Chatsworth estate to host special event featuring concerts and guided walk as part of Sheffield Chamber Music Festival
A music festival with an award-winning soprano at the helm is heading to Derbyshire for a special event.
Music in the Round’s 43rd Sheffield Chamber Music Festival in May will feature Claire Booth, winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the Year 2025, as guest curator. The singer has combined diverse musical genres with strands from poetry, opera, film and theatre to explore the intersections of stories and music.
Events in the nine-day programme include Speak of the North taking place at St Anne’s Church, Beeley and St Peter’s Church, Edensor on the Chatsworth estate on May 21.
This special one-off event featuring a new work by composer Gavin Higgins, co-commissioned by Music in the Round, includes a guided walk book-ended by two concerts.
The music features poems by northern writers, including the Brontë sisters, and about Northumberland’s famous Sycamore Gap tree.
Claire said: “We’re really encouraging the audience at this event to ruminate on what their idea of the north is, and what the piece means to them.”
Standard tickets for Speak of the North cost £40 for two concerts plus guided walk and talk, with discounts available for students and under 35s and people on benefits. Tickets available from https://musicintheround.co.uk
Sheffield Chamber Music Festival will also pay homage to the work of literary titan Samuel Beckett and timeless folk tales such as Peter and the Wolf.
Claire, who opens the festival with one-woman opera King Harald’s Saga, a retelling of the story of ‘the last real Viking’ Harald Hardrada, said: “If I’m known for anything, it probably is breadth.
“That’s my aim with Sheffield Chamber Music Festival: to create a festival with incredible range and breadth of repertoire.
“I’m thrilled that we’re having a deep dive into words and music - including folk music and jazz - and exploring why we connect music and text.”
Claire will also perform with GRAMMY-winning pianist Christopher Glynn on May 19 in Francis Poulenc’s operatic take of Jean Cocteau’s play La Voix Humaine.
Feldman & Beckett: Words & Music on May 18 is devoted to the work of the great Samuel Beckett and his warm friendship with the composer Morton Feldman, directed by Vicky Featherstone.
On May 20, there will be a trio of events dedicated to storytelling. An introductory talk is followed by a relaxed concert of the timeless classic Peter and the Wolf, which also features in the evening along with other musical fairytales.
That same day, leading folk musicians Miranda Rutter, Sam Sweeney and Rob Harbron showcase new songs crafted from fragments of woodland birdsong in Bird Tunes.
Worth getting up early for are the sunrise concerts on May 17 from resident musicians Ensemble 360 in the Samuel Worth Chapel, with music inspired by birdsong performed as the dawn breaks. Insights into local birds can be enjoyed by ticket-holders after each event with a cemetery walk with BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Tom McKinney, a keen birder.
Another highlight, on May 16 for one night only, is when superstar jazz pianist Gwilym Simcock and his band team up with Claire and Ensemble 360 to give a very special performance in Crosscurrents: Gwilym Simcock and Friends.
The festival also includes Beethoven’s beloved Septet, a sunset concert, family fun with Izzy Gizmo and the first ever live staging of Julian Phillips’ children’s opera Henny Penny in a performance that includes children from Sheffield schools.
The festival runs from May 15-23 with 22 events, many at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. Tickets are now on sale and can be booked at https://musicintheround.co.uk