Get close to the music you love this summer with the Chester Music Festival (8th – 18th June) featuring Ensemble Deva presents music spanning four centuries in a range of chamber concerts presented in the city.
The 11 day line-up includes: an evening of minimalist Steve Reich’s music, the ‘Gran Caffe Venezia’ Concert – an annual festival favourite – and a chamber rendition of one of Gustav Mahler’s great orchestral pieces; Mahler’s famous ‘song – symphony’ Das Lied von der Erde, with mezzo Jane Irwin and tenor Joshua Ellicott.
Ensemble Deva is the in-house chamber ensemble for producers Storyhouse – the company responsible for the future operation of Chester’s £37m new theatre/library and cinema currently under construction, to be named ‘Storyhouse’. The ensemble will be led in turn by violinists Giovanni Guzzo and Thomas Gould, both of whom return to the festival after popular appearances in previous years.
Gould was the 2016 judge of the BBC Young Musician of the Year strings final, alongside Julian Lloyd Webber, and he leads Ensemble Deva in two concerts: firstly a rare chance to hear two of Schubert’s late great quartets (15th June, Chester Town Hall) and then a Baroque treat as Ensemble Deva are joined by soprano Mary Bevan as she sings a programme of Bach, Handel and Vivaldi (17th June, St Thomas’ Church)
Other highlights include lunchtime concerts from internationally renowned pianist Martin Roscoe and young exciting cello and percussion duo Abel Selaocoe and Delia Stevens, as well as a chance to hear Camille Saint-Saëns’ most famous work The Carnival of the Animals.
Download the full event programme
