The Kirker Music Festival at Chatsworth

Chatsworth is without doubt one of the grandest and best-loved of all English stately homes. It has been the seat of the Cavendish family for five hundred years and is today the home of the 12th Duke of Devonshire and his wife.
Chatsworth enjoys a spectacular setting in the Peak District and its treasures are great and many – Old Masters, porcelain, clocks, furniture are all here to be discovered. Its gardens are equally celebrated and are notable for the 300 year old water cascade and for the vast rock garden designed by Joseph Paxton in the 19th Century. We are delighted that we will be able to present these concerts at Chatsworth and the venue will be the beautiful, small theatre which is perched at the top of the Belvedere. The concerts are complemented by private tours of the house and garden and a talk on the history of the Cavendish family. Dinners and a lunch will be included at The Carriage House restaurant before the concerts. Our aim is to combine the tremendous sense of Chatsworth’s history and tradition with a series of top level concerts that would be impossible to create elsewhere. Based for five nights in the lovely town of Buxton, the Kirker Festival will also include visits to some of the other wonderful houses in Derbyshire but it is Chatsworth that is deservedly the central focus of this very special holiday

A Five Night Holiday with Barry Cheeseman

We stay at the Palace Hotel in the centre of Buxton. This 4 star hotel was built in the mid 19th Century and is a famous landmark in the town. It has a restaurant, indoor pool, lounges and well appointed bedrooms as well as beautifully restored public rooms.
During the holiday there will be a private tour of Chatsworth and a further tour of the garden with the Head Gardener or one of his staff. There will also be a talk on the more colourful characters of the Cavendish family.

We will enjoy a walking tour of Buxton, the handsome spa town where we are based for the duration of the holiday. The 5th Duke of Devonshire wanted to create a spa town in the Peak District as a rival to fashionable Bath Spa. John Carr designed the elegant Crescent in 1779 and today much remains to remind us how the 5th Duke’s ambitions were realised. The town has fine gardens and an Edwardian opera house, a real gem of a theatre.

Other houses included in the tour will be Haddon Hall, home of the Dukes of Rutland. The Great Hall, kitchens and chapel are little-altered from the times of Henry VIII making Haddon one of the best preserved mediaeval houses in the country.
Hardwick Hall has strong links with Chatsworth and was in the ownership of the Cavendish family until it was given to The National Trust in lieu of death duties. Designed by Robert Smythson for the redoubtable Bess of Hardwick in the late 16th Century, Hardwick is a magnificent house still with much of its original furniture on display. With its huge windows, Hardwick seems to glow like a lantern in bright sunshine.
Tissington Hall is a more intimate house and has been in the ownership of the FitzHerbert family for more than 500 years. It is surrounded by a beautiful arboretum and garden.
As well as four concerts at Chatsworth and one in the hotel there will be a talk at Chatsworth on the history of the Cavendish family, and the distinguished writer on opera, Amanda Holden, who works regularly at the Buxton Opera Festival, will give a talk on her work.

The Musicians

Kungsbacka Trio: formed 10 years ago, the Kungsbacka Trio is one of the most outstanding ensembles of their generation. They are winners of the prestigious Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and perform regularly at Wigmore Hall. They are currently an associate ensemble at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Martin Cousin, piano: Winning the 2005 Ettore Pozzoli Piano Competition and the Gold Medal at the 2003 Royal Over-Seas League competition quickly launched Martin Cousin’s career. He is now equally successful as a soloist and as a chamber musician. He has been a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Barbican and halle Orchestra at Bridgewater Hall. It was Martin’s hand which were featured in the Oscar-wining film, Shine.

Anna Stephany, mezzo-soprano: Anna was the winner of the 2005 Kathleen Ferrier Prize, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Gold medal and the Clonter Opera Prize. She joined the National Opera Studio in 2005. She has sung in many choral concerts, notably with the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall. She has worked with Malcolm Martineau and Roger Vignoles and in 2007 sang in Monteverdi’s Orfeo for Opera North.

Iain Burnside, piano: Iain Burnside is well-known to music lovers not just because of his role as one our leading vocal accompanists but as a broadcaster of great wit and erudition. He presented Voices for BBC Radio 3 for many years and now presents his own weekly arts show every Sunday for the network.

Carducci String Quartet: The Carducci String quartet has won a clutch of major prizes including the Jury Prize at the 2006 London International String Quartet competition. They studied at the leading music conservatoires in Britain and Ireland with members of the Vanbrugh, Chilingirian and Amadeus quartets. They recently released a CD of Haydn quartets under their own Carducci Classics lable.

Dante Quartet: As their name suggests, the Dante Quartet has embarked on a great journey of discovery since their foundation at Prussia Cove in 1995. They have appeared at the festivals in Bath, Aldeburgh, Spitalfields, Presteigne and Cheltenham. This year they recorded Janacek’s quartets and have plans to record the quartets by Faure and Franck for Hyperion Records.

What we include

Five nights accommodation with breakfast
Three dinners and one lunch will be taken at Chatsworth
Two dinners at the hotel
All excursions as described
All concerts as described
The services of our holiday escort

Price Information
Date                    Price                     Single Supplement
17 September      £990                             £84

Our prices are per person based on the shared occupancy of a twin/double room. Supplement for a single room is as shown.