Our Vision

Northern Chords Festival has been bringing world-class musical performance to the North East since 2009. 

Our vision for Northern Chords Festival’s development is to create strands of work across the professional and community music sectors in the North East that both acknowledge and develop the existing arts scene, through education and community work, professional development for leading musicians from the region, and regular festivals and associated events. Specifically:

• To create immersive, innovative and intensive shared musical experiences between players and audiences in north-eastern England, through regular festivals of chamber music, orchestral music and opera
• To nurture and mentor the next generation of professional musicians from the North-East, through a mentoring programme in which young musicians will work directly alongside recognised and high-profile artists.
• To bring an opera production to the North East – something which is not done very often when  compared with other regions of the country.

Can you support us?

Every contribution made by individuals, trusts and foundations, sponsors and festival partners is absolutely crucial in enabling us to stage excellent events and inspiring education activities and we are hugely grateful for our supporters’ generosity.

Ticket sales pay for approximately 12% of the cost of the festival. Even for one of our smaller festivals, the budget can be in the region of £30,000, with artist fees forming just a portion of that, as we also have commissions, travel and accommodation, venue and event costs, marketing, our planning and production team, and of course, our vital education work to consider.

If you have enjoyed previous Northern Chords Festivals and would like to offer your support to this coming Festival in June 2025, please consider joining the Friends of Northern Chords to help secure the future of this exciting, vibrant and valuable festival.

Friends of Northern Chords

Friend: £100 per year/£9 per month (via standing order)
Free Festival Pass
Acknowledgement in the programme

Best Friend  £250 per year/£22 per month 
 Acknowledgement on the Festival website and programme
Invitation to the Closing Reception of the Festival at St James’ & St Basil’s Church
2 Festival Passes 

Patron  £500 per year / £43 per month
Acknowledgement on the Festival website and programme
Invitation to Closing Reception of the Festival at St James’ & St Basil’s Church
Complimentary Festival programmes
Up to 4 Festival Passes 
Invitation to attend an Open Rehearsal

To donate to Northern Chords Festival, the bank details are:

Triodos Bank
Sort Code: 165810
Account Number: 21260494

Please could you also email office@northernchords.com to let us know.

You can set up a standing order or a one-off payment. If you are eligible for Gift Aid, please complete this form and we will be able to claim an additional 25% on top of your donation.

Thank you.

If you would like your donation to contribute towards a particular part of the programme, or to support a particular artist, please do let us know. We are interested in learning about the benefits that are important to you so do get in touch if you’d like to help us refine our offer to our supporters.

Northern Chords Festival is incredibly grateful for the continued support of its partners, trusts and foundations and individuals both past and present.

The Festival’s Artistic Director would also like to thank the festival team and musicians, many of whom give their time voluntarily and all with great enthusiasm and dedication.

Northern Chords Festival’s Charity Number is 1172767.

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