2023 Festival Archive

WAF 2023’s opening concert saw Renaissance and present-day coalesce in an atmospheric candlelit concert commemorating 400 years since the death of one of England's greatest composers, William Byrd (c.1549-1623), performed by Corvus Consort and Music on the Edge. 'Byrd Takes Flight' explored Byrd's enduring influence on composers across the centuries by placing his artistic voice into direct dialogue with four of today's brightest young composers, featuring the world premiere performances of four newly commissioned works. The candlelit interior of Drewsteignton Church provided the perfect setting for this groundbreaking convergence of old and new, as voices and instruments intertwined to explore soundworlds that transcend the centuries between them.

We were delighted to welcome prize-winning harpist Louise Thomson as our special guest artist at WAF 2023. Louise presented a recital of virtuosic music for solo harp, showcasing just what a magnificent range of expression is possible on the instrument. Her programme featured compositions by some of the twentieth century's greatest harpists, including Marcel Grandjany and his teacher and mentor, the great pedagogue Henriette Renié. Louise performed in the beautiful intimate setting of Throwleigh Church, whose warm acoustic proved perfectly suited to the magical sound of the harp.

Rising star vocalists Ellie Stamp and George Clark were joined by pianist Harry Baker and the Festival String Quartet to perform lyrical songs celebrating flora, fauna and landscape, centred around the hauntingly-beautiful Tree Carols by Sally Beamish. Punctuated with a selection of gorgeous partsongs sung by members of the Corvus Consort, the programme also featured a very special guest appearance from the WAF Children’s Choir, made up of pupils from local primary schools who had participated in our schools singing programme. The Children's Choir sang reimagined versions of local folksongs, created specially for this performance by our 2023 Composer-in-Residence Nathan James Dearden.

In ‘Voces Intimae’, our very own Festival String Quartet took the audience on a journey through lyricism in the intimate chamber music setting of Providence Chapel. The players led us through masterfully-crafted and often introspective string writing by Barber, Dvořák, Sibelius, Bartók and Clarke, and also presented the premiere performance of a brand new work for string quartet by our 2023 Composer-in-Residence Nathan James Dearden.

Festival Director Freddie Crowley conducted Ensemble-in-Residence the Corvus Consort in a fascinating exploration of composers' responses to the poetry of 17th-century English metaphysical poet George Herbert (1593-1633). Through a sumptuous selection of choral music by Judith Weir, Alec Roth, Roxanna Panufnik and James MacMillan, the musicians revealed how George Herbert's words have provided inspiration to a whole generation of composers. Finally, Corvus Consort was joined by baritone soloist George Clark, Harry Baker (piano), Louise Thomson (harp) and the Festival String Quartet, to perform perhaps the most famous setting of Herbert's poetry: Ralph Vaughan Williams's magnificent Five Mystical Songs.

Our ‘Music & Coffee Morning’ in Endecott House offered an opportunity to meet our brilliant young musicians over a relaxed coffee, with musical performances from our resident artists. Attendees enjoyed short sets from our Corvus Consort a cappella group, special guest artist Louise Thomson, and a collaboration between the Festival String Quartet and 2023 Composer-in-Residence Nathan James Dearden, who presented an introduction to his newly-commissioned work for string quartet, with live musical illustrations.

Corvus Consort's upper voices teamed up with harpist Louise Thomson under the direction of Freddie Crowley to present a selection of glorious music for upper voices and harp. Throwing a particular spotlight on women's voices – both vocal and compositional – the combined ensemble performed music by Imogen and Gustav Holst alongside talented living composers. Audience members particularly enjoyed Imogen Holst’s Welcome joy and welcome sorrow – a collection of six wonderfully characterful movements, including settings of poems by John Keats about the Devon countryside – and her father Gustav Holst’s renowned Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, which exemplify both his fascination with ancient Hindu mythology and his championing of women's voices as Director of Music at St Paul's Girls' School for nearly 30 years. The programme also featured works by living composers Hilary Campbell, Olivia Sparkhall, Carol J Jones and Gemma McGregor, all four of which were first commissioned by pioneering music publisher Multitude of Voyces to mark International Women's Day in 2019.

The 2023 Festival Jazz Night opened with a short a cappella set from the eight tenors and basses of Corvus Consort – jokingly dubbed the “WAFter Eights” – including jazz standards, English folk song, and arrangements of popular songs. (After a warm reception, the WAFter Eights hope to return in 2024 by popular demand!) Our headline act was young vocalist & songwriter Hohnen Ford, fresh from her sold-out show at the London Jazz Festival, and already making waves on the UK’s jazz and songwriting scenes. In a unique collaboration conceived specially for WAF, Hohnen Ford joined forces with young star jazz pianist Harry Baker and our very own Festival String Quartet to perform jazz favourites as well as her own soulful original material.

Our special guest artist Louise Thomson presented a fun, sensory and informal concert for children ages 2-6 entitled “Let’s Dance!”, in Chagford lovely Astor’s Bookshop. Featuring percussion, singing, dancing and informal introductions, Louise played a range of music on the harp including Bach, Tchaikovsky and Gershwin, and a packed audience of children and parents had a fabulous time!

Our Come&Sing workshop provided an opportunity for people of all musical backgrounds to join together in song, and go on to perform alongside our professional artists. Our experienced team of workshop leaders led a group singing workshop based around music by J. S. Bach in preparation to perform as part of Concert 7 (see below). Participants also enjoyed a more experimental workshop with Composer-in-Residence Nathan James Dearden, in which they worked together collaboratively to create music in the moment and experiment creatively with their voices.

Our final 2023 concert celebrated the timeless influence of J. S. Bach, one of classical music's most renowned figures, juxtaposing his own vocal mastery with some of the finest contemporary reimaginings of his music. Audience members experienced a glimpse of how Bach's exquisite music looks through other musicians' eyes, from Knut Nystedt's stunningly simple take on a Bach chorale and Harry Baker's chorale-inspired I Call To You, through to Caroline Shaw's Punctum, which takes a mere seed of an idea from Bach and stretches it out into a wonderful tapestry for string quartet. In a programme punctuated with Bach-inspired music from our Come&Sing choir, Harry Baker also presented an improvised piano sequence based on the sixth Cello Suite, and Corvus Consort performed one of the composer's most towering vocal works in its original untouched form – the choral motet Jesu, meine Freude.

WAF 2023 came to a contemplative close with our annual choral Compline service in the wonderfully atmospheric setting of Gidleigh Church by candlelight. Compline is a beautiful church service for the end of the day, characterised by threads of medieval plainchant and prayers for a peaceful night. As well as singing the meditative plainchant that forms the main structure of the service, Corvus Consort also performed choral motets by Jean Mouton, William Byrd and Gabriel Jackson. At the very opening, congregation members were treated to an instrumental prelude, composed specially for the service by 2023 Composer-in-Residence Nathan James Dearden, and performed by our very own Festival String Quartet.

Rehearsal shots and other images from the 2023 Festival…