The English Music Festival : New national festival
will revive English music (BK)
The English Music Festival is a new annual event
which aims to "restore English music to its rightful
place at the heart of our nation's cultural life."
It will celebrate the diversity of English music from
the Middle Ages to the present day, and this year’s
inaugural Festival takes place between October 20th to
24th, in and around the historic village of Dorchester-on-Thames,
Oxfordshire.
As Em Marshall, the Festival’s Managing & Artistic
Director, explains: “the English Music Festival
will introduce to live audiences some of the hidden gems
of the English musical tradition, including many works
from the early twentieth century - the renaissance of
English music - that have been overlooked for too long”.
"English music is diverse, exciting and innovative
and it deserves to be heard", she says.
The theme of the this year’s Festival is ‘Heirs
and Rebels’, and amongst the pieces to be heard
will be Gustav Holst’s First Choral Symphony,
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Flos Campi, Bridge’s
Oration, Sullivan’s Irish Symphony,
Britten’s Ballad of Heroes and Finzi’s
Intimations of Immortality.
Featuring alongside these will be pieces by York Bowen,
Bax, Moeran, Ireland, Elgar, Howells and Butterworth.
Less well-known composers to look out for include: Benjamin
Dale, William Lloyd Webber, Holbrooke, Armstrong Gibbs
and Orr. The Festival ends with an exciting new commission
entitled Prayerbook, by an anonymous composer.
Early music will be represented by performances from the
Dufay Collective and Tonus Peregrinus.
The programme is ambitious and promises to be an eye-opener
onto the world of English creativity, including many long
forgotten but wonderful pieces of music – all to
be performed by world-class musicians. Artists include
the internationally acclaimed cellist Julian Lloyd Webber,
David Lloyd Jones, the New London Orchestra and London
Chorus under Ronald Corp, Paul Silverthorne, Peter Savidge,
Michael Chance, Endymion, David Owen Norris and the Oxford
Bach Choir.
A range of concerts – from English solo song recitals
through to large-scale orchestral and choral concerts
- will be supplemented by social and educational activities
including a joint school concert at Radley College, talks
and folk music. The main venue will be the magnificent
medieval Dorchester Abbey, while a variety of other venues
in the vicinity, including the Abbey Guest House, All
Saints Church at Sutton Courtenay, and the Silk Hall at
Radley College, will also be used.
Conservative MP, journalist and broadcaster Boris Johnson
has become President of the Festival, and has urged businesses
and organisations in South Oxfordshire to show their support
for the project to "restore Britain's musical heritage".
The Vice-Presidents of the English Music Festival include
former Times editor Sir Simon Jenkins, businessman Lord
Chadlington, the Marquess of Salisbury, astronomer and
broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore, former Cabinet Secretary
Lord Armstrong, philosopher and author Prof Roger Scruton,
and from the music world Ursula Vaughan Williams, and
the conductors Leonard Slatkin and Sir Roger Norrington.
The English Music Festival is a registered charity (no.
1107065) and is supported by the EMF Friends, a group
of volunteer helpers and supporters. The charity is currently
seeking more sponsors and supporters. For details of the
Festival, and the EMF Friends scheme, contact Em Marshall
by phone on 0207 834 5743, email em.marshall@btinternet.com
or log on to the festival website at www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk.
Bill Kenny
Press contacts: Andy Smith, tel: 07980 608931 or Karen-Lisa
Fletcher, tel: 07973 175588.
