Talented youth at N Norfolk churches music fest

The Five Churches Festival hosted by churches in the Glaven Valley on the North Norfolk coast next month will once again focus on showcasing the talented young musicians of Norfolk.

This year, the ‘Making Musicians’ concert on July 10 in Cley Church will feature Norfolk Young Musician 2025 violinist Tristan McCardel, as well as two other Norwich music scholars, Benjamin Griffiths and Isaac Schaad.
 
Artistic Director Brenda Blewett, who moved to Norfolk having been the Head of Accompaniment in the prestigious Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, explains that supporting young musicians is a central part of the Festival’s vision: ‘The opportunity for these young people to perform to enthusiastic live audiences, and have their own compositions performed by professionals is vital to their musical development and experience – it’s something we are passionate about including in the Festival programme’.
 
Tristan, who now studies at the renowned Purcell School in London having started his musical education at Norwich School, also studies composition, tuba and voice, all to an extremely high level including playing in the National Youth Orchestra.
 
Talented young tenor Benjamin Griffiths will be performing the haunting song-cycle, A Shropshire Lad, alongside hits from the world of music theatre.
 
Fourteen-year-old Isaac will also enjoy a particularly special evening on Sunday 13 July in the Festival Finale when he will have part of his own composition Divertimento for Strings performed by the Chaos Collective string ensemble under the direction of international conductor Stephen Threlfall. As well as showcasing his abilities as a composer, Isaac will play viola in the ensemble and later in the same concert will reveal his talents as a pianist and singer. 
 
The Festival Finale in Cley Church also features the exciting BBC Young Musician 2020 woodwind finalist Ewan Millar in Vaughan Williams' Oboe Concerto.

Brenda remarks: ‘These students are truly amazing. Their technical musical abilities and the passion they put into their performances is absolutely breathtaking’
 
Full details of all the concerts and online booking can be found at fivechurchesfestival.com.
 
For more information about the festival, read our previous story.
 
The supplied photo above shows 14 year-old Composer Isaac Schaad studying his score with conductor Stephen Threlfall, in preparation for the performance in the Five Churches Festival.

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