Fast rising star Matilda Lloyd, the subject of a major 5 star review and double page profile in this month’s BBC Music Magazine – Casta Diva (Matilda Lloyd) – Concerto – Reviews – Classical Music (classical-music.com) – will take to the stage at next month’s Northern Aldborough Festival for what promises to be a classical music extravaganza.
The renowned trumpet soloist will be joined on Friday, June 16, by a special six piece ensemble transporting the audience to the virtuoso world of Italian opera.
Matilda, winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Brass Final in 2014, is one of the headline names at the nine-day festival, a popular fixture on North Yorkshire’s cultural calendar.
“The summer festivals are a lovely occasion and a great way of connecting with audiences and I’m really looking forward to coming up for the Northern Aldborough Festival,” she says.
Matilda will draw on music from her new album, Casta Diva, released in April, which features brand new arrangements of Italian opera arias by Donizetti, Viardot, Bellini and Rossini.
“It will be new and exciting,” she says of the concert. “We’ve got a chamber ensemble with a string quintet plus a harp, and featuring the trumpet as a solo instrument. The programme is based around 19th century Italian opera arias that have been transcribed for the trumpet, so the trumpet takes the role of the voice.”
So what can audiences expect?
“They can expect to hear the trumpet in a way they maybe haven’t heard before. There will also be lots of melodic arias and lots of variations on these opera themes, so some real musical fireworks.”
Matilda’s love for music was evident from an early age, though the trumpet wasn’t the first instrument she played. “My mum’s a piano teacher and she started teaching me the piano when I was about five. Then when I was eight I was apparently rifling through the cupboards at home looking for a new toy to play with and I stumbled across my dad’s old trumpet. He’d played the trumpet at school and hadn’t played since, but he kept it in the cupboard. I found it and apparently wanted to have a go on it because it looked exciting and I made a decent sound so I was bought some lessons.”
She flourished and by the time she was 13, Matilda had joined National Children’s Orchestra where the trumpet quickly became her favourite instrument. In 2016, she made her BBC Proms solo debut, and since then she has gone on to perform throughout Europe, South Africa and the US, and has appeared with the likes of Rotterdam Sinfonia, the BBC Concert Orchestra and Manchester Camerata.
Matilda is a passionate advocate of classical music and bringing it to live audiences. “One of the best things about festivals like Northern Aldborough is the opportunity of connecting a local audience with this wonderful music. Having classical music in your town or village, rather than having to plan a whole trip away, is really important,” she says.
And she hopes to inspire any budding young musicians at the concert. “If there’s even just one young person in the audience who’s learning to play the trumpet then it makes everything worth it for me. It’s not just about playing beautiful music, it’s also about inspiring the next generation.”
Matilda Lloyd & Ensemble, Northern Aldborough Festival, St Andrew’s Church, Aldborough, Friday, June 16, 7.30pm.
For more details and tickets visit: Matilda Lloyd (Trumpet) & Ensemble | The Northern Aldborough Festival