Festival Fund-Raising Dinner A special three-course dinner and opportunity to meet the Festival President
Saturday 22nd June, 7.00pm Penkhull Village Hall ST4 5JB
Penkhull Village Hall will be transformed into the best restaurant in town!We have a wonderful partnership with Trent Art in Newcastle and Ruth Palmer - a Pru Leith accredited chef - will once again delight us with another special dinner.You will be greeted with fizz and canapés. There will be a delicious three-course dinner with wine, followed by coffee and petits fours. You will have the opportunity to meet our President and BBC Radio 3 Presenter- Tom McKinney; and Michael Howard - Art Historian - who will be entertaining us on Saturday 14th September.Don’t miss out on this special occasion - to eat delicious food, talk to our Penkhull Festival friends, meet our special guests and help to raise funds for the Festival.
A Marriage Made in Heaven A talk by art historian Michael Howard
Saturday 14th September, 2.00pm Penkhull Village Hall ST4 5JB
This afternoon in Penkhull offers a leisurely and inspirational ramble along the highways and byways of the magical world that opens up when we consider the transformative relationship between music and painting. We will look at how artists from the Romantic period onwards have explored the ways in which thinking about and experiencing music can expand our sensory, intellectual and even spiritual lives. We will have a chance to discover how we can expand our pleasure of music, art and poetry by engaging in the delights of Japanese haiku.
Clarinet Classics Sarah Douglas - clarinet Amy Wakefield - piano
Thursday 19 September, 7.30pm St Thomas's Church, Penkhull ST4 5DW
Sarah and Amy will present a delightful duo recital of well-known and loved works from the rich repertoire of music for the clarinet as a solo instrument. Their programme will include Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and the famous slow movement from Mozart's Clarinet Concerto.
PROGRAMME
Debussy - Premiere Rhapsody Brammeld - Sonatina Debussy - Two Piano Preludes (from Book 1) Chen Yi - Chinese Ancient Dances
Interval
Stadler - Caprice solo clarinet (play on Mozart opera) Mozart - Adagio from Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra Chopin - Two Etudes, Op. 25 Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue
Lunchtime Concert Music pupils from Newcastle-under-Lyme School
Friday 20 September, 1.00pm St Thomas's Church, Penkhull ST4 5DW
We are delighted, as always, to showcase talented musicians from Newcastle-under-Lyme School to present a lunchtime recital. During the concert, the annual May Walley Award will be presented to a musician who shows outstanding potential as a performer.
Admission is free and no tickets are required.
A retiring collection will be taken to support the educational work of Penkhull Festival.
Singmaker Singing workshop for local schools with Ex Cathedra
Friday 20 September, 11.00am and 2.00pm (Invited schools only)
As part of the Festival's education remit, we welcome singing workshop leaders Ex Cathedra, who made such a strong impact on last year's Festival. Pupils from several primary schools in Stoke-on-Trent will be treated to an afternoon of singing for fun.
"Ex Cathedra’s SingMaker team has been working together for over 20 years to write songs which children love and which teachers can use to embed a whole school singing culture. SingMaker is our purpose-written dynamic song repertoire, available through online audio-visual resources and workshops and performance events for schools. Schools involved in Penkhull Festival’s event will receive free access to the online resource following the day. The workshops on the day will be high energy, engaging and joyous in-the-moment singing for everyone."
The Power of Piano Scott Brothers Duo Jonathan Scott - piano Tom Scott - piano
Friday 20 September, 7.30pm St Thomas's Church, Penkhull ST4 5DW
Acclaimed keyboard duo Scott Brothers Duo present a piano duet concert which covers the entire keyboard spectrum with thrilling music for four hands at one piano. The programme includes original works as well as thrilling transcriptions of well known classics, including William Tell Overture and the Adagio from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.
PROGRAMME
Gioacchino Antonio Rossini arr. Gottschalk - William Tell Overture Franz Schubert - Fantasie in f minor D 940 Op. 103 Francisco Tárrega arr. Scott - Recuerdos de la Alhambra Isaac Albéniz arr. Scott - Asturias (Leyenda)
Interval
Ludwig van Beethoven arr. Scott - Allegro con brio (from Symphony No. 5 in c minor Op. 67) George Frideric Handel arr. Scott - Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne HWV 74 - Duet “Let rolling streams their gladness show” Sergei Rachmaninoff arr. Scott - Adagio Sostenuto (from Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 18) Tom Scott - Duet Sequence Alexander Borodin arr. Scott - Polovtsian Dances
A Night at the Opera The Opera Makers Becca Marriott - soprano Felicity Buckland - mezzo-soprano Martins Smaukstelis - tenor Louis Hurst - baritone Panaretos Kyriatzidis - piano
Saturday 21 September, 7.30pm St Thomas's Church, Penkhull ST4 5DW
Experience the most beautiful and dramatic moments from the most famous operas ever written. With arias and ensembles from Tosca, La bohème, La Traviata, Carmen, Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lakmé, Don Giovanni, Dido & Aeneas and many more. Featuring music from Wagner's epic ride of the Valkyries to the soaring Flower Duet by Delibes.
Final programme tbc.
"The Opera Makers exist to produce opera for audiences of all ages, and from all cultural backgrounds. We believe that opera is, first and foremost, entertainment. Over the past decade opera companies of all sizes have fought to expel the myth that opera is an elitist, grand art form. After all, it hasn’t always been. Verdi’s tunes would be whistled throughout the streets of Italy, and London critics wrote of the moral corruption and scandal that buzzed around the Theatre Royal and Covent Garden’s grand façades."