We are teaming up with Pizza Express in Beverley for a meal between Italian Hour and Under the Starry Skies. Sure to be a sociable occasion with other festival goers. Diners will be invited to pre-order any main course from the Pizza Express menu to ensure a prompt dinner service. Have a drink on us – each diner will receive one free drink!

In celebration of the stunning starry ceiling of St Mary’s, join us for a feast of magical nocturnes. Songs by Schumann and Brahms meet Schubert’s Auf dem Strom – for tenor, horn and piano – and Strauss’ very rare Notturno, the violin joining singer and piano as the voice of death. Night-time adventures with Debussy’s cello sonata, Schumann’s much-loved Fantasiestucke, and Strauss’ Nocturno for horn complete this stunning dream-filled programme. As pianist Graham Johnson writes, “It is only the greatest composers who can create the sound of starlight”.

Held in memory of Alan Spedding, this popular New Paths event is incorporated into the festival itself this year. Under the baton of outstanding choral director Oliver Walker, you can spend the morning working on Vivaldi’s joyous Gloria. Join with the massed choir of singers from throughout the region and beyond, and with stunning New Paths soloists Ildikó Allen and Helen Charlston, for the concluding performance in the Minster at 1:15pm (open to all).

Since its discovery, musicians and bohemians alike have been addicted to coffee! Turning the East Riding Theatre's House Café into Café Zimmermann, home of concerts and coffee for Telemann and Bach, we present Bach’s witty short secular Coffee Cantata. The stories of those unable to get through the day without coffee will ring bells for many! Sung in English.

Explore the beautiful Edwardian exhibition spaces of the Beverley Art Gallery, with particular reference to the paintings of famous local artist Fred Elwell, in advance of our ‘Inspired by Elwell’ concert at 4:30pm. Dr Gerardine Mulcahy-Parker, Curator of the Beverley Art Gallery, illuminates the works by Elwell in the collection of the gallery.

Beverley’s most famous son, prolific artist Fred Elwell (1870-1945), provides the inspiration for this concert, accompanied by projections of some of his images. Elgar’s poignant and nostalgic Piano Quintet, full of longing for a better time, was written in the shadow of the First World War and illuminates the age of Elwell. Elwell’s figurative subjects explore some of the most intimate and personal stages of life, and so are paired with Schumann’s ‘A Woman's Love and Life’. A richly romantic exploration of music and art.

Brand-new baroque group Contraband – featuring some of the finest players in Europe – continue their festival-within-a-festival with this ‘suitcase concert’. Our troubadours each arrive carrying a bag containing their most treasured pieces of music – some of the greatest Handel arias and Bach concerti of the repertoire – and present them to our festival audience. A "Come Dine with Me" of music, each player serving up his or her best, this is sure to be an unmissable Saturday night.

Celebrated jazz pianist George King has played at the most prestigious venues in the world. Tonight he entertains festival-goers in the East Riding Theatre Bar for relaxed jazz piano drinks. An event sure to set you in the weekend mood.

Asher Oliver (organ) and Alex Caldon (trumpet) join the choir and congregation of St Mary’s for its Sunday morning traditional service of Parish Communion. Asher and Alex play voluntaries before and after the service and add a festive flourish to the hymns.

Superb recitalist Christian Wilson, organist at The Tower of London, presents this sparkling programme of music of the British Isles for St George's Day on the fine Snetzler organ of the Minster.  Music of monarchs ranging from the music of Henry VIII to William Walton’s Orb and Sceptre, composed for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, is set alongside works of Byrd, Purcell and Bairstow. Reaching across the border to Scotland, we hear Mendelssohn’s popular Hebrides Overture, arranged for the King of Instruments. New Paths continues its festival tradition of commissioning new music: Alasdair Nicolson is one of Scotland's foremost composers and this is the world premiere of his first piece of organ music, co-commissioned with Sound Scotland.

Join us for a traditional Sunday roast lunch including Yorkshire pudding!

In honour of St George’s Day, come and hear the charming and entertaining tale of The Reluctant Dragon, set to music by UK favourite John Rutter, and performed by New Paths artists. This accessible and engaging performance will appeal to all the family. Arrive from 1:45pm for St George’s Day craft activities. Audience welcome to come dressed up as characters from the story – knights, dragons, princesses, villagers, or St George! The narrator for this captivating show is the highly talented young actress, Rachel Barnes.

Vaughan Williams’ ever-popular baritone Songs of Travel explore themes of home and travel, setting the tone of longing and belonging for today’s concert. Britten’s arrangements of popular British folksongs were written from America, a homesick nostalgia for the British Isles – while Messiaen’s flute work Le Merle Noir is inspired by the blackbird’s song of his own garden, setting up a life-long fascination with birdsong and nature. Birdsong also features in Dvorak’s American Quartet, full of the folk music of his native Bohemia, but written - like his most popular symphony - “from the new world”.

Ahead of Katy Hamilton’s inspiring talk join us for supper in St. Mary’s Church Hall. A convivial occasion for festival goers before the closing events. The Friends of New Paths will be launched at this event. We extend a warm welcome to anyone who would like to become a Friend of the festival.

The music of Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann reflects and celebrates many loves in their lives. Brahms remembered his beloved mother in the Horn Trio; and his love for the clarinet playing of Richard Mühlfeld drew him out of retirement to write sonatas and chamber works. Schumann composed for the love of his beloved Clara Wieck, in his choice of Lied texts and his dedication of works such as the Piano Quintet to the capable fingers of this most talented of pianists. Katy Hamilton, whose talk last year was enormously popular, discusses some of the loves and links between the two men, and the musical century from Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben to Britten’s Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo ahead of the festival’s final concert.

Two major quintets bookend this glorious closing programme: Mozart’s sublime Quintet for Piano and Winds, one of the masterpieces of all the repertoire, and Schumann’s rapturous Quintet for Piano and Strings. In the middle of the programme we visit two masters of the English song repertoire: Benjamin Britten, in his deeply personal Michelangelo Sonnets, and Gerald Finzi, is his summing up of music and art, ‘To A Poet’.