Spiritato

Spiritato play at the National Centre for Early Music on Tuesday 8 December, as part of the York Early Music Christmas Festival. The ensemble is led by violinist Huw Daniels, and they're one of the acts appearing across the festival's run, which this year stretches from Friday 4 to Sunday 13 December.

The programme pairs Christmas works with the concertos of Giuseppe Sammartini, the 18th-century Venetian composer. Sammartini was a key figure in the development of the classical concerto, and his music sits right in the early music wheelhouse the NCEM is known for. The Christmas side of the bill brings in the festive repertoire the festival is built around.

That festival has been a York fixture since 1997, set up to bring together music associated with Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, from the Medieval to the Baroque, often woven in with the sagas and stories of the north. It's run by The York Early Music Foundation, a registered charity, and staged at the National Centre for Early Music, based in St Margaret's Church on Walmgate. The church is a Grade I listed medieval building in the heart of the city, which a National Lottery grant turned in 2000 into an intimate venue seating up to 180.

The NCEM itself acts as a national advocate for early music in England and a centre of excellence for music-making in York. Inside, it houses a performance space designed for perfect acoustics, recording studios and hireable historic keyboard instruments, alongside a creative learning programme of residences, the biennial York Young Artists Competition and a national composers award run with BBC Radio 3. Spiritato's concert on 8 December is one of several performances scheduled throughout the festival's ten-day run.