When a Music Festival Moves Into the Village

For two weeks each summer, international musicians, extraordinary music and everyday village life come together in our little corner of the North York Moors.

Walk down the street in Appleton-le-Moors at this time of year and you may notice rather more people than usual wandering around with musical instruments tucked under their arms. You might hear the strains of a violin drifting through an open window, or discover that the person staying a few doors away happens to be an internationally acclaimed musician.

For two weeks each August, this becomes quite normal here. The North York Moors Chamber Music Festival has arrived.

More than a music festival

Now in its eighteenth year, the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival brings together more than 30 international musicians for two weeks of concerts in some beautiful locations across the North York Moors. This year’s festival celebrates the wonder of beginnings, with around 50 chamber works and six newly commissioned premieres inspired by the six days of the Universe’s creation.

But for us, what makes the festival so special isn’t only what happens on stage. It’s what happens in our village. Jamie Walton, the Festival Founder, Artistic Director and driving force behind the festival, lives here with his husband Joel. And so, the village gets involved.

The musicians don’t disappear off to hotels after their performances. Many stay in people’s homes, scattered around Appleton and the surrounding area. We’ve hosted musicians at Town End Farm for several years now and this year we have the pianist Roman Kosyakov staying with us. We barely see him, as the musicians spend an extraordinary amount of time rehearsing and performing, but we have discovered that Roman likes a double espresso in the morning.

It takes a village — and quite a lot of quiche

Feeding more than 30 musicians and volunteers for a fortnight takes some doing, and over the years plenty of villagers have found themselves involved. We’ve previously been part of the quiche-making rota, producing pies on our allotted days. Jamie and Joel’s neighbour Margaret now makes industrial quantities of quiches and salads, while our friend Kate caters for the musicians’ evening meals.

This year there’s another village contribution. Anyone with surplus fruit and vegetables from their garden can leave it on the bench outside Jamie and Joel’s house to help feed this small army of musicians.

On Sunday, our own contribution wasn’t quite as healthy. Jackie had surplus traybake and her rather controversial ginger loaf left over from the village show, so we took them round to their house for the musicians. Jamie greeted us in the kitchen and apologised that he was in the middle of a rehearsal. In the room next door, a trio were rehearsing Ravel, with Jamie playing the cello.

There can’t be many places where you pop round with leftover cake and accidentally find yourself listening to a private rehearsal of Ravel. On Monday evening, we heard them perform the same piece in concert. Wonderful.

From crystal glasses to a bowl of soup

Many of the festival concerts take place in the grounds of Welburn Hall, only about ten minutes from Town End Farm. Inside the marquee, specially created acoustic panelling, theatre lighting and a wooden floor transform the space into a recital hall seating around 350 people.

Outside is a rather different experience. Concertgoers are encouraged to arrive early and picnic in the grounds. We’ve seen people arrive with what we think of as the full Glyndebourne kit: tables, chairs, tablecloths and crystal wine glasses. At the other end of the scale, we once sat near two ladies happily sharing a bowl of soup.

We like to think we pitch ourselves somewhere in the middle. A bottle of chilled white wine, a pork pie, tortilla chips and a few dips generally do us very nicely.

When the North York Moors join in

However impressive the transformation inside the marquee, every so often something reminds you that you’re listening to chamber music in the middle of the North York Moors. We’ve lost count of the number of times a sheep has bleated during a performance, or we’ve heard an owl join in. Occasionally, a tractor chugs past.

At a concert in St Mary’s Church in Lastingham, a small bat once emerged and flew round and round the rafters above the musicians before eventually settling down again. Somehow, these moments only add to the experience.

The festival that nearly didn’t happen

Perhaps the year that really cemented the festival’s place in our hearts was 2020. At a time when live music had completely disappeared, Jamie was determined that somehow the festival would go ahead.

During those strange months, we’d see Jamie striding through the village and out across the moors, furious at the lack of support for the arts and absolutely determined to find a way of bringing musicians together again. If we’re honest, we weren’t convinced he could do it.

Then a brief easing of restrictions created a window of opportunity. Combined with a fair amount of sheer bloody-mindedness on Jamie’s part, the festival happened.

We remember sitting in the marquee with all its sides open to the elements, everyone socially distanced and wearing masks. Then the musicians began to play. After months when so much of normal life had disappeared, we were listening to live music again, and we both found ourselves crying.

The festival went on to be one of the few to present full live performances in both 2020 and 2021.

Music for everyone

There’s another part of Jamie’s approach that we particularly like. He wants this music to be accessible. Tickets for the concerts are just £18, which we think is remarkable given the calibre of the musicians performing, and admission for anyone under 30 is free.

You don’t have to know your Beethoven from your Mendelssohn either. We certainly wouldn’t describe ourselves as classical music experts. We go because we love listening to extraordinarily talented people making music together and because, after eighteen years, the festival has become part of the rhythm of summer here.

One of those pinch-me moments

On Sunday evening we’d been listening to Beethoven, Schumann, Berg and Mendelssohn. We may not have the musical knowledge to explain exactly why the performances were so special, but we could certainly appreciate the artistry and talent of the musicians we’d just heard.

Then we got into the car and drove the ten minutes home. The sun was setting as we crossed the common and everything was bathed in golden light. At this time of year, the sheep like to settle down for the night on the road because the tarmac keeps the warmth of the day’s sunshine, so we found ourselves carefully picking our way between them.

Ten minutes earlier we’d been listening to international musicians performing some of the world’s greatest chamber music. Now we were driving slowly across Appleton Common in the last of the evening sunshine, trying not to disturb the sleeping sheep.

It was one of those pinch-me moments. Extraordinary music, ten minutes from home, followed by sheep asleep on the warm road across the common.

Sometimes living here still takes us by surprise.