It’s not just the Festival!

For over 100 years, Skipton Music Festival has been providing a space for (particularly) young people to begin to hone their performance skills and grow as musicians.  This has become increasingly important in today’s climate of cut-backs and concentration on the mechanical aspects of “education”.

Our main Festival is held in March each year.  In 2024, for the first time, it starts with some Open classes on Saturday 9th March and will close on the evening of Friday 15th March with a concert of all that has been the best of the week’s performances.

Read more about this year’s Festival here.
Browse the Syllabus here.
And enter a class here.

But there is more…

On Saturday 9th September, we will be hosting a “Piano Afternoon” at Trinity Methodist Church in Skipton.  The lead figure will be Josh Luxon-Robinson.  Josh is a young pianist, just launching his professional career – and, yes!  He began his performance experience here at the Skipton Music Festival!

This free event is open to all and will include a series of masterclasses with some existing Festival performers.
It will end with a recital by Josh who is becoming recognised as a player in the Romantic tradition.

Read more about the Piano Afternoon here.

On 10th November (a Friday), we will be repeating the highly successful “SongShop” day. Several primary schools have been invited to help create a massed choir of some 140 young voices.  During the day, they rehearse a selection of songs, ready to perform to an enthusiastic audience at the end of the day.

This event will again be led by the energetic and charismatic Steven Roberts.

Find out more about the SongShop here.

And, finally, on Wednesday 21 February next year, we are delighted to have been awarded funding from the Terry and Liz Bramall Foundation that enables us to set up a workshop with Palisander, described as “Early Music’s very own Spice Girls”.  This internationally regarded, vibrant young recorder ensemble perform on recorders of all sizes – up to six feet tall!  They will be giving a concert in the Town Hall as part of the Skipton Music series of concerts before leading our workshops on the following day.

More details of the Recorder Workshop will be posted here

… and then, it’s all hands to the wheel for our week-long Festival in March!