The &Piano Music Festival, based in Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, presents its fifth festival between 18th and 25th May 2024, celebrating pioneering women in music.
The festival marks the centenary of the birth of British composer, Madeleine Dring, exploring her music for bassoon, oboe and voice in its instrumental and song events.
The musical theatre event on 18th May celebrates women working in the industry with a programme of iconic songs for female roles, alongside songs written by female musical theatre composers and librettists.
Inspired by Madeleine Dring, the festival will feature the world premiere of a new collection of songs by emerging composer Alice Beckwith, originally from Halifax, setting poems from Huddersfield-born Poet Laureate Simon Armitage.
There will be two performances of its family event on 18th May – ‘The Mystery of the Golden Yorkshire Puddings’, which will take families with young children on a detective adventure, using song and instrumental music to tell the story.
&Piano Festival has a growing reputation for featuring exceptional performers based in the north of England, and this year will include musicians from Opera North, West End musical director, Rosalind Jones, and internationally acclaimed soprano, Sarah Fox.
On Tuesday 21st May the festival will be at the Attic Theatre at the Lawrence Batley Theatre for the second Performance Pub, which will once again offer passionate musicians of all backgrounds and musical abilities the opportunity to perform as part of the festival in a relaxed and supportive environment.
With a commitment to support the next generation of musicians, the festival features a Young Musicians Showcase on Thursday 23rd May at St James’ Church, Slaithwaite – inviting eight talented singers and instrumentalists currently studying and living in Kirklees and Calderdale to perform.
Artistic director, Chris Pulleyn, said “I’m really delighted that &Piano continues to go from strength to strength, inviting some of the North’s finest musicians to perform and share their passion for amazing, powerful music, and this year is no exception. We’ve got an incredible line-up of exceptional musicians at this festival who have performed all over the world, and I’m so excited that we’ll be presenting a brand-new collection of songs that have never been performed before. Classical music is such an exciting and interesting genre of music, and you’ll definitely experience that by coming along to any of our events.”
&Piano Festival takes place from 27th April to 25th May. Tickets and information about all events can be found on the website www.andpiano.co.uk