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The North Norfolk Music Festival reaches its 18th year in 2022. It was founded by Kirker’s very own Barry Cheeseman and Simon Rowland-Jones, viola player, composer, teacher and Kirker’s Director of Music. Concerts are held in the beautiful 13th century Church of Our Lady St. Mary in the peaceful village of South Creake, just five miles from the coast. We stay at Briarfields Hotel in Titchwell with wonderful views out across the marshes to the sea and include visits to three of Norfolk’s most important houses – Holkham, Houghton and Raynham.
...when you travel with Kirker
Matthew Denton & Michelle Fleming, violins, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, viola Emma Denton, cello. The Carducci Quartet is one of the leading quartets of its generation, performing at venues thought the UK and America. They have their own recording label, Carducci Classics and present their own series of concerts each year in May at Highnam in Gloucestershire.
During 2015 they presented a number of complete cycles of the 15 quartets composed by Shostakovich – this won them the coveted Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music in May 2016. Engagements during the 2016 season include performances at the Presteigne Festival, the North Norfolk Music Festival, at the Frick Collection in New York and at Wigmore Hall. The Carducci often take part in the Kirker series of music festivals both on land and at sea.
Simon Lepper was educated at King’s College, Cambridge and at the Royal Academy of Music. He is Professor of Piano Accompaniment at the Royal College Of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He is an official accompanist at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.
He is one of his generations leading pianists working with international singers and his career takes him around the world. Simon has worked with Sally Matthews, Angelika Kirschschlager, Mark Padmore, Nicole Cabell, Karen Cargill, Dame Felicity Palmer, Joan Rodgers and many more.
Violinist Benjamin Nabarro, cellist Gemma Rosefield and pianist Tim Horton are all members of the chamber group Ensemble 360 and a few years ago decided to form their own piano trio. They perform at all the major UK venues and will open their 2016/17 season with a performance at Wigmore Hall.
James Atkinson has just completed the two year opera course at the Royal College of Music, studying with Alison Wells. During this time, he sang several important roles there, including Ramiro in L’heure espagnole by Ravel. He has also sung in productions with English Touring Opera and British Youth Opera. He was a semi-finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards in 2019.
Last season he gave two recitals as part of the live streamed Oxford Lieder Festival and after his debut in South Creake he will sing at the Lammermuir Festival before returning to Oxford for the 2021 festival. For Hugh Canning of The Times, he is ‘clearly a singer to watch.’ We firmly agree!
This year’s programme for our clients in Norfolk is a perfect combination of thrilling new artists and a reunion with old musical friends.
15 August, 4.30pm
James Atkinson, baritone
Simon Lepper, piano
James Atkinson is one the country’s most exciting new singers. He is still currently studying at the Opera Studio at the Royal College of Music. He was a finalist in the in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards in 2019. He has a special relationship with Oxford Lieder and on Armistice Day in 2021 he gave a recital at Wolfson College, Oxford.
This is his debut solo recital at NNMF, delayed from 2021. His programme will include songs by Clara Schumann, Finzi and Schubert.
15 August, 7pm
The Leonore Piano Trio
Leonore Piano Trio
Simon Rowland-Jones, viola
Haydn: Piano Trio in A Hob.XV:18
Dvorak: Piano Trio No.4 in E minor Op.90 ‘Dumky’
Brahms: Piano Quintet No.1 in E minor Op.25
16 August, 7pm
Alim Beisembayev, piano
Haydn: Variations in F minor
Chopin: Sonata No.2
Liszt: Selections from 12 Etudes d'execution transcendantes
Alim shot to international attention after winning first prize in the 2021 Leeds International Competition, sweeping both the jury and the audience off their feet in a wave of admiration. He also won the Royal Philharmonic Society award for Contemporary Performance in Leeds. Born in Kazakhstan in 1998, he studied at the Central Music School in Moscow before moving to England at the age of 14 where he studied at the Purcell School for Young Musicians and later at The Royal College of Music.
17 August, 7pm
Carducci Quartet
Julian Bliss, clarinet
Rebecca Clarke: Poem for string quartet (1926)
Weber: Clarinet Quintet in B flat Op.34
Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor Op.115
18 August, 7pm
Marian Consort
Director Rory McCleery
‘Music for the Queen of Heaven’
A programme of works from the Renaissance to the present day by composers from Britten, Tallis, Byrd and Weir
The consort is one of the country’s leading vocal ensembles performing throughout Britain and America. They will make their debut tour to Japan in 2023.
Quartet
Matthew Denton & Michelle Fleming, violins, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, viola Emma Denton, cello. The Carducci Quartet is one of the leading quartets of its generation, performing at venues thought the UK and America. They have their own recording label, Carducci Classics and present their own series of concerts each year in May at Highnam in Gloucestershire.
During 2015 they presented a number of complete cycles of the 15 quartets composed by Shostakovich – this won them the coveted Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music in May 2016. Engagements during the 2016 season include performances at the Presteigne Festival, the North Norfolk Music Festival, at the Frick Collection in New York and at Wigmore Hall. The Carducci often take part in the Kirker series of music festivals both on land and at sea.
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