Early Music @ Newcastle
The Newcastle Early Music Festival brings together the best early music practitioners in the region.
Newcastle Early Music Festival
The Newcastle Early Music Festival was founded in 1996. The aim is to bring together as many of the best early music practitioners in the region. This is alongside some of the leading names on the national and international early music scene. The festival, held each spring, was renamed in 2020 as Early Music @ Newcastle. It offers an exciting programme of early music to audiences in the North East. This can be virtually or in person, depending on circumstances.
The festival is a partnership between Newcastle University’s International Centre for Music Studies and Newcastle Baroque, the North-East based period instrument orchestra (using primarily players from our region). The orchestra, founded by trumpeter George Parnaby, has worked with various directors over the years including Catherine Mackintosh, Simon Jones and Adrian Chandler.
The festival has developed to promote historically-informed performance
Instruments and performance styles, appropriate to the particular work being performed, are used. This reflects the historical and social context of its origins. Over the years, it has included a wide range of different musics from different periods, with concerts of early folk music and jazz. Leading artists such as Dame Emma Kirkby, James Bowman, Crispian Steele-Perkins and Anthony Robson, have been part of the festival.
The 2025 Early Music @ Newcastle starts in February. There will be in-person events as well as a series of short videos and podcasts available throughout February and March.
Download the 2025 Early Music @ Newcastle programme (PDF: 1MB).