There is a new festival in Dorset this year, and it’s a festival with a difference. Although the organisers include celebrated cellist Adrian Brendel, there will be nothing stuffy or overridingly ‘classical’ about Tree of Strings, which will happen in and around the beautiful tithe barn in Abbotsbury on the weekend of 3rd to 5th July.
Instead it will be an event of fusions and explorations, where up and coming young performers will work alongside established musicians from many genres. Tree of Strings is a charitable music project launched earlier this year, bringing together education, support for young artists and world-class performances in unique venues across the South West.
Musicians from nine countries, including Brazil, Vietnam, Hungary, South Africa and Australia, will descend on Abbotsbury for the inaugural festival, transforming the village’s ancient church, tithe barn and hilltop chapel into intimate performance spaces.Adrian says: ‘Classical music comes alive when it’s allowed to converse with other traditions: with contemporary ideas, with jazz and folk influences, and with the spirit of improvisation.’
The programme has been designed for ‘total immersion’ – 15 events with very different flavours, allowing audiences to hear talented young musicians and established stars of classical, jazz and folk music.
Listen out for South African overtone singer and viola player Gareth Lubbe, Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale, pianists Joanna McGregor and Khanh Nhi Luong, samba drumming, Dorset folk from Tim Laycock and much more in a festival that ends with a performance of Schubert’s String Quintet.
Alongside established international artists, the programme also showcases emerging performers supported through the Tree of Strings young artist scheme. Encounters and chapel early morning performances are free of charge, but ticketed due to very limited space. Watch and listen as pianist Joseph Havlat plays his own music to John Grierson’s Drifters, the famous 1929 silent film about British herring fishing and fishermen.
Festival artists, who include Adrian Brendel, will take the audience on a musical journey that weaves a line across seven centuries. All that and much more.
Day and season tickets are available. For more information, visit treeofstrings.org
