The York Early Music Christmas Festival was created in 1997 to introduce audiences to the extraordinary wealth of music associated with Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, from the Medieval to the Baroque, intertwined with the sagas, stories and tales of the north.

This year’s Christmas festival brings together seasonal music from across the ages with some of the most beautiful repertory from the likes of Haydn, Schumann and Mendelssohn thanks to mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston - performing alongside pianist Sholto Kynoch; and fellow BBC New Generation Artists the Consone String Quartet appearing together on the NCEM stage with the internationally acclaimed Chiaroscuro Quartet – presenting one of the most celebrated works in the classical repertory - Mendelssohn’s Octet.