Church turned international recording studio

2017 marks the 40th anniversary of the York Early Music Festival, which draws international artists and audiences - as well as a strong local following - to a series of performances of baroque and pre-baroque music across the city each summer. The festival's 'hub' is the National Centre for Early Music, which based at St Margaret's Church, Walmgate in York and is both a dramatic and an elegant example of a very old building given a new lease of life.

At the turn of the present century, the York Early Music Foundation, the charity that oversees the National Centre for Early Music and the York Early Music Festival, steered through the transformation of the Grade-One listed redundant church into a recording studio and performance space worthy of the very high standard of music played during the Festival. This included adding sound proofing features and devising additional office, practice and reception space in ways that did not detract from the beauty and historical significance of the original church.

Harrowells Solicitors are longstanding sponsors of the York Early Music Festival which, this year, ran from 7-15 July. More details can be found at: www.ncem.co.uk