The National Centre for Early Music in York mounts three high-profile festivals of early music each year, in addition to their ongoing programme of events, the summer and Christmas festivals in York itself, and the Beverley and East Riding Early Music Festival (23–26 May 2008).
4 to 19 July 2008. The Cheltenham Festival, founded in 1945, has from its inception encouraged creativity, young artists and performances of recent works, sometimes played by the composers themselves. This policy is still firmly in place, as the first weekend’s concerts of this year’s festival attest: the events of 5 and 6 July will feature works from the early repertoire revisited by uninhibited musicians.
13 to 29 June. Founded after World War II by Benjamin Britten as a vehicle for his music and music making with friends who came to include Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovitch, the Aldeburgh Festival has long outlived the composer’s death in 1976. 2008 will in fact be the 61st year of the festival, which is based on Snape Maltings, the superb concert hall situated in a beautiful landscape on the East Coast of England.
