Buxton International Festival announces more big names for 2024

Alongside Cuban dancer and choreographer, Carlos Acosta, this year’s musical superstars include soprano Golda Schultz, conductor and pianist Sir Antonio Pappano, Strictly Come Dancing’s lead singer, Tommy Blaize plus superstar vocalists Judi Jackson and Madeline Bell. The books programme features Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, the BBC’s newsreader and presenter Clive Myrie, Channel 4’s Judge Rinder (Robert Rinder), BBC security correspondent and author, Frank Gardner and Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas.

“We’re packing a punch this year”, says CEO Michael Williams. “Following our now legendary opening weekend of opera premieres and jazz at the Palace Hotel, we launch into Super Monday and, frankly, we don’t look back. I urge anyone to come and see ‘where it’s at’ this summer and brush shoulders with the leading artists and commentators of our time.”

MUSIC

South African soprano Golda Schultz has been conquering the world’s opera houses as well as dazzling at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms in 2020 with her extraordinary voice and presence. She makes her Buxton Opera House debut with a one-off recital on Monday 8 July at 5.30pm. Tickets £20- £50

Esteemed music director, Sir Antonio Pappano, has been based at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden since 2002. He moves on to become Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in September 2024 and in between, Buxton is lucky enough to have secured a masterclass and book talk with him. He will coach a group of young opera singers in the Pavilion Arts Centre on Friday 19 July at 3pm and give a talk about his memoir, My Life in Music, at 6pm in Buxton Opera House. Tickets £40 and £15 respectively.

JAZZ

An all-star cast closes Buxton International Festival’s opening jazz weekend, fronted by one of the world’s leading New Orleans clarinettists Adrian Cox. He’ll be playing alongside guest-singer Tommy Blaize, from BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, in Buxton Opera House on Monday 8 July at 9pm. Tickets £29-39.

Judi Jackson, Vocalist of the Year at the 2020 Jazz FM Awards, is a stand-out artist who sold out at London’s Jazz Café last year. She headlines a late-night show with Madeline Bell the New Jersey-born singer who sold out the Pavilion Arts Centre last year. They make their Buxton Opera House debut on Tuesday 11 July at 9pm. Tickets £20-£30.

BOOKS

Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, recounts the trauma of being sent away from home at age eight to attend a boarding school. His very personal memoir, ‘A Very Private School’, offers a clear-eyed, first-hand account of a culture of cruelty at the school Spencer attended in his youth and provides important insights into an antiquated boarding system. On Saturday 6 July in Buxton Opera House at 12.30pm. Tickets £15.

As a Bolton teenager with a paper round, BBC news presenter Clive Myrie read all the newspapers he delivered from cover to cover and dreamed of becoming a journalist. In his deeply personal bestselling memoir, Everything is Everything, he tells how his family history has influenced his life, work and view of the world. Saturday 20 July in Buxton Opera House at 12.30pm. Tickets £15

Rob Rinder, barrister turned writer and broadcaster, talks about his second legal thriller, The Suspect, in Buxton Opera House on Tuesday, 16 July at12.30pm. In 2014, while still a practising barrister, he began starring in his reality court show Judge Rinder, and he now uses his legal knowledge working in the media to make the law more accessible. He is also the author of three books and a columnist for The Sun and The London Evening Standard newspapers. Tickets £15

Frank Gardner has been the BBC's Security Correspondent since 2002. In 2004, while filming in Saudi Arabia, he was ambushed by terrorists, shot multiple times and left for dead. He survived and returned to active news reporting within a year.

Frank will discuss both his career and his acclaimed series of bestselling thrillers, including his new novel ‘Invasion: The new Luke Carlton Thriller’. An unmissable event in Buxton Opera House on Friday 12 July at 12.30pm. Tickets £15.

Caroline Lucas is the MP for Brighton Pavilion and is the UK’s first and only Green Party MP. Caroline discusses her book, ‘Another England: How to Reclaim Our National Story’ at Buxton Opera House on Saturday 13 July at 12.30pm, which sketches out an alternative Englishness: one that we can all embrace to build a greener, fairer future. Tickets £15.

FESTIVAL TIMELINE FOR 2024

The full programme and festival brochure will be issued on Monday 26 February, with Priority Booking opening on 5 March and Public Booking on 2 April 2024.