CollectIvel St Andrew's Festival 2022
World class performers come to Biggleswade
for the 2nd St Andrew’s Festival at St Andrew’s Church on 1st-3rd July
Places to go- 7.30pm, Friday 1st July
Bach & friends- 12.30pm, Saturday 2nd July
Bach and the Art of Jazz - 7.30pm, Saturday 2nd July
All that Jazz(outside) - 3.30pm, Sunday 3rd
visit https://www.collectivel.org for more info
Curated by CollectIvel - a collective of musicians and performance artists - there are 4 fab concerts to enjoy. Excellent music on your doorstep and something for all the family!
The theme of the festival this year will be around Bach and Jazz as musicians and artists get “Bach to normal” after a pandemic-enforced break in their careers: and to start this mini Festival, on Friday 1st July at 7.30pm we will be welcoming Simon Berridge, Tom Stewart and Wayne Martin to perform ‘Places to go: from Bach to Jazz’; for voice, trumpet and piano. Local star Simon Berridge has more than 35 years of experience as a classical singer, choir director, vocal mentor and teacher. Whilst a member of the award winning ensemble ‘The Sixteen’ he toured extensively with the group throughout the world. He leads numerous workshops and singing days for choirs both for adults and children, and was a tutor and mentor for the Sixteen’s Genesis training Scheme for young professional singers.
On Saturday, 2nd July at 12.30pm, we welcome award-winning organist William Whitehead for 'Bach and friends'; a lunch-time concert on the organ of St Andrew’s Church, Biggleswade. William will present a wide-ranging programme to include Bach, Bach arranged by Dupré, and Bach arranging Vivaldi! Plus a kaleidoscope of contemporary pieces in homage to Bach drawn from the Orgelbüchlein Project.
This will be followed at 7.30pm by ‘Bach and the Art of Jazz’ for a programme of J. S Bach and Telemann featuring Martin Feinstein, world renowned flute and recorder player and Pawel Siwczak, harpsichordist extraordinaire. Martin Feinstein played jazz piano from a young age and started playing the flute at the age of 15, inspired by hearing the works of J.S.Bach. He is recognised as one of the UK's leading period flute players. As a soloist and with his Feinstein Ensemble, he has performed, broadcast and recorded a wide range of repertoire on both modern and period instruments, performances that have met with critical praise both in the UK and abroad. Pawel has a passion for historical keyboards, especially harpsichord and fortepiano, which he studied extensively. Pawel’s performance are diverse, ranging form solo recitals to conducting from the keyboard, and collaborations with orchestras and ensembles. He thrives working with other art disciplines: his project with a PC Music artist, Danny Harle, was featured by BBC Radio among “Five of the BBC’s weirdest live session ever”; a concise summary of Pawel’s experimental spirit combined with traditional classical training…
The festival finishes with a picnic concert outside the church on Sunday 3rd July, at 3.30pm featuring the Alec Harper Quartet - a four-piece jazz group consisting of four friends and titans of the UK Jazz Scene. Alec Harper (saxophonist), Phil Horsfall (Biggleswade’s very own Trumpeter and vocalist), Will Barry (piano) and Ferg Ireland (Bass) met whist playing in popular London based outfit
“Kansas Smitty’s” and are all individually active on the European Jazz circuit. For this particular programme the group will be performing a selection of jazz compositions from their favourite artists including, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jelly Roll Morton and many more. The repertoire selected is focussed mainly on the period of jazz history spanning the 1920s-50s but some exceptions could indeed make their way into the set, after all, Jazz is full of surprises!
So bring a rug, chairs and a picnic, and join us for the fun-filled festival conclusion…