THE MELLSTOCK Band make their annual visit to Warwick with a performance Playbox’s Dream Factory on Tuesday (November 16).
The Shepherd’s Calendar will feature the words of Thomas Hardy, John Clare, and the Somerset parson John Holland.
The four members of the band will give readings and perform songs, with the music played on clarinet, concertina, violin and serpent.
Dressed in costume from Hardy’s time, the band will celebrate rural merrymaking and courtship through the four seasons.
Richard Phillips, Leamington Music festival director, said: “We have been bringing the Mellstock Band to Warwick for over twenty years now and usually it has been for a sold-out evening at the Lord Leycester Hospital. We have moved this year to The Dream Factory, which we used for the first time last October. It proved such a successful venue for our concerts that we are delighted to be returning.”
There is another concert in Leamington Music’s autumn season at The Dream Factory on Wednesday December 15 when The York Waits, with the singer Deborah Catterall, present a seasonal programme, The Waits’ Wassail.
The six musicians will celebrate Christmas with songs, carols and dances from medieval and renaissance England and the continent, using a variety of wind and plucked instruments, ranging from the shawm and bagpipes to the vielle and lute.
The York Waits concert is one of three in the annual Christmas Festival, which starts with Joglaresa on December 7 in St Mary’s Church, Warwick and ends with Christmas with the Carice Singers in St Mark’s Church in Leamington on December 21. At each concert mulled wine and mince pies are served in the interval.
Tickets for all Leamington Music concerts are bookable on www.leamingtonmusic.org or by calling 01926 334418. Student and children’s tickets at £1 are available.
