Simon Passmore, appearing at this year's Festival for the fourth time as part of the Young Artists Platform, has recently won First Prize at the Grand Prix Pianos Maene, Belgium.

Malcolm Creese and Janet Hall's visit to No.10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister with other recipients of the Big Society Award.

Swaledale Festival board members meeting on Thursday 23 October began proceedings with a pleasant surprise. It was announced that Felicity Manning, volunteer’s coordinator for the Festival, had been awarded their Exceptional Service Award by the British Arts & Science Festivals Association (BAFA) meeting that day in Canterbury.

This year there is a special festival theme: ‘A Celebration of the Human Voice’. The celebration encompasses singing in many different styles and also the spoken word. Two famous vocal ensembles will appear at the Festival: The King’s Singers and Tenebrae Consort. We welcome LYRA - a tremendous vocal quartet from St. Petersburg, and one of the great jazz vocalists - Liane Carroll. Local community choir the Swale Singers will give a concert, and two other regional amateur choirs - Werca’s Folk from Morpeth and Northern Voices from Darlington - will share an evening event. Royal Northern Sinfonia will bring the superb tenor James Gilchrist to give a concert of songs by English composers, and north east soprano Rowan Pierce will give a recital as part of the Festival’s Young Artists Platform. Rowan’s is definitely a name to watch for the future.