Cheltenham Jazz Festival remembers Eartha Kitt

It was with great sadness that Cheltenham Festivals learnt of the death of jazz diva Eartha Kitt at the age of 81 on Christmas day.

Eartha Kitt's sensational opening night performance at the Jazz Festival in April showcased her tremendous personality and trademark sultry vocals. She held the audience enthralled as she prowled, purred and high-kicked her way through her last ever UK performance. The concert was captured for her first ever live DVD and a special CD.

Her eclectic career spanned six decades and featured stage success as Helen of Troy to Orson Welles' Dr. Faust, pop icon status as the definitive Catwoman and creating the timeless chart hits C'est si bon and Santa Baby. Eartha Kitt will be remembered as a dynamic, entertaining and talented performer.

Read more about Eartha Kitt at guardian.co.uk

06-01-2009

A CBE for Courtney Pine

Congratulations from everyone here at Cheltenham Festivals to Courtney Pine who was awarded a CBE in the New Year honours list.

A true ambassador for Jazz, Courtney Pine appeared at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2008.

06-01-2009

2009...

• The legendary South African trumpeter, Hugh Masekela...
• Carol Vorderman, un-inventions and the credit crunch...
• An A to Z musical taster...
• A 60th anniversary...

19-12-2008

Woodmancote Beaver Scouts visit the Gamelan

On Thursday 6 November a group of young Beaver Scouts from First Woodmancote Colony visited Pittville Pump Room to learn how to play the Gamelan with expert teacher Jonathan Roberts.

Seventeen 6-8 year olds swapped their weekly meeting of games and activities in Woodmancote Village Hall for a highly enjoyable workshop, which also helped them to meet the requirements for the Stage 1 Musician Badge. The accessible approach to notation meant that all the Beavers were able to play a piece of music, and the majority now have their Stage 1 badge. They particularly enjoyed being able to have a go on more than one instrument, and clearly observed the instruments in some detail as their lovely pictures illustrate.

Richard Hickox 1948-2008

All of us associated with the Cheltenham Music Festival would like to join the many people around the world in expressing their shock and sadness at the death of Richard Hickox.

Richard gave his first Cheltenham Music Festival performance on Sunday 12 July 1981. The programme, with his 'own' orchestra the City of London Sinfonia, was typical of both the Festival here and of Richard's own diverse musical interests: Beethoven, Lennox Berkeley, Richard Strauss and a world premiere by Elisabeth Lutyens.

He made many more distinguished appearances in Cheltenham since, and regarded this Festival, with its longstanding dedication to British music, as a true kindred spirit. His outstanding performance of Britten's Death in Venice - opening the 2004 Festival and featuring Philip Langridge as Aschenbach - will be remembered by many, as will his majestic performance earlier this year with the Philharmonia Orchestra of Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antartica in Tewkesbury Abbey.

On behalf of the many musical friends he made over nearly three decades in Cheltenham, our heartfelt condolences go to all those close to Richard.

05-12-2008

Colin and Friends at Cheltenham Literature Festival 2008!

This fabulous animation is the result of a Write On! animation workshop that took place on Saturday 10 October 2008 as part of The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. The workshop was run by award winning animator Leigh Hodgkinson (wonkybutton.com and hoonpatrol.co.uk) and made possible by Sarah Bennett at Orchard Books. Check the titles at the end to see the names of the creative young animators who made the magic happen.

29-10-2008

Eartha Kitt: Live at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2008 - The Sunday Times review

The Sunday Times on the just released DVD featuring Earth Kitt's amazing performance at Pittville Pump Room.

"Quite how the grand old lady still manages to put on such a dynamic show is little short of a mystery: like Barbara Cook, Kitt seems determined to ignore the passing of time. Her Cheltenham performance generates much the same level of excitement ..." read the full review

28-10-2008

What the authors thought...

We asked a few of our authors what they thought of the Cheltenham Literature Festival audiences, here are their words about you!

27-10-2008

A very special event, Toni Morrison...

One of the world's greatest writers, Toni Morrison is coming to Cheltenham on Wednesday 29 October. Find out about this very special literary event...

21-10-2008

A very big...

A huge Festival thanks to everyone who came, took part, organised, wrote about, filmed, recorded and reviewed The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival 2008. More words and pictures to follow...

20-10-2008

Sunday at The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival

We've got amazing illustration with Horrible Histories, the razor sharp comedian Mark Thomas, the one and only Alexei Sayle and TV presenter and author Richard Madeley, see you on the last day of the Literature Festival!

18-10-2008

Family fun on Saturday (and events for adults too!)

Come and join us for our Family Funday on Saturday 18th - look out for a programme of outdoor performances from storytellers and poets, and a host of colourful children's characters will be roaming the Gardens, they'd love to meet you! We've got Saturday and Sunday full of fabulous literature, plus Book It! events for families and young readers...

17-10-2008

Come and join us...

Come along and join the crowds here in Cheltenham with plenty still to come at this year's Literature Festival: Martin Bell, Jilly Cooper, Jeffrey Sachs, Richard Madeley and Alexei Sayle to name just a few.

16-10-2008

Coming soon - Cheltenham Jazz Festival 28 April – 4 May 2009

A few teasers for 2009...

• A music legend, African jazz innovator, Grammy nominee and international jazz icon
• The Americans - prepare yourself for the onslaught of the US heavyweights
• Jerwood Jazz Generation, as well as their stand alone gigs, a selection of Jerwood artists will be collaborating with a previous festival performer and true jazz legend

13-10-2008

Literature Festival in full swing

Annamation entertaining the crowds with poetry and song in a busy Cheltenham on Saturday (read about our free events).

The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival runs through until Sunday evening. You can flip through the brochure right here online, or download a copy - see you there!

13-10-2008

The Wellcome Trust Book Prize launches today.

The Wellcome Trust Book Prize: A new award celebrating medicine in literature. The first literary prize to put a spotlight on health and medicine with Jo Brand as the Chair of judges and £25,000 to the winning writer.

What do Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, Jean-Dominique Bauby's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Ian McEwan's Saturday have in common? All three acclaimed works would have met the criteria for a major new book prize launching today.

The Wellcome Trust Book Prize is open to outstanding works of fiction and non-fiction on the theme of health, illness or medicine. The £25,000 annual award, created by the Wellcome Trust, is the first of its kind to bring together the traditionally diverse fields of medicine and literature.

Comedienne and former psychiatric nurse Jo Brand will act as Chair of the 2009 judging panel which includes BBC science journalist Quentin Cooper, Welsh poet and non-fiction writer Gwyneth Lewis, physician and author Raymond Tallis and Professor of Medicine in the Arts Brian Hurwitz.

Jo Brand says: "Good and bad health are pretty fundamental to all our lives, so it's no surprise these themes crop up fairly often in literature too. The Wellcome Trust Book Prize recognises writers who have incorporated medicine in such a way as to really engage readers with the subject, exploring our understanding of what it means to be healthy or sick. I'm sure there are going to be plenty of wonderful books for me and the other judges to read. I just hope we can reach a final decision without too much damage to our own health."

The prize will be open to books published in the UK and works published in English translation.

A shortlist of six works will be announced at The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival in October 2009.

The winner will be announced at a prestigious ceremony in November 2009 at the Wellcome Collection in London - the Wellcome Trust's renowned cultural venue for Medicine, Life and Art.

Clare Matterson, Director of Medicine, Society and History at the Wellcome Trust, comments: "There's always been a thirst for books that combine excellent writing with accurate and compelling medical stories. We hope this prize will stimulate even more interest, excitement and debate about medicine and literature. Our award reflects the Wellcome Trust's aim to broaden the appeal of medicine and reach new audiences - from literature lovers to science enthusiasts alike."

...and to find out more about the Wellcome Trust's events at this years Literature Festival, visit our Writing Medicine pages.

11-10-2008

Cheltenham Festivals wins a top business award

Cheltenham Festivals was hailed as Tourism/Leisure Business of the Year at The Citizen and Gloucestershire Echo's Business Awards this week.

In an evening of celebration at Cheltenham Racecourse the finest Gloucestershire companies joined together to recognise the breadth and quality of business in the region.

Andrew Blair, managing director of Gloucestershire Media, said: "Tonight we are celebrating the very best of the county's business talents. It is the culmination of six months searching for the brightest stars of our community. Once again a new record has been set for the number of entries we have received. The competition to win one of these awards has never been more fierce."

Cheltenham Festivals received the coveted Tourism/Leisure award in acknowledgement of the tourism the four festivals have attracted to Gloucestershire. The Festivals have continued to expand year on year, and the award particularly recognised their economic importance to the region and their mission to put Cheltenham on the international cultural map.

Cheltenham Festivals Chief Executive Donna Renney welcomed the recognition; "We are delighted to have won the Tourism and Leisure Business Award. We hope that by bringing so many more visitors into Cheltenham we are really supporting the front line local services of restaurants and hotels. And also that we continue to attract employees to the town for other businesses by making Cheltenham a really good place to live, with a high quality of life and really put it on the cultural map. We really value our partnerships with local businesses and are thrilled to be acknowledged for our work in the region."

For full details of the awards visit WestBusiness.co.uk

11-10-2008

Good luck SciFest08!

We'd like to wish a very special good luck to SciFest08 which is in full swing this weekend. This brand new Science Festival is a collaboration between Cheltenham Festivals and the Saint Louis Science Center in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA. Take a peek at the SciFest08 website to see what's going on there this weekend, and our own website for details about Cheltenham Festivals International.

11-10-2008

Prime Minister Gordon Brown makes a surprise visit to the Festival!

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Donna Renney Chief Executive of Cheltenham Festivals on the opening day of The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. You can listen to the full audio from the Prime Minister's event below.

"It's a great pleasure to be with so many people who are interested in the literary future of our country", said Prime Minister Gordon Brown as he appeared as a special guest on the opening day of The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. He apologized for talking about the economy instead of discussing, as he put it, "some great literary works of our country" or analyzing his new book "Wartime Courage" but still kept the packed room enthralled for an hour of debate and discussion.

The associate editor of The Times Ben Macintyre, who joined him in conversation, explained that it would only be right to merge the two subjects together, as the qualities that the Prime Minister identified in his book are exactly the qualities that people need as we face the financial crisis, which, in the journalist's words, is gripping the world.

"Facing any set of difficulties, the most important thing we have is the resilience, the ingenuity, the dynamism, the share energy and commitment of all the people around this country," said the Prime Minister. He described Britain as the country of liberty, tolerance, fairness and decency, and encouraged the nation to stay courageous.

The audience were offered a unique opportunity to pose their questions which opened up some diverse topics - from the credit crunch, to the US presidential election. Gordon Brown promised to concentrate more on literary subjects next time, and, as Ben Macintyre put it, went "back into battle".

11-10-2008

Getting to the Festival...

10-10-2008