Ryedale District Council supports the Ryedale Festival.

The 30th Ryedale Festival got away to a happy start with over 100 local primary school children being joined by a professional orchestra and conducted by Iain Farrington – soon to go onto conducting his brilliant orchestration for  The Cunning Vixen  the following day.     The Festival Chairman Robin Andrews was the narrator for Peter and the Wolf and a former Chairman, Martin Vander Weyer read the poetry accompanying Iain Farrington’s Animal Parade.  An enthusiastic performance of the Flanders and Swan classic  Hippopotamus song had the audience singing along !

Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen had two performances at the Ampleforth College theatre.  Both were full and reviews in Opera magazine and the Yorkshire Post were as enthusiastic as the audiences.

The “Animal world” theme of the festival was set with the choice of our opera and it gave every opportunity to explore music – particularly in the bird world.    Despite their rarity in Britain now, Nightingales proliferated song cycles although blackbirds, swans, thrushes, and cuckoos all had their moments.   The ascending Lark was an appropriate finale to the Festival.

This was Chris Glynn’s second Festival and the Chairman’s first.  The evidence from ticket sales suggests that the Festival’s objective of presenting a programme of high quality music to meet as wide a variety of tastes as possible, succeeded.   There was chamber music, orchestral performances, piano recitals, song recitals, choral performances, clarinet concertos, recorder ensembles, brass bands, traditional jazz, and vibraphone performers !   In all there were 50 events in 34 separate venues, which presents unique challenges to the stage management team. However, one blessing was that the weather God was sympathetic and only once did an audience require umbrellas.   The events at the grand houses of Castle Howard, Sledmere House, Hovingham Hall, and Duncombe Park were all fully subscribed as were other concerts in churches both large and small.

Many international stars excited their audiences including Dame Emma Kirkby, Sir Thomas Allen, Julian Bliss, Alexandra Dariescu, Joan Rodgers, Kenneth Hamilton and Howard Shelley – not to mention our own Artistic director Christopher Glynn who accompanied singers and instrumentalists on many occasions.

We were delighted to welcome The orchestra of Opera North at St Peter’s Norton and amazed at Howard Shelley’s ability to play Beethoven’s piano concerto while conducting the orchestra !  The Northern Sinfonia and Bradley Creswick played with appropriate brio at the last night’s festivities.

The 30th anniversary was the excuse to invite many of the former artistic directors and participants in the early festivals. It was a huge pleasure to hear Justin Doyle, Bibi Heal and Robert Ogden in a programme of baroque song at Wyekham church.   Malcolm Layfield and Geoffrey Emerson both organised concerts at which their friends and supporters bathed in happy nostalgia – and new admirers began to realise what a firm foundation the Ryedale Festival has been built upon.

We look forward to even greater heights at next year's festival.