Brighton Early Music Festival
Encyclopedia
Brighton Early Music Festival is an annual music festival which includes concerts, workshops and other educational events. The festival explores the connections between classical music
, folk music
and world music
from the Middle Ages
until the early 19th century. The organisation supports and promotes musicians who specialise in historically informed performance
, performing on period instruments and exploring the sound world that composers of the past would had in mind when writing their music.
The festival was established in 2002 with a small pilot series. It is programmed and managed by Co-Artistic Directors and sopranos, Deborah Roberts and Clare Norburn. In 2003, the festival became formally constituted and set up as a registered charity. The festival is supported by a dedicated committee of volunteers who are responsible for all areas of managing the festival.
Brighton Early Music Festival takes place each autumn from October to November in venues across Brighton and Hove, including St Bartholomew's Church, Brighton
, The Royal Pavilion
, St George's Church, Brighton
, The Old Market and the Brighton Dome
complex. Each year, BBC Radio 3
broadcasts a number of concerts from the festival.
Artists who have appeared in the festival include:
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
from the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
until the early 19th century. The organisation supports and promotes musicians who specialise in historically informed performance
Historically informed performance
Historically informed performance is an approach in the performance of music and theater. Within this approach, the performance adheres to state-of-the-art knowledge of the aesthetic criteria of the period in which the music or theatre work was conceived...
, performing on period instruments and exploring the sound world that composers of the past would had in mind when writing their music.
The festival was established in 2002 with a small pilot series. It is programmed and managed by Co-Artistic Directors and sopranos, Deborah Roberts and Clare Norburn. In 2003, the festival became formally constituted and set up as a registered charity. The festival is supported by a dedicated committee of volunteers who are responsible for all areas of managing the festival.
Brighton Early Music Festival takes place each autumn from October to November in venues across Brighton and Hove, including St Bartholomew's Church, Brighton
St Bartholomew's Church, Brighton
St Bartholomew's Church, dedicated to the apostle Bartholomew, is an Anglican church in Brighton, England. The neo-gothic building is located on Ann Street, on a sloping site between Brighton railway station and the A23 London Road, adjacent to the New England Quarter development...
, The Royal Pavilion
Royal Pavilion
The Royal Pavilion is a former royal residence located in Brighton, England. It was built in three campaigns, beginning in 1787, as a seaside retreat for George, Prince of Wales, from 1811 Prince Regent. It is often referred to as the Brighton Pavilion...
, St George's Church, Brighton
St George's Church, Brighton
St George's Church is an Anglican church in the Kemptown area of Brighton, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. It was built at the request of Thomas Read Kemp, who had created and financed the Kemp Town estate on the cliffs east of Brighton in the early 19th century, and is now regarded as...
, The Old Market and the Brighton Dome
Brighton Dome
The Brighton Dome is an arts venue in Brighton, England that contains the Concert Hall, Corn Exchange and the Pavilion Theatre. All three venues are linked to the rest of the Royal Pavilion Estate by an underground tunnel to the Royal Pavilion in Pavilion Gardens and through shared corridors to...
complex. Each year, BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
broadcasts a number of concerts from the festival.
Artists who have appeared in the festival include:
- Emma KirkbyEmma KirkbyDame Carolyn Emma Kirkby, DBE is an English soprano singer and one of the world's most renowned early music specialists. She attended Sherborne School For Girls in Dorset and was a classics student at Somerville College, Oxford, and an English teacher before developing a career as a soloist...
(soprano) - The London Handel Players
- His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts
- The Orlando Consort
- Alison Bury (violin)
- Ex CathedraEx CathedraEx Cathedra is a British choir and early music ensemble based in Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. It performs choral music spanning the 15th to 21st centuries, and regularly commissions new works....
- I FagioliniI FagioliniI Fagiolini is a British vocal ensemble specialising in early music and contemporary music. Founded by Robert Hollingworth at Oxford in 1986, the group won the UK Early Music Network’s Young Artists’ Competition in 1988 and a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2006...
- Orchestra of the Age of EnlightenmentOrchestra of the Age of EnlightenmentThe Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is a British period instrument orchestra. The OAE is a resident orchestra of the Southbank Centre, London, associate orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and has its headquarters at Kings Place...
- The SixteenThe SixteenThe Sixteen are a choir and period instrument orchestra; founded by Harry Christophers in 1979.The group's special reputation for performing early English polyphony, masterpieces of the Renaissance, bringing fresh insights into Baroque and early Classical music and a diversity of 20th century...
- Red PriestRed PriestRed Priest is a British Baroque instrumental group that was formed in 1997, originally with eleven members. Currently it is composed of four performers: Piers Adams - recorder, Julia Bishop - violin, Angela East - cello and Howard Beach - harpsichord. On 18 January 2011 it was announced that Howard...
- The Tallis Scholars
- FlorilegiumFlorilegium early music ensembleFlorilegium is an early music ensemble based in London. The Director, Ashley Solomon co-founded the group in 1991, and Florilegium's performances range from intimate chamber music to large-scale orchestral repertoire...
- Joglaresa
- Le Baroque Nomade
- Vox Animae
- The Brook Street Band
- The Harp ConsortThe Harp ConsortThe Harp Consort is an international Early Music ensemble directed by Andrew Lawrence-King, specialising in Baroque Opera, early dance-music, and historical World Music....