Harrogate Finzi Festival

13/12/2024

Thank you to everyone who came to the Harrogate Finzi Festival - watch this space for news about next year!

01/12/2024

Harrogate Wesley Chapel - Today at 3PM.

The Harrogate Finzi Festival draws to a close with its second concert in the Wesley chapel today at 3pm. Come and hear masterpieces by local composer Gerald Finzi, alongside beautiful music by Beethoven and Chopin.

Tickets available on the door, cash and card.

30/11/2024

Harrogate Finzi Festival starts today!

Come down to the Wesley Chapel at 5:15 PM to hear Grace Oliver and Isaac Onyirioha perform Finzi's beautiful Oh Fair to See and Till Earth Outwears, alongside Elgar's Seven Lieder and Haydn's On Mighty Pens.

Tickets available on the door: £17 single concert, £30 festival pass, U18 half price.

14/11/2024

Gerald Finzi and Thomas Hardy....

Finzi first discovered the poetry of Thomas Hardy while living in Harrogate, and began writing his song cycle By Footpath and Stile, for baritone and string quartet, while living in the town.

Throughout his life, Finzi would set over 50 of Hardy's poems to music; heard in this video is his setting of Life Laughs Onward, Hardy's poignant ode to the inescapable passage of time.

Come and hear this and much more at the Harrogate Wesley Chapel on Saturday the 30th of November and Sunday the 1st of December. Tickets available at tinyurl.com/harrogatefinzifestival and on the door

29/10/2024

MEET THE MUSICIANS: SUNDAY 1ST DECEMBER

William Rolt is a freelance violinist/violist currently living in London. He has performed with orchestras such as the Boyce Camerata and the Willow Orchestra, and played in venues such as Wigmore Hall and the Mackerras Recital Room as a chamber musician. William is the artistic director of the Harrogate Finzi Festival; when asked about the importance of highlighting Harrogate’s musical heritage, he says, “Finzi’s youth in Harrogate had such an impact on the rest of his life; his experiences during this time shaped his view of the world, and some of his major interests -- which became well-known later in his life -- began in Harrogate. I think Harrogate as a town should be immensely proud of its effect on one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.”

Alex Man-Wai Cho is a London-based Hongkongese composer, pianist and organist. In 2023, he won the first prize of the Francesco Mario Pagano composition competition, and has been a finalist in the Runswick Compostion Competition and Hong Kong Virtuosos Music Competition as well as being shortlisted for the Cheltenham Music Festival composer academy. Alex’s opera Esther was premiered at Blackheath Hall in 2023 under his own baton, and the concert fantasy based on the opera was performed at Cadogan Hall shortly afterwards. He is also a highly accomplished performer on the piano, holding various posts as a freelance accompanist, as well as being the organist of The Church of St Mark with St Margaret, Plumstead.

Victoria Churcher is a clarinettist from Gosport, Hampshire; since beginning to play at the age of 8 she has been taught by eminent clarinettists such as Anthony Pike, Fiona Cross, Paolo De Gespari and Marie Lloyd. She is the 2023 winner of the Wilfred Hambleton clarinet competition; she also plays saxophone and flute, and has a particular penchant for the bass clarinet, which she plays in various London orchestras. Victoria says, “I’m thrilled to be performing Finzi’s Five Bagatelles at the festival, and excited to explore the emotional contrasts that define Finzi’s style”.

16/10/2024

Meet the Musicians – Saturday 30th of November

Grace Oliver is a 23-year-old soprano studying under Sarah Pring at Trinity Laban Conservatoire as the Morag Noble scholar. She began singing aged eight as a chorister at Middlesbrough Cathedral, under music director Tim Harrison, where she went on to be Head Chorister and, later, Soprano Scholar. Grace has been a finalist in the Elizabeth Schumann Lieder Competition, the Somerset Song Prize and the Junior Kathleen Ferrier Award; In February 2024 she sang the lead role in the premiere of Timothy Mays’ operetta, The Fragments of a Dahlia.

Tobenna Isaac Onyirioha is a versatile pianist who started playing at the age of seven in Swindon and has gone on to perform at many different venues in the UK and abroad. Highlights include the premiere of his own composition "Running Through a Beautiful Woodland" at the New Lights Festival of Contemporary Music, a performance of the John Ireland Piano Concerto in the Blackheath Great Hall, London, as well as an appearance at the Zodiac Festival in the French Alps. Isaac says, “I am over the moon to be playing this wonderful music in the town when Finzi discovered his passion.”

Tickets available at tinyurl.com/harrogatefinzifestival

08/10/2024

HARROGATE FINZI FESTIVAL

Join us for two unmissable concerts in Harrogate Wesley Chapel celebrating the great composer's youth in Harrogate. Hear music written during his adolesence in the town, as well as his very final work, written just a month before his death.

Saturday 30th November | 5:15 PM
Sunday 1st December | 3PM

by Harrogate Finzi Festival

06/10/2024

Did you know that Gerald Finzi lived in Harrogate?

Finzi spent his formative years in Harrogate from 1915-1922, with his experiences in the town paving the way for his illustrious career.

Join us for two concerts in Harrogate Wesley Chapel on Saturday 30th November at 5:15 PM and Sunday 1st December at 3PM, featuring music written during Finzi's youth in Harrogate alongside his very final work, written a month before his death.

Tickets available at tinyurl.com/harrogatefinzifestival and on the door.