Sign up for email updates
Tickets for this year's Festival are now on sale! 
To join the NCEM Patrons and enjoy specially organised events around the Beverley Festival, please click here
The 2013 Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival will run from Wednesday 22 to Sunday 26 May. Guest artists include the Renaissance vocal ensemble Gallicantus the acclaimed harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock and the ever-entertaining Carnival Band with Vivien Ellis. For information on the associated workshops with Gabriel Crouch - click here and Vivien Ellis. - click here. For details of individual concerts, please see below:
Join members of the outstanding Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for a fascinating exploration of the development of string, wind and keyboard instruments over the centuries and find out how composers used instruments in a variety of contexts.
Wednesday 22 May, 7.30pm, Toll Gavel United Church, Toll Gavel, Beverley
Medieval harpist, singer, composer and arranger, Leah Studdard, presents a beautifully crafted lecture recital which tells the intriguing story of George Cely, a late fifteenth century Wool Merchant. Leah's recital features the gorgeous songs and lively dance tunes Cely played for the discerning gentry.
Thursday 23 May, 1.00pm, Beverley Guildhall
Beverley Grammar School and Beverley Girls' High School
The Fairy Queen Revisited
Throughout the week of 20 May members of the OAE, music students and members of the University of York Music Education Group will work with year 7 and 8 pupils from Beverley Grammar School and Beverley Girls' High School on a collaborative opera project based on Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen led by composer James Redwood. The students will explore themes from the opera and Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, on which the opera is based, to compose their own songs, drama and movement, as well as learning to sing some of Purcell's own wonderful music from this 'Restoration Spectacular'.
Thursday 23 May, 7.30pm, St Mary's Church, North Bar Within, Beverley
Le Jardin Secret, winners of the first prize and the audience prize in the 2007 Early Music Network International Young Artists' Competition, features the beautifully expressive voice of Elizabeth Dobbin soprano and Sofie Vanden Eynde's exquisite theorbo playing. The ensemble will explore the glorious music of Louis XIV's Roman music master, Innocenzo Fede, along the transalpine, international and local music which coloured the rich musical life of court.
Friday 24 May, 1.00pm, The Quire, Beverley Minster
One of the UK's most outstanding vocal ensembles perform a powerful programme which combines Thomas Tallis' beautifully crafted Lamentations with Orlande de Lassus' dramatic tour de force Lagrime di San Pietro.
Friday 24 May, 7.30pm, St Mary's Church, North Bar Within, Beverley
Internationally renowned harpsichordist, conductor and founder of the English Concert, presents a programme inspired by the travels of the great organist and composer Antonio Cabezon across Europe in the 1550s, featuring music by Cabezon, Byrd, Bull, JS Bach and Frescobaldi.
Saturday 25 May, 1.30pm, Toll Gavel United Church, Toll Gavel, Beverley
Žak Ozmo directs this talented young ensemble in a programme of striking chamber music by the seventeenth century composers Marini and Merula, haunting melodies by Monteverdi and sprightly dances by Zanetti and Garsi.
Saturday 25 May, 3.00pm, The Quire, Beverley Minster
Chapel and Tavern 'Choristers and Carousers in Early Modern Britain'
A unique double venue experience which marries Chapel and Tavern music by moving musicians and audience from The Angel in Butcher Row for rousing performances of catches, ballads, theatre songs and dance tunes to Toll Gavel United Church to experience the reflective songs for private devotion and the enthusiastic music of the church gallery bands.
Saturday 25 May from 6.30pm, The Angel Tavern, Butcher Row, Beverley. Toll Gavel United Church from 7.45pm. Late night back at the Tavern
Full details and brochure available here
To sign up for free email updates about the festival, please click here (You can easily unsubscribe at any time)
To re-live the success of the 2012 Festival, please click here for pictures and video about Games in the Park and click here for pictures and information on the Recorder workshop led by Piers Adams.
