Cheltenham Music Festival: Replay – a digital celebration from Saturday 4 July

Cheltenham Music Festival has curated a digital celebration this year, highlighting what is unique and innovative about the Festival.  Cheltenham Music Festival: Replay will be available for free on the Cheltenham Festivals website from Saturday 4 July.

 

The music collection will include...

·        Six brand-new podcasts of composers in conversation with the Festival’s Head of Programming Camilla King and archive recordings of Cheltenham premieres from the last eight years

·        Videos delving behind the scenes of the Festival to discover more about careers in Music including an interview with 2020 Guest Curator Jules Buckley; and the Festival’s year-round talent development and community outreach programmes.

·        Playlists celebrating Festival commissions and premieres since 1945

·        BBC Radio 3 will join in the celebration by broadcasting their pick of Cheltenham Music Festival recitals from Pittville Pump Room in a series of four lunchtime concerts running from 30 June – 3 July

Podcasts

Master of the Queen’s Music Judith Weir talks about her most recent Festival commission The Prelude written for the Nash Ensemble in 2019, as well as her very first Cheltenham world premiere A Night At The Chinese Opera in 1987 which she describes as a ‘life-changing event’.

Thea Musgrave’s keynote address from the Festival’s inaugural Composium day in 2019 and thought-provoking talks and panel sessions with broadcaster Katy Hamilton, the RPS’s James Murphy, composers Hannah Kendall, Emma-Ruth Richards, Huw Watkins, Zoe Martlew and former PRS Foundation CEO Vanessa Reed.

Founder of Wild Plum Arts, Lucy Schaufer, and cellist/composer Zoe Martlew discuss creativity in isolation, coping with lockdown and the first performance of Zoe’s song cycle Musae at the Composium in 2019.

Archive recordings of world premieres by John Tavener, Jonathan Dove, Gavin Higgins and Daniel Kidane.                                                               

 

YouTube videos

Head of Programming, Camilla King, talks to 2020 Guest Curator Jules Buckley about his life in music, from his first lessons, through life at the Guildhall and everything he’s learnt as a composer and conductor. With stories about winning over orchestras and learning from failure, this is essential viewing for anyone interested in the performing arts.

2020 Retreat scheme bursary recipient, pianist Sarah Nicolls, shares the performance of her 2016 Cheltenham Festival debut ‘Moments of Weightlessness’, a funny, poignant and striking theatrical examination of music and motherhood.

Members of the Festival team give a behind-the-scenes insight into working in classical music and top tips for getting into the festival world.

Composer Academy participants from 2018: Michael Zev Gordon, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Bethan Morgan-Williams, and Sarah Rimkus, talk about their experiences of the programme, alongside performances of their Cheltenham commissioned string quartets, given by the Ligeti Quartet.

Education Manager Philippa Claridge joins Musicat Ben Jones to talk about the Festival’s year-round education programme Musicate, which helps primary school teachers bring the music curriculum to life. The programme has carried on during lockdown: instead of going into the classroom, the ‘Musicats’ – young musicians from Birmingham Conservatoire - have recorded a new video each week, with fun and interactive activities to do at home or at school.

Michael Betteridge, composer and musical Director of the Festival’s community opera Across The Sky and Education Manager Philippa Claridge reflect on the legacy of the project one year on, with another chance to see the full performance.

Cheltenham Music Festival 2020 was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The dates for next year’s Festival are 2 – 11 July 2021.