Posts Tagged ‘concerts’

Pocklington Arts Centre

Friday, January 14th, 2011 by chrisjones

The Pocklington Arts Centre is right in the middle of the town, and is also a centre of excellence when it comes to entertainment and community arts.  The Arts Centre was opened in 2000 in Oak House, a Grade 2 listed building dating back to around 1690 which previously housed the Ritz Cinema. But the Arts Centre is bang up-to-date – with excellent facilities for entertainment and corporate use as a conference venue.

The Arts Centre has a 200-seat theatre, which doubles as a concert hall and cinema and a studio which is also used for exhibitions (it’s currently housing a photographic exhibition till 29 January 2011 for local photographer Elaine Gladstone).

The concert venue has featured a wide range of performers, including comedian Barry Cryer, and musicians Steve Harley, Midge Ure, Ralph McTell, Kiki Dee and Fairport Convention – all of whom have said very complementary things about the venue.

The aim of the Pocklington Arts Centre is to provide an accessible venue for a wide range of performing and visual arts to the local area and it has quickly come to be treasured by locals and visitors alike.  But then, with a varied programme of Dance, Drama, Exhibitions, Film, Lectures, Music and Workshops it does provide something for everyone.

Cinema programmes feature the latest releases and the Centre’s live events feature local drama groups and visiting professional repertory companies, as well as children’s theatre and dance troupes, classical, jazz, folk, blues, rock and popular music, along with comedy acts and poetry readings.

The attractive market town of Pocklington is on the A1079 just a dozen miles from the centre of York on the road to Hull, and is easily accessible from both cities.

Here’s a taste of what’s on for early 2011.

Coming up at the cinema:

Fri 14 Jan – Thu 20 Jan: Little Fockers

Fri 21 Jan – Thu 27 Jan: Luftslottet Som Sprangdes – Stieg Larssons The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest

Fri 28 Jan – Thu 3 Feb: Megamind + Made In Dagenham

Fri 4 Feb – Thu 10 Feb: The Tourist

Fri 11 Feb – Thu 17 Feb: Gulliver’s Travels

Fri 18 Feb – Thu 24 Feb: The King’s Speech

Fri 25 Feb – Thu 3 Mar: 127 Hours

And here’s a taste of what else is on:

Fri 14 Jan: An Audience with Baroness Shirley Williams

Sun 23 Jan: An Intimate Audience with Justin Currie (SOLD OUT)

Thu 27 Jan: Mirth Control Comedy Club featuring Stephen Grant

Sun 30 Jan: Studio Night

Fri 4 Feb: Sean Taylor

Fri 11 Feb: The Realistics – Motown sounds

Fri 18 Feb: Mike Harding (SOLD OUT)

Thu 24 Feb: Russell Kane

Sat 26 Feb: Tom Courtenay – Pretending to be me (Philip Larkin biography)

Sun 6 Mar: Studio Night

Fri 11 Mar: The Coal Porters

Wed 16 Mar: Lecture – Infections and Cancer – Dr Rob Newton, Hull-York Medical School

Thu 17 Mar: Star Quality – Northumberland Theatre Company

Mon 21 Mar: Spring Fashion Show

Wed 30 Mar: Miriam Roycroft and Anne-Marie Hastings play Schumann, Chopin & Barber

Thu 31 Mar: Mirth Control Comedy Club

You can find all the details about the above performances (and more) from the website www.pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk

Pocklington Arts Centre
Market Place
Pocklington
York
YO42 2AR

Box Office: 01759 301 547

Box Office opening times:

  • Tuesday: 10am – 5pm
  • Thursday: 10am – 1pm
  • Friday: 10am – 4pm
  • Saturday: 9.30am – 1pm

Also open during performance times.

E: info@pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk

If you’re coming to Pocklington and need a place to stay, find accommodation near Pocklington and York accommodation on Hello Yorkshire.

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Posted in Gigs, Concerts & Festivals | 2 Comments »

26 March: An Evening of Gilbert & Sullivan

Friday, January 14th, 2011 by RichFox

Easingwold District Lion’s Club presents:

An Evening of Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera

Performed and sung by the Harrogate Gilbert & Sullivan Society at The Galtres Centre, Easingwold on Saturday, 26 March 2011 at 7.30pm.

Admission £7, tickets available from the Galtres Centre Office – 01347 822472.

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1 August: A Symphony for Yorkshire

Thursday, June 24th, 2010 by chrisjones

Composer Benjamin Till has written a Symphony for Yorkshire, commissioned by the BBC. Musicians from across the county have auditioned and been assembled for its premier on 1 August.

For more information on one of the successful auditionees -  Charles Hindmarsh – please see below:

On the Cutting Edge of Music

Charles Hindmarsh has a point to prove. In fact he has a whole series of them. They’re on the edge of the saw that he plays. Yes, Charles is a musical saw player – someone who plays the saw with a bow – and he’s much in demand in and around Yorkshire to play at concerts, weddings, workshops, parties and demonstrations. He’s appeared on TV and radio too, and you can see a fine example of his art on YouTube – www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvPgZtTQAx4 – playing the old standard, Danny Boy.

The Yorkshire Musical Saw Player, to give Charles his full title, started playing the saw around 30 years ago, initially using a standard wood saw from his father’s tool kit (I don’t know whether it was a cross-cut saw or a rip saw, but I can picture a scene of his dad hunting everywhere for his saw when in the middle of a job and saying to himself, “where is it, I ‘ad it ‘ere yesterday, and now it’s blooming disappeared” and wondering where that strange, ethereal and other-worldly noise was coming from that was wafting through the house, “Eh, I can’t ‘ear mysen think” he may have said as he scratched his head in bewilderment).

But he wasn’t in competition for his Dad’s tools for long, as Charles took a tip from a saw-playing busker and bought himself a Mussehl & Westphal saw from Wisconsin, USA – a company which specialises in making musical saws from the “best imported English steel” – and he never looked back.

He’s played with a number of august bodies including the Harrogate Band (www.hello-yorkshire.co.uk/blog/harrogate-band-the-premier-brass-band-in-the-locality) and, like the Band, has roots going back to his days at Harrogate Granby High School. After he left School, he went to Chester College to study music, and so has a serious musical background. Charles’ website is utterly absorbing. It not only tells you more about Charles, but also lists his repertoire, has a page detailing the physics of the musical saw, another with instructions on how to play the saw, a jokes page, a page with some beautiful photos of Yorkshire, and much more besides. Do check it out – http://playthesaw.co.uk.

And you can hear  the premier of the Symphony for Yorkshire on BBC Look North and Radio York, Sheffield, Leeds and Humberside on Yorkshire Day – 1 August 2010. If you’re after Yorkshire accommodation in the area, try York hotels, Scarborough hotels or bed and breakfast Whitby on Hello Yorkshire.

NB: Mysen is Yorkshire dialect for myself.

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Harrogate Band – the premier brass band in the locality

Monday, June 7th, 2010 by chrisjones

One of Yorkshire’s many strengths is its heritage, and an important part of that heritage is the brass band.

Many of Yorkshire’s most famous brass bands trace their origins back to the 19th and early 20th centuries and were a product of mill or mining communities in the region, but the Harrogate Band is comparatively modern – it dates back to April 1970 – and was formed by some former pupils from the Harrogate Granby High School Concert Band who wanted to continue playing together after leaving school.

The Band, under its first conductor, Neil Richmond, a music teacher from Harrogate Granby High, filled the huge gap left when the Harrogate Silver Prize band ceased to be in 1956. Almost straight away it enjoyed success, successfully competing in its first competition in York in November 1970.

Since then it has gone from strength to strength under the direction of (successively) John Higginson, Peter Littlewood, Peter Wells and David Lancaster. Gradually the Harrogate Band climbed the band rankings and reaching the Championship Section of the North of England in 2003.

As well as over 30 concert engagements per year, the Harrogate Band also enters around five competitions. And the Band has travelled overseas on seven occasions, and has visited Norway, Germany, the Czech Republic and, in 2007 a tour encompassing Belgium and Holland.

The Band has a great success rate in the competitions it enters – it was a finalist in the National Brass Band Championships in 1985, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2001, and 2002. In 2001 the Band became North of England Region Champion (1st Section).

If you would like to see and hear the Harrogate Band here’s a list of their forthcoming engagements in Yorkshire for the rest of the year:

  • Sunday 6 June, Golden Acre Park, Leeds, 2.30pm
  • Sunday 20 June, Askham Bryan Agricultural College Open Day, Askham Bryan, 11am
  • Saturday 26 June, Easingwold March Contest, evening
  • Sunday 27 June, Hymns, Pimms and Picnic, Harrogate
  • Sunday 4 July, Selby Park – Independence Day Concert, Selby, 2.00pm
  • Saturday 31 July, Proms at Mowbray House, Kirkby Malzeard, 7.30pm
  • Sunday 1 August, Temple Newsam – Yorkshire Day, Leeds, 2.30pm
  • Saturday 14 August, Ripon Races, Racecourse, Ripon, 1.30pm
  • Saturday 14 August, Music for Stage and Screen, RAOB Grove House, Skipton Road, Harrogate, 7pm
  • Sunday 22 August, Riverside Bandstand, Wetherby, 2.30pm
  • Sunday 12 September, Hardraw Scar Contest, Green Dragon Inn, Hardraw, Hawes
  • Friday/Saturday/Sunday 24/25/26 September, National Brass Band Championship Finals Sections 1-4, Harrogate

International Centre (providing rehearsal services for visiting bands)

  • Sunday 10 October, Kippax Band Club, Kippax, 8pm
  • Saturday 16 October, Holy Trinity Church, Ripon, 7.30pm (in aid of Christian Aid)
  • Saturday 6 November, Last Night of the Proms – Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate, 7pm
  • Sunday 7 November, Sinai Synagogue Hall, Roman Avenue, Leeds LS8 2AN, 7.30pm
  • Sunday 14 November, Remembrance Service, Stonefall War Graves Cemetery, Harrogate, 12.30pm
  • Sunday 28 November, LBBA Contest, Loughborough
  • Saturday 4 December, Join concert with Tewit Youth Band, venue TBC
  • Saturday 11th December, Meanwood Methodist Church, Monk Bridge Road, Leeds LS6 4HH, 7.30pm
  • Friday 24 December, Carols – Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate, 7.30pm

You get can more details about these events and lots more about the Harrogate Band at their website – www.harrogateband.org

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9-17 July: York Early Music Festival 2010

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 by chrisjones

The annual York Early Music Festival is a celebration of music from the 18th century and earlier – with concerts, recitals, workshops and lectures held in a number of venues in this historic city.

It first took place in 1977 and features mainly classical works – many of which are rarely performed these days.

This year’s theme is musical marriages, with pieces written for weddings – from intimate personal pieces to majestic ceremonial occasions – along with pieces chosen because they reflect a figurative marriage of musical styles.

The festival opens in York Minster with Monteverdi’s Vespers, written in 1610. Works by Robert Schumann (to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth), and those of a host of other composers, also feature in a very rich and interesting schedule.

Artists

This year’s solo artists include:
Barbara Schlick (soprano)
James Gilchrist (tenor)
Peter Seymour (accompanist)
Hopkinson Smith (lute)
Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)

Ensembles include:
The Bach Players
La Capella Ducale
Ensemble Lucidarium
Fretwork.
London Baroque
Musica Fiata
The Sixteen
Theatre of the Ayre

Venues
Besides the Minster, the other venues for this year’s concerts are the National Centre for Early Music in Walmgate, the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at the University of York, the C4C Chapel at York St John University, St George’s RC Church in Peel St, the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall in Fossgate, the Unitarian Chapel in St Saviourgate, All Saints Church in North St, Harewood House, Bedern Hall in St Andrewgate, St and Michael le Belfrey Church in High Petergate.

In previous years, the following people have performed at the festival:

Robin Blaze
The Ebor Singers
Ex Cathedra
I Fagiolini
Emma Kirkby
Giles Lewin
Josetxu Obregon
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Rachel Podger
Jordi Savall
The Sixteen

Find out more

Contact the National Centre for Early Music for more details and a full schedule at www.ncem.co.uk

The National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York
T: 01904 658 338 – Box Office
T: 01904 632 220 – Admin
E: info@ncem.co.uk

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