Oxford Premiere for New Tavener Works
A new arrangement for solo violin and strings, of Sir John Tavener’s choral composition Song for Athene, is to receive its world premiere on 1 July at the North Wall Summer Festival, Oxford.
Sir John Taverner himself hopes to attend the Festival's opening night concert, which features award-winning violinist Ruth Palmer , Classical BRITs ‘Young Classical Performer of the year 2007’, accompanied by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Nicholas Cleobury . The evening’s programme also includes the premiere of a new Tavener work, Dhyana, and works for violin by Bach and Dvorak .
Also making an appearance at the festival will be George Fenton, the BAFTA award-winning film and television composer. He will be in conversation with BBC presenter Kate Humble and performing a concert of popular film music and other songs with The George Fenton Band and singer Lizzy Loeb.
One to watch at the Festival is the Australian saxophonist Amy Dickson. She will be joined by concert pianist Martin Cousin for an exciting programme of upbeat lyrical interpretations of Gershwin preludes to Rachmaninov ’s romantic Vocalise, and music from Darius Milhaud and contemporary Australian composer Matthew Hindson.
As a part of this year’s Festival, there will also be a day of four music clinics with some of London’s top session players and fun-packed singing workshops culminating in Singing the World, a showcase of schoolchildren from Oxfordshire singing folk songs from around the world, conducted by Nicholas Cleobury.
As well as hosting internationally acclaimed composers and musicians, the North Wall Summer Festival offers ground-breaking theatre and new drama from the UK’s hottest young writers. The Festival also welcomes some of the country’s sharpest stand-ups, who will be trying out new material before heading on up to Edinburgh.
The North Wall Festival runs from Wednesday 1 July – Saturday 11 July.
For further details and to book tickets go to www.thenorthwall.com or call the box office on 01865 319450.
