Nevill Holt announces an exciting new chapter in its award-winning history as it becomes Nevill Holt Festival, welcoming a lineup of internationally renowned artists to Leicestershire next June.
In order to make the festival accessible to more people and to enjoy a sustainable future, Nevill Holt Opera’s Board commissioned an extensive survey inviting audiences to share their thoughts on the organisation’s future. Drawing upon its findings, they developed a new broader festival concept for 2024 and invited Olivier and UK Theatre award-winning director and producer James Dacre and his production company, Living Productions, to curate its inaugural lineup.
Today they announce that Nevill Holt Festival 2024 will open with a new production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute created in partnership with Britten Sinfonia. The Festival programme will then include chamber concerts (Imogen Cooper & Sarah Connolly, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, Benjamin Grosvenor, Max Richter’s Four Seasons, Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy) musical performances (Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence and Joseph Middleton in A Most Marvellous Party, Michael Morpurgo in a concert version of War Horse), jazz and contemporary music (Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra, Cécile McLorin Salvant & Dan Tepfer, Liane Carroll & The Ronnie Scott’s All Stars) and comedy (Mark Watson, Austentatious). Alongside, there will be a programme of conversations with leading novelists, historians, broadcasters and artists.
The Festival will take place in June in Nevill Holt’s award-winning theatre, medieval chapel and across the beautifully landscaped grounds of the 13th century Nevill Holt Estate, which is home to important works by some of Britain’s most acclaimed contemporary artists. Nevill Holt Festival 2024 will also present a major retrospective of sculptures by Anthony Caro, one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. A parallel education programme will see 2,000 young people from across the region participate in creative projects alongside leading professional artists.
Guest Festival Director for 2024, James Dacre, said: “For three weeks next June, Nevill Holt will be alive with music, performance, conversation and celebration. The very best of the performing and visual arts as well as literature and conversation will all join together in this magical place to present a diverse, entertaining and unique Festival that I hope everyone will be proud of.”
In addition to James Dacre’s role in curating the inaugural 2024 Festival, James Hunt, former Director of Sky Arts, will take on the role of Executive Chair of the Board of Trustees.
James Hunt said: “Nevill Holt Festival 2024 will host an extraordinary programme of local, national and international talent. After a couple of difficult years in which the festival’s activities had to be partially curtailed, thanks to the generosity of our many supporters, one of the Midlands’ most spectacular and notable estates will once again welcome an ever-broader audience fulfilling the long held dream of owner David Ross to create a truly inclusive Arts Festival and venue fit for the 21st century.”
David Ross said: “After twenty years of our highly popular summer opera festival, we wanted to create a more accessible model to build and expand upon our past success. The dynamic season that James Dacre and James Hunt are putting together will deliver a truly fantastic programme of work for next year’s Festival. I have always wanted the work we do here to be inviting to a genuinely wide range of audiences, and by expanding the programme we aim to create a Festival that has something for just about everyone.”
Meurig Bowen, CEO and Artistic Director of Britten Sinfonia added: “It’s wonderful for Britten Sinfonia to be returning to Nevill Holt Theatre in 2024, after cherished performances in previous years of Handel, Britten and Adès. To be a creative partner in this new artistic venture – which falls within our East of England ‘patch’ – is something we look forward to enormously.”
The full lineup will be announced in February 2024, but today the Festival is announcing that:
- A new production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute will open the Festival created in partnership with Britten Sinfonia orchestra.
- Sarah Connolly (Royal Philharmonic Society’s Award) & Imogen Cooper (Her Majesty’s Medal for Music 2019), Jeneba Kanneh-Mason (Murs du Son Prize), Benjamin Grosvenor (Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year), Pavel Kolesnikov (Critics’ Circle Young Talent Award winner) & Samson Tsoy (Milstein Medal Piano Award) will all perform headline concerts as part of the Festival’s chamber music series.
- A major exhibition of Anthony Caro’s sculpture will be curated for the Festival across the Nevill Holt estate alongside an outdoor sculpture collection including work by Antony Gormley, Rachel Whiteread, Allen Jones, Conrad Shawcross, Marc Quinn and Sean Henry.
- Three time Grammy award-winning Cécile McLorin Salvant and Dan Tepfer will premiere A French Affair as an evening of chansons exploring their shared French heritage.
- For the 50th anniversary of Noel Coward’s death, Nicky Spence (BBC Music Magazine’s “Personality of the Year” 2022), Mary Bevan (UK Critics Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent) and Joseph Middleton (Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award) will collaborate on the premiere of A Most Marvellous Party, featuring songs by Coward and his contemporaries.
- Legendary jazz club Ronnie Scott’s festival residency will include performances from the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra under the musical directorship of Pete Long, performances from Liane Carroll (Best Vocalist and Best of Jazz at the BBC Jazz Awards) and Ronnie Scott’s All Stars and an exhilarating history of Britain’s most iconic jazz club will be conveyed in The Ronnie Scott’s Story.
- The Britten Sinfonia will perform Max Richter’s celebrated version of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons alongside a world premiere to be announced in February.
- Comedian Mark Watson (Panel Prize, if.commedies awards Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and BBC Radio 4’s award-winning West End comedy troupe Austentatious will join the comedy lineup.
- Michael Morpurgo will perform passages from his novel War Horse with musical accompaniment from Ben Murray.
- Alice Roberts looks at how ancient bones hold the key to understanding the impact of violence and disease in mediaeval society in Crypt.
- This year over 1,500 primary schoolchildren will perform a 50-minute version of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel in theatres across the region with sopranos Fiona Finsbury and Eleanor Sanderson-Nash, directed by Jonathan Ainscough and conducted by Simon Toyne. Their final performance will fall during Nevill Holt Festival 2024. Meanwhile, the music scholars of Northampton’s Malcolm Arnold Academy will present a chamber music concert in the atmospheric surroundings of the Chapel, accompanied by Jem Lowther and Jamie Milburn and the Big Band of Malcolm Arnold Academy will be led by jazz artist Jamie Glew-Osborn in a programme of jazz standards and big band classics.
- A range of dining and picnic options will be prepared by celebrated chefs using locally sourced produce.
The full Festival programme will be announced in February 2024 with tickets going on sale at that time. Membership schemes for the Festival are open to join from today and details can be found at www.nevillholtfestival.com
