Young Artists Platform

Our Young Artists Platform is an annual series of concerts by musicians at an early point in their career. Launched in 2008, the programme has enabled more than two hundred young musicians to gain valuable performance experience, build their reputations and receive publicity.

Previous Young Artists Platformers who are now successful professional musicians include viola player Rosalind Ventris, violinist Magdalena Filipczak, Yorkshire-born pianist Richard Uttley, soprano Rowan Pierce and pianist Simon Passmore. We also include young visual artists in this scheme, such as James Owen Thomas whose Festival exhibition in 2021 was widely acclaimed.

In the last few years Swaledale Festival has also featured concerts by BBC Young Musicians of the Year winners Nicholas Daniel, Emma Johnson, Natalie Clein, Peter Moore and Sheku Kanneh-Mason, as well as concerto finalists Juliet Bausor, Charlotte Barbour-Condini, Benjamin Grosvenor and Jess Gillam. These performers were already well-known as top professional soloists and their presence at the Festival undoubtedly inspired our audiences - particularly youngsters who might be interested in pursuing careers in music.