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Each year, the festival has the challenge of finding classical music performers who are of a really high standard but are within our budget. Sponsorship from the the Executors of Robert Stiling helps, but we have found that choosing artists who have featured on the BBC New Generation Artists scheme is particularly successful. They all play with real passion and the audience have often heard them on Radio 3.

This year we are pleased to welcome the Kleio Quartet, an international mix of young female players who are current New Generation Artists. Here is what their website says about them:

First Prize and Commission Prize winners at the Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition 2023, the Kleio Quartet are quickly establishing themselves as an internationally-recognised quartet. They formed at the Seiji Ozawa International Chamber Academy in 2019 and consist of Juliette Roos (violin), Katherine Yoon (violin), Yume Fujise (viola) and Eliza Millett (cello). They have performed in major international venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Victoria Hall, Cadogan Hall, Royal Festival Hall, the DR Koncerthuset, the Black Diamond in Copenhagen and many others.

The Kleio Quartet are delighted to join the BBC New Generation Artists scheme from September 2024- 26. The quartet have recently been appointed as the resident quartet for the Royal Northern College of Music’s String Quartet Studio. They are grateful for the ongoing support of Le Dimore del Quartetto from whom they received the ‘Ensemble of the Year’ (2024, IT) and most recently, received the Freiburg and Walburger Prizes at the Jeunesses Musicales International course in Weikersheim (2024, GE).

They have held a residency as Britten-Pears Young Artists in Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh and continue a series of residencies hosted by the Strijkkwartet Biënnale Amsterdam from 2023-2025 and at ProQuartet – Centre Européen de Musique de Chambre for the season 2023/24. They have been selected both for the Tunnell Trust’s Music Club Awards Scheme 2022/23 and as Kirckman Concert Society Young Artists for 2023/24. They have also been selected to join the MERITA platform from 2023-2025, and hold the Hattori Foundation Senior Award.

Recent performance highlights include debuts at the Edinburgh International Festival, London’s Kings Place, and appearances at the North Norfolk Music Festival. Upcoming highlights of their 2024-25 season include a Danish Tour and appearances at La Schubertiade de Sceaux (FR), Frederiskværk Festival (DR) and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (GE) alongside cellist Eckart Runge and pianist Jacques Ammon.

The Kleio Quartet is particularly grateful to have received support and mentorship from Eckart Runge, John Myerscough (Doric Quartet), and Steffan Morris (Castalian Quartet). They have also received coaching from internationally-renowned chamber musicians Sadao Harada, Nobuko Imai, Heime Müller, Kirill Gerstein, Kronos Quartet, Cuarteto Casals, Pamela Frank, Simon Rowland-Jones, György Kurtág and Oliver Wille. The quartet continue their studies at the Hochschule für Robert Schumann in Düsseldorf with their mentor Eckart Runge.

This press release was published in the March Issue of Nailsworth News

As announced in last month’s Nailsworth News, among other main acts and events, we have secured Jonathan Agnew to speak at the festival. Needing no introduction to cricket fans, Jonathan is a renowned cricket broadcaster who has been at the centre of coverage for the BBC for over 28 years.

This year’s Festival will also feature some interesting local folklore and history. In Folklore of the Cotswolds, Kirsty Hartsiotis, regular columnist with Cotswold Life, will delve into the stories and traditions of Gloucestershire and beyond. While Dr Simon Draper will guide us through the rich and varied landscapes of medieval Gloucestershire, in his talk: Dark Ages to the Black Death in Gloucestershire.

There will also be a very full programme of activities and events on offer, and the full programme will be published in future editions of Nailsworth News and on the Festival website nailsworthfestival.org.uk. You can also follow the festival on social media.

An update from the Webmaster …

So, the full programme of events is now finalised and the brochure has gone to the printers!

You will see that there is a taster of some of the treats in store shown on our homepage, and we are only days away from publishing all the events on the website.

Booking will open in a few weeks – we will announce the date soon.

Mother and daughter duo, Fiona and Hannah, enthralled their audience at the Town Hall on Wednesday with their magically stories reminiscent of the Arabian Nights. Characters and themes threaded through the performance as Fiona and Hannah held us transfixed with just their voices, plus an offering of freshly baked bread! An entertaining and thought-provoking contribution to Nailsworth Festival.

There was a full house last night for Helen Ingham’s talk at Egypt Mill about her life dressing and working with the stars. Helen had lots of photos and scripts from the films she has been involved in which she welcomed the audience to pore through – and they did! Her talk had lots of stories about wardrobe incidents, turning costumes around quickly, providing Hugh Grant with dry Y fronts, making Maggie Smith a cup of tea after a morning in a wheatfield, how Madonna lost a Cartier bracelet in the Mediterranean and throwing a bucket of cold water over Tom Cruise!

Helen spoke to lots of audience members afterwards. Some of the feedback included:

“My goodness that was brilliant – well worth coming from Cheltenham for!”

“I loved all the stories – it must have been amazing to be up close and personal with the stars.”

“So glad I live in Nailsworth and can walk to an event like this.”

“We wish our niece could have come – she worked in wardrobe on The Crown – so interesting to hear about what her life must be like.”

“Can Helen come back and speak next year? I know lots of people who wanted to come but couldn’t because it was sold out”.

Those of us who attended this year’s classical concert witnessed a quite remarkable session of chamber music playing – one of the very best classical performances we have had at the festival in its 41 years. As BBC New Generation artists, they were expected to be good, but nothing prepared us for the dynamism they injected into their performance. They began with Haydn. Often, performances of Haydn have a mannered 18th Century feel to them, but this was defintively 21st Century Haydn. The Christ Church classic Broadwood piano was made to produce sounds we have never heard from it before, more like those of a modern instrument. The dynamism continued with a Mendelssohn trio, but the second half of the concert, featuring French music from circa 1900, went into a contrasting landscape of broad imprssionistic harmonies. And there was a delightful encore of an Argentinian dance. Do watch out for this trio as their career progresses. The only snag is that the committee will find it hard to stage something even better next year. But they will try.

This press release has been prepared for the Nailsworth News …

In these dark days of winter, it is good to look forward to what’s coming up in the new year. So here’s some news about this year’s Festival. We’re pleased to announce that Dom Joly, the creator of Trigger Happy TV, will be headlining Nailsworth Festival for 2025. The Festival starts on Saturday 17th May, with plenty of entertainment for all the family in and around Mortimer Gardens. Across the following week the Festival will also include classical music from the Mithras Trio; a talk on Cotswold Dinosaurs; music from around the world with Phillip Clouts Quartet and blues from Ken Wood & the Mixers. There will also be a talk about dressing the stars in the British film Industry and many other things happening across the week.