Burton Bradstock Music and Art Festival

The 40th Burton Bradstock Music and Art Festival will be held in August - the first time since 2019 due to the pandemic.

An initial Spring Concert will be held on Friday, May 20.

Artistic Director David Juritz has put together a special programme of music including work by Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov.

Meanwhile, during the main three-day festival in August audiences will hear the string quartet by the 'father of Ukrainian music' Mykola Lysenko.

Organisers say this year’s festival will be particularly poignant as its founder, distinguished flautist Mary Ryan, died in April.

The Spring Concert will see David on violin, joined by Anna Hashimoto (clarinet) and David Gordon (piano).

The main festival takes place from August 17-19 and the art festival will run in the village hall from August 16-21.

Jenny Malyon, Chair of the Festival Organising Committee said: “What a delight to be able to say that we are going to go ahead with the 40th Burton Bradstock Festival of Music and Art.

“The fact we have had a delay just whets our appetite for the joy of hosting again in our village, the prestigious musicians who come to entertain us. As with everything worth waiting for, perhaps the enforced and rather long interval will make us all the more appreciate the second half.

“For the Spring Concert David Juritz has put a programme together for us that I know we will all enjoy and we will be meeting old friends who always come to listen to the music, both familiar and less so, to revitalise us all after a very difficult couple of years.”

David Juritz said: “I will remember festival founder Mary Ryan with enormous affection. Working with her was always a delight with every rehearsal punctuated by her anecdotes and wry observations. My gratitude for the legacy of concerts she leaves is shared by everyone that remembers her."

He added: “Of course, Ukraine is very much in our minds at the moment. In March I had the privilege of playing the Ukrainian National Anthem at Trafalgar Square with 200 other musicians and, a few days later, was joined by Yuri Zhislin at the Royal Festival Hall in another performance for Ukraine. As you’ll imagine, the anger, pain and grief that Putin’s war has caused is felt just as keenly by both our Ukrainian and Russian colleagues.”

The Spring Concert starts at 7.30pm in St Mary’s Church in Burton Bradstock and there will be a bar in the interval run on a donation basis. Tickets £12/£8/£6 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre. More information at www.burtonbradstockfestival.com