NEWBURY Spring FESTIVAL | 2023

newburyspringfestival.org.uk 3 © Alex Savannah Welcome The King’s Coronation coincides with the opening of this year’s Festival, so it will be an especially celebratory start, with a free live broadcast of the service at St Nicolas Church before we join Jess Gillam and her band in party mood at the Corn Exchange. We decided to move our opening concert at St Nicolas Church to Sunday 7th May and I am so looking forward to hearing our wonderful Festival Chorus in Rossini’s joyful Petite Messe Solennelle with a line-up of world- class soloists headed by Lucy Crowe. Lucy returns a week later to St Mary’s Shaw in an all-Strauss recital; other vocal and choral highlights include The Tallis Scholars’ 50th Anniversary concert at Douai Abbey and Sansara’s performance at Highclere, curated to celebrate the Castle’s four garden follies. Englefield House, the festival’s other stately home venue, will be the perfect setting for Tama Matheson’s musical play about Lord Byron and for Hugo Vickers’ talk After the Coronation . We continue to present many young artists at the start of their careers and in addition to the Young Artists Recital Series, the annual Sheepdrove Piano Competition, and the return of Ballet Central to the Corn Exchange, I am delighted to welcome Tom Featherstonehaugh and his inspirational Fantasia Orchestra for some nocturnal magic at St Lawrence’s Hungerford, and young horn star Ben Goldscheider and his trio to Bughclere. We also bring the age range even younger in the showcase of local student musicians curated by Hogan Music for their evening at the Corn Exchange. We celebrate Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary this year with performances by Steven Osborne, Freddy Kempf and the Estonian Symphony Orchestra, Mikhail Kazakevich, Maciej Kulakowski, and as the featured composer of the 2023 Sheepdrove Piano Competition. It is also the ideal opportunity to present David Lean’s classic film Brief Encounter , whose score brought his Second Piano Concerto to national attention and made it the most popular concerto of its time. We, however, on Saturday 13th May will hear his First Concerto, less well known but in my opinion equally wonderful, something not to be missed. Despite the financial challenges and alarming rates of inflation affecting the country I am proud to say that most ticket prices have been maintained at 2022 levels, and in some cases even reduced, to try and make attending the Festival possible for everyone. We’re also very pleased to welcome Viking as festival-wide supporters this year alongside our existing principal event sponsor Greenham Trust. We are grateful to all our Sponsors, to the Festival Friends, to our loyal army of volunteers and to you, our audiences, for your continuing support of Newbury Spring Festival, to which I welcome you back for what I know will be another memorable fortnight of great music. Mark Eynon Festival Director The King’s Coronation Saturday 6 May The Festival’s opening coincides with Coronation Day. We are delighted to partner with St Nicolas Church, and invite you to watch the national celebrations including the crowning of our new King live on the big screen in St Nicolas Church. This is a free event. Please check the Festival website for the latest timing information as plans are finalised for this special event. St Nicolas Church Newbury RG14 5HG Time tbc, please consult the Festival website Free