Music on the Moors

Ayriel Studios (Photo RecordProduction.com)

The cellist Jamie Walton launched North York Moors Chamber Music Festival in 2009. Twice shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the festival was one of the only organisations that went ahead as planned during the pandemic (in both 2020 and 2021), playing to socially distanced live audiences in a 5000 square foot acoustically adapted marquee. 

Now Walton has launched another project, he is artistic director of Ayriel Studios a new residential recording studio and creative retreat set within the spectacular landscape of the North York Moors National Park. Launched earlier this year, it has taken six years from inception to completion. The studio is in a large, converted barn, with three adjacent self-catering farm cottages that sleep up to 12 people, surrounded by stone-walled fields on one side and heather moorland on the other. It is a musical haven. 

The studio offers a bespoke service, including help with travel arrangements. Artists may stay on site and have everything taken care of, including home-cooked meals, so they can relax and focus fully on their project. 

Walton comments, "It seems to be working - pianist, Peter Donohoe, surprised himself by recording 17 sonatas in one visit, Viktoria Mullova and Alasdair Beatson recorded a disc of Schubert and finished early, and I recently recorded The Bach Suites in three days."

Full details from the studio's website.