ORGANISERS of Ryedale Festival have announced a summer programme of concerts to celebrate their 40th anniversary.

The festival, which was livestreamed for the first time in its history due to the pandemic, is organising 40 in-person concerts from July 17 to 31.

The scenic locations include Pickering Parish Church, All Saints’ in Kirkbymoorside, Hovingham Hall, St Olave’s Church York, Birdsall House and Church, St Peter’s Church in Norton, Duncombe Park, Milton Rooms, Malton and Ampleforth Abbey.

Ryedale Festival will welcome performers such as Jess Gillam, Abel Selaocoe, Carolyn Sampson, Isata Kanneh-Mason, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, BBC Big Band, Kathryn Tickell and Tenebrae, as well poet laureate Simon Armitage.

Events will be around one hour long with no intervals, with reduced capacity to prioritise audience safety, but multiple performances to enable as many people as possible to attend.

Christopher Glynn, artistic director of Ryedale Festival said: “The formats of our concerts have changed but the core elements are what they have always been: great music, beautiful Ryedale locations, and audiences.

“Because for performers like me, after the experience of the past year, one thing seems clearer than ever before: we don't make music for an audience; we make music with the audience.”

“After the fabulous response to our RyeStream online programme, I'm now excited to welcome audiences back in-person.

The festival’s two weeks of summer music opens on July 17 (Saturday) with the Albion String Quartet performing a programme of Haydn and Shostakovich; and in Pickering Parish Church singer Carolyn Sampson and pianist Joseph Middleton will perform an all-Schubert recital themed around Elysium, the ancient Greek concept of afterlife. The summer programme will end on 31 July (Saturday) with a concert by Solem Quartet and friends at Hovingham Hall.

Geoff Potter, chair of Ryedale Festival added: “RyeStream, our well received digital response to the pandemic, has kept the festival’s flag flying for nearly two years.

"Now our loyal supporters will be richly rewarded with a much-anticipated return to live performance in an imaginative programme shaped by the unique circumstances of summer 2021.”

Tickets are open for public booking at 10am on Monday, June 28.

For more information, visit https://ryedalefestival.com.