Top Performers to Play Northumberland Music Festival
The first Northumberland Music Festival – www.nmfestivalcom taking place from 28th October to 6th November 2011, will bring together performers of international standard, as well as local musicians whose range and reputation is well known elsewhere.
Samantha Crawford - rising opera star
Performing at the festival will be former members of D’Oyly Carte Opera – Pauline Birchall – mezzo, Stephen Brown – tenor, Jeremy Peaker – baritone, Graham Stone – bass and David Smith – pianist. They will be under the direction of Robin Newton, Musical Director for Garsington Opera, who is directing a concert performance of Gilbert and Sullivan, as well as a gala opera night which opens the festival. This will include soprano Samantha Crawford, a talented young singer who regularly performs on BBC Radio 3 and has appeared on BBC’s Last Night of the Proms, the Children in Need Concert and Songs of Praise.
Other musical forms are well represented with the Kingsmead Quartet, whose performers regularly play alongside the Royal Philharmonic and English Chamber Orchestras. Manchester’s Polyphonic Brass Quintet are a talented group of musicians who met at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, and who now play together and present highly successful music workshops in the North West. Students from Chetham’s School of Music Murray will perform alongside their Head of Music Murray McLachlan, who is one of the country’s foremost pianists.
Local music is well represented by the people who are helping to maintain its traditions as well as put it on the map. The Durham Miners Association Brass Band will remind of the cultural traditions that accompanied the hard life of the pit, even though these are all but gone. The members of the band regularly perform, and have a large regional following. Traditional Northumbrian music will be heard from experienced local duo, Northumbrian Pipes and Fiddles, as well as the amazing young musicians who make up the Northumberland Ranters, and who recently performed for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Alnwick Castle.
The performances will take place at Eshott, Guyzance and Doxford Halls, and is the brainchild of millionaire businessman Mr. Robert Parker, who owns the three Halls and who has a great love of all types of music. He is confident that the 10 days will both bring music to life and to the lives of local people who so often have to travel to a city to hear it performed. The Halls are now operating as Hotels, and two types of ticket are available for each – a straight concert ticket for the performance, or a “gala” ticket which includes an appropriate meal as well as a ticket.
The unique chance to dine at the events features menus specially created to match the music. The Durham Miners’ Brass Band will be accompanied by a Pie and Pea supper and a Champagne Supper will toast the singers of the Gilbert and Sullivan. Featuring the finest Northumbrian produce, all the dishes will be specially created by the Head Chefs behind the AA Rosette Restaurants at Doxford and Eshott Hall. The concert on November 5th at Eshott Hall will include a firework display making it an evening to remember for the whole family.
Ticket prices start from just £10 and a percentage of all ticket sales will be donated to three charities, Macmillan Cancer Support, Great North Air Ambulance and HospiceCare North.
For full details about the Northumberland Music Festival please Tel. 01668 283100 or visit www.nmfestival.com.
For the duration Doxford Hall and Eshott Hall will offer accommodation at special rates from £120 per room per night subject to availability.
