What is York Spring Festival?

York Spring Festival is a five-day exploration of new music, visual art and performance art. 

The Festival is run by an enthusiastic team of students from the University of York's Department of Music. We're featuring premiere's of new works, offering chances for participation and supporting artists at all stages in their careers, in a way that is completely York. The festival runs from the 4th - 8th of May and has a huge variety of events to choose from.

Why does the Spring Festival need support?

All of the money raised by the Festival goes towards paying our fantastic professional musicians, hiring venues in the city centre and the University, creating beautiful printed media, and making the Festival run as smoothly as possible. We are voluntarily run, and should we be lucky enough to make more money than we need, it will go right back into funding next years festival, and making it better and better each year!

By supporting the Festival you are supporting the artists who are taking part at all stages of their careers, venues and organisations in the City of York such as the Stained Glass Centre, the students who gain valuable experience from running the Festival, and most importantly the community of York itself - our wonderful, committed audience, for whom we're making all this happen. Without donations from the public we are unable to offer as many opportunities for the students in York, and our publicity will be limited so that less wonderful people will be able to experience what we've been able to create. 

The Programme

• A performance of entirely new music by the University of York's Chamber Ensemble, who showcase Patrick John Jones' Cast (After Moholy-Nagy) and James Whittle's Brethren.

• Catherine Laws showcasing her collaboration with theatre maker Teresa Brayshaw, composers Edward Jessen, Annea Lockwood, Roger Marsh and Paul Whitty, and film maker Wendy Kirkup to present Player Piano.

• An exploration of sound and performance art by Federico Reuben.

• The Chimera Ensemble premiere's a new work by Perttu Haapanen in a programme blending electronic and acoustic instruments in the Rymer Auditorium.

• A concert by Ian Pace celebrating the 70th birthday of Michael Finnissy featuring new works commissioned specially for this concert.

• Festival Promenade - a walk through a sound world of music and poetry in the landscaped gardens around the New School House Gallery.

• Carla Rees, a specialist in low flutes presents a programme of contemporary repertoire in addition to chairing a composition workshop open to composers from York as well as nearby Universitys. 

We need your support (please donate)!

In order for the Festival to reach its full potential, we would be thrilled if you could pledge your suppport and make a gift! Even if you don't feel you can support the Festival financially sharing the YuStart page and any of our other social media pages means you might lead us to someone who can! 

To keep track of all the events and updates follow us through our website, twitter and facebook.

Thank you for your support and keep in touch!

Sarah, Uma and Anna.