Norfolk & Norwich Festival Returns in May

Norfolk & Norwich Festival will run for 17 days from 12 May - 28 May 2023 with artists from around the world and the region presenting a huge variety of work and events throughout the city and around the county. Last year, the festival celebrated its 250th anniversary and is considered to be the oldest single-city arts Festival in the UK.

Country and bluegrass musician Rhiannon Giddens will be playing at St. Andrew's Hall on the Festival's opening weekend, Friday 12 May with Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Turrisi. The duo will be performing their acclaimed album They're Calling Me Home which won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album this year. A MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, Giddens co-founded the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, and she has been nominated for six additional Grammys for her work as a soloist and collaborator. Performing in Norwich for the first time, Giddens has performed for the Obamas at the White House, served as a Carnegie Hall Perspectives curator, and received an inaugural Legacy of Americana Award from Nashville's National Museum of African American History in partnership with the Americana Music Association.

Legendary international circus troupe Chelsea McGuffin & Co will present their neo-vaudevillian production Le Coup. Bringing together acrobatics, magic, dance and live music, the show is a tribute to funfairs, travelling boxing troupes and the showmen and women of yesteryear. The show will headline the Adnams Spiegeltent in Festival Gardens from 17 - 28 May.

Innovative contemporary classical music groups 12 Ensemble and GBSR Duo both commission work that reinvents the classical canon and pushes the boundaries of the form. They will be joining forces on Friday 19 May at St Andrew's Hall to perform pieces from a range of exciting emerging and established composers. The programme includes works by Mica Levi from the 2014 film Under The Skin starring Scarlett Johannson, a world premiere of a Norfolk & Norwich Festival co-commission by Laurence Osborn reinventing the tombeau genre - works written by one composer on the death of another - and Ambient 2, a major work of the ambient genre that encourages a collective meditative experience written by pioneering British artist Brian Eno.

The Festival is delighted to welcome The Hallé from Manchester, returning to Norfolk for the first time since 1955. The Orchestra will team up with German conductor Kevin John Edusei, former Chief Conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra and the Bern Opera House. Kevin John Edusei is joined by acclaimed Argentinian pianist Nelson Goerner. They will be performing American composer Missy Mazzoli's Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), written in 'the shape of a solar system' and Dvořák's sunny Eighth Symphony, bursting with the beguiling folk tunes of Bohemia.

Festival regulars Britten Sinfonia will return with Musical Everests performing music by Britten, Tippett, Maconchy and Phibbs. The orchestra will play rare work from 1953, the year of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation and the summitting of Mt Everest, alongside the premiere of brand new work composed in this coronation year 70 years later.

Sensory theatre makers Frozen Light return to the Festival with an immersive sensory sound experience for audiences with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). Fire Songs is performed in collaboration with Thetford Singers and singers from across Norfolk and Norwich, and is a work co-commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival and The Garage.

Daniel Brine, Festival Director said: After celebrating the festival's monumental 250th anniversary earlier this year, we are excited to continue showcasing local and international talent across the city and county in 2023.

I am thrilled to announce the first six shows for Norfolk & Norwich Festival. The line-up perfectly captures the Festival's mission to showcase a variety of extraordinary artists here in East Anglia, from thrilling acrobatics and astounding orchestras to cutting edge contemporary work and accessible art for everyone.

These artists and productions are the beginning of yet another exciting and eclectic programme. We are looking forward to sharing the full 17 day programme with everyone next February.

Norfolk & Norwich Festival shares exceptional arts experiences across East England. The Festival collaborates with artists - from down the road and around the world - to explore the unique physical and cultural identities of the city and country and to make art which is contemporary, international and audience-centred.

LISTINGS

Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi
Friday 12 May, 8pm
St Andrew's Hall

Le Coup - Chelsea McGuffin & Co

Sunday 21 & Wednesday 24 - Saturday 27 May, 7.30pm

Friday 19, & Friday 26 - Sunday 28, 5.30pm
Adnams Spiegeltent

12 Ensemble and GBSR Duo
Friday 19 May, 8pm
St Andrew's Hall

Musical Everests -Britten Sinfonia
Sunday 21 May, 5pm
St Andrew's Hall

Fire Songs - Frozen Light
Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 May, 11am & 1.30pm
The Garage

The Hallé - Dvořák Symphony No. 8
Saturday 27 May, 7.30pm
St Andrew's Hall

Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2023 will run from 12 - 28 May.
Full information on Norfolk & Norwich Festival and all events at www.nnfestival.org.uk

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