah Pritchard as well as the performance of a new piece by Pritchard commissioned by the festival for Natalie Clein, and Pritchard's Storm Song for soprano, piano and cello to a text by Jeanette Winterson. Other composers featured in the festival include Kurtag, Bloch, Tavener, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms.

Full details from the festival website.