Glossop Music Festival celebrated its tenth anniversary with a wonderful Summer Festival on 2-6 May, performing to 1,000 people over the weekend. The public events began with a pop-up gig at Pico Lounge in Glossop which featured stunning solos and chamber music by musicians involved in the Festival and members of the artistic team. Local folk stars Sam Partridge and Grace Smith also performed folk reels and jigs which ended with a jolly dance around the bar! More Musical Beasts is a fantastic concert for schools and families created by Glossop-based production company Carrot Productions and was enjoyed by over 400 local schoolchildren throughout the Festival. The concerts were performed by a small ensemble of professional musicians and a fun and engaging dancer who turned from ugly duckling to beautiful swan to the children’s delight! At the end of the show, children were able to meet the musicians, learn about the instruments and even have a go at playing some of them! The Festival continued on the Friday evening with a magical Baroque concert featuring the Glossop Festival Orchestra and a host of soloists performing music by Bach and Purcell. The evening concluded with the wonderful solo violinist Sophie Rosa who performed Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, receiving a standing ovation for her virtuoso performance. Sam Partridge and his wind quintet returned to perform a Late Night Folk Concert. Sam had arranged a fascinating programme of music and explained to the audience the history of the pieces he had chosen which were all based on English folk, dance music and jigs including Bullock’s Hornpipe, Nottingham Races and Once I Had A Sweetheart. On the Saturday, Olivia Hamblyn and Charlie Perry from the Hallé Orchestra’s choral team delivered an uplifting choral workshop. With no experience necessary, the workshop worked on a ‘call and response’ method which enabled participants to learn songs straight away, sing in reels and even try out some harmony! Olivia and Charlie were highly experienced, approachable and made the workshop lots of fun. The Glossop Festival Orchestra returned on the Saturday evening for the Coronation Closing Concert on the day of King Charles’ coronation. French conductor Chloé van Soeterstède conducted a rousing performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and festival favourite Viv McLean also returned to perform Mozart’s magnificent ‘Coronation’ Piano Concerto which was originally written in 1788 for the coronation of Leopold II in Frankfurt am Main. Be sure to check glossopmusicfestival.org.uk and social media to stay up to date with the Festival and to find out about upcoming events.