Brighton Early Music Festival – Midsummer Season, June 2022

Following a highly successful midsummer season last year, BREMF are back this summer with a weekend of events exploring Transition, which will form a year-round theme for the festival. 

The weekend begins with In Transit to the Baroque – ensemble In Echo perform music by Semisy, Willaert, Bertali and Frescobaldi, exploring instrumental music’s journey from the Renaissance into the Baroque periods (7.30pm, Friday 24, St Bartholomew’s Church, Brighton).

Later that night, BREMF Consort of Voices perform sacred music and chant from the Night Offices of Compline and Matins, with music by Tye, Tallis, White, Sheppard, Browne, Palestrina and Victoria (9pm, Friday 24, St Bart’s).

Puppets and instruments combine for a performance by Rust & Stardust for ‘primary-aged children and the young in spirit’ – Endo the Earthworm explores nature in transition, with two performances (Saturday 25, 11am at Royal Spa, Brighton & 2.30pm at The Crew Club, Whitehawk).

Joglaresa are joined by the BREMF Community Choir for ¡Bailemos!, celebrating in style the legacy of founder, Belinda Sykes, who sadly passed away recently. Expect a joyful party of music-making! (5pm, Saturday 25, Royal Spa).

Folk in Transition explores music from the British Isles to the New World, with traditional ballads, Irish jugs, Scottish reels and Appalachian bluegrass, performed by Brighton folk trio Hope Cove (8pm, Saturday 25, Royal Spa).

Aradhana Arts perform Indian Classical music and dance in The Daksha Yagna, a powerful mythological story from the ancient Hindu scriptures (3pm, Sunday 26, Royal Spa). 

And the Midsummer Season ends with Fair Oriana peforming Eliza is the Fairest Queen, with popular songs from the reigns of two queen Elizabeths, including Tudor-tinted arrangements of Vera Lynn, Aretha Franklin and The Beatles (6pm, Sunday 26, Royal Spa).

 

Some tickets voluntary, with suggested donations or pay what you can – check for details.

 

bremf.org.uk

Brighton Early Music Festival - ‘BREMF@home – across the Earth’

For obvious reasons, there will sadly be no live concerts to attend in this year’s Brighton Early Music Festival. However, undeterred, BREMF are presenting a series of events online instead. Events will be premiered at a fixed date and time on YouTube and will remain online for a week. Although the events will be freely available, BREMF are requesting that viewers make a donation in place of buying concert tickets in the normal way via their website. This is crucial, as most of their regular funders have diverted funds to emergency aid during the COVID-19 crisis. 

Events run from Friday 23 October to Sunday 1 November. 

Spiritato!

Pocket Sinfonia will perform classics by Mendelssohn and Beethoven, adapted for chamber proportions, with animation and film of the natural world. Meanwhile, Spiritato! take the music of Heinrich Biber, and use puppets made from recycled materials to present Birds, Bugs and other Beasts – a Musical Menagerie. 

Piers Adams (credit: Emma Bailey)

A fifteenth-century barn and the pastoral Sussex landscape are the setting for Ensemble Augelletti’s Arcadian Wilderness, with music by Handel, Corelli, Geminiani and others, whilst James Duncan from Sussex Wildlife Trust is joined by Piers Adams on recorders for Bird Charmer, a talk with music on the song birds of Sussex. 

Joglaresa (credit: Andrew Mason)

Father and son Dirk and Adam Campbell play new and traditional music on a variety of instruments from Africa and Asia in Connections, while Joglaresa introduce us to medieval songs of protest in Rebellion!, including songs challenging corrupt leaders, religion and even sexual norms. Continuing the Sussex theme, Musicke in the Ayre will perform Sweet Ayres of Arcadia, set in the house and gardens of St Mary’s House, Bramber, in the Sussex Downs. 

Despite not being able to audition new ensembles for their prestigious BREMF Live! scheme this year, previous ensembles will be showcased with past and new footage of their musical activities. 

And as ever, the festival will end with a celebration – The Four Faces of Gaia. Four regions of the earth (Africa, India, the Middle East and Europe) and the four elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water) combine in a celebration through traditional and early music and dance. 

For more information, dates and times, and details of how to donate, go to bremf.org.uk.