Rebecca Leggett, mezzo soprano, and Hugh Cutting, countertenor, both Kathleen Ferrier Award finalists, are joined by lutenist Daniel Murphy in this programme which takes the golden age of lutesong as its basis with works of Dowland, Campion, Strozzi and Monteverdi. The affects of these masterpieces are then mirrored, answered or developed in later song repertoire from art song composers such as Hahn, Mendelssohn, and Britten, and by artists like Fleetwood Mac, Don McLean and The Beatles. It’s a celebration of the ways that songwriters have coloured and re-coloured our experience of love in all its forms.

Join the Flutes & Frets Duo for a non-stop hour of music connecting four centuries. Exploring works from the 1400-1700s, they seamlessly transition between historically appropriate instruments alternating who swaps so the music never stops. Featuring composers including Dowland, Monteverdi & Falkenhagen.

Virtuoso musicians Piers Adams and David Wright – who together make up half of the legendary Red Priest quartet - take us on a journey through the wild side of the baroque era with some extraordinary music by little known 17th century composers in the ‘Phantasticus’ style, alongside an array of high-baroque masterworks. The programme will include music by Corelli, Handel, Castello, Falconiero, Pandolfi, Royer and Biber.

Richard Tunnicliffe has spent a lifetime with Bach’s cello suites, and his 2012 recording on Linn Records was warmly received by the press. Here he presents two contrasted suites; the fifth in C minor, with its echoes of the 17thC French court and the evergreen first suite, alongside George Crumb’s atmospheric and dramatic Sonata for solo cello from 1955.

Our Festival Finale features three great masterpieces of the Baroque by J S Bach and Handel including Bach's hugely popular Double Violin Concerto with Festival artistic director Julia Bishop and Alison Bury, former leader of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The Baroque Collective Singers are joined by their professional baroque orchestra, The Baroque Collective, and a fantastic line-up of soloists for Bach's Magnificat and Handel's Dixit Dominus. Handel: Dixit Dominus HWV 232 Bach: Concerto for Two Violins in D minor BWV 1043 Interval Bach: Magnificat BWV 243 Alison Bury & Julia Bishop, solo violins Lucy Cox, soprano Jemima Price, soprano Rebecca Leggett, mezzo soprano Mark Dobell, tenor Stephen Charlsworth, baritone The Baroque Collective Singers The Baroque Collective John Hancorn, conductor

The Baroque Collective Singers present large-scale baroque concerts with our professional baroque orchestra The Baroque Collective in intimate venues in the heart of our local community in Lewes, East Sussex. We work with international soloists and nurture young professional singers, and perform at the highest level. These concerts need extra funding to enable us to pay our wonderful professional musicians and soloists.