![[The Gurney String Quartet]](perform/images/older/gurney.jpg)
The Gurney String Quartet, Royal Northern College of Music, Sixth Festival, 1999
The Gurney String Quartet, Royal Northern College of Music, Sixth Festival, 1999
Founded in 1994, the Young Musicians' Festival is a unique annual event which offers the most outstanding young musicians from the UK's — and Europe's — foremost music colleges a public platform on the threshold of their professional careers.
Each music college puts forward its best chamber ensemble — anything from a piano trio to a wind quintet, from a string quartet to a 10-piece brass ensemble — to give a full-length evening concert as part of a 9-day national Festival, the opening concert of which is given by a world-renowned professional ensemble.
Additionally, each year, a 3-day 'Showcase' provides a platform for outstanding performers — such as early music ensembles, soloists and duos, world music groups — from the UK conservatoires who do not easily fit in to the 'chamber music' remit of the main Festival. Eventually, it is hoped to turn the Showcase into a platform for young composers, focusing on music written by the many talented composition students studying at UK and European conservatoires.
In 2000, the Young Musician's Festival was nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society award for outstanding achievement, a nomination which confirms the YMF's national standing — and excellence — in the musical life of the UK.
![[Damian Girvin]](perform/images/older/girvin.jpg)
Damian Girvin, Royal Northern College of Music, First Festival Showcase, 1998
The main 9-day Festival now takes place in the first full week of March (including both weekends), with the 3-day Showcase in mid-November. (Previously, the Festival was a 'moveable feast' taking place a fortnight after Easter, with the Showcase in mid-February, but a decision was taken in 2002 to opt for a 'fixed' Festival from 2003 onwards.)
The Festival and Festival 'Showcase' take place in Halifax, West Yorkshire, a market town on the edge of the beautiful South Pennine countryside ('Brontë Country'), easily accessible from the M62 motorway, and by rail from Leeds or Manchester.
The main venue used is Square Chapel Centre for the Arts, a converted Georgian chapel (opposite the railway station and adjacent to Halifax's historic Piece Hall) with a fine acoustic and a friendly atmosphere – but increasing use is being made of other venues in the wider Calderdale community.
With its wide-ranging and imaginative programmes – jazz, fusion and world music all make appearances alongside the classical repertoire – the Festival is aimed as much at the newcomer as the seasoned concert-goer. Many of the classical concerts are preceded by free and informative talks, and in future we aim to run more master-classes, workshops and seminars in conjunction with the concerts, to which all are welcome.
Schools and young musicians in the region are invited to participate in the Festival’s lively and innovative education programme, which culminates in public performances during the Festival period. Young people and full-time students (of any age) are particuarly welcome at all concerts during the Festival, with ticket prices for any event being fixed at £1 for all those of 18 years and under, and for full-time students.
![[Cliffe Hill]](perform/images/older/clifhl.jpg)
Children from Cliffe Hill Junior School, Lightcliffe, perform the piece they have written with composer Barry Russell during his 'Composers in Schools' residency at the Sixth Festival, 1999
Each year the Festival aims to run an extensive programme of work in schools in the region, offering primary and secondary school pupils and their teachers the chance of working creatively with professional composers and performers on a variety of extended projects. There are public performances by the young people involved in the edcuation programme during the Festival itself, and also day-time concerts specifically aimed at young people, including those with special educational needs and sensory deprivation.
The Festival's Artistic Director, the composer Robert Saxton, has planned a far-reaching education programme, encompassing out-reach work by young composers and instrumentalists in local schools and colleges with groups of young musicians at all levels of ability, from the musically untutored in the classroom to accomplished performers; masterclasses given by distinguished players; study days open to anyone who is interested, from A-level students to members of the public; and choral and orchestral performances by young musicians still at school of new commissions and less well-known works.
Please contact us for details of the Festival’s current educational programme, and how you can be involved.
The Festival is a registered charity number 1058490, and is funded each year entirely by donations from charities and trusts, corporate and business sponsors, grants from the regional arts board and the local authority and subscriptions from Friends of the Festival and Corporate Friends of the Festival.
The Festival is honoured to have as its Patron the eminent conductor Mark Elder CBE, Musical Director of the Hallé Orchestra.
It is also in the priviledged position of having as Vice-Presidents four distinguished musicians – the composer Hans Werner Henze, the musicologist, composer and former Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music, Sir John Manduell, the composer Anthony Gilbert and the pianist and business man Sir Ernest Hall.
In April 2005, Dr Robert Saxton was appointed Artistic Director, succeeding Douglas Jarman, the Festival's founding Artistic Director who retired after 12 years in the post. Robert Saxton is a leading figure in British contemporary music, and is currently University Lecturer and Tutorial Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. He is a member of the Board of Trustees who run the Festival, the other members of which are:
Nicholas Baragwanath – lecturer (Royal Northern College of Music)
Kate Dugdale – business woman
Maggie Holborow – educationalist
John Helliwell – saxophonist / member of Supertramp
Douglas Jarman – lecturer (Royal Northern College of Music)
Helen Thatcher – cellist / member of the Sorrel Quartet
Roger Scaife (Chair) – pianist and lecturer (Huddersfield New college)
The Festival employs (on a part-time basis) an Administrator, Angela Jarman and an Administrative Assistant, Charlie Johnston, who between them staff the Festival Office year-round through normal working hours. They work from premises in a converted textile mill in the beautiful south Pennine countryside on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border.