Once again the Bradfield Festival of Music will offer a week of glorious music in the magical setting of St Nicholas’ Church, High Bradfield in 2025. As always, we have exceptional international and local artists performing, some we welcome for their first visit, others have enthralled us before.
Booking is now open for the 7 Festival concerts that run from 21st to 28th June. Tickets are available online, by post or in-person. Concert details are found below, or if you prefer, you can download the brochure. If the whole series appeals, why not become a patron? Patrons have the benefits of early access to the church for choice of seating and a buffet evening at The Old Horns Inn with a saving over individual ticket prices. Patrons will normally, but optionally, receive a mention on the website and in the printed programmes.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur Bliss (2nd August 1891 to 27th March 1975) and we delighted to be part of the “50 for 50” initiative of the Bliss Trust and the Arthur Bliss Society by dedicating a concert to English music from Bliss and his contemporaries: Bliss in Bradfield. The artists performing in this concert are Mark Bebbington, Rebeca Omordia on her third visit to Bradfield, and Chu-Yu Yang.
There are other anniversaries scattered among the composers represented in the Festival: both Fritz Kreisler and Maurice Ravel were born 150 years ago in 1875, and we even have a little something from the popular band leader James Last who died just 10 years ago.
One of our most prestigious Sheffield-based choirs, Abbeydale Singers, will be opening the Festival.
We are very honoured to have the much sought after Baritone, Roderick Williams in a recital concert with accompanist Christopher Glynn. If you have enjoyed his performances before, and he sang at various venues in Sheffield in 2024, you will want to hear him again. And if you only know him by his recordings or reputation, you will discover that in addition to a wonderful voice, what a relaxed and engaging presence he brings.
In 2023, we had an astonishing performance from the Linos Piano Trio. They had the ability to transcend mere exquisite performance and reveal music directly to the emotions. You can read a short review of that experience. We are delighted to welcome them back in 2025.
Nikolaas Kende and Jolente De Maeyer are a Violin and Piano duo from Belgium who have won prize after prize for their performances. If you have never heard them perform, this review (by Javier Ronceros 04/15/2024) will hint at what to expect:
The duo of De Maeyer and Kende not only bring precision, passion, and virtuosity, but they also bring that added ingredient that is hard to describe, something indefinable, magical even. It is like that secret ingredient that makes a dish unforgettable.
In previous years, we have tried and failed to book the Marmen Quartet for the Festival due to scheduling conflicts. This year, we have finally succeeded and can’t wait to experience their playing live.
The Festival will be brought to a magnificent conclusion by the Symphonic Brass of London. The Festival has always endeavoured to feature one Brass concert, and this year we have pulled out all the stops to have this unique band, recently described as “Living Legends of the London Brass scene,” in Bradfield.
Concert programmes are found below; please note that these are subject to change.
The Festival would not be possible without our sponsors and donors whose generosity enables us to attract such wonderful artists to Bradfield; Thank You for your contributions. If you would like further details on becoming a sponsor or donating to the festival, please contact us.
Saturday 21st June 2025
Abbeydale Singers
Abbeydale Singers was formed in 1986 and has grown from a group of around 12 singers to 35 members, with an excellent balance between younger and more experienced voices. Since January 2020 Lucy Joy Morris has been Musical Director and under her leadership the choir has continued to enjoy performing a hugely varied repertoire of traditional and contemporary choral music. In 2023 Abbeydale Singers won the prestigious Choir of the Festival award at the Isle of Man Festival of Choirs.
Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924): Coelos Ascendit Hodie from Three Latin Motets, Op. 38 No. 2
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643): Cantate Domino
Josu Elberdin (1976-): Cantate Domino
Hubert Parry (1848-1918): Songs of Farewell
i. My soul, there is a country (text by Henry Vaughan)
ii. I know my soul hath power to know all things (text by John Davies)
iii Never weather-beaten sail (text by Thomas Campion)
iv. There is an old belief (text by John Gibson Lockhart)
v. At the round earth’s imagined corners (text by John Donne, Holy Sonnets No. 7)
vi. Lord, let me know mine end (text from The Book of Common Prayer, Psalm 39)
Charles Villiers Stanford:
The Blue Bird, Op. 119 No. 3
Extracts from A Cycle of Songs, Op.68
Herbert Howells (1892-1983): Te Deum
Morten Lauridsen (1943-): Sure on this shining night
Malin Gavelin & Joel Nilson: Håll mig kvar
Duke Ellington (1899-1974): It don’t mean a thing, arranged by Ben Parry
This concert is generously sponsored by Bradfield Parish Council.
Monday 23rd June 2025
Roderick Williams and Christopher Glynn
English folk songs
Roderick Williams (baritone)
Christopher Glynn (piano)
From Opera to Recital, Baroque to World Premieres, Roderick Williams OBE is in constant demand worldwide for his rich and nuanced baritone voice and for commissioned compositions. He has performed in so many festivals and at so many venues that it is impossible to list them, but we can now add the Bradfield Festival of Music to that list.
Christopher Glynn has accompanied Roderick Williams on numerous occasions in live performance and in recordings. Christopher has a sensitive style which goes hand in hand with Roderick’s subtly nuanced baritone voice. He is committed to the important role that small music festivals have and is, since 2010, artistic director of the Ryedale Festival.
John Ireland (1879–1962)
Summer Schemes (Thomas Hardy)
The Salley Gardens (W B Yeats)
We’ll to the woods no more (A E Housman)
Sea Fever (John Masefield)
The Vagabond (John Masefield)
Youth’s Spring Tribute (Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979)
Down by the Salley Gardens (W B Yeats)
The Cloths of Heaven (W B Yeats)
The Seal Man (John Masefield)
Ina Boyle (1889–1967), A Song of Enchantment (Walter de la Mare)
Joan Trimble (1915–2000)
Green Rain (Mary Webb)
My grief on the sea (from the Irish) (Douglas Hyde)
Ina Boyle, The Joy of Earth (Æ aka George Russell)
Charles Wood (1866–1926), I’d roam the world over with you (anonymous)
Ivor Gurney (1890–1937), The Salley Gardens (WB Yeats)
Michael Head (1900–1976), Tewkesbury Road (John Masefield)
Freya Waley-Cohen (1984-), The Moon, the Moss and the Mushrooms (William and Dorothy Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), The Songs of Travel (Robert Louis Stevenson)
The Vagabond
Let Beauty Awake
The Roadside Fire
Youth and Love
In Dreams
The Infinite Shining Heavens
Whither Must I Wander?
Bright is the Ring of Words
I have trod the upward and the downward slope
This concert is generously sponsored by Dr J Doran and CM & EH Birkby.
Tuesday 24th June 2025
Bliss in Bradfield
Sir Arthur Bliss 50th Anniversary Concert
Mark Bebbington (piano)
Rebeca Omordia (piano)
Chu-Yu Yang (violin)
In the “50 for 50” project being coordinated by the Arthur Bliss Society, this concert in the Bradfield Festival of Music is (at the time of writing!) number 30 of the 50 concerts bringing attention to the 50th anniversary of the life of Arthur Bliss.
Arthur Bliss as a composer had modernist and more traditional phases. His works were not only concert pieces, but included film scores and ballet accompaniments. In this concert, we can experience the range of his works in the context of his contemporaries and those who took inspiration from him.
The “Truly remarkable” (The Times) Mark Bebbington is a distinctive pianist with a keen interest in British music. He has recorded, performed and toured extensively and has received unanimous critical acclaim with award after award for his recordings.
We are delighted to welcome back Rebeca Omordia who was last in Bradfield in 2019. As Julian Lloyd Webber (the Festival’s president) has said of her, “Rebeca’s technique knows no bounds but, more importantly, she plays with a depth of insight and understanding which is all too rare today.”
Chu-Yu Yang is a young Taiwanese violinist who is notable for his interest in British music including a rare performance for the British Music Society of a Violin Sonata composed by Bliss in the trenches of the first world war. He is the artistic director of the British Music Festival in Taiwan. He freelances with the LPO, BBC NOW, the Royal Northern Sinfonia and the CBSO.
Arthur Bliss (1891-1975) Masks F. 141 (1924) (Mark Bebbington)
A Comedy Mask
A Romantic Mask
A Sinister Mask
A Military Mask
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) A Little Piano Book (1934) (Rebeca Omordia)
Valse Lente
Nocturne
Canon
Two-part Invention in F
Two-part Invention in E♭
Two-part Invention in G
Arthur Bliss Violin Sonata F. 192 (c1914-1916) (Chu-Yu Yang and Mark Bebbington)
Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Greensleeves (1934) adapted from the opera Sir John in Love (Mark Bebbington and Rebeca Omordia, piano duet)
John Ireland (1879-1962) Mai-Dun (1921) (Mark Bebbington and Rebeca Omordia, piano duet 1931 composer’s arrangement for 4 hands)
Arthur Bliss Suite F. 148 (1925) (Rebeca Omordia)
Overture
Polonaise
Elegy
Variations
Ralph Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending (original version, 1914) (Chu-Yu Yang and Mark Bebbington)
Ian Venables (1955-) Pastorale Op 11 No 1 (1986) (Chu-Yu Yang and Mark Bebbington)
William Alwyn (1905-1985) Sonata alla Toccata (1946) (Mark Bebbington)
This concert is supported by the following:
Arthur Bliss Society
Bliss Trust
John Ireland Trust
William Alwyn Foundation
Wednesday 25th June 2025
Nikolaas Kende and Jolente De Maeyer
Nikolaas Kende (piano)
Jolente De Maeyer (violin)
Nikolaas Kende has been winning performance competitions since 1998 and is much appreciated for his poetic and passionate performace style. He has toured extensively in Europe, The US, Canada, China, South Africa and beyond. He is an enthusiastic chamber musician and has been touring with Jolente De Maeyer since 2003. Since 2015 he has been professor of piano at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp.
Since the age of 4 Jolente De Maeyer has been passionate about the violin, actively competing in performance competition from age 6. Educated at the Yehudi Menuhin School and elsewhere, she has performed with many European orchestras and in North America bringing her passionate style and virtuosity to audiences worldwide. Since 2018 she has been professor of violin at the University of Tilburg.
And in the theme of anniversaries, 2025 marks the 150th anniversary of Fritz Kreisler’s birth, and the programme tonight features two of his works.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Sonata No.4 in C minor, BWV 1017 from Six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord
Largo (Siciliano)
Adagio
Allegro
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Sonata for violin and piano No.7 in C minor, Op.30 No.2
Allegro con brio
Adagio cantabile
Scherzo: Allegro
Finale: Allegro; Presto
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Sonata for violin and piano No.3 in D minor, Op.108
Allegro
Adagio
Un poco presto e con sentimento
Presto agitato
Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), Liebesleid
Fritz Kreisler, Liebesfreud
This concert is generously sponsored by Margaret & Stephen Faulkner.
Thursday 26th June 2025
Linos Piano Trio
Vladimir Waltham (cello)
Prach Boondiskulchok (piano)
Konrad Elias-Trostmann (violin)
In 2023, the Linos Piano Trio filled St Nicholas’ Church with the most amazing sounds and enthralled our audiences and reviewers alike. They were very keen to return, and we had absolutely no hesitation in bringing them back for 2025. The three players share a vision for the piano trio repertoire to be experienced in a fresh, personal and visceral way and in so doing, create gripping concert experiences. This was so true of their last appearance in Bradfield, and we can’t wait for a second listen to traditional and less familiar works, reinvented to appear as if newly written.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), 3 Songs Without Words
Romance sans paroles, op. 109, for cello and piano
Lied ohne Worte, Op. 53 no. 2, arr. for violin and piano by the Linos Piano Trio
Lied ohne Worte, Op. 53 no. 4, arr. for piano trio by the Linos Piano Trio
Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847), Piano Trio in D Minor, Op.11
Allegro molto vivace
Andante espressivo
Lied. Allegretto
Finale. Allegretto moderato
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), Piano Trio in D minor, Op.120
Allegro, ma non troppo
Andantino
Allegro vivo
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), Nutcracker Suite, Op.71a (Arranged by Linos Trio)
This concert is generously sponsored by Swann Morton Ltd.
Friday 27th June 2025
Marmen Quartet
Sinéad O’Halloran (cello)
Bryony Gibson-Cornish (viola)
Laia Valentin Braun (violin)
Johannes Marmen (violin)
Performing together since 2013, the Marmen Quartet have a reputation for the courage, vitality and intensity of its performances. Early in their formation, the Marmen worked with the late Peter Cropper of Sheffield’s own Lindsay String Quartet, who said, “Performing is all about communication. It’s telling a story and I feel the Marmen are dedicated to this ideal.” They have performed extensively in Europe and in the USA, winning performance prizes and critical plaudits that prove that this early impression has only grown to characterise their performances throughout. In January 2025, the Marmen Quartet published their second recording (BIS2693) – their first as sole artist, with works by Ligeti and Bartók, that highlights their commitment to clear communication.
Continuing our theme of anniversaries, the Marmen Quartet include in their programme the popular String Quartet by Maurice Ravel for whom 2025 is the 150th anniversary of his birth.
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Quartet in D major, Op.33, No. 6
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), String Quartet in F major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K465 “Dissonance”
This concert is generously sponsored by Barbara and David Mangles.
Saturday 28th June 2025
Symphonic Brass of London
Some of the very best brass and percussion musicians have been handpicked to form the Symphonic Brass of London. Performing under the artistic directorship of Eric Crees since 2011, their flexibility, vibrant style and sheer joy in music making has rewarded them with critical acclaim both in the UK and abroad.
In their quintet format, the concert tonight draws upon music of over 300 years from classical, jazz and popular genres. Where arrangements have been necessary, these have been done by trombonist and composer Nick Lloyd who has been a freelance musician for over 30 years and was a key member of the Symphonic Brass of London until his recent death in December 2024.
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), The Harmonious Blacksmith
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Adagio in F major Op. 46 No. 7 (arr. Nick Lloyd)
Noël Coward (1899-1973), London Pride (arr. Nick Lloyd)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Rondino in E♭ Major (arr. Nick Lloyd)
Ethel Smyth (1858-1944), March of the Woman (arr. Nick Lloyd)
Edward Elgar (1857-1934), Salut d’amour (arr. Nick Lloyd)
Ray Davies (1944-), Waterloo Sunset (arr. Nick Lloyd)
John Lennon (1940-1980) / Paul McCartney (1942-), Penny Lane (arr. Nick Lloyd)
Gustav Holst (1874-1934), 2 Hymns from Rig Veda from group 4 (arr. Nick Lloyd)
José Padilla [Sánchez] (1889-1960), La Violetera (arr. Nick Lloyd)
Paul McCartney / Linda McCartney (1941-1998), Live & Let Die (arr. Nick Lloyd)
Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006), Quintet No. 1 – Op. 73 Mvt iii – Con Brio
John Lennon / Paul McCartney, Norwegian Wood (arr. Nick Lloyd)
James Last (1929-2015), Happy Heart (arr. Nick Lloyd)
This concert is generously sponsored by The Schoolrooms and The Plough, Low Bradfield.