Rye Arts Festival has released tickets for some of its high-quality performers, who will be coming to entertain the town in September. This week another 12 events have been announced, with tickets already on sale.
In the field of popular, contemporary music, three contrasting sets of musicians will be coming to Rye – the amazing emerging talents of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO), the indie sounds of The Wave Pictures and the fabulous London-based choir The Pink Singers.
NYJO makes welcome return to Rye, having performed a few years ago. But, of course, the musicians are completely different this year. But this is your chance to see the stars of the future. NYJO’s former members include the incomparable Amy Winehouse, Sam Brown, Joe Stilgoe, Joe Jackson and David Arch (whose eponymous band is the house combo on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing). This year’s 24-piece orchestra will be playing on the opening Sunday, September 15, at 7pm at the Milligan Theatre in Rye College.
Friday evening on September 20, Rye Community Centre will host The Wave Pictures. The three-piece band can be loosely categorised as indie, but they are prolific, diverse and well-established on the music scene. With 16 years and 18 albums under their belts since they formed in Leicestershire, they also include electric folk, blues and rock ‘n’ roll in their musical vocabulary. Reviewers have compared them to The Smiths, BobDylan, Jonathan Richman and the Grateful Dead – a heady mix of influences. And they are a live band, born to gig.
And on Saturday September 21 at 7:30pm, St Mary’s Church will ring to the rafters to the wonderful voices of The Pink Singers.
Formed in 1983 in London, The Pink Singers are Europe’s longest-established LGBT+ choir, and they bring a fun, vibrant performance to the stage, with an irrepressible energy and joy that leaves the audience wanting them to carry on through the night.
Their programme is called ‘Divas Through the Decades’ and they will sing some of the true greats of popular music – come along and listen to their loving tributes to the music of Shirley Bassey, Barbra Streisand, Kylie Minogue, Judy Garland, Diana Ross and, of course, Ella!
The Pink Choir is an enormously talented community choir made up of people from a diverse range of sexual orientations, gender identities and backgrounds, united in a joint passion for singing great choral music and delivering glorious performances that will delight their audience. This show promises to be one of the most fun events of the Festival.
Tickets for these gigs (and other selected events) are on sale online – go to ryeartsfestival.org.uk – and also at Grammar School Records in the High Street in Rye.
Image Credits: Rye Arts Festival .