Period performance in historic venues – great halls, a moorland church, a castle and a cathedral – in the sweeping beauty of the North.
Martin Randall Festivals bring together world-class musicians for a sequence of private concerts in Europe’s glorious historic buildings, many of which are not normally accessible. We take care of all logistics, from ights and hotels to pre-concert talks.
THE RHINE PIANO FESTIVAL 22–29 JUNE 2026
MUSIC ALONG THE DANUBE 15–22 AUGUST 2026
MUSIC ALONG THE RHINE 31 AUGUST–7 SEPTEMBER 2026 THE J. S. BACH JOURNEY 28 SEPTEMBER–4 OCTOBER 2026
MONTEVERDI IN VENICE 11–17 NOVEMBER 2026
CHAMBER MUSIC BREAKS: William Howard & the Carducci Quartet | 20–22 November 2026
The day-by-day itinerary including details of the performances
10. MEET THE MUSICIANS
International musicians of the highest calibre.
14.
ACCOMMODATION
Choose between three hotels in the centre of York.
16.
JOINING & LEAVING THE FESTIVAL
Information about travelling to and from your festival hotel by train or by car.
18.
POST-FESTIVAL TOURS
Extend your stay in Yorkshire with tours that have been designed to link with the festival.
20.
BOOKING
Details of how to book, along with the booking form and our conditions.
Published: May 2025
EARLY MUSIC IN YORKSHIRE
AN INTRODUCTION
For beauty of cityscape and density of great architecture, York has few rivals.
The old centre is extensive but small enough to be traversed easily on foot, presenting a rich array of historic buildings at every turn. Beyond the city walls, England’s largest county is also one of its most beautiful, renowned for the spectacular countryside of the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales – punctuated with significant houses, churches and historic monuments. We make the most of these varied and magnificent settings in a series of unmissable private concerts.
The incomparable Tallis Scholars open the festival with a concert in the dramatic setting of York Minster, the largest of English medieval cathedrals and in the opinion of many the greatest. The performance takes place in the evening, when the Minster is at its most hushed, serene and atmospheric. A very special programme centres around John Taverner, who worked for Cardinal Wolsey (Archbishop of York 1514–1530).
Our final concert is equally unique and compelling. The internationally-renowned Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs at Castle Howard, one of the finest of great houses in England and the epitome of Baroque grandeur. To match the splendour of Vanbrugh’s masterpiece (in the 300th anniversary year of the architect’s death), there couldn’t be a more appropriate musician as our subject than Handel. His creative rivalry with, and ultimate ascendancy over, the Italian composer Giovanni Bononcini is the focus of our grand finale.
In between, the Italian thread continues, with a harpsichord recital based around Bach’s Italian influences by rising star Justin Taylor; and ‘Legal Aliens’, a wind programme highlighting Italian immigrant musicians who flourished at the English Tudor courts, performed by the virtuosic English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble.
At Hovingham Hall, a splendid stately home where the Worsley family have lived for 450 years, the Consone Quartet explore the progression of the string quartet, from Haydn to Schubert. By contrast, the French ensemble Apotropa ï K delve into medieval works in a frescoed church on the edge of the moors.
Back in York, we commemorate the 400th anniversary of composer John Dowland’s death, in the atmospherically alluring Holy Trinity Church, with a lute and voice recital by Elizabeth Kenny and Nicholas Mulroy. The timbered Merchant Adventurer’s Hall is among the best-preserved medieval guildhalls in England, and is the site of both a 15th/16th-century programme by the acclaimed Rose Consort of Viols, and our final gala dinner.
Like all our festivals, the concerts are private occasions, with access exclusive to those who take the full package, which includes accommodation, dinners, talks by Professor John Bryan, transport to each venue and much else besides, all carefully curated with every other element in mind. Another feature in favour of York is the good-quality hotels. We have selected three of the best for you to choose from.
THE FESTIVAL PACKAGE
The price includes:
— All eight concerts.
— Accommodation for five nights – choose between three hotels. See page 14.
— Breakfasts, three dinners, and interval drinks.
— Talks on the music by Professor John Bryan.
— All coach transfers.
— All tips and taxes.
— The assistance of festival staff and a detailed programme booklet.
THE SPEAKER
Professor John Bryan Emeritus professor of Music at the University of Huddersfield, and a practising musician, he is a member of the Rose Consort of Viols and has performed with Musica Antiqua. An artistic adviser to York Early Music Festival, he founded the North East Early Music Forum, is chair of the Viola da Gamba Society and has been guest conductor of York Opera and The Academy of St Olave’s. His book Early English Viols: Instruments, Makers and Music was published by Routledge in 2016.
MARTIN RANDALL FESTIVALS
This festival has been devised and planned by Lizzie Watson and Professor John Bryan. It follows the format that Martin established 30 years ago with our first Danube Music Festival, of site-specific concerts for a private audience. Since then we have organised festivals along the Rhine, Loire, Main and Seine rivers; in Oxford, Suffolk, York, Lincoln, Canterbury, the Cotswolds and the West Country; to Seville, Toledo, Burgos, Santiago, Venice, Florence, Rome, Bologna, Sicily, and the Veneto; to St Petersburg, Prague, through Thuringia, and the Alentejo.
Meet the musicians. See page 10 for their biographies.
Illustration: York Micklegate, engraving
THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Day 1
Wednesday 6 May
York
For arrival details, please see Joining & Leaving the Festival on page 16.
A drinks reception and talk on the music precede the concert.
Though a Norman predecessor determines some of the proportions, above ground York Minster is all Gothic, from Early English to Perpendicular, but predominantly 14th-century. It retains by far the largest quantity of original medieval stained glass of any English church.
Concert, 6.00pm: York Minster
Taverner, Tallis & Tye
The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips director
Taverner, Tallis and Tye: three giants of early Tudor church music, each negotiating the demands of the changing religious outlook of their employers. Taverner’s music for Thomas Wolsey at Cardinal College, Oxford, includes a motet that prays to St William of York for the Cardinal’s soul (O Wilhelme pastor bone). Tallis’s supreme craftsmanship enables him to create refined music for Edward VI’s Anglican church, despite the need for simplicity and clarity demanded by this firmly protestant king ( Te Deum ‘for meanes’, If ye love me). Tye returns to the lavishly elaborate style of his predecessors in music for the church of the Catholic Mary Tudor ( Miserere, Peccavimus).
Dinner is included after the concert, at festival hotels and restaurants in the centre of York.
Day 2
Thursday 7 May
The first event this morning is a talk on the music, which precedes the first concert.
York’s Mansion House is an impressive Palladian design of 1725–33. A fine wooden staircase leads to the State Room, which is elaborately panelled and displays 18th-century portraits of local worthies. Recently restored in time for the 300th anniversary of the building, it is also the oldest offical residence of a Lord Mayor in the country.
The State Room holds only half of our audience, so the concert is performed twice.
Recital, 11.00am or 3.00pm: Mansion House, York Bach & Italy
Johann Sebastian Bach hardly ever left his native Saxony, yet he was always up to date on what was going on elsewhere in Europe. Naturally, he paid close attention to innovations from Italy, the cradle of the concertante style, and instilled transalpine sparkle in his brilliant counterpoint, especially in his keyboard works. Proof of this may be found in the pieces based on originals by the Venetians Antonio Vivaldi and Benedetto Marcello, in which Bach transcends everything with his polyphonic genius. In the large-scale Italian Concerto, the future composer of the Goldberg Variations revisits Corelli and, once again, Vivaldi.
Dinner is before the evening concert, at festival hotels and restaurants in the centre of York.
The Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, built between 1357 and 1361 for meetings and trading, is the largest of its kind in the country. Originally home to a powerful mercantile guild, the hall reflects York’s commercial importance and civic organisation in the Middle Ages.
Concert, 8.30pm:
Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York
Verie Sweete and Artificiall: variations on themes c. 1500
Rose Consort of Viols with Elisabeth Paul mezzo soprano
An exploration of the first great body of European music to rework existing songs, from the years around 1500. At the courts of northern Italy and in the first published songbooks, settings of courtly love poetry were treated to highly inventive reworkings, sometimes with elegant textless parts suitable for the newly developed consort of viols. These songs travelled from France and Italy as far as the courts of Henry VIII and Maximilian I in Vienna. The Rose Consort plays a unique set of viols derived from a Bolognese painting of 1497 by Lorenzo da Costa, later Isabella d’Este’s court painter.
Justin Taylor harpsichord
Day 3
Friday 8 May
Day 4
Saturday 9 May
Coaches depart for Hovingham either after breakfast or after lunch.
Unusually for an English country house, Hovingham Hall is situated in the centre of a village, a charming stonebuilt settlement on the edge of the North York Moors. Another unusual – possibly unique – feature is that one enters the house through the Riding School. Devoted equally to horses and architecture, Thomas Worsley built the house for himself between 1750–1770 (his descendants still live here). The result, though eccentric, is a noble compendium of classicism from the Age of Elegance.
The Ballroom at Hovingham Hall holds only half of our audience, so the concert is performed twice.
Concert, 10.15am or 3.15pm:
Hovingham Hall Haydn, Mozart, Schubert
Consone Quartet
Performing classical and early romantic string quartets on period instruments (with gut strings, lighter bows) and using historically researched style shows these well-known Viennese masterpieces in a newly transparent light, redolent of the intimate ‘chamber’ world for which they were conceived. Haydn’s witty and masterly Op.33 quartets (from which we hear No.5) may have inspired Mozart to compose his deeply-felt set of 1785 that includes the ‘Dissonance’ with its mysterious opening, also heard today. While Haydn regarded Mozart’s quartets as the epitome of taste and learning, Schubert’s A minor quartet is suffused with the depth of feeling and elegance of his song-writing.
Return to York by coach for the evening concert at the Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate.
Embedded in the matrix of narrow streets and ancient masonry in the centre of York, this former parish church is virtually hidden from passers-by. Parts date to the 12th century, but most of the fabric is of the 14th and 15th centuries. This attractive building is architecturally unpretentious but alluringly atmospheric. Seating consists entirely of box pews, a rare survival. It is now looked after by The Churches Conservation Trust.
The Holy Trinity Church holds only half of our audience, so the concert is performed twice.
Recital, 6.15 or 9.15pm:
Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate Who was John Dowland?
Elizabeth Kenny lute
Nicholas Mulroy tenor
Semper Dowland semper dolens (always Dowland, always mournful) was his motto. And yet Thomas Fuller claimed: ‘A cheerful person he was, passing his days in lawful merriment’ ( The History of the Worthies of England , 1662). He has been taken up as an inspiration by great singer-songwriters of our own time. But despite being lauded across Europe as a prodigious lute player and composer, there is no record of him ever working as a singer. This programme explores the extreme contradictions and radical expressionism of the writer who gave us ‘In darkness let me dwell’ but also ‘All in a Garden Green’ and the ironical ‘Away with these self-loving lads’.
Illustration: York Minster window, engraving
Coaches depart for Pickering.
The Church of St Peter and St Paul dates to the 12th century, but is most renowned for its remarkable 15th-century wall paintings. These frescoes, covering nearly the entire nave, depict biblical scenes and saints in vivid detail. Whitewashed during the Reformation and rediscovered in the 19th century, they offer rare insight into pre-Reformation religious art in England.
Concert, 11.00am: St Peter & St Paul, Pickering Bella Donna
Apotropa ï K
The ‘Bella Donna’, an idealised female figure, occupies a central place within the tradition of courtly love. Simultaneously, she evokes the image of the sublime yet toxic flower – long associated with witchcraft and the preparation of magical potions. Few metaphors more aptly capture the profound ambiguity surrounding representations of the feminine in the medieval imagination.
This programme evokes a rich mosaic of female figures as inspiration, each embodying contrasting qualities such as temperance, charm and torment. Through these thematic perspectives, the music reveals a diversity of compositional approaches and stylistic developments. The programme begins with a canso composed by a trobairitz – the female counterpart to the troubadour – and unfolds through a selection of both monophonic and polyphonic works from predominantly the 13th and 14th centuries.
Return to York by coach.
THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Day 5
Sunday 10 May
There has been a tradition of choral singing at York for a millennium or more, with clergy singers ab initio , boy choristers for much of that time and lay songmen for around 500 years. There are currently 12 men, songmen and choral scholars, and choristers aged 7–13, now including girls, all of whom attend St Peter’s School (founded in 627). One of the leading cathedral choirs in the country, they sing eight services each week and have made several recordings.
This event is a service, not a concert, and therefore not exclusive to festival participants.
Evensong, 5.30pm York Minster
The Choir of York Minster Robert Sharpe director of music
There is a talk on the music before a latemorning recital.
The 14th-century Hospitium is a twostorey listed building set within the beautiful Museum Gardens, overlooked by the striking ruins of St Mary’s Abbey. One of the abbey’s support buildings, its name derives from its most likely original use –a place for visitors to stay. Our concert takes place in the timbered upper hall.
Concert, 11.00am: Hospitium, York Legal Aliens: the Bassanos
English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble
While Tudor monarchs pursued international conflicts abroad, at the English court immigrant musicians like the Ferraboscos and the Venetian wind-playing Bassano family were free to arrive and thrive. The Bassanos in particular created a dynasty of royal musicians, and brought with them the latest dazzling playing techniques and an unrivalled skill in the making of wind instruments.
They also performed an international repertoire of music by Italian, Flemish and English composers including Byrd and the Italian John Coprario, who became such a part of the Stuart establishment that it was assumed he was really John Cooper.
Politically, England was suspicious of foreigners (the Bassanos were even beaten up in the street for looking too Spanish). Musically, however, there was openness and vibrant exchange between cultures. The core of this concert is based upon the international repertoire found in the surving partbooks belonging to the cornett and sackbut players of James I (and VI of Scotland).
Coaches depart for Castle Howard in the early afternoon.
One of the finest sights in England, this palatial mansion sits amid a magnificent landscaped park in the Howardian Hills. Begun in 1699, i t was Sir John Vanbrugh’s first major work as an architect, though he relied heavily on the genius of his assistant, Nicholas Hawksmoor. It is the epitome of
Illustration: Castle Howard, engraving c. 1780.
Baroque grandeur: a monument rather than a home, Continental in inspiration but unmistakably an English variant. The concert takes place in the Long Gallery in the south wing.
Concert, 5.00pm:
Castle Howard
Handel and his rival Bononcini: Opera Wars in London in the 1720s
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
George Frideric Handel rose to prominence in London through his successful operas at the Royal Academy of Music, but the directors, wary of relying solely on him, also worked with Giovanni Bononcini, sparking a fierce rivalry. Their contrasting styles and political alliances divided audiences. The competition peaked with the collaborative opera Muzio Scevola , in which Handel’s contribution outshone the others. Though Bononcini initially gained ground, Handel struck back by recruiting star soprano Francesca Cuzzoni and triumphing with Ottone , Flavio , and Giulio Cesare . Bononcini faded from the scene after a scandal, while Handel reshaped English opera and cemented his legacy.
The programme is inspired by this rivalry, and includes arias from operas by both composers, as well as instrumental works by Handel such as various concerti grossi
Coaches depart Castle Howard and return to York, where a gala dinner is held at the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall.
Day 6
Monday 11 May
For departure details, please see Joining & Leaving the Festival on page 16.
Extra dinners
Choose to join two extra dinners in York on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th May. This ensures that you eat in the company of other festival participants on all evenings. Details of how to sign up to these will be sent closer to the festival.
Optional walks and visits
We will offer guided walks and visits within York, to fit around the concert times. Full details are available nearer the time.
Participation in our festivals is a very different experience from conventional group travel.
No repetitive or redundant announcements, no herding by elevated umbrella, no unnecessary roll calls, little hanging around. We work on the assumption that you are adults, and our staff cultivate the virtue of unobtrusiveness.
Though there will be up to 140 participants, you will often find yourself in smaller groups – the audience is divided between three hotels, and into different restaurants for some of the dinners.
For those who are not averse to group activities there are extra meals, walks and visits to sign up to. You choose the level of participation that suits you.
We provide sufficient information to enable you to navigate the festival events without needing to be led. However, festival staff are also stationed around the events to direct you if needed.
‘I was greatly impressed with the amazing quality of the musicians and the breadth of what was covered.’
MEET THE MUSICIANS
ROSE CONSORT
The Rose Consort of Viols takes its name from a famous family of 16th-century viol makers, whose instruments coincided with the growth of English consort music. For nearly four decades the Rose Consort has been delighting audiences across the UK, Europe and further afield. Its programmes are all based on up-to-date research into the music and styles of performance. As well as performing regularly at York Early Music Festival, the Consort has appeared at London’s Wigmore and South Bank Halls, is heard regularly on the BBC, including a Prom concert from Cadogan Hall, and has performed at the London International Exhibition of Early Music. It has performed at festivals in Canada and the USA and also featured as a guest ensemble at the Pan-Pacific Gamba Gathering in Hawaii. It has also performed with cathedral choirs in the UK and at Oslo Cathedral, as well as at festivals in Bratislava, Nuremberg, Cologne and in Austria.
The consort’s 23 recordings on Naxos, Deux-Elles and Delphian use three different sets of instruments to cover repertory from the late 15th-century origins of consort music to the music of Henry Purcell. The Consort has appeared at Dartington International Summer School, giving concerts and coaching ensembles, activities it now continues at Benslow Music in Hitchin.
roseconsort.co.uk
ELISABETH PAUL
Based in London, where she specialised in solo performance at Royal Holloway, University of London, Elisabeth is a busy freelance singer. She is an alumna of the Genesis Sixteen choral training programme, run by Harry Christophers and Eamonn Dougan and is now a regular member of early music ensembles including the Tallis Scholars, Tenebrae, The Queen’s Six and Ensemble Pro Victoria. Her choral activities started when she was seven as a member of City of Birmingham Symphony Youth Chorus. With the choir, she toured Sweden and Malaysia and performed in several BBC Proms, under conductors including Sir Simon Rattle and Daniel Barenboim.
Elisabeth continues to tour widely throughout Europe and the USA, and also enjoys a solo career singing oratorios that include Handel’s Messiah , Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Bach’s St John Passion , Magnificat , and B Minor Mass , Mendelssohn’s Elijah , Mozart’s Requiem , and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater She has also performed operatic roles in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas , The Fairy Queen and Britten’s Noye’s Fludde and has made a number of recordings for Hyperion and Delphian.
CONSONE QUARTET
The Consone Quartet, the first periodinstrument string quartet to become BBC New Generation Artists, has rapidly gained recognition for its honest and expressive interpretations of Classical and Romantic repertoire. Formed at the Royal College of Music in London, the quartet launched its professional career in 2015 and has since received numerous accolades, including the Royal Over-Seas League Ensemble Prize and a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.
The quartet has toured extensively across Europe, South America and Canada, and returns to North America in 2025 for performances and collaborations with pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout. Festival appearances include Edinburgh, MA Festival Bruges, and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. A recent highlight was the premiere of Gavin Bryars’ The Bridges of Königsberg , broadcast by BBC Radio 3. Committed to education, it has worked with major UK music institutions and will serve as Visiting Quartet with Music in the Round. Its acclaimed Mendelssohn recordings with Linn Records continue to attract critical praise worldwide.
Elizabeth Kenny is one of Europe’s leading lute players, described as “incandescent” ( Music and Vision), “radical” ( The Independent on Sunday ), and “indecently beautiful” ( Toronto Post). Over 20 years of touring, she has collaborated with many top period instrument groups. She played with Les Arts Florissants (1992–2007) and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (1997–2015), continuing to initiate 17thcentury projects like The Hypochondriack and A Restoration Tempest
Her research has led to acclaimed recordings of Lawes, Purcell, and Dowland, as well as to the formation of her ensemble, Theatre of the Ayre. Elizabeth also works with singers like Robin Blaze, Ian Bostridge and Nicholas Mulroy. She has recorded William Lawes’ Royal Consort and Dowland’s Lachrimae (2016), and appears on Warner Classic’s Shakespeare Songs , which won a 2017 Grammy Award.
As a soloist, she plays diverse repertoire and premieres works by James MacMillan, Heiner Goebbels, and Benjamin Oliver. She is Director of Performance at Oxford University and Professor of Lute at the Royal Academy of Music.
elizabethkenny.co.uk
NICHOLAS MULROY
Born in Liverpool, Nicholas began as a chorister at the Metropolitan Cathedral before studying Modern Languages at Cambridge and voice at the Royal Academy of Music. He is in high demand for concert, recital and opera engagements internationally.
Nicholas has performed at venues such as the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, and Salzburg Festival. He has collaborated with renowned conductors and ensembles, including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Paul McCreesh, and Lars-Ulrik Mortensen. He has sung with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, BBC Orchestras, Melbourne Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, among others.
In opera, Nicholas has appeared at the Palais Garnier, Glyndebourne, and the Grand Capitole in Toulouse. A committed recitalist, he performs regularly at Wigmore Hall and various festivals. He has recorded widely, including award-winning projects.
Nicholas is a Musician in Residence at Girton College, Cambridge, Associate Director of the Dunedin Consort and a Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music.
nicholasmulroy.com
APOTROPAÏK
The ApotropaïK ensemble brings a vibrant, youthful perspective to medieval music, with a diverse instrumentation and a unique approach that blends research, creativity and emotion. Trained at the CNSMD in Lyon, its members have worked with renowned specialists such as Pierre Hamon, Anne Delafosse, Raphaël Picazos and Angélique Mauillon. The ensemble highlights the richness of each instrument, creating a dynamic listening experience by blending different timbres.
Founded in 2015 during the France-Korea Year celebrations, ApotropaïK has since performed at prominent festivals across France and Europe, including Mars en Baroque (Marseille), MA Festival (Bruges), and the Gröpelinger Barock Festival (Bremen). Its repertoire spans the 12th to 15th centuries, focusing on both monody, such as French and Italian estampies (a medieval dance and musical form), and polyphony from sources such as the Codex Chantilly and the Chansonnier Cordiforme.
ApotropaïK’s achievements include first prize at the 2017 Journées de musique ancienne de Vanves and three awards at the 2022 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition. Its debut album La Bella Donna was released in June 2023, focusing on the female figure in medieval music. From 2023 to 2025, the ensemble is in residence at the Royaumont Foundation.
apotropaik.eu/en
THE ENGLISH CORNETT & SACKBUT ENSEMBLE
The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble is a virtuoso period instrument group with a host of distinguished recordings to its name. In addition to its recital work, the ensemble collaborates with leading vocal ensembles such as I Fagiolini, The Tallis Scholars, Alamire, Resurgam, The BBC Singers, The Marian Consort, Westminster Cathedral Choir, and is a regular at major festivals.
ECSE is in demand as a recording ensemble, contributing to Gramophone Award-winning discs such as The Spy’s Choirbook (Obsidian), and the monumental Striggio mass in 40 parts Missa ecco si beato giorno with I Fagiolini (which scooped the Gramophone Award for Early Music and also the Diapason d’Or). ECSE celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2018 with a solo CD on the Resonus label entitled Music for Windy Instruments: sounds from the Court of James I. 2025 sees a landmark collaboration with I Fagiolini, recording and touring Monteverdi’s iconic Vespers of 1610
ecse.co.uk
THE TALLIS SCHOLARS
The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create the purity and clarity of sound which he feels best serves the Renaissance repertoire. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which The Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned.
In 2013 the group celebrated its 40th anniversary with a World Tour, performing 99 events in 80 venues across 16 countries. In 2020 Gimell Records marked 40 years of recording the group by releasing a remastered version of its 1980 recording of Allegri’s Miserere . In 2023/24 the ensemble celebrated its 50th birthday, and has now performed over 2,500 concerts.
Highlights of the 2024/25 season include performances in Japan, the USA, East Asia, several appearances in London, and touring throughout Europe and the UK. Its recordings have won many international awards. The 2020 release including Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae won BBC Music Magazine ’s Recording of the Year and the Gramophone Early Music Award. Its latest release, music by Robert Fayrfax, was Gramophone ’s Editor’s Choice.
thetallisscholars.co.uk
PETER PHILLIPS
Peter Phillips has dedicated his career to the research and performance of Renaissance polyphony, and to the perfecting of choral sound. He founded The Tallis Scholars in 1973, with whom he has now appeared in over 2,500 concerts worldwide and made over 60 discs in association with Gimell Records. Through this work, Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars have done more than any other group to establish Renaissance sacred vocal music as one of the great repertoires of Western classical music.
Peter also conducts other specialist ensembles, including the BBC Singers (London), the Netherlands Chamber Choir (Utrecht), the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (Tallinn), The Danish Radio Choir (Copenhagen), and El León de Oro (Oviedo). He is Patron of the Chapel Choir of Merton College, Oxford.
In addition to conducting, he is a wellknown writer. He contributed a regular column to The Spectator for 33 years and has been publisher of The Musical Times since 1995. His books include English Sacred Music 1549–1649 (1991) and What We Really Do (2013). In 2018, BBC Radio 3 broadcast his six-part series The Glory of Polyphony. He is a Bodley Fellow of Merton College and an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford.
JUSTIN TAYLOR
In 2015, Franco-American harpsichordist Justin Taylor gained international recognition when, at the age of 23, he won First Prize at the prestigious International Musica Antiqua Competition in Bruges. He also took home the Audience Prize, the Alpha Prize, and the EUBO Developing Trust Prize, awarded to the most promising young European musician. That same year, he co-founded the ensemble Le Consort with violinists Sophie de Bardonnèche and Théotime Langlois de Swarte, focusing on the trio sonata genre. The ensemble now tours internationally.
In 2017, Justin was nominated for Young Soloist at the French Victoires de la Musique and received the Musical Revelation of the Year Prize from the Professional Critics Association. He has performed at prestigious venues and festivals, such as the Philharmonie de Paris, BOZAR Brussels, Théâtre des ChampsElysées, Kölner Philharmonie, and Radio France. He has also appeared at the BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Series at LSO St Luke’s, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Library of Congress in Washington DC among other venues. As a soloist, he has performed with renowned orchestras, including Concerto Köln, Orchestre National de Lille, and the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève. justintaylorharpsichord.com
THE ORCHESTRA OF THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
The OAE was formed in 1986 by a group of musicians who took a good look at that curious institution we call the orchestra, and decided to start again from scratch. The Orchestra plays on instruments (or replicas) and use techniques from the time the music was written. This gets closer to the experience audiences would have had at the time the music was written. There are some quite radical differences between historic instruments and modern ones. The name refers to the common term for the explosion of science, philosophy and culture in Western Europe during the 1600s and 1700s, the Age of Enlightenment.
The OAE is an orchestra in residence at the Southbank Centre and Kings Place in London and Glyndebourne opera festival, and tours frequently around the UK and internationally. In 2020, the OAE became the very first orchestra in the UK to take up residence in a school through its embedded education partnership with Acland Burghley School in Camden.
More about the concerts
Private. All the performances are planned and administered by us, and the audience consists exclusively of those who have taken the festival package, with the exception of evensong at York Minster.
Seating. Specific seats are not reserved. You sit where you want.
Audience size. There will be up to 140 participants on the festival. Three of our venues cannot hold this number, so at these, the performance will be repeated.
Acoustics. This festival is more concerned with locale and authenticity than with acoustic perfection. The venues may have idiosyncrasies or reverberations of the sort not found in modern concert halls.
Changes. Musicians fall ill, venues may close for repairs, airlines alter schedules: there are many circumstances which could necessitate changes to the programme. We ask you to be understanding should they occur.
There is a choice of three hotels in York city centre. For location, amenities, comfort, service and price, we believe these are the best in the area.
Your choice of hotel is the sole determinant of the different prices.
Quiet? Traffic noise may affect some people given that all the hotels are in or around the city centre.
Rooms vary. As is inevitable in historic buildings, rooms vary in size and outlook.
If you would like extra nights before or after the festival, ask us or contact the hotel directly. This would be better done sooner rather than later.
THE MILNER (4*)
The Milner York is a large Grade II listed hotel located on Station Road, adjacent to York railway station. It has 155 elegant, comfortable bedrooms and suites in balanced, neutral tones. Originally built in 1878 as the Royal Station Hotel, it was rebranded as The Milner in 2024 and features a blend of late-Victorian architecture and modern comfort.
Standard rooms are smaller and are located at the back of the hotel, towards the station; Deluxe rooms have king-size beds and views of the gardens and/or York Minster.
Most bathrooms have walk-in showers; only a few have baths (and only in the Deluxe category).
Public amenities include a restaurant and bar, and a leisure club with a 13-meter pool, hot tub, steam room, gym, and gardens.
themilneryork.com
NO. 1 YORK (5*)
Located 10 minutes on foot from the Minster, this award-winning boutique hotel occupies a fine Georgian town house and a purpose-built wing. Bedrooms are bright and airy, with light, neutral colours and high ceilings, whereas the décor in some of the public areas is dark and atmospheric.
Rooms all have super-king-size mattresses (except twins), and all come with tea and coffee facilities concealed within a doll’s house. There is also a well-stocked pantry available 24 hours a day.
‘Large’ rooms come with more space than Standard, though the amenities in each room category are the same. The ‘Large’ rooms also have a bath with shower attachment or a separate bath and shower, whereas the Standard rooms have a shower only.
There is an excellent restaurant and bar, and spa treatments available to book.
guesthousehotels.co.uk/no-1-york
THE GRAND (5*)
An award-winning five-star hotel, out of earshot but just a five minute (0.2 miles) walk from York station. Originally built in 1906 as a ‘Palace Of Business’ for the North Eastern Railway Company, the hotel retains many of its Edwardian features and is a Grade II* listed building.
The hotel’s décor blends Edwardian grandeur with contemporary luxury, featuring original architectural details such as mosaic floors and sweeping staircases alongside modern amenities.
Bedrooms are well furnished, spacious and comfortable – bathrooms are sizeable; Standard rooms have showers over baths, Executive rooms mostly have a separate bath and shower. Executive rooms are also larger than Standard but have the same amenities.
Public areas include two very good restaurants and a bar, a luxury spa with a 14-meter indoor pool and a gym.
thegrandyork.co.uk
Fitness for the festival
Some walking is unavoidable on this festival, to traverse York city centre and also between the coach and the concert venues in the surrounding countryside.
We ask that you take the simple fitness tests on page 20 before booking.
If you have a medical condition or a disability which may affect your holiday or necessitate special arrangements being made for you, please discuss these with us before booking – or, if the condition develops or changes subsequently, as soon as possible before departure.
‘The programme was varied, the musicians outstanding and it was a privilege to have been able to experience it.’
By rail to York. There are regular direct trains from London, Manchester, Oxford and various other places. We recommend that you book train tickets as soon as possible after they are put on sale about three months before the festival.
Hotel distance from York Station:
• The Milner is directly adjacent
• No. 1 York is 0.6 miles/c.
15–20-minute walk; they offer a luggage pickup service if arriving by train, please call 01904 644 744 to arrange this if you would like to walk to the hotel unencumbered; alternatively, there is a taxi rank directly outside the station.
• The Grand is 0.2 miles/5-minute walk
Taxis. There is a taxi rank at York railway station and there are usually one or two waiting at the station exit.
Travelling by car. There is parking at all hotels, for a fee:
• The Milner: On-site parking is available.
• No. 1 York: There are 18 private parking spaces at the back of the hotel which must be booked prior to arrival.
• The Grand: Valet parking is available with additional parking at a nearby National Car Park on Tanner Row.
Check in. Rooms are available for occupancy from 3.00pm, and the hotels
can store luggage. Subject to availability, you may be granted early access to your room.
3.30pm: the festival begins with a drinks reception and talk at The Milner hotel.
See page 6 for details about the festival programme from this point.
DAY 6, MONDAY 11 MAY
There are no festival events this morning. Check out is by 11.00am for all three hotels, and all are able to store luggage.
Post-festival tours. See pages 18–19 for instructions on combining the festival and the post-festival tours.
‘The festival really provided so many special moments that I will carry with me for years to come.’
Illustration: York, engraving from ‘Cathedrals, Abbeys & Churches of England & Wales Vol.I’, 1896. Right: Interior of York Minster, engraving
YORKSHIRE HOUSES & GARDENS
PARKS & GARDENS, ARCHITECTURE & DECORATION, ART & FURNITURE
Post-festival tour:
11–17 May 2026 (mm 953)
7 days • Speaker: Christopher Garibaldi
The finest country houses and gardens in Yorkshire, the county with the greatest number and widest range of these in England.
All aspects of the country house are studied – architecture, furniture, decoration, works of art; gardens and parks; historical context and daily life; conservation and custodianship.
Many of the houses have excellent gardens and are set in classic landscaped parks.
Special arrangements and out-of-hours visits.
ITINERARY
If combining this tour with the festival, stay in the same room if staying at The Grand; or check out of your hotel by 11.00am and leave your luggage at The Grand hotel if not.
Day 1: Markenfield Hall. The coach leaves The Grand hotel at 2.00pm. The best surviving medieval moated manor house in England, with parts dating to c. 1290 and crenellations licensed in 1310, Markenfield Hall has charm beyond words.
Day 2: Castle Howard, Scampston. One of the great houses of Europe, and the final concert venue of this festival, Castle Howard was begun in 1699 to designs by the leading architect of the English Baroque, Sir John Vanbrugh. A contrast in classicism is found at Scampston Hall with the disciplined restraint of a Regency refurbishment, housing a wealth of art treasures and ‘Capability’ Brown parkland.
Day 3: Sledmere, Burton Agnes. Designed and built in the mid- to late-18th century, mostly by Sir Christopher Sykes, Sledmere House remains in the same family today. Burton Agnes Hall was described by Simon Jenkins as ‘the perfect English house’. The creation of Robert Smythson, the leading late-Elizabethan architect, the great hall and long gallery are outstanding features.
Day 4: Brodsworth, Nostell. A Victorian time capsule, Brodsworth is a magnificent Italianate mansion of the 1860s, ‘conserved as found’ by English Heritage. Nostell Priory is an architectural treasure by James Paine, leader among second-generation Palladian house architects. A celebrated feature is the collection of furniture made for the house by Thomas Chippendale.
Day 5: Wentworth Woodhouse, Fairfax. Wentworth Woodhouse is the largest private house in England and among the most magnificent. Despite a complex building history, it is essentially 18thcentury Palladian. Some free time in York. Fairfax House in York was built in 1745 and is perhaps the best preserved and furnished Georgian town house in Britain.
Day 6: Temple Newsam, Harewood. A fine Jacobean mansion incorporating some of its Tudor predecessor, Temple Newsam has restored interiors and outstanding collections of paintings, furniture and decorative arts. Harewood is one of the most beautiful of English country houses, created by Yorkshire architect John Carr (1772) and Robert Adam and aggrandised by Sir Charles Barry (1843).
Day 7: Newby Hall. Designed by Wren, beautifully augmented by Adam, filled with art over many generations and with 25 acres of brilliantly designed and managed gardens, Newby Hall provides the quintessential country house experience of the highest order. Return to York railway station by 3.00pm; the coach continues to the hotel.
PRACTICALITIES
Included: hotel accommodation; private coach throughout; breakfasts and 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; admission to houses, gardens and sites; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.
Accommodation. The Grand , York: see page 15 (Standard rooms). If you have booked an Executive or Suite during the festival, please let us know upon booking if you would like to stay on in this room during the tour, as they are subject to availability, and for a supplement.
How strenuous? Unavoidably there is quite a lot of walking on this tour and it would not be suitable for anyone with difficulties with everyday walking and stairclimbing. Coaches can rarely park near the houses, many of the parks and gardens are extensive and most of the houses visited don’t have lifts. Average distance by coach per day: c. 60 miles.
Group size: 10–22
WALKING HADRIAN’S WALL
ROMAN CIVILISATION AT THE EDGE OF AN EMPIRE
Post-festival tour:
11–17 May 2026 (mm 954)
7 days • Speaker: Dr Matthew Symonds
The archaeology and history of the largest Roman construction in northern Europe. As the most spectacular stretches are accessible only on foot, this is by necessity a walking tour.
Passes through some of the most wild and magnificent scenery in England as well as including all the major Roman sites and relevant museums.
ITINERARY
If combining this tour with the festival , check out of your festival hotel by 11.00am and make your way to Newcastle Central Station. Travel is independent, by train or car; trains take c. one hour and run multiple times each hour from York.
Day 1: Housesteads. The coach leaves Newcastle Central Station at 2.15pm (or from the hotel, Matfen Hall, at 1.30pm) and takes you straight out to Housesteads. With standing remains of up to 10 feet, this is the best preserved of the Wall’s forts. Remote and rugged, there are superb views.
Day 2: walk Steel Rigg to Cawfields; Corbridge. A thrilling but challenging walk (2.6 miles, c. 3 hours). Terrain is perhaps the most consistently rugged and undulating, sometimes quite steeply. It follows long, well-preserved stretches of the Wall through moorland above the cliffs of the Whinsill Crag, the Wall’s highest point.
Day 3: walk Housesteads to Steel Rigg; Chesters. Another challenging walk that,
for much of the route, rides the crest of the faultline of dolerite crags, dipping and climbing (3.2 miles, c. 3 hours). There are some steep ascents and descents on rocky terrain. The rewards include excellently preserved milecastles, staggering views: moorland, lakes, conifer forests to the north, richly variegated greens, plentiful livestock, distant vistas to the south.
Day 4: Vindolanda; Brocolitia, Chesters. The fort and town of Vindolanda is the site of ongoing excavations. These are revealing everyday artefacts including, famously, the ‘postcard’ writing tablets which uniquely document details of everyday life. Drive to a couple of archaeological remains, the Mithraic temple at Brocolitia and the bridge abutments across the river from Chesters.
Day 5: walk Gilsland to Birdoswald. An easy walk through low-lying and pretty farmland with streams and wild flowers (2 miles, c. 2 hours). Included is the only mile with both milecastles and turrets visible, and good lengths of Wall.
Day 6: walk Walltown to Cawfields; Carlisle, Bowness-on-Solway. The final walk is graded moderate and is spectacularly varied, from rocky hilltops to lowland pasture (c. 3 miles, c. 2½ hours). Drive to Carlisle to see the Wall collections in the Tullie House Museum, and continue to the evocative estuarial landscape of the Solway Firth. The Wall ended at the remote village of Bownesson-Solway.
Day 7: South Shields, Wallsend. At South Shields, Arbeia is a fine reconstruction of a fort gateway, as well as reconstructions of a soldier’s barrack block and an opulent
house belonging to the Commanding Officer. At aptly named Wallsend, and now engulfed in the Tyneside conurbation, Segedunum was the most easterly of the forts, the layout clearly seen from a viewing platform. The coach takes you to Newcastle railway station by 2.00pm before continuing to Matfen Hall.
PRACTICALITIES
Included: Hotel accommodation; breakfasts, three pub lunches and five dinners with wine, water, coffee; travel by private coach; all admissions; all tips; the services of the lecturer and tour manager.
Accommodation. Matfen Hall Hotel : 19thcentury Jacobean-style mansion, Matfen Hall is a fine, five-star, country house hotel offering excellent service.
How strenuous? This is a walking tour, graded moderate to hard. There are 4 walks over 5 days, 2 are challenging, 1 is easy and 1 is moderate. Terrain is rough and there are periodic rises and falls. The challenging walks can be technically difficult, with narrow ascents and descents on steep, rocky paths which would be quite treacherous in wet conditions. It is essential for participants to be in good physical condition and to be used to country walking with uphill and downhill content. Strong knees are essential, as are a pair of well-worn hiking boots with good ankle support.
Group size: 10–22
Illustration: (p 18): Castle Howard, engraving from Colen Cambell’s ‘Vitruvius Britannicus’, 1720s. (p 19): Hadrian’s Wall near Housesteads, wood engraving c. 1888. Right: Shambles, York, engraving
MAKING A BOOKING
1. Booking Option. We recommend that you contact us first, or visit our website, to make a booking option which we will hold for 72 hours. To confirm it, please send the booking form and deposit within this period – the deposit is 15% of your total booking price. Alternatively, make a definite booking straight away via our website.
2. Definite booking. Fill in the booking form and send it to us with the deposit. It is important that you read the Booking Conditions at this stage (see page 25) and that you sign the booking form. Full payment is required if you are booking within 12 weeks of the date the festival begins.
3. Our confirmation. Upon receipt of the booking form and deposit we shall send you confirmation of your booking. After this your deposit is nonreturnable except in the special circumstances mentioned in the Booking Conditions. Further details about the festival may also be sent at this stage, or will follow shortly afterwards.
FITNESS TESTS
We ask that you take the following fitness tests before booking. By signing the Booking Form, you confirm that you have done so. Please also read ‘Fitness for the festival’ on page 15.
1. Chair stands. Sit in a dining chair, with arms folded and hands on opposite shoulders. Stand up and sit down at least eight times in 30 seconds.
2. Step test. Mark a wall at a height that is halfway between your knee and your hip bone. Raise each knee in turn to the mark at least 60 times in two minutes.
3. Agility test. Place an object three yards from the edge of a chair, sit, and record the time it takes to stand up, walk to the object and sit back down. You should be able to do this in under seven seconds.
An additional indication of the fitness required is that you should be able to walk unaided at a pace of three miles per hour for at least half an hour at a time, and to stand for at least 15 minutes.
EARLY MUSIC IN YORKSHIRE (MM
945)
6–11 MAY 2026
NAME(S) – as you wish them to appear on the list of participants. Please note that we do not use titles:
Participant 1:
Contact details for all correspondence:
Address
Participant 2:
Postcode/Zip Country
Telephone (home) Mobile
E-mail
Tick if you are happy to receive your festival and booking documents online where possible (confirm your e-mail address above).
We would like to keep you informed about our future tour plans. Please tick the boxes to the right if you would prefer not to receive our marketing materials: Brochures sent by post
What prompted this booking? It is very helpful for us to know how you first heard about this event, and if you can be specific, e.g. if in an advertisement, the name of the publication it appeared in; if we sent you a communication, what type? (e-mail or post?):
ACCOMMODATION
THE MILNER (4*) Two
NO. 1 YORK (5*)
THE GRAND (5*)
Two sharing:
Single
FURTHER INFORMATION. Please notify us of dietary restrictions (for example, religious, medical or if you are vegetarian or vegan). Please also use this space to request room upgrades, or extra nights, etc.
POST-FESTIVAL TOUR – tick to add to your booking:
Yorkshire Houses & Gardens, 11–17 May 2026
Walking Hadrian’s Wall, 11–17 May 2026
Room-type: Double / twin room Double for sole use
PASSPORT DETAILS & NEXT OF KIN
Essential for hotels, and in case of emergency. Please use capital letters for your passport details.
PAYMENT
We prefer payments by bank transfer. We cannot currently accept payment through our website. All money paid to us is fully protected regardless of payment method. Please tick one option:
BANK TRANSFER Please use your surname and the festival code (mm 945) as a reference and ask your bank to allow for all charges.
Account name: Martin Randall Travel Ltd.
Bank: HSBC
Address: 1 Centenary Square, Birmingham, B1 1HQ
Account number: 85377277
Sort code: 40-38-04
Transfers from non-UK bank accounts: please instruct your bank to send payment in pound sterling (GBP)
IBAN: GB22HBUK40380485377277
Swift/BIC code: HBUKGB4B
DEBIT OR CREDIT CARD. I authorise Martin Randall Travel to contact me by telephone to take payment from my Visa credit/Visa debit/Mastercard/AMEX.
Please tick payment amount, and then ensure you sign at the bottom of this form:
EITHER Deposit 15% of total booking cost.
OR Full balance
Required if you are booking within 12 weeks of departure.
TOTAL:
I have read and agree to the Booking Conditions and Privacy Policy (www.martinrandall.com/privacy) on behalf of all listed on this form.
Signature:
Date:
Martin Randall Travel Ltd
10 Barley Mow Passage
London W4 4PH, United Kingdom
Tel +44 (0)20 8742 3355
From North America: 1 800 988 6168
info@martinrandall.co.uk
www.martinrandall.com
Martin Randall Australasia PO Box 1024
Indooroopilly QLD 4068, Australia
Tel 1300 55 95 95
New Zealand 0800 877 622
anz@martinrandall.com.au
PLEASE READ THESE
You need to sign your assent to these Booking Conditions on the booking form.
OUR PROMISES TO YOU
We aim to be fair, reasonable and sympathetic in all our dealings with clients, and to act always with integrity.
We will meet all our legal and regulatory responsibilities, usually going far beyond the minimum obligations.
We aim to provide full and accurate information about our holidays. If there are changes, we will tell you promptly.
If something does go wrong, we will try to put it right. Our overriding aim is to ensure that every client is satisfied with our services.
ALL WE ASK OF YOU
That you read the information we send to you.
SPECIFIC TERMS
Our contract with you. From the time we receive your signed booking form and initial payment, a contract exists between you and Martin Randall Travel Ltd. Eligibility. You must be in good health, free of infectious illness, and have a level of physical and mental fitness that would not impair other participants’ enjoyment by slowing them down or by absorbing disproportionate attention from the tour leaders. Please read ‘Fitness for the festival’ on page 19 and take the self-assessment tests described on page 22; by signing the booking form you are stating that you have understood what we are asking of you and are fit to participate. If you have a medical condition or a disability which may a ect your holiday or necessitate special arrangements being made for you, please discuss this with us before booking – or, if the condition develops or changes subsequently, as soon as possible before departure. If during the festival or tour it transpires, in the judgement of the tour leaders, that you are not able to cope, you may be asked to opt out of certain visits or to leave altogether. This would be at your own expense. We reserve the right to refuse to accept a booking without necessarily giving a reason.
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development O ce advice. Before booking, please refer to the FCDO website to ensure you understand the travel advice for the places to which the festival or tour goes. NonUK citizens should look at the advice issued by their governments, which may di er significantly.
Insurance. It is a requirement of booking that you have adequate holiday insurance cover. The insurance must cover, at minimum, medical treatment, repatriation, loss of property and loss of payments to us in the event that you cancel your booking. If you are making your own arrangements for international travel, please ensure you have insurance that protects you in the rare event of Martin Randall Travel cancelling the festival or tour. Experience indicates that free travel insurance o ered by some credit card companies is not to be relied upon.
Passports and visas. British citizens must have valid passports for travel outside the United Kingdom. The passport needs to be valid for 6 months beyond the date of the festival and/ or tour. For Schengen countries, your passport must have been issued less than ten years before the date you enter the country and valid for at least three months after the day you leave. Non-UK nationals should ascertain whether visas are required in their case.
If you cancel. If you have to withdraw from a festival or tour on which you had booked, there would be a
charge which varies according to the period of notice you give. Up to 85 days before departure the deposit would be forfeited. Thereafter a percentage of the total cost of your booking will be due:
Up to 85 days: deposit only
Between 84 and 43 days: 40%
Between 42 and 15 days: 70%
Between 14 days or fewer: 100%
For cruises only:
Up to 90 days: deposit only
Between 89 and 70 days: 40%
Between 69 and 50 days: 60%
Between 49 days and 30 days: 80%
29 days of fewer: 100%
Additional costs for individual arrangements (including but not limited to flight upgrades, flight amendments, extra nights at hotel(s), room upgrades and airport transfers) are subject to the same cancellation charges, apart from in the instance where we have previously notified you that an additional cost is non-refundable.
If you cancel your booking in a shared room but your travelling companion chooses to continue to participate, the companion would have to pay the single-occupancy price.
If you cancel a non-residential event we will return the full amount if you notify us 22 or more days before the event. We will retain 50% if cancellation is made within three weeks, and 100% if within three days.
We take as the day of cancellation that on which we receive written confirmation of cancellation.
If we cancel. We may decide to cancel a festival or tour if there were insu cient bookings for the it to be viable (though this would always be more than 8 weeks before departure). We would refund you with everything you had paid us.
Safety and security. Cancellation may also occur if civil unrest, war, natural disaster or other circumstances amounting to force majeure arise in the region to which the festival or tour was due to go. If the UK Foreign and Commonwealth O ce advises against travel, we would either cancel or adjust the itinerary to avoid risky areas.
Health and safety. We have a safety auditing process in place and, as a minimum, request that all of our suppliers comply with local health and safety regulations. However, we operate tours in parts of the world where standards are lower than those you are used to at home, particularly in the areas of accessibility, handrails and seatbelts. We ask that you take note of the safety information we provide.
The limits of our liabilities. As principal, we accept responsibility for all ingredients of a tour or festival except those in which the principle of force majeure prevails. Our obligations and responsibilities are also limited where international conventions apply in respect of air, sea or rail carriers, including the Warsaw Convention and its various updates.
If we make changes. Circumstances might arise which prevent us from operating a tour or festival exactly as advertised. We would try to devise a satisfactory alternative, but if the change represents a significant loss to the tour or festival we would o er compensation. If you decide to cancel because the alternative we o er is not in your view an adequate substitute, we would give a full refund.
Financial protection for UK residents. Any money you have paid to us for a holiday which includes an international flight is protected by our Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL, number 3622). Payments for holidays which do not include a flight from/to the UK are protected by ABTOT – The Association of
Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited. So, in the (highly unlikely) event of our insolvency in advance of the festival or tour, you would get your money back, or if we failed after it had begun, it would be able to continue and you would be returned to the UK at its conclusion. Clients living elsewhere who have arranged their own flights should ensure their personal travel insurance covers repatriation in the event of holiday supplier failure.
Financial protection – the o cial text. We are required to publish the following:
We provide full financial protection for our package holidays which include international flights, by way of our Air Travel Organiser’s Licence number 3622. When you buy an ATOL protected flight inclusive holiday from us you receive an ATOL Certificate. This lists what is financially protected, where you can get information on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong. Most of our flights and flightinclusive holidays on our website and in our brochure are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. But ATOL protection does not apply to all holiday and travel services listed. Please ask us to confirm what protection may apply to your booking. If you do not receive an ATOL Certificate then the booking will not be ATOL protected. If you do receive an ATOL Certificate but all the parts of your trip are not listed on it, those parts will not be ATOL protected. In order to be protected under the ATOL scheme you need to be in the UK when you make your booking and/or one of the flights you take must originate or terminate in the UK with the group.
We provide full financial protection for our package holidays that do not include a flight, by way of a bond held by ABTOT – The Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited.
We will provide you with the services listed on the ATOL Certificate (or a suitable alternative). In some cases, where we aren’t able do so for reasons of insolvency, an alternative ATOL holder may provide you with the services you have bought or a suitable alternative (at no extra cost to you). You agree to accept that in those circumstances the alternative ATOL holder will perform those obligations and you agree to pay any money outstanding to be paid by you under your contract to that alternative ATOL holder. However, you also agree that in some cases it will not be possible to appoint an alternative ATOL holder, in which case you will be entitled to make a claim under the ATOL scheme (or your credit card issuer where applicable). If we, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL certificate, are unable to provide the services listed (or a suitable alternative, through an alternative ATOL holder or otherwise) for reasons of insolvency, the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust may make a payment to (or confer a benefit on) you under the ATOL scheme. You agree that in return for such a payment or benefit you assign absolutely to those Trustees any claims which you have or may have arising out of or relating to the non-provision of the services, including any claim against us (or your credit card issuer where applicable). You also agree that any such claims maybe re-assigned to another body, if that other body has paid sums you have claimed under the ATOL scheme.
English Law. These conditions form part of your contract with Martin Randall Travel Ltd and are governed by English law. All proceedings shall be within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
Privacy. By signing the booking form, or by booking online, you are stating that you have read and agree to our Privacy Policy (available online at www. martinrandall.com/privacy).
MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL LTD
10 Barley Mow Passage
London W4 4PH
United Kingdom
Tel +44 (0)20 8742 3355 info@martinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com
Contact the London office from the USA and Canada:
Tel 1 800 988 6168 (toll free) usa@martinrandall.com
MARTIN RANDALL AUSTRALASIA PO Box 1024
Indooroopilly QLD 4068 Australia
Tel 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand 0800 877 622 anz@martinrandall.com.au
MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL…
is Britain’s leading specialist in cultural travel and one of the most respected tour operators in the world.
MRT aims to produce the best planned, best led and altogether the most fulfilling and enjoyable cultural tours and events available. They focus on art, architecture, archaeology, history, music and gastronomy, and are spread across Britain, continental Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, India, Japan and the Americas.
For 2026 we have planned around 200 expert-led tours for small groups (usually 10–20 participants), six music festivals of our own devising (such as Early Music in Yorkshire), several short history and music breaks, an extensive programme of online talks, and single days in London.
For over 35 years the company has led the field through incessant innovation and improvement, setting the benchmarks for itinerary planning, operational systems and service standards.
To see our full range of cultural tours and events, please visit www.martinrandall.com
