Canterbury Festival is delighted to announce the first three events to be included in this year’s Festival – folk musician Seth Lakeman, comedy quartet The MozART Group and the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra featuring pianist Freddy Kempf! 

Seth Lakeman is an astounding English folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who is most often associated with the fiddle and tenor guitar. Nominated for a Mercury Award and winner of the BBC Folk Awards Musician of the Year, Seth regularly plays to sell-out audiences and has been pivotal in the recent resurgence of the Folk music scene over the last ten years. Since the massive success of his second album, 'Kitty Jay', Seth has gone from strength to strength and due to popular demand has just released a second edition of last year's critically acclaimed album 'Tales from the Barrel House'. 

The MozART Group is made up of four extremely talented musicians who graduated from the prestigious Academies of Music in Warsaw and Łódz and have been playing together since 1995. They made a decision to play classical music in a humorous style and have created a unique musical cabaret where the music, not the words are the source of joy and laughter. 

In their words: "We exist despite the sober formality of great concert halls, despite the boredom of classical musicians' life, despite fanatic lovers of classical music, despite fans of rock, rap or pop who are afraid of classical music. We treat our Muse with a humorous irony and we're sure, she will have nothing against it!" 

One of the oldest orchestras in Russia, the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra has been in existence for nearly 200 years and has been led by artistic director and chief conductor Yuri Temirkanov since 2001. They regularly tour internationally, and their performance at the festival will feature renowned pianist Freddy Kempf. With his unique reputation as an explosive and physical performer who is not afraid to take risks as well as a serious, sensitive and profoundly musical artist, Kempf is one of today’s most successful pianists, performing to sell-out audiences all over the world and we are delighted to welcome them all to the Festival this year. 

The full programme will be announced in July. Priority booking will open on Monday 23 July while general booking will open on Monday 6 August. Tickets will be available from their website or from the Marlowe Theatre Box Office on 01227 787787.