Violinist Nigel Kennedy to launch Cambridge Music Festival

Best selling violinist Nigel Kennedy will launch this year’s Cambridge Music Festival, with an opening concert at the Corn Exchange on November 13.

Britten Sinfonia - Credit: Archant

In a rare Cambridge appearance, Kennedy will perform a typically eclectic programme inspired by his mentors, violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Stéphane Grappelli.

The virtual choir will be shown on the Senate House - Credit: Archant

After a selection of JS Bach’s sonatas for solo violin, he will be joined by his quartet to perform Kennedy’s own arrangements of the music of legendary jazz pianist, composer and singer Fats Waller.

Other highlights of the festival include the singing of a virtual choir of more than 3,700 singers from 76 countries being projected on to the Senate House after dark on November 12 and 13. Each singer has recorded themselves singing the vocal line of ‘Water Night’ by Eric Whitacre, and the audio-visual files are brought together to present this worldwide music collaboration.

Other events include countertenor Andreas Scholl joining King’s College Choir on November 18 for a double celebration of Britten’s centenary and the Feast of St Cecili, and pianist Murray Perahia performing with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields on November 20, in a programme including Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 ‘Emperor’.

Violinist Pekka Kuusisto presents a matinee concert on November 22 using traditional and electric violins, and that evening he joins the Britten Sinfonia to close the festival with a performance of Britten’s popular Serenade for Tenor, Horn and String.