Exceptional acts for widely-admired arts festival located just half an hour from Harrogate

A leading fixture on the classical music calendar, this year’s Northern Aldborough Festival boasts a line-up including BBC Young Musician Matilda Lloyd, Pianist Sunwook Kim, The Armonico Consort and Bampton Classical Opera.

Running from from Thursday, June 15 to Saturday, June 24, all the events are set in beautiful locations in the picturesque Roman village of Aldborough located 11 miles from Harrogate.

Now in its 29th year, the Northern Aldborough Festival has built its reputation on delivering high quality music and talks to rural audiences.

This year’s festival will see a rare double bill of Haydn’s comedies, The Diva and The Apothecary, presented by the nationally-renowned, Bampton Classical Opera company, celebrated for breathing new life into lesser-known works.

The Diva is a light and lively comedy-romance, which sees a young scheming soprano gets the better of her music teacher.

With more musical chemistry, The Apothecary stirs up a frothy mixture of jealousy and trickery in a seductive farce following a love quartet of the apothecary, his beautiful ward and his two love rivals.

BBC Young Musician of the Year brass winner, trumpet-player Matilda Lloyd will also perform.

Hailed as ‘remarkable’ by The Telegraph, and ‘eloquent’ in The Times, Matilda Lloyd is the fast-rising trumpet star who has performed at the BBC Proms.

Aged just 26, Matilda is capturing critics and audiences alike. In demand all over the world, it’s a chance to catch her at Aldborough with her own ensemble in a mouth-watering programme of gems from Italian Opera.

The festival also welcomes the first Asian winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition, Sunwook Kim, praised for his “spine-tingling” performances. Kim will play Beethoven’s final sonatas in the intimate setting of St Andrew’s Church.

A charity, the Northern Aldborough Festival’s core aim is to bring exceptional music to new audiences in rural locations where it would not normally be heard.

2023 also welcomes the inaugural New Voices Competition, a major new nationwide hunt for the best classical vocal talent.

Young singers will perform live at the festival in the semi-final and grand-final. It will be judged by a distinguished panel, headed by one of Britain’s leading sopranos, Dame Felicity Lott, with a prize fund of £7k.

Other acts include the award-winning jazz ensemble, The Tim Kliphuis Sextet, the acclaimed vocal ensemble Armonico Consort, the Senegalese kora (harp) player, Jali Fily Cissokho, who has performed at Glastonbury and Womad.

The Young Artists’ Showcase will also return, providing a platform for upcoming Yorkshire talent.

"Our festival has, from its inception, strived to support and nurture young talent,” said Robert Ogden, artistic director at the Northern Aldborough Festival.

"At a time when the arts sector - particularly opera - has faced funding cuts, we feel the time is right for a competition to help launch singing careers."

Aldborough’s late-night venue ‘The Shed’ also returns for concert goers who want to continue festivities in a relaxed environment with live entertainment and refreshments.

The festival will culminate in the hugely-popular Last Night Outdoor Concert in the stunning grounds of Aldborough Manor.

This year sees the return of the dynamic party band, The Big Cheese, helmed by Harrogate-born vocalist Alex Denny, topped with a spectacular orchestrated fireworks display.

Tickets from www.aldboroughfestival.co.uk