Welcome to The Northern Aldborough Festival
The Northern Aldborough Festival was born in 1994, centred around the picturesque village of Aldborough near York. It has fast established itself as one of the most prestigious classical music events in the country and was recently described by the Times as ‘well on its way to being one of the leading fixtures on the classical music calendar’.
Our Aims
Our core aim is to bring exceptional music from world class performers to new audiences, in rural locations where it wouldn’t normally be heard. With musical talent sourced from all over the world, young and old, amateur and professional, the festival offers audiences a consistently high standard of music.
Focus on Community
The festival has always had a strong emphasis on community. Through our Outreach Programme, Aldborough Festival continues to bring concerts to schools, hospitals, hospices, childrens homes & prisons around the region.
The Music
So far the Festival has engaged some of the greatest musical talent around. Star names include Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir, The Hallé, Royal Northern Sinfonia, the European Chamber Orchestra, The Kings Singers, singers Dame Anne Murray, Lesley Garrett, Lawrence Zazzo, Benjamin Hewlett, James Gilchrist and Elizabeth Watts, guitarists Craig Ogden, Christoph Denoth and Martin Taylor, violinists Alina Ibragimova, Viktoria Mullova and Tasmin Little, violist Maxim Rysanov, cellist Guy Johnston, trumpeters Guy Barker and Alison Balsom, clarinettist Emma Johnson, the Belcea, Heath, Fitzwilliam and Elias string quartets, jazz artists Django Bates, Courtney Pine, James Pearson and Liane Carroll, pianists Nikolai Demidenko, Angela Hewitt, Imogen Cooper, Kathryn Stott, Benjamin Grosvenor, Yevgeny Sudbin, Steven Osborne and Dmitri Alexeev and speakers Gyles Brandreth, Lucy Worsley, The Reverend Richard Coles and John Sergeant.
In addition the Festival has commissioned a number of new works, notably from composers Nicola le Fanu, Robin Walker, Thomas Simaku and Sadie Harrison.