1 year ago
Budvar Cheltenham Jazz Festival
28 April – 4 May 2009, booking opens on Monday 2 March
The opening event of the 2008 Jazz Festival was one of the best I can remember. It turned out to be Eartha Kitt’s last public performance in the UK and we were honoured to have hosted her in Cheltenham.
This year too, we have a very special opening for a different reason. It will be in Gloucester, in partnership with the University of Gloucestershire and will feature The Ruach Mass choir with Mica Paris, Ian Shaw, Alex Wilson and Jason Yarde. There will be workshops in local schools beforehand and those children will be invited to take part.
The BBC Concert Orchestra will again delight Town Hall audiences, working with the Guy Barker Big Band and guests including Michael Brandon, Madeleine Bell and Ian Shaw, recreating the life of Billy Strayhorn and his relationship with Duke Ellington.
The sensation of Cheltenham as a Jazz Town, really kicks off with the arrival of Hugh Masekela performing on Friday evening in the Town Hall and Pat Martino and Julian Arguelles in the Everyman. From then on until Nigel Kennedy closes the Festival, music and dancing will engulf the town. The talented pianist Alex Wilson has wooed many audiences with his past appearances at Cheltenham, with both Jazz Jamaica and last year Courtney Pine. This year he will bedazzle the Town Hall with his own Salsa Band.
One of my favourite events of the Jazz Festival is the Family Breakfast. It can provide parents with a few treasured minutes to read the Sunday Papers whilst their offspring are either entranced by the musicians or dancing happily to the rhythm. Although it is very unusual for Jazz musicians to perform at such an early hour, this year the alarm clock has been given to The Homemade Orchestra with Michael Rosen who received excellent reviews from the London Jazz Festival.
The Times Cheltenham Science Festival
3–7 June 2009, booking opens on Monday 30 March
I can hardly believe that it is almost time to finalise the programme for another Science Festival when the outstanding 2008 events are still ringing in my ears.
The theme for 2009 is heresy and we will be looking at some of the most famous scientists who were considered heretics and discussing who we think are today’s heretics. We will be celebrating the International Year of Astronomy and how the work of Darwin has affected the way we live and think. As always the programme will address what science and engineering is doing to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the world today such as climate change, plus considering some more unusual questions such as why do you feel pain and does curry have health benefits?
As always, our younger audiences will be treated to a packed programme full of high-voltage, mind-expanding excitement and the ever-popular Discover Zone will offer an opportunity to touch, play, talk and learn.
We are delighted that Carol Vorderman has agreed to be the Guest Director this year.
HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival
3–18 July 2009, booking opens on Monday 20 April
The Music Festival was the original Cheltenham Festival and had bold beginnings in June 1945, a good two months before the end of World War II. It was ahead of Edinburgh, Salzburg and Aldeburgh and was dedicated to promoting British music and British composers. Meurig Bowen, our Director has chosen to celebrate the 65th Anniversary by reminding us of some of those wonderful Cheltenham premieres including Britten’s Four Sea Interludes [the very first Cheltenham premiere] and the orchestral version of Thomas Ades opera score, Powder her Face.
Taking his cue from the bicentenary of the birth of Mendelssohn, Meurig thought an interesting area for the Festival would be to consider other composers through the years with Jewish connections. The Jewish strand will contain a huge range of music from medieval Sephardic chant to Hollywood film scores via Schoenberg, Mahler, Barber, Finzi, Reich and many more.
The beautiful acoustic of the Pump Room will again be used to the full when quartets from across the world perform in the Pump Room in honour of the father of the string quartet – Haydn.
The opening evening will be a wonderful celebratory evening out for the whole family. We will welcome John Wilson and his orchestra to play a series of Hollywood film themes that will appeal across the generations from Gone with the Wind to Harry Potter via Star Wars. The next day, Saturday 4 July, Fiesta in the Park features free musical entertainment all afternoon in Pittville Park.
Last year, we introduced greater variety into our Pump Room concerts with a Venezualan Band and a cabaret evening. We will be repeating the pattern this year with a Jewish Klezmer Band, Kol Simcha and a cabaret evening with Kit and the Widow. When you hear Kol Simcha you imagine that you are part of a Jewish wedding and immediately want to dance.
Fittingly, the Anniversary Festival will close with a performance by the Halle (the festival’s orchestra in residence for several years) conducted by rising star, Edward Gardner, who went to school in Gloucester.
The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival
9–18 October 2009, booking opens early August
In 2009, the Literature Festival will celebrate its 60th Anniversary. It is the longest-running Literature Festival in the world.
It is too early to be able to give you much insight into the programme but our celebrations mean that we are going to invite 10 Guest Directors, one for each day of the Festival. The line-up will include authors, comedians and scientists and we will be revealing all to you a little later in the summer.
Donna Renney
Chief Executive, Cheltenham Festivals
We’ve tagged this post with 60th anniversary, Chief Executive, Donna Renney, education, jazz, literature, music, science on Friday 6 March 2009.
