10th - 23rd August 2025
“When music sounds, gone is the earth I know . . .” (Walter de la Mare – ‘Music’)
Welcome to the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival . . . .
This festival celebrates the art of collaboration in an awe-inspiring setting, taking our audience on a musical quest each year through interwoven themes within a central storyline. The 2025 season promises to be another exhilarating and thought-provoking experience, and we hope you will join us as we explore the pagan cycle of the year . . .
Our upcoming festival mirrors the fourteen-line structure of a sonnet, presenting fourteen concerts that take us through a pagan year with its unfolding seasons, solstices, and equinoxes. The four elements—Fire, Air, Water, and Earth—are explored through the lens of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, staged in four historic moorland churches. The remaining ten concerts will be held at our acoustically designed venue on the grounds of Welburn Manor.
Each concert is titled after a celebrated poem alongside music that reflects the time of year, guiding us through the twelve months, with the Summer Solstice as our opening and closing landmark.
For over 16 years, we have built a reputation for breaking down barriers to make exceptional music accessible to all, fostering community and cultural connection through friendship and trust. Uncompromising even amid pandemic challenges, our festival was one of the few to present full, live performances in 2020 and 2021.
August, when the heather is in full bloom, brings the North York Moors to life. Artists are immersed in the National Park, rehearsing and living in a deeply holistic environment, while audiences are welcome to enjoy picnics on the grounds of Welburn Manor, attend concerts, and explore the region’s historic churches and priories.
If you are interested in supporting our festival—whether by sponsoring a concert or an artist—your contribution would help us continue curating this extraordinary festival with the passion and individuality that defines us.
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Featuring over 30 international musicians, two weeks of concerts, and around 50 chamber works, all within a welcoming and inclusive setting, we invite you to explore one of the country's most breathtaking regions and leave feeling inspired...
”The whole atmosphere is so simply delightful: it all feels like being a member of one large musical family. Recognising before each concert so many familiar yet not-seen-for-a whole-year faces is a great pleasure: as people arrived and parked up, it was like a host of migrating birds all returning home!” Audience member
Photography: Matthew Johnson
Main image - Alice O’Neill
