Nevill Holt Festival 2024 will open with a new production of Mozart’s iconic opera The Magic Flute featuring The Britten Sinfonia, directed and designed by Melly Still and conducted by Finnegan Downie Dear.
Our classical concert series will include performances from Alexis Ffrench, Imogen Cooper and Sarah Connolly, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, Benjamin Grosvenor and Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy. Orchestral concerts include Max Richter’s Four Seasons and new work from Benjamin Kwasi Burrell, Sergey Akhunov, Isabella Gellis and Shadwell Opera. Jazz and contemporary music sees Jalen Ngonda, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra, Lianne Carroll, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Dan Tepfer.
Additional musical performances include Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence and Joseph Middleton creating A Most Marvellous Party, Michael Morpurgo reading War Horse with musical accompaniment from Ben Murray and Anton Lesser reading Wolf Hall with music by Debbie Wiseman.
Our visual arts programme includes centenary exhibitions of Modern British master Anthony Caro and Pop Art pioneer Eduardo Paolozzi. A celebration of British Pop artist Pauline Boty’s work will include the world premiere screening of new film, BOTY, followed by talks from Louisa Buck, Sue Tate, Simon Martin, Anthony Quinn and Daniel Hermann. Meanwhile, audiences can enjoy a range of talks from contemporary artists, including Allen Jones, Ben Edge, Natalie Gibson, David Yarrow, Chila Burman, Nic Fiddian-Green and Andy Goldsworthy in conversation with Andrew Marr.
Our conversation strand includes appearances from Alice Roberts, Emma Dabiri, Jenny Kleeman, Anthony Quinn, Mary Wellesley, Amy Trew, Audrey Osler, Love Ssega and Kassia St. Clair; live editions of podcasts such as Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail; Richard Coles, Cat Jarman & Charles Spencer’s Rabbit Hole Detectives, Jonathan Agnew’s An Audience with Aggers and Rachel Johnson and Plum Sykes’ Difficult Women and comedy from Jason Byrne, Mark Watson, Austentatious, Bounder & Cad and many more!
Meanwhile, we will champion hundreds of emerging artists and over 1,500 primary schoolchildren will create 50-minute versions of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel in partnership with DRET Music and the Royal Opera House. Performed across the region, one of these productions will play during the festival, accompanied by sopranos Fiona Finsbury and Eleanor Sanderson-Nash, directed by Jonathan Ainscough and conducted by Simon Toyne.
