Celebrating with a flourish: York Early Music Festival celebrates its 50th edition with a new fanfare from composer Sam Meredith

This July, York Early Music Festival celebrates its 50th edition, running from 3 to 11 July 2026 under the title Beyond Borders, and featuring some of the UK’s most extraordinary medieval churches, historic buildings and the world-famous Minster.

To mark this special occasion has commissioned the majestic York Fanfare, Flourish at 50 to be played during the opening weekend. The fanfare has been created by composer Sam Meredith and will be played by the all female German ensemble [hanse] Pfeyffery. Wakefield born Meredith was finalist in the 2023 NCEM Young Composers Award, Meredith was selected from a strong line up of applicants, all alumni from the Young Composers Award, to be this year’s Commission Composer for the York Early Music Festival.  

The York Fanfare will open this year’s festival on Friday 3 July outside The Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at the University of York at 6.20pm before the opening concert by I Fagiolini, and also outside York Minster before the concert by The Sixteen on Saturday 4 July at 6.45pm, 7.00pm, and 7.15pm. 

The festival opens with Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers presented by I Fagiolini with the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble and closes with Solomon’s Knot in Bruhns’s St Mark Passion. Also appearing are: The Sixteen; B’Rock Orchestra & Vocal Consort; Imago Mundi; Paul Agnew, Helen Charlston with Sergio Bucheli and Steven Devine. The festival also marks John Dowland's 400th anniversary with Dowland Day, a whole day devoted to his works including concerts by lutenist Thomas Dunford; the Rose Consort of Viols; and Flanders based Imago Mundi, directed by Sofie Vanden Eynde. 

This year features two young European ensembles Anacronía from Spain, and the Franco/American medievalists Contre le temps, along with the York International Young Artists Competition with finalists I Mastricelli; Il Parrasio; La Mandorle; Lagrime; Nari Baroque Ensemble; Ossian’s Dream; Quarterino; The Lyons Mouth; and Tra Noi.

Full details from the festival website. 

Bringing the experience & enjoyment of music to children & young people in Yorkshire & beyond: the Richard Shephard Music Foundation's 2026 Music Day

The Richard Shephard Music Foundation's 2026 Music Day takes places on 24 June 2026 at York St John University. During the course of the day, over 400 schoolchildren from across the region will take part in a variety of musical activities, with a programme of diverse workshops from world-class musicians and performers. These include Opera North’s Mini Magic Flute, an interactive workshop from students at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, theatre with Next Door But One and Japanese drumming with Tengu Taiko.

The Foundation was established in 2021 following the death of composer Dr Richard Shephard with the mission of ‘bringing the experience and enjoyment of music to children and young people in Yorkshire and beyond’.  The Foundation focuses on schools in disadvantaged or isolated communities, reaching children at a critical stage in their development, and through its schools programme, they now support weekly music-making for over 10,000 children in 40 schools across Yorkshire.

The Foundation has been providing weekly music lessons in schools across York for the last 5 years. To celebrate their 5-year anniversary, they recently launched their Celebration Choir giving children from across York a chance to come together and sing! The choir is led by Emilie Bels, a qualified teacher and experienced choir leader, who has worked in primary schools for several years delivering fun and inspiring music lessons. The results will be on show this weekend when the choir performs at St Chad's Church (16 May) and York Mela in Museum Gardens (17 May)

Full details from the Foundation's website. 

National Centre for Early Music & BBC Radio 3 announce the 2026 Young Composers Award writing for The Gonzaga Band

The Gonzaga Band

Each year the National Centre for Early Music Young Composers Award 2026 is presented by the National Centre for Early Music in association with BBC Radio 3 and for the 2026 instalment young composers will be working with musicians of The Gonzaga Band, specialists of late Renaissance and early Baroque repertoire.

Young composers are invited to compose a new song setting for soprano, cornett and keyboard, to be performed by the outstanding Gonzaga Band: (Jamie Savan cornett; Faye Newton soprano, Steven Devine keyboard). The song should take inspiration from the music of Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporaries, evoked in The Gonzaga Band’s recently released recital programme Love’s Labyrinth. Candidates should write a song setting that explores the theme of love through the relationship between the voice and instruments, setting a poem by Lady Mary Wrath, a contemporary of Shakespeare.

Composers selected for the final are invited to a collaborative workshop day in York on 16 April 2026, led by composer Christopher Fox and the members of The Gonzaga Band. This will be followed by a public performance of all the selected compositions at the National Centre for Early Music. 

The winning entries will be premiered by The Gonzaga Band in a lunchtime concert at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Tuesday 27 October 2026, which will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Early Music Show and BBC Sounds. 

The award is open to young composers up to the age of 25 resident in the UK and is divided into two categories: 18 years and under and 19 to 25 years.

Full details from the competition website. 

450 children celebrate & take part in a wide variety of music: Richard Shephard Music Foundation's annual Make Music Day in York

Richard Shephard Music Foundation's annual Make Music Day in York

Over 450 school children gathered last week (25 June) at York St John University for a day of inspiring music as the Richard Shephard Music Foundation hosted its annual Make Music Day. The event brought together over 450 primary school children from across the region to celebrate and take part in a wide variety of music.

There were hands-on workshops ranging from Beatboxing to Trinidadian Percussion, intergenerational music workshops with organisation Musical Connections and interactive performances from Back Chat Brass and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Learning and Engagement Orchestra. 

Since the Foundation was established in memory of composer Dr Richard Shephard in 2021, over 7,500 children have received weekly subsidised music lessons, 15 music specialists have been recruited to work in our schools and 800 places have been provided at free music holiday clubs.

Full details from the Foundation's website.

A Georgian Party Music Workshop, and Pick a Card: Ensemble Augelletti's family friendly events for Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival

Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival runs from 23 to 25 May. Before the festival, an extra event features a Georgian Party Music Workshop for young people. Young musicians aged between 7 to 12 who play a woodwind or stringed instrument are invited to step back in time and join the fun of a Georgian musical party! Inspired by music, dancing, and playing games of Georgian Beverley's gatherings, musicians from Ensemble Augelletti will teach young people to play authentic Georgian tunes for traditional dances, while revealing quirky facts about the era.

Ensemble Augelletti return to the festival on 24 May when their family event, Pick a Card invites families to indulge in the art of playing cards, one of the Georgians’ favourite activities, and to “pick a card” to influence the musical programme of the day, with music by Handel, Bach, Vivaldi and Telemann. Families can design their own playing card based on some fabulous 18th century designs, featuring animals, toys, princes and princesses.

The National Centre for Early Music (NCEM), which supports the festival, has a year-round calendar of events for young people. The Minster Minstrels, the NCEM’s youth early music ensemble for school-age musicians run in partnership with York Music Centre, meet regularly and their appearances include a concert as part of the annual York Early Music Festival. Recently they performed at Cliffe Castle in their “Season of Music” as part of the Bradford City of Culture celebrations.

NCEM's I Can Play! programme provides music-making opportunities for D/deaf children across the city of York and also runs I Can Play with Brass Roots, in partnership with Shepherd Brass Band, supporting hearing impaired children and their families to play music in a band environment whilst developing their skills on a brass instrument. In 2024 I Can Play with Brass Roots won the Brass Band Project of the Year Award at Brass Bands England's 2024 Annual Conference in London.

Full details from the NCEM website.

Belgian ensemble, Ayres Extemporae, winners of the 2024 York International Young Artists Competition at the National Centre for Early Music

Ayres Extemporae, winners of the 2024 York International Young Artists Competition

The 2024 York International Young Artists Competition took place on Saturday 13 July 2024 at the National Centre for Early Music in York, as the climax to this year's York Early Music Festival. Eight ensembles took place in the final, during the two days before the final each ensemble gave an informal recital at the National Centre for Early Music in York with the aim of giving the musicians the opportunity to adapt to the performance space and to get to know the festival audience members in advance of the final.

Ayres Extemporae, based in Belgium, were awarded the first prize, receiving a professional recording contract from Linn Records, a £1,000 cash prize, a future paid engagement with the York Early Music Festival, and recording opportunities with BBC Radio 3. 

UK based Apollo’s Cabinet took the Friends of York Early Music Festival award, a cash prize of £1,000, Ensemble Bastion won a cash prize of £1,000 endowed by the EUBO Development Trust, for the Most Promising Young Artist(s) specialising in the Baroque repertoire and  [hanse] Pfeyfferey (from Germany) took the Cambridge Early Music Prize, which includes a paid performance in Cambridge.

Ayres Extemporae are Moldovan-Spanish violinist Xenia Gogu, Spanish cellist Víctor García García, playing on a five-string cello piccolo. and Portuguese cellist Teresa Madeira and their programme consisted of Biber's Sonata for violin and continuo in E Minor, C. 142, Bach's Erbarme dich from Ich armer Mensch ich Sündenknecht, BWV 55 for tenor, flute and continuo (arr. for violoncello piccolo, violin and continuo)  and Bach's Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in G major, BWV1027  (arr. for violoncello piccolo, violin and continuo).

The final is available to watch on the NCEM website.

Full details from the NCEM website.

Metamorfosi: York Early Music Festival 2024

The York Early Music Festival was established in 1977 to celebrate music from the medieval to the baroque within an array of historic venues across the city of York. The festival is administered by the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM). This year's York Early Music Festival, which runs from 6 to 13 July 2024, has the title Metamorfosi and it takes the idea of musical metamorphosis and composers' borrowing, from each other and themselves, as its main theme.

The festival's theme is explored in a selection of concerts including The Sixteen in a programme of Lassus and Josquin highlighting the masters' borrowings, and Josquin and his influence is also the theme of The Gesualdo Six's concert. Steven Devine directs the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in music by Bach and Telemann inspired by those evenings at Zimmerman's Kaffeehaus, where of course Bach famously reused material from earlier in his career. We move to Italy as mezzo-soprano Martha McLorinan and the Rose Consort of Viols explore early Italian music that reworked existing songs whilst cornettist Gawain Glenton's Ensemble in Echo explore Renaissance musical parodies and transformations

Helen Charlston, one of the festival's artistic advisors, joins another mezzo-soprano Rebecca Leggatt and friends for Couperin's Lecons de Tenebre, and Charlston joins with the Consone Quartet for a programme of lieder by the Schumanns husband and wife, and the Mendelssohn siblings, in versions for voice and string quartet. Charlston returns to more traditional territory with a programme of John Dowland with lutenist Toby Carr

Other visitors include Concerto Soave in Frescobaldi's lesser-known Arie Musicali; Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, director Peter Seymour, in Entertainment in 18th century London with music by Handel, Arne, Boyce and more; Florilegium exploring music for King Louis XIV and King Louis XV; Nicholas Mulroy and Cubaroque exploring music by Purcell, Monteverdi and modern songs from the South Americas; Vox Luminis return to York to perform music from Monteverdi's Selva Morale e Spirituali from 1641.

Apotropaik, winners of the Friends Prize, the EEEmerging+ Prize and the Cambridge Early Music Prize at the York International Young Artists Competition in 2022, explore music written for King Charles VII and music for the idealised woman,

Flemish vocal ensemble Utopia explores the music published in 16th-century Antwerp by Tielman Susato, and we remain in Antwerp for Capella Fratensis and I Fedeli's concert of music by Obrecht and Barbireau written for what is now Antwerp Cathedral, and as Obrecht was famous for using the cantus firmus technique, weaving music around pre-existing plainsong, the concert is also directly in the festival's theme.

The NCEM's youth-music ensemble for school-age musicians, Minster Minstrels, explores the compositional technique of antiphony. The University of York Baroque Ensemble joins the postgraduate Domino Consort for Welcome all Pleasures! a programme of music from Purcell's London from tavern to theatre. The festival ends with the 2024 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition.

Full details from the NCEM website.

Beyond the Spanish Golden Age in York and London

Two glorious concerts in York and London on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 May 2023 as the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) continues to strengthen its relationship with Spanish musicians. 

La Galiana & Raquel Andueza and Concerto 1700 will be appearing at the NCEM’s  home, the medieval church of St Margaret’s, celebrating a new relationship with Instituto Cervantes and the Spanish National Centre for the Promotion of Music (CNDM, Madrid), and the INAEM (Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sports) within the framework of the Europa Project. And the concerts are also being presented at the London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square

Beyond the Spanish Golden Age presents performances in York and London showcasing some of the best Spanish musicians specialising in Spanish baroque music. For the opening concert, award-winning ensemble La Galiana and soprano Raquel Andueza celebrate the Spanish Golden Age of the Baroque as seen through the eyes – and ears – of the wider European community with music by Henry du Bailly, Jean Baptiste Lully, Enrico Radesca and more. In York on 13 May and in London on 14 May

Concerto 1700's Music of the Spanish Enlightenment brings a programme of 18th century string trios by Castle, Boccherini and Brunetti – written to please both the Royal Court of Madrid but also a civil society eager to experience new science and culture; the music of a Spain connected with the most innovative musical currents of its time. In York on 14 May and in London on 13 May

Full details from the NCEM website and St John's Smith Square's website

National Centre for Early Music celebrates International Women’s Day, now & throughout the year!

Ensemble Moliere

The National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) is celebrating International Women’s Day in style this year with a new composition Rossignolet by NCEM Composer Award winner Sarah Cattley, commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and presented by the all-female instrumentalists Ensemble Moliere (Radio 3 New Generation Baroque Ensemble) at a lunchtime concert to be broadcast at 1.30pm on Wednesday 8 March.  At the concert the ensemble will be joined by soprano Ruby Hughes for a programme that also includes music by three 18th century French composers, Mademoiselle Laurent, Mademoiselle Duval and Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.

The concert will be available to listen to on catch up on BBC Sounds

Looking ahead, women composers are highlighted within this summer’s York Early Music Festival with a new work by Lithuanian composer and NCEM alumna Juta Pranulyte, commissioned jointly by NCEM, The Marian Consort and the Rose Consort; three miniature operas by the late 17th century French composer Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre telling the heartrending stories of three Biblical women and sung by three exception singers: Carolyn Sampson, Anna Dennis – winner of the RPS Vocal Award 2023 -  and Alys Mererid Roberts; and BBC New Generation Artist Helen Charlston presenting her award-winning Battle Cry! 

Early Music Christmas online and in person in York at the National Centre for Early Music

 

As well as presenting the York Early Music Christmas Festival from 8 to 17 December 2022, the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) in York is offering audiences the chance to experience selected concerts online with the York Early Music Festival Online Box Set. This features seven concerts which are available on demand from 19 December 2022 to 31 January 2023.

The online festival includes a special performance by The Orlando Consort in their final year together, EEEmerging rising stars La Palatine in Fiesta Galante, festival favourite Bojan Čičić in Bach's Partitas and Sonatas for solo violin, Baroque collective Solomon’s Knot giving the UK premieres of three of Christmas Cantatas by Johann Kuhnau (Bach's predecessor in Leipzig), and Spiritato joining forces with The Marian Consort to perform Inspiring Bach, featuring music and composers admired by Johann Sebastian Bach. 

And if you can be in York in person during December, then the York Early Music Christmas Festival features The Orlando Consort, La Palatine, Bojan Čičić, Solomon's Knot, Spiritato and The Marian Consort along with improvising violinist Nina Kumin, Ensemble Augelletti, the Yorkshire Bach Choir in Handel's Brockes Passion, and Ensemble Moliere celebrating Molière's 400th anniversary, 

Full details from the NCEM website.

Protean Quartet wins this year's York International Young Artists Competition,

Protean Quartet

The Protean Quartet from Germany has been announced as the winners of this year's York International Young Artists Competition, a biennial competition that takes place at the National Centre for Early Music and came as the climax to this year's York Early Music Festival. Playing repertoire that included Josquin des Prez and Schubert's Rosamunde Quartet, the quartet (Javier Aguilar, Edi Kotler violins; Ricardo Gil viola; and Clara Rada cello), fought of competition from finalists including Ensemble Augelletti and Palisander from UK, plus artists from France, Netherlands, and Italy.

The judging panel was Edward Blakeman (BBC Radio 3); Albert Edelman (President, Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne 2019 - 2022); Producer and recording engineer Philip Hobbs (Linn Records); violinist Catherine Mackintosh; and harpsichordist, Professor Barbara Willi. The winning ensemble receives a professional recording contract from Linn Records, £1,000 cash prize, and opportunities to work with BBC Radio 3 and the NCEM.

The Prize for the Most Promising Young Artist, a cash prize of £1000 awarded to the most promising individual instrumentalist or to the most promising ensemble specialising in baroque repertoire was awarded to UnderStories from Italy with works by Benedetto Marcello, Antonio Caldara and Antonio Vivaldi.

Further details and a film of the whole final on the NCEM website.

York Early Music Festival

This year's York Early Music Festival in July will be presenting nine days of concerts, talks and workshops under the title Connections. Alongside visiting ensembles such as The Sixteen, the Tallis Scholars and Gabrieli Consort & Players, the York International Young Artists Competition will be returning.

The Sixteen will be performing their Choral Pilgrimage programme based around Parry's Songs of Farewell, whilst the Tallis Scholars look at connections between Josquin, Palestrina and Byrd, and Gabrieli Consort & Players present A Venetian Coronation, their recreation of the 1595 Coronation Mass of the Venetian Doge at St Mark’s. Other performers include gamba specialists Paolo Pandolfo & Amélie Chemin; The Gonzaga Band; The Rose Consort of Viols; the University of York Baroque Ensemble; Orí Harmelin; Profeti della Quinta; the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists; and Ensemble Voces Suaves.

For the competition, ten groups from across Europe will give informal recitals at St Margaret's Church (home of the National Centre for Early Music) before competing for the prize. The winners will receive a professional CD recording contract from Linn Records, a cheque for £1000, and opportunities to work with BBC Radio 3 and the National Centre for Early Music. There are also additional prizes supported by Cambridge Early Music, the European Union Baroque Orchestra Development Trust, and the Friends of York Early Music Festival. 

Full details from the festival website.

York Early Music Christmas Festival

Christmas is definitely coming early to York, as the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) has announced the return of York Early Music Christmas Festival from 3 to 11 December 2021 at St Margaret’s Church and the University of York. Many of the concerts are staged by candlelight, with mulled wine available to complete the experience!

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's A Baroque Christmas opens things, and then performances include the Gesualdo Six's In Winter's House, a Mexican theme from Siglo de Oro’s Christmas in Puebla, tenor James Gilchrist and lutenist Matthew Wadsworth in Divine Love and Earthly Passions, the intriguing combination of Bojan Cicic - violin  Gawain Glenton - cornetto  and Silas Wollston - organ in Cornetto & violin: A Contest of Equals, York Bach Choir and many more. 

The programme includes one of finest young professional ensembles supported by the NCEM’s Creative Europe funded programme EEEmerging +; award-winning young artists Prisma, from Germany, present A Baroque Christmas in their very particular entertaining style. 

Full details from the NCEM website.