Cumbrian Minstrels

7.30 pm on Saturday 16th May 2025 in St. Mary’s Church, Wigton

Come and join us for our Summer Concert, including works by Wigton and Border poets.

Cumbrian Minstrels

This concert is a celebration of the Wigton poet John Stagg (1770-1823) and his local contemporaries. The principal work will be the world premiere of Stagg’s most famous poem The Vampyre, set to music by our Music Director Ian Wright. Stagg’s poem is the first entire work on this topic to be written in English, and reflects the growing interest in gothic subjects in the late 18th and 19th centuries.   Stagg was born at Burgh-by-Sands. An accident he suffered in his youth deprived him of his sight - he became known later as the “blind bard” - and in his early life he made a livelihood in Wigton, keeping a library and playing his fiddle.

The concert also includes texts by Susanna Blamire, William Wordsworth, Robert Burns and ‘The Cumberland Bard’, Robert Anderson (1770-1833). It was quite usual for noted composers of the day to accept commissions to set poems to music to be sung for entertainment, and the musical settings for the works performed in this programme are by Joseph Haydn, Beethoven, Carolyn Sparey and others.

The concert will be conducted by our Music Director, Ian Wright, and accompanied by The Throstle Ensemble.

Tickets

Tickets can be ordered for £13 from [email protected].

Entry on the door is also available, at £15. There is no charge for under-16s.

Concert flyer and poster

A pdf copy of our flyer can be downloaded here.