This year, the sound of spring is set to be more musical than usual, as New Paths Music returns to Beverley with one of its biggest festivals yet.
Running from 15th-19th April, the town’s Spring Festival features 35 events in a dozen venues, from the intimate to the magnificent!
The “un-stuffy” classical music festival celebrates the 10th anniversary of New Paths – which was founded in 2016 by former Minster chorister Roland Deller and his partner, the renowned pianist Libby Burgess.
During its first decade, the festival has welcomed big international names from the world of classical music to Beverley, as well as rising stars from across Europe.
Sharing the stage with them this year are local musicians, including talented teenagers on New Paths’ Voyagers scheme, and the young soprano Jessica Kneeshaw – who grew up in the area and is now a student at London’s Royal Academy of Music.
Mr Deller said: “This year’s programme celebrates the East Riding as a special place for music. And so, alongside the many concerts, the Saturday of festival week features pop-up performances by the Beverley Community Choir and Hull’s Eclectic Ensemble, as well as a service of Choral Evensong sung by the combined choirs of Beverley Minster & St Mary’s Church. The day ends with a Ceilidh for everyone, led by Triple Scotch, feted as the country’s finest ceilidh band.”
Acclaimed musicians originally from Beverley returning home especially for the festival include soprano Claire Booth – who performs Poulenc’s chilling one-woman opera La Voix Humaine in the East Riding Theatre.
Other star singers in the line-up include the British-Indian tenor Caspar Singh – who makes his debut alongside the festival’s Artistic Director, pianist Libby Burgess.
“We are thrilled to be welcoming so many exceptional artists to the East Riding for this bumper edition of the festival” said Libby. “We’ll be filling every inch of Beverley with live music – from the Monks Walk to the Market Cross, from the Memorial Hall to the Masonic Temple” she added.
A highlight of whole festival promises to be the complete cello suites of JS Bach (which begin with some of the most recognisable music ever written) performed by the celebrated Norwegian cellist Jonathan Aasgaard who came to Beverley for the first time in 2025.
Making a much-anticipated return to the festival is the violinist Sophie Rosa who plays Vaughan Williams’ deeply evocative The Lark Ascending. Another artist no stranger to Beverley is the baritone Marcus Farnswoth who appears in a hauntingly atmospheric setting of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
This year’s programme also reprises a number of standout events from New Paths’ first decade, including The Rite of Spring for piano duet (“a feat of virtuosity not to be missed” says Roland) and a late-night performance of Olivier Messian’s Quartet for the End of Time in front of the war chapels in the Minster.
Over half of the events in the festival are free, including the Friday morning concert for babies and toddlers. Tickets and more information from www.newpathsmusic and the Beverley Tourist Information Centre (Tel. 391672).
