We are delighted to welcome a brilliant range of recorder experts to work with all our wonderful festival-goers. Together they will offer a full programme of workshops, playing sessions, performances and more, suitable for all ages and abilities.
On Friday evening, we are welcoming back three familiar faces to Saltaire Recorder Weekend. Heidi Fardell, Annabel Knight, and Chris Orton are three internationally recognised musicians and teachers.
Coming together for a very special project, they present 'Countercanon'. This informal and relaxed concert will shine a light on solos, duos and trios that until recently had not been recorded - works by composers including Imogen Holst, Nicola LeFanu, Nina Plap Bone and Elizabeth Alexander, among others.
Our Saturday evening concert will feature recorder player Anna Stegmann (The Royal Wind Music, Ensemble Odyssee) performing in a duo with harpsichordist and medieval recorder expert Corina Marti. Together, they will perform their programme 'Silent Speech'.
This programme explores 16th-century Venice, where instrumental music was shaped by the voice. Through diminution, the art of ornamentation, performers transformed simple lines into expressive speech. Inspired by Silvestro Ganassi’s La Fontegara (1535), these works reveal music as a living, persuasive language, brought to life through breath, imagination, and individuality.
