The Northern Aldborough Festival launches new competition

The Northern Aldborough Festival has announced the launch of a major new nationwide competition for singers, The New Voices Singing Competition. The hunt for the best classical vocal talent of…

Northern Aldborough Festival

The Northern Aldborough Festival has announced the launch of a major new nationwide competition for singers, The New Voices Singing Competition.

The hunt for the best classical vocal talent of 2023 in the UK offers a prize fund of £7,000. Final will also have performance opportunities at leading UK music festivals.

The competition boasts a distinguished judging panel, featuring one of Britain’s best-loved sopranos, Dame Felicity Lott.

The winner will receive The Seastock Trust Prize of £5,000, with a second prize of £1,500 from The Yorkshire Music Future Fund, and a third, Audience Prize of £500.

Winners may be offered performance slots at associated festivals to the competition, among them Leeds Lieder, Newbury Spring Festival, Ryedale Festival and Music@Malling, as well as the Northern Aldborough Festival itself.

Robert Ogden (pictured), artistic director at the Northern Aldborough Festival, said: “Hundreds of young singers graduate every year with dreams and aspirations to become professionals, but the majority have to seek temporary work while they build their careers. A competition success can be a turning point for a young artist. Our festival has, from its inception, strived to support and nurture young talent.”

The competition is open to solo singers and ensembles of up to eight performers, and celebrates classical vocalism in all its forms. It is open to vocalists aged 21-32 years-old. Deadline for entries is Friday 14 April, 2023.

Robert added: “At a time when the arts sector – particularly opera – has faced funding cuts, we feel a competition to help launch singing careers is of its time. What’s more, there are very few significant open vocal competitions north of London.”

Also on the judging panel is the artistic director of The Early Opera Company, Christian Curnyn, director of Leeds Lieder, Joseph Middleton, and artistic director of the Northern Aldborough Festival, Robert Ogden. The panel is chaired by Sir Andrew Lawson-Tancred, chairman of the Northern Aldborough Festival.

The semi-final and grand-final will be performed live to audiences at the end of this year’s Northern Aldborough Festival, which is hosted in the North Yorkshire village from Thursday 15 to Saturday 24 June 2023.

Now in its 29th year, the Northern Aldborough Festival has become a leading fixture on the classical music calendar. A charity, its founding mission is to bring world-class talent to rural locations; Aldborough is conveniently located just half an hour from the city of York.

To find out more and to apply visit: New Voices Singing Competition 2023 | The Northern Aldborough Festival 

For further media info, contact Ann Chadwick, ann@causeuk.com M: 07534892715.

 

About the Northern Aldborough Festival

The Northern Aldborough Festival was born in 1994, centred around the picturesque village of Aldborough near York.  It was recently described by the Times as ‘well on its way to being one of the leading fixtures on the classical music calendar’.

Its core aim is to bring exceptional music to new audiences, in rural locations where it would not normally be heard. With musical talent sourced from all over the world, the festival offers audiences a consistently high standard of music.

2023 Festival Highlights: Thursday 15 to Saturday 24 June 2023

Tim Kliphuis
Photo: Marco Borggreve

Hosted in the picturesque Roman village of Aldborough, North Yorkshire, the ten-day festival features the hottest talents from opera and classical music.

Audiences experience performances fit for the world’s biggest concert halls in the intimate settings of St Andrew’s Church in the picturesque village.

Highlights include:

  • The fastest-rising trumpet star and winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year, 26-year-old Matilda Lloyd.
  • The youngest winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition for 40 years, Sunwook Kim.
  • Bampton Classical Opera present a double bill of comedies with a rare chance for audiences to experience Haydn’s seductive comedies, The Diva and The Apothecary.

 

  • The Armonico Consort will perform the towering musical masterpiece Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610.
  • Virtuosic jazz ensemble, The Tim Kliphuis Sextet, present a double bill of Brandenburg Revamped and The Five Elements.
  • The Senegalese kora-player Jali Fily Cissokho performs.
  • The festival will also host its annual Young Artists Showcase.
  • Plus, a talk from this historian Lucy Worsley on ‘Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman’.