The Festival has started a joyous partnership between Richmond School and Bammental Grammar School in southern Germany.

In excited anticipation, young musicians from Bammental School Symphony Orchestra awaited the arrival of pupils from Richmond School Orchestra on Sunday 14 July 2024 for their first joint concert – and in fact their first meeting.

The contact between the two school orchestras and their conductors and music teachers, Ingo Schlüchtermann from Germany and Stephen Boyd from the UK, was initiated by Malcolm Creese, the long-standing Artistic Director of the Festival. Bammental School Symphony Orchestra performed as part of Swaledale Festival in 2018 and 2022 and had long hoped to find some young UK musicians to collaborate with.

With Richmond School Orchestra enlarging their July concert tour through the Rhine area to Bammental, a first successful meeting between the two schools was able to take place. In the packed concert hall of the Bammental Grammar School both orchestras delighted the German audience at a Sunday Matinée. After a 30-minute repertoire performed by each orchestra alone, they surprised family, friends and town officials with two great pieces performed as a combined orchestra - having rehearsed together only the same morning!

The joy and excitement felt by the 80 young musicians making music together was palpable from the first note, with the orchestra members announcing their pieces in both languages. Pupils later had a chance to eat pizza and enjoy a short sightseeing tour through the old university town of Heidelberg, and everyone realized that this first musical meeting could be the beginning of a long-standing friendship and school partnership.

This was the first stage of an innovative music and language exchange project which will benefit students in the UK and Germany. Next year, and already confirmed, there will be a reciprocal visit to Swaledale Festival by 50 German students, with a joint performance from Richmond and Bammental Schools taking place on 23 June at St. Mary’s Church, Richmond. Save the date!