12:00 AM 2nd June 2026
Creation – The North York Moors Chamber Music Festival Celebrates Its 18th Birthday With Six World Premieres
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Huw W44atkins
Photo:© Benjamin Ealovega
Isabella Gellis
Photo: © Ella Pavlides
Aptly named Creation, the festival will feature freshly written works by Thomas Adès, Huw Watkins (both of whom will also perform at the festival), Charlotte Bray, Tom Coult, Isabella Gellis and Helen Grime. Charlotte Bray’s powerful piece for horn and string quartet will be accompanied by a collaborative artwork by Caroline Burraway which will be exhibited on stage at St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge during the performance.
Festival director Jamie Walton says: “We’ve commissioned works from five of arguably the UK’s finest composers, and are premiering the work of a sixth, to represent the six days to create the universe, forming part of the overall theme of creation.
Thomas Adés
Photo: © Marco Borggreve
Tom Coult
Photo:© Matthew Johnson
“Thomas Adès is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest living composers, so it’s a real coup to have him both write for us and come to premiere the piece himself. And we’re really proud of the fact that, alongside these six outstanding composers, we have such a stellar line-up of international artists.
“We’re also continuing to champion local visual artists from the moors in the brochure, pairing their work with concert titles. We have done this for the past two years and it’s a wonderful way to cross-pollinate and collaborate with more artists.”
The festival will take place from 8 to 22 August in four historic moorland churches: St Hilda’s, Danby; St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge; St Michael’s, Coxwold, and St Mary’s, Lastingham, and for the majority of concerts in the grounds of Welburn Manor, near Kirkbymoorside, in an acoustically-treated venue which has been enlarged this year to reflect the festival’s increasing popularity.
Charlotte Bray
Photo: © David Beecroft
Helen Grime
Photo: © Benjamin Ealovega
The festival was recently named a Best of British Fund Winner 2026 by Airbnb, representing Yorkshire as part of the North York Moors Beacon for the Arts.
The event continues to attract international artists, many of whom commit to the entire fortnight by taking up residencies.
This year, these include Alena Baeva, Benjamin Baker, Oliver Cave, Oliver Heath, Alessandro Ruisi and Charlotte Scott (violin); Sascha Bota, Meghan Cassidy, Emma Wernig and Simone van der Giessen (viola); Rebecca Gilliver, Tim Posner and Jamie Walton (cello); Will Duerden (double bass); Thomas Adès, Katya Apekisheva, Joseph Havlat, Roman Kosyakov, Daniel Lebhardt and Huw Watkins (piano); Ben Goldscheider (French horn); Nicholas Daniel (oboe); Matthew Hunt (clarinet); Jonathan Davies (bassoon); James Gilchrist (tenor). Completing the line-up is the festival’s award-winning featured Young Artists,The Davidoff trio.