We’ve just returned from our summer festivals tour of Oz & Armonico Drink to Music which included the privilege of being artists-in-residence at Harrogate Festival and a trip to beautiful Buxton. Our final concert before the summer break was at Lichfield Festival where we found we had a surprise visitor: the Spandau Ballet and I’m A Celebrity star, Tony Hadley, was at the Swinfen Hall Hotel event having recently become a patron of the Lichfield Festival. He thoroughly enjoyed the evening of music, wine and anecdotes.
Oz Clarke recounted tales of the musical and alcohol-fuelled exploits of some of our much-loved baroque composers, investigating the spurious links between alcohol and music from around the world. These were illustrated with musical interludes sung by Eloise Irving and James Hall, accompanied by a quartet of our critically-acclaimed musicians directed from the harpsichord by Christopher. Along the way, there was a chance to sample craft ales from microbrewery Quartz Brewing and a range of specially-selected fine wines.
(photo: Redlock Photography)
