2027 York Early Music Festival
2-9 July

Enjoy glorious music in the stunning surroundings of this ancient city

Guests include:
Gabrieli Consort & Players | Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment | Rachel Podger | Apotropaik | Elizabeth Kenny | Nardus Williams

2027 Beverley and East Riding Early Music Festival
21-23 May

Guests include:
Consone String Quartet | The Gesualdo Six | Bellot Ensemble | Chelys Consort of Viols

AWAKE ARISE

Friday 18 December 7.30pm
£24 (£22 concessions | £8 Under 35s)

In an unmissable collaboration, five of the English folk scene’s most inventive artists bring you Awake Arise – A Christmas Show For Our Times; celebrating the riches of our varied winter traditions and reflecting upon the hope and resilience in music and song that can bring joy to us all in the darkest season.

BOOKING INFORMATION

Tickets are available to buy online, by telephone or by post from

Online: ncem.co.uk
Box Office 01904 658338
Email: boxoffice@ncem.co.uk

Or in person from

National Centre for Early Music,
St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate,
York YO1 9TL

Tickets will be available online as Print at Home Tickets up to 2hrs prior to the concert.

Remaining tickets will be available to purchase on the door 30 mins prior to the concert starting.

Offers: Please note that money-saving offers cannot be combined with any other offers.

All concerts take place at the NCEM unless otherwise indicated.

Under 35s are offered discounted tickets subject to availability
Call 01904 658338
Book online ncem.co.uk

Event 1

Friday 4 December 6.30pm – c.7.45pm
Reserved seating: £23 (£21) | £10 Under 35s
Including mince pies on arrival

Bellot Ensemble

Edmund Taylor, Maxim Del Mar violins   Nathan Giorgetti, Lucine Musaelian gambas, voice Daniel Murphy theorbo, baroque guitar, lute   Matthew Brown keyboards

The English Night: Music for a Winter’s Evening

The concert takes its cue from the hours after dark, when public ceremony gives way to quieter forms of listening. At the heart is a line of English invention running from Lawes and Jenkins to Locke and Purcell, with instrumental pieces placed beside songs that bring words into close focus. Rather than a carol concert, The English Night offers something more inward for the opening of the festival: a winter evening of consort music, song and dance, alive to the season without losing the strange, vivid character of this repertory in performance for today’s audiences.

“…heartfelt and tender, fiery and passionate” pizzicato.lu

bellotensemble.com

The New Generation Baroque Ensemble is supported by BBC Radio 3, the Royal College of Music and the National Centre for Early Music.

Festival Saver
Book for 4 or more concerts in the same transaction and get a 10% discount.
Available online and from boxoffice@ncem.co.uk

Event 2

Saturday 5 December 9.30am registration & coffee, workshop 10am – 1pm
£25 | £15 Under 35s | Please book by Friday 27 November

Choral Workshop: Bach Motets

Indulge in a day of the Baroque. Join us for a singing workshop in the company of Jo Wainwright as he shares his knowledge and regard for J.S. Bach through two of his most famous motets Jesu, meine Freude (BWV 227) and Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden (BWV 230). Composed in Leipzig, these glorious motets are masterpieces of Baroque counterpoint.

Scores will be available online in advance to give everyone the chance to study the music and get the most out of the day. A certain amount of choral experience and the ability to sight-read is helpful. Tea & coffee will be available, but please bring snacks for the break.  Friends are invited to an informal run through at 12.45pm. 

Event 3

Saturday 5 December 7pm – c.10pm
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York
Reserved seating: £35 (£33) | £7 Under 35s

Bethany Seymour soprano   Robin Blaze alto   Jonathan Hanley tenor   Stuart O’Hara bass

Yorkshire Bach Choir

with

Yorkshire Baroque Soloists

Peter Seymour conductor

Bach: Mass in B minor

J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor, completed in the final year of his life, is widely regarded as his ultimate masterpiece. This monumental work seamlessly weaves together a lifetime of his brilliant cantata settings into an extraordinary narrative of faith and human emotion. It stands as the perfect, breathtaking realisation of Bach’s inventive musical genius. Experience the awe of Bach’s choral writing through the acclaimed, period-style agility of the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists.

“The sense of uninhibited joy and praise is exhilarating” BBC Music Magazine

Promoted in association with YBC and York Concerts

yorkshirebaroquesoloists.org.uk

Event 4

Sunday 6 December 2pm – c.3pm
Bedern Hall, Bedern
Unreserved seating £23 (£21) |  £10 Under 35s
Including coffee on arrival

The Portrait Players

Emilia Agajew harp   Miriam Nohl viola da gamba   Claire Ward soprano   Kristiina Watt theorbo, soprano

À la venue de noël: As Christmas Approaches

Welcome to Christmas in 17th-century Paris – an entertaining mixture of the sacred, and secular invoking the mystery, revelry and merriment of the season with music by  Clérambault, Couperin, Mlle Denis, Marais, Julie Pinel and de Visée.

“….a magical sound, clear, dramatic and wonderfully interested in the words and their meaning.” Planet Hugill

theportraitplayers.co.uk

Baroque Around The Books
Monday 7 & Tuesday 8 December

The Portrait Players present Baroque around the Books 2026. Full details at: ncem.co.uk/baroque-around-the-books

Whistle Stop Opera: Don Giovanni

Saturday 16 January, 3pm & 6pm
Tickets £12.50 | £8 Under 35s

Performed by three singers and an accordionist, this 45-minute whistle stop version of Mozart’s playful drama is enhanced by the beauty and terror of Mozart’s score–showcasing the supreme musical dramatist at the height of his powers.

Event 5

Sunday 6 December 6.30pm – c.7.45pm
Reserved seating £35 (£33) | £10 Under 35s | Including mince pies on arrival

Echo Vocal Ensemble

Sarah Latto conductor

Cozzolani Unbound!

Unbound explores the blazing sacred music of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani - cloistered in 17th-century Milan yet astonishingly free in musical imagination. From the visceral drama of her 1650 Vespers settings to intimate theatrical dialogues, Cozzolani’s voice emerges as bold, sensuous and uncompromising. At this performance’s centrepiece is her astonishing setting of ‘The Magnificat’, the Virgin Mary’s song of praise in which she rejoices in being chosen to give birth to the promised Messiah.

Experience this direct contemporary of Monteverdi in music which is trailblazing and moving in equal measure.

“sublime, spirited…completely assured” The Arts Desk

“crafted with skill, flair, understanding, passion and respect for the traditions to which they belong...brilliantly conceived and executed.” Gramophone

echo-choir.com

PATRONS SUPPER PARTY

Sunday 6 December 8.30pm - c.10pm
£30

NCEM Patrons offer vital support to our work. Find out more on how to join this ever-growing group of supporters: 

ncem.co.uk/patrons

Event 6

Monday 7 December 6.30pm – c.7.45pm
Unreserved seating £25 (£23) | £10 Under 35s | Including mince pies on arrival

ArteSonado Musica Medieval 

Berta Benedicto voice   Elisabet Segura flutes   Sarabel Delgado fiddle, voice   Emiliano Evrard gittern, citole   Miguel Ángel Royo percussion  Sonia Rillo dance

Anima Amante

Spanish medieval specialists ArteSonado are welcomed to the NCEM stage in a show inspired by the 13th century court of Alfonso X the Wise bringing together the rich cultural exchanges of Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions. Melding the Cantigas de Santa María, Llibre Vermell, songs by Theobald I of Navarre, the Codex Rossi and Sephardic traditions through music, poetry and dance, the performance follows the symbolic journey of a female figure who moves through the elements of nature as a path of transformation and union between cultures.

Promoted in association with the Instituto Cervantes

Event 7

Tuesday 8 December 6.30pm – c.8.30pm
Reserved seating £35 (£33) | £10 Under 35s | Including mince pies on arrival

Spiritato

Huw Daniel violin, guest director

Handel and the New Society

In 1738, moved by the plight of colleagues both infirm and impoverished, London’s foremost musicians came forward to establish a new society- the Fund for Decay’d Musicians, known today as the UK’s oldest musical charity, The Royal Society of Musicians. Spiritato return to the Christmas festival with a programme of glorious overtures, rarely heard jewels and Giuseppe Sammartini’s richly scored Christmas Concerto, combined in tribute to a unique and enduring charitable vision and the remarkable musicians that created it.

“High quality entertainment” BBC Radio 3

“This is a brilliant group doing fab things - don’t miss them!” Rachel Podger

spiritato.co.uk

Event 8

Thursday 10 December 6.30pm – c.7.45pm
Reserved seating £25 (£23) | £10 Under 35s | Including mince pies on arrival

​Ceruleo

Jenni Harper, Emily Owen sopranos  
Toby Carr theorbo  
Kate Conway viola da gamba 
Satoko Doi-Luck harpsichord

Voices of Longing

Ceruleo celebrate the music of Barbara Strozzi, one of the greatest composers of the 17thcentury, and the most published composer of secular song of her time. This is music of passion and desire; for love, and longing – for an answer to life’s questions or for relief from life’s burdens – combining a selection of her finest works with instrumental pieces by her contemporaries.

“Ceruleo glitter in their Strozzi programme” BBC Music Magazine

ceruleo.co.uk

Event 9

Friday 11 December 12.30pm – c.1.30pm
Unreserved seating: £15 | £10 Under 35s

Nocturnalia Ensemble

Mojca Jerman violin 
Pablo Tejedor-Gutierrez cello, viola da gamba
Alex Mastichiadis harpsichord, organ

Wit and Mirth

Nocturnalia Ensemble present 17thcentury folk tunes preserved by Playford, a rarely heard trio sonata by Gottfried Finger, and the modern premiere of a violin sonata by William Viner, unheard since the early 18th century alongside works by Henry Purcell, Matthew Locke, and Nicola Matteis.

Taking as its title Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy (1698), from the celebrated song collection by Thomas D’Urfey, the pieces reveal a lively dialogue between art-music and dance traditions. In the same spirit, may this concert serve as a small pill against melancholy.

Promoted by Nocturnalia with funding from the Continuo Foundation, and presented by the NCEM in association with the Continuo Foundation

www.continuoconnect.com

Event 10

Friday 11 December 6.30pm – c. 7.45pm
Reserved seating £35 (£33) | £10 Under 35s | Including mince pies on arrival

Ex Corde Vocal Ensemble

Anna Snow, Alison Pawley, Caroline Smith, Jason Darnell, Paul Gameson, Christopher O’Gorman, Jonty Ward voices

The York Waits

Tim Bayley, Lizzie Gutteridge, Anna Marshall, Susan Marshall, William Marshall instruments

Christmas in Renaissance Rome

Paul Gameson director

Two York-based ensembles join forces to explore Christmas music associated with Renaissance Rome, combining large-scale sacred polyphony with traditional Italian seasonal songs and instrumental music.  Selections from two Christmas masses frame the evening: Arcadelt’s Missa Noe Noe and Palestrina’s Missa Hodie Christus natus est. Motets by de Silva, Victoria, lullabies and instrumental pieces reflecting both formal liturgical practices, and more domestic Christmas traditions, complete the festive celebrations.

Ex Corde: “outstanding commitment and an unfailingly imaginative approach” Musical Opinion

“Truly the Waits are among York’s greatest treasures” York Press

excordevocal.com

Event 11

Saturday 12 December 9.30am registration & coffee, workshop 10am – 1pm
Bedern Hall, Bedern
£25 | £15 Under 35s | Please book by Friday 27 November

Renaissance Christmas Workshop for Voices, Viols & Winds

Paul Gameson invites you to explore the pieces at the centre of Friday’s concert Jacques Arcadelt’s joyful Missa Noe Noe, alongside the motet on which it is based and Jean Mouton’s ‘Noe, noe, psallite’ and Arcadelt’s motet ‘Hodie Beata Virgo Maria’.

Scores will be available online in advance to give everyone the chance to study the music and get the most out of the day. A certain amount of choral experience and the ability to sight-read is helpful.  Tea & coffee will be available, but please bring snacks for the break. Friends are invited to an informal run through at 12.45pm. 

Event 12

Saturday 12 December  12.30pm - c.1.30pm                                                       
Unreserved seating: £15  |  £10 Under 35s | including mince pies on arrival

Allyn Wu baritone   Sergio Bucheli archlute   Guillaume Haldenwang harpsichord

A Shepherd’s Tale

A musical journey taking us into the complex world of human emotions presented by the prize-winner of the 2025 Concours Corneille - the baroque vocal competition organised every two years in Normandy by Le Poème Harmonique.

Inspired by the stories of innocence, desire, betrayal and – ultimately – acceptance, the programme weaves the stories together through music of Purcell, Dowland, Charpentier and Moulinié with instrumental interludes by Couperin and Marais.

“Australian baritone Allyn Wu brought depth and authority – a name to look out for” Sussex World

allynwu.com

Presented in association with Le Poeme Harmonique

NCEM PLATFORM ARTISTS

Event 13

A WINTER UNION

Saturday 12 December 7.30pm – c.9.30pm
Unreserved seating £25 (£23) | £10 Under 35s

Expect reimagined Winter classics from both sides of the Atlantic, some little known Yuletide gems, and plenty of songs direct from the pen of these five critically acclaimed songwriters.

Event 14

Sunday 13 December 10.30am – c.11.15am
Unreserved seating £15
Including coffee & cake served from 10.15am

Did Good King Wenceslas look out?

John Potter invites you to join him for a relaxed conversation as he introduces his new book, Christmas Carols an English Enchantment, with diversions into his time as a chorister under David Willcocks at King’s College Cambridge, his subsequent career in the Hilliard Ensemble and other vocal adventures.

Event 15

Sunday 13 December 6.30pm – c.7.45pm
Reserved seating £35 (£33) | £10 Under 35s | Including mince pies on arrival

Ruby Hughes voice

Jonas Nordberg lute

Amidst the Shades

As the 400th anniversary celebrations for John Dowland draw to a close, former BBC New Generation Artist Ruby Hughes and festival-friend lutenist Jonas Nordberg share their passion for the music of the Elizabethan era interspersed with music gems from the present day, including a new NCEM commission from Owain Park.

“Hughes’s voice hangs in the air like some sublime magic, but it’s not just the beautiful purity of her tone that bewitches, nor her dynamic control … what really stands out is the way she conveys the words, bringing life to each one” Limelight Magazine

“Ruby Hughes’ captivating Dowland tribute is steeped in delicious melancholy” The Guardian

rubyhughes.com