Kentish Express Ashford & District
Familiar faces back for music festival
The 55th Stour Music festival is set to begin later this month with two consecutive weekends of music.
The festival will take place from Friday to Sunday, June 16 to 18, as well as Friday to Sunday, June 23 to 25.
Stour Music was founded in 1962 by the counter-tenor Alfred Deller with the artist John Ward as a festival of music and art and has been run by his son Mark since 1975.
All concerts take place in the medieval All Saints’ Church overlooking the Stour Valley in Boughton Aluph.
Performers at this year’s festival include ensembles Radio Antiqua, The Tallis Scholars, I Fagiolini and The King’s Consort, as well as new and upcoming artists such as The Webb family trio from Mersham with violinist Emmanuel Webb, 16, and cellist Gabriel, 12.
The event attracts performers and audiences from all over Europe including France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany and Switzerland and from across Kent. Mark Deller, festival director, said: “This year’s festival programme follows our pattern of welcoming back several well established and famous groups, while at the same time providing a platform for some young and less familiar artists beginning to make a name for themselves on the early music scene.
“In 2013 Stour Music provided a platform for two young instrumentalists, Emmanuel, then aged 11, and Gabriel Webb, aged eight. Four years later, we will have a chance to see how they have progressed.”
The traditional final Sunday afternoon Choral Concert this year will be Handel’s Samson, with tenor Charles Daniels in the title role, and a return appearance for the young counter-tenor Alexander Chance, who appeared at the festival two years ago performing a late night duet concert with his father.
For details visit www. stourmusic.org.uk or call the box office on 01227 769075