This winter’s line-up for the Harrogate International Sunday Series of chamber and classical music has been revealed.
Five concerts will take place in what will be the 30th annual series at the Old Swan in Harrogate.
It will begin with the return of clarinettist Robert Plane, accompanied by pianist Tim Horton, on January 28 to give a programme featuring 20th century and contemporary composers, complemented by Brahms’ Sonata in F minor, Op.120, No. 1.
The two appearances by solo pianists will see Daniel Lebhardt play Brahms, Scriabin, Bartok and Ligeti and Clare Hammond perform a diverse programme featuring work by Hélène de Montgeroult, Clara Schumann, Ravel, Coleridge-Taylor, Spanish post-Romantic Isaac Albéniz, and contemporary composer Edmund Finnis.
The Astatine Trio will give a traditional recital comprising Haydn, Mendelssohn, Shostakovich and Tailleferre.
Rounding off the series, violinist Hyeyoon Park and pianist Zlata Chochieva will perform Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, sonatas by Mozart, Debussy and Grieg, and Distance de fée by 20th century Japanese composer, Tōru Takemitsu.
Sharon Canavar, chief executive of Harrogate International Festivals, said:
“We’re delighted to unveil the programme for Harrogate International Sunday Series 2024, which once again brings some of the world’s most talented classical and chamber musicians to Yorkshire.
“Whilst celebrating our 30th anniversary, this year’s programme is decidedly forward-looking, featuring award-winning young performers and platforming an exciting blend of both traditional and innovative works.
To encourage young people to attend, tickets for under-35s are priced at just £5.
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Nicola Sturgeon visits Harrogate’s crime writing festival
Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited Harrogate today for the second day of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.
More than 17,000 tickets have been sold for the four-day festival, which ends on Sunday with a discussion featuring TV historian and author Lucy Worsley.
Today’s special guest is Ann Cleeves, creator of Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez, who was due to be interviewed by Vaseem Khan at 8.30pm.
But the attendees also included Ms Sturgeon, who stood down after more than eight years as First Minister in March.
Arts charity Harrogate International Festivals, which organises the event at the Old Swan each year, uploaded this image of her looking relaxed alongside fellow Scot Val McDermid on its social media sites today.
Ms Sturgeon is no stranger to the festival — in 2019 she interviewed Ms McDermid at the event.
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MW Craven has been named as the winner of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award in Harrogate tonight.
Carlisle-born Mr Craven joined the army at 16 and became a probation officer role before taking up writing.
He won the award for The Botanist, which is his latest thriller featuring the character Detective Sergeant Washington Poe.
He received a £3,000 prize, as well as an engraved beer cask handcrafted by one of Britain’s last coopers from Theakston Brewery in Masham.
More than 17,000 tickets have been sold for the four-day festival at the Old Swan in Harrogate, which began today.
Numerous best-selling authors and celebrities are in town for the event, which is run by Harrogate International Festivals.
A record 14,110 readers cast their votes between six shortlisted authors for crime novel of the year.
The shortlist included:
Elly Griffiths (The Locked Room)
Doug Johnstone (Black Hearts)
Fiona Cummins (Into the Dark)
Ruth Ware (The It Girl)
M.W. Craven (The Botanist)
Gillian McAllister (Wrong Place Wrong Time)
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The judges, including Simon Theakston, Steph McGovern, Matt Nixson from the Daily Express, journalist Joe Haddow, Lisa Howells and Gaby Lee from Waterstones, met yesterday to decide the winner, with the public vote counting as the seventh judge on the panel.
Ms Griffiths was highly commended for the penultimate mystery in her bestselling Dr Ruth Galloway series The Locked Room. She has now been nominated for the award six times, and this is her first highly commended.
Ann Cleeves honoured
Tonight’s ceremony also saw Ann Cleeves receive the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of her writing career.
Cleeves, the author of more than thirty-five critically acclaimed novels, is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, who can be found on television in ITV’s Vera, BBC One’s Shetland and ITV’s The Long Call respectively.
Previous winners include Sir Ian Rankin, Lynda La Plante, James Patterson, John Grisham, Lee Child, Val McDermid, P.D. James and last year’s recipient Michael Connelly.
Ms Cleeves said:
“The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate has always been a very special festival for me because I was in at the beginning. I’m delighted to accept this award and to help the team celebrate 20 years of brilliant crime writing.”
Thousands descend on Harrogate for crime writing festival
Thousands of people have begun to arrive in Harrogate for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, which begins today.
The annual four-day festival sees Harrogate become the centre of the UK literary scene, with numerous best-selling authors and celebrities in town. More than 17,000 tickets have been sold.
This year’s line-up includes TV historian and author Lucy Worsley, who will be interviewed by broadcaster Natasha Knight on Sunday’s final day.
Jeffrey Deaver, who has sold 150 million books worldwide, will be interviewed by broadcaster and author Mark Lawson on Saturday.
Tomorrow’s big names include Val McDermid while tonight sees an appearance by Ann Cleeves as well as the announcement of the winner of the crime novel of the year award.
As usual, the event will be held at the Old Swan, which is where crime writer Agatha Christie was found after she went missing in 1926.
Organised by Harrogate International Festivals, 2023 festival chair and award-winning crime and thriller author Vaseem Khan has curated this year’s programme.
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Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason set for Harrogate debut
Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason will make her Harrogate debut this month – three years after her cellist brother, Sheku, accompanied by sister Isata, performed in the town.
The 20-year-old will perform work by Shostakovich, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Prokofiev as part of the Harrogate International Sunday Series on February 26. She will also give an exclusive performance of Florence Price’s Fantasie Negre.
Hosted by Harrogate International Festivals and staged in the Old Swan Hotel, the Sunday Series coffee concerts have been an annual fixture on Harrogate’s classical music calendar since 1991.
Ms Kanneh-Mason, the fifth of seven musically-gifted siblings and the third to establish herself as a soloist, is a former Classic FM rising star and a keyboard category finalist in BBC Young Musician 2018.
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Discussing her Harrogate appearance, Ms Kanneh-Mason said:
“This programme has a large range of repertoire – from Prokofiev and Beethoven to Shostakovich.
“The individual pieces in the Romeo and Juliet and the Estampes show the importance of story-telling in music, which is something I am drawn to.”
Her brother and sister were the last performers to appear at Harrogate International Festivals in 2020 before lockdown devastated the arts world, and Jeneba admits it was not an easy time for her.
Jeneba’s programme comprises of Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue in D major; Prokofiev’s 10 Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75; Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 14 in E major; Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, and Florence Price’s Fantasie Negre No.1 in E minor.
Plan to convert part of Harrogate’s Old Swan hotel into 17 flatsA plan has been tabled to convert part of the Old Swan hotel in Harrogate into 17 flats.
Northern Trust Company Ltd, part of Classic Lodges which owns the hotel, has submitted the proposal to Harrogate Borough Council.
The company has tabled the plan to convert the ancillary wing of the Grade-II listed building, which dates back to the late 19th century.
In documents submitted to the council, the owners said the part of the hotel had “gradually become redundant” and was “almost entirely vacant”.
The company said in its planning application:
“The existing ancillary wing is not viable as hotel accommodation as there are sufficient rooms in the main buildings and serving the rear wing would be problematic with numerous level changes.”
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As part of the plan, the ancillary wing would be converted into 17 one and two-bedroom flats.
The existing staff car park would be extended to the back of the building to provide residential parking.
Harrogate Borough Council will make a decision on the plan at a later date.