Brighton Early Music Festival

A lovely tribute to Deborah from long time supporter and reviewer Andrew Connal

Deborah Roberts BEM – Obituary Early Music folk are stunned by the death of Deborah Roberts – soprano, choral director, inspiration and co-founder of the Brighton Early Music Festival. Deborah addressed the complexities of her cancer with great courage, as she did every challenge that came her way. Such a life force has left an

We are very sad to announce the death of BREMF’s co-founder and artistic director Deborah Roberts.

It was an enormous privilege to work alongside Deborah over many years, and her exceptional creativity and professionalism have shaped the Festival into what it is today. She will be missed by so many in the BREMF community, and we send our thoughts to her family and friends.

Are you an early instrumentalist or singer? 🎶 Join our Medieval Greatest Hits workshop led by Emily Baines!

A good song becomes a classic and leads to all sorts of tributes and arrangements. This was just as true in medieval Europe when court musicians across the continent gathered to swap the latest hits.

Participants should be reasonably experienced and will have the option of participating in Emily’s lunchtime concert with Blondel on Saturday 12 October.

Taking place:
🗓️ Saturday 7 September, 11am (registration closes at midnight on 5 September)
📍 St John's Church Knoyle Road
🎟️ £20; under 30s £10

More info: https://loom.ly/pBqRdsk

Learn the West African lion dance with South East Dance and participate in Origins 🦁

Fancy learning a unique craft? Join a six week lion dance course presented in partnership with South East Dance, led by Palaye Seck at One Heart Lion of Africa Company. You will also have the opportunity to perform with Palaye in Origins on 13 October.

Taking place:
🗓️ Sunday 8 September, 11am - 12pm until Sunday 13 October (6 weeks)
📍 The Dance Space
🎟️ £10 per class; £8 concessions

Register now: https://loom.ly/m1wdLHc

Not one, but two lovely previews of our 2024 events came out over the weekend!

➡️https://thelatest.co.uk/brighton/2024/08/23/bremf-connections-2024-festival-preview/ Latest Brighton

➡️https://brightonsource.co.uk/previews/brighton-early-music-festival-2024-preview/ Brighton Source

BREMF – Connections – 2024 Festival – Preview The Brighton Early Music Festival is going through an era of change. Soon BREMF’s inspiration and co-founder Deborah Roberts BEM will hand over the baton to a new Artistic Director (she has already passed the BREMF Consort of Voices into the care of James Elias), so this is her final

Great to see our events featured on Continuo Foundation's Continuo Connect platform, which is a brilliant resource for anyone looking for the best early music events around the country.

Festivals | Continuo Connect Festivals and concert series from the home of early music

Great fun chatting to Melita Dennett yesterday about Hildegard, migraine auras, ancient chant, and our polyphony crawl around Brighton's churches. Listen out for the resulting interview on RadioReverb at 5pm!

Tuesday Live in Brighton with Melita Dennett Join Melita live at 5 every Tuesday on RadioReverb for a deep dive into what makes Brighton & Hove tick with arts, culture, festivals, community events and a dash of local music

We're so looking forward to welcoming Spanish ensemble Cantoría to Brighton on 27 October for Catherine & Mary: Tudor Queens Forever Entwined - Cantoría

Early music needs to connect with new audiences. Cantoría is leading the charge by redefining how we experience music from the past. The newly flourished Spanish ensemble proposes "breaking the fourth wall" to create immersive and interactive concert formats that put YOU at the heart of the performance.

The residency is packed with moments of creation and exploration across various festivals, concerts, masterclasses, and digital activities. 📅 Attend their concerts at the EFFEA Festivals:

Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht: 27 and 28 August & 1 September 🇳🇱
All'improvviso Festival Gliwice: 21 September 🇵🇱
Festival d'Ambronay - Centre culturel de rencontre: 6 October 🇫🇷
Brighton Early Music Festival: 27 October 🇬🇧
Festival Castell de Peralada: 19 April 2025 🇪🇸

🔗More info: https://www.effea.eu/residencies-detail/4083/6196

Together, you've booked 986 tickets (and counting!) for this autumn's events, which is a brilliant vote of confidence in our programme! We're looking forward to sharing some wonderful music with you all.
Can we make it to 1000 tickets by the end of the day?
Book at https://www.bremf.org.uk/whats-on

BREMF 2024 tickets are now on sale! Go to https://www.bremf.org.uk/whats-on to find out more and book for over 20 exciting events this autumn.

As many of you will already know, our artistic director Deborah Roberts is stepping back from the Festival due to ill health. We are so grateful for Deborah's passion and inspiration over the past 20+ years, but are now looking for a creative and visionary new artistic director to carry the Festival forward. We're inviting applications with a closing date of 11 September:

Artistic Director Recruitment - Brighton Early Music Festival BREMF Artistic Director Recruitment Brighton Early Music Festival is seeking a creative and visionary artistic director to continue the festival’s key aim of making music from the past 1000 years relevant and exciting for audiences of today. This is a freelance role, with a closing date of 11 Sept...

Tickets for our 2024 events are now on sale for Festival Friends!

Our Friends provide invaluable support to the Festival, and one of the ways we thank them is with a priority booking period for our events, ahead of general booking on 7 August 2024.

If you'd like to join as a Friend from £40, and book right away, you can do so at www.bremf.org.uk/festival-friends

Our 2024 events are now online! Browse what's coming up in our 2024 festival this autumn, ahead of booking going live on 29 July for Festival Friends and 7 August for all...

What’s On - Brighton Early Music Festival BREMF 2024 Our 2024 Festival: CONNECTIONS takes place Friday 11 – Sunday 27 October 2024 with pre-festival events from 7 September. You can explore our event pages below or click here for our 2024 brochure. Booking opens on Monday 29 July 2024 for Festival Friends and Wednesday 7 August 2024 for a...

An exciting day on Wednesday as Andrew Blackman, HM Lord-Lieutenant of East Sussex presented BREMF's artistic director Deborah Roberts with her British Empire Medal. It's wonderful to see Deborah's contribution to BREMF over many years recognised in this way.

Introducing students from .lewes to the music and lyrics of John Dowland this afternoon with

You don't have to wait until the autumn to hear great early music in Brighton! The BREMF Community Choir are presenting excerpts from Handel's Theodora on 28 June in St George's Church.
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Theodora 2024 | June 28, 2024 Join us on Friday June 28th

A fantastic opportunity for local singers

Uprising - community chorus auditions - Glyndebourne Your chance to perform on the Glyndebourne stage in 2025.

We're so pleased to be able to announce that BREMF co-founder Deborah Roberts (who started the Festival with Clare Norburn back in 2002), has been awarded a Medal of the Order of the British Empire (BEM) in today's Birthday Honours List.

Read what Deborah had to say about the award:

King's Birthday Honour for BREMF co-founder Deborah Roberts - Brighton Early Music Festival We are so pleased that BREMF’s artistic director Deborah Roberts has been awarded a BEM (Medal of the Order of the British Empire) in the King’s Birthday Honours today, 15 June 2024. Deborah says: I am of course extremely grateful for this recognition, but would like to make clear that I have al...

Our friends and fellow REMA - EEMN award winners The Telling Music are bringing their show I, Spie to St Augustine's Arts and Events Centre Brighton on Tuesday 11 June. Don't miss this chance to find out more about the secret life of John Dowland, whilst enjoying his incomparable music. Tickets at https://www.thetelling.co.uk/events/i-spie-brighton

Would you like to help behind the scenes at Brighton Early Music Festival this autumn? We're looking for between 2 and 6 recent graduates to work with us on a part time placement between August and October to help make our festival plans a reality. Deadline for applications 17 June. Find out more at www.bremf.org.uk/trainee

We're very excited to be able to announce that BREMF's 2023 project The Whispering Dome has won a prestigious REMA - EEMN Award which will be presented today in Stockholm! This amazing project was a real coming-together of musical traditions, brilliant people and creative minds. Video artist & viol player Sam Stadlen will collect the award tonight on behalf of everyone involved:
- composer and director extraordinaire Jeremy Avis
- amazing West African kora player & singer Suntou Susso Music
- incredible Moroccan guembri player & performer Simo Lagnawi of Gnawa London
- talented & flexible vocal consort Horizon Voices
- our very own BREMF Consort of Voices & BREMF Community Choir directed by Deborah Roberts and Andrew Robinson respectively
- multi-talented animateur & singer Rebecca Askew whose dedication enabled the children from Westdene Primary & Elm Grove Primary to shine
- the tech wizards at Pitch Black who brought it all to life, with assistance from Ġagħel Dingli
- and last but not least, dancer Palaye Seck whose impromptu appearance was the icing on the cake!

We're recruiting! If you're graduating this summer and interested in a career in arts admin, why not join us as a Festival Trainee for the 2024 Festival? Find out more at www.bremf.org.uk/trainee

We're excited to be taking part in our first European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists - EFFEA project this autumn, in which we'll welcome Jorge Losana of Spanish ensemble Cantoría to Brighton to collaborate with our BREMF Live young artists. EFFEA will be supporting and incredible 57 residencies involving 159 festivals as part of this latest round. 🤩🇪🇺

Results of Call #3 are out now 💥 57 residencies will be supported by the third round of EFFEA, an initiative of the European Festivals Association (EFA). Those translate to 57 emerging artists (individuals or collectives) and 159 festivals from 35 countries, proposing to work across 18 artistic disciplines. Congratulations to all festivals and artists!

✨ You can find the list of selected projects on our website: https://www.effea.eu/news/item/2024/05/07/effea-call-3-results?originNode=628

🔜 We will be publishing more information about each residency in the coming days

📣 Announcement incoming! After a busy day of auditions we have selected the four ensembles who will be part of BREMF Live 2024/25:
Welcome to The Lowe Ensemble, Minerva Baroque, Nocturnalia Ensemble & Triple Fipple - we're looking forward to meeting you in Brighton this autumn, and to hearing your showcase performances on 19 October.

Triumphant lunchtime concert from at today! A whistle-stop tour around Europe in the footsteps of Charles Burney, with fizzing recorder action, funky percussion and masterful accompaniment from theorbo, gamba, baroque guitar & harpsichord.
This was the first year of a new collaboration between the Festival & BREMF Live young artists.

Thanks to Andrew Connal of for a great write up of Saturday's concert by BREMF Consort of Voices in S. Paul's Church, Brighton.

Lovely to see the church so full on such a busy day in Brighton with☀️ & the children's parade.

➡️https://thelatest.co.uk/brighton/2024/05/06/bremf-the-contenance-angloise-bremf-consort-of-voices-deborah-roberts-director

We're super-excited to be shortlisted for a REMA - EEMN award this year, and it's also great to see 2023 artists & projects The Gesualdo Six & Fieri Consort shortlisted too. What a brilliant celebration of early music!