All photography provided by Paul Ingram
– Our Story –
The inspiration behind setting up this label came through the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival which runs every year in August, now in its umpteenth year.
This celebration of music, culture, history, landscape and friendship has culminated in some truly magical collaborations and these continue beyond and within the festival up in North Yorkshire, where we have given over 400 concerts.
As the festival evolves, we look to consolidate and capture its approach and philosophy through Ayriel Classical, both enhancing and documenting our musical journey. In 2018 we will fulfill a dream of creating a permanent home for the label through Ayriel Studios, set within the North York Moors and currently under construction.
– THE STORY OF OUR NAME –
Musicians often feel as if they’re 'channeling'; a conductor of energy and emotions, communicating the written notes on the page to something beyond the existential. The concept of an interpreter being a kind of aerial seemed to me quite vivid; often I feel as if there is a catalyst which manifests itself through another dimension other than human, creating alchemy within the combination of physical, technical expression alongside the spiritual and emotional. This is where music comes alive.
An Ayre is a genre of English song, which thrived in the 16th and 17th centuries and expressed a wide range of styles. This word, which seems to suggest a musical fluidity, felt naturally placed within the concept of what we represented. And thus Ayriel Classical was born.