Welcome to the 2015 Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival. This year sees some changes to our traditional pattern of events. First, the parent body of the Festival, which used to be known as the Westmorland Music Council, has now been thoroughly overhauled and is now called the Westmorland Music Trust. This makes no difference to the Festival itself, but there have been some adjustments of the timetable. The first week, in March, will contain the adjudicated classes. As always, the Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival is keen to provide a platform on which the younger members of the community, in particular, can display and test their musical talents with a professional evaluation at the end of it that will help them go forward and develop. Also in the March week will be two of the other traditional events – the Jim Noble Awards and the Choral Celebration. We also have an innovation this year, the Rock, Pop and Jazz Fun Day. This should be a most entertaining morning at The Queen Katherine School Music Suite and we are grateful for the co-operation of Karen West and the QKS Community Music scheme. The Choral Celebration will, this year, have a whole day all to itself. On Saturday 21st March ten choirs will come together both to sing to each other, and to sing together, under the expert guidance of Justin Doyle. This event has previously been crammed into an evening but due to other timing changes we have been able to give it more space.
Once again I must offer our sincere thanks to all those who have offered to sponsor the Festival either in a general way or specifically the adjudicated classes. This year all our adjudicated classes are sponsored by one or in some cases more than one individual. This represents a huge and generous contribution from members of the public and several trusts and grant giving organisations, including local authorities, and is greatly appreciated. Thanks too are due to the Patrons of Lake District Summer Music, Lakeland Sinfonia and Amabile Choirs, who are all offering special awards for certain classes.
The other big change is that we have moved the Festival performance events into July. The weekend of 11th-12th July will start with a ‘Come and Sing’ event led by Hilary Davies in St. Thomas’s Church Kendal, followed by a chamber concert by the Herdwyck Consort in Ings church.
Finally, on Sunday 12th July there will be our usual big Festival Concert in Kendal Parish Church. This year it will be Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Northern Chamber Orchestra, a team of professional soloists and a large chorus drawn from the area. This year Ian Jones will not only be the Chorus Master, but will also conduct the concert itself. And finally there will be a workshop and performance day for Primary School pupils in October featuring Ocean World.
So a very busy year of music making ahead! We hope you will find it all rewarding and entertaining and don’t forget that audience are welcome at all the events described.
Jolyon Dodgson - Chairman
Once again I must offer our sincere thanks to all those who have offered to sponsor the Festival either in a general way or specifically the adjudicated classes. This year all our adjudicated classes are sponsored by one or in some cases more than one individual. This represents a huge and generous contribution from members of the public and several trusts and grant giving organisations, including local authorities, and is greatly appreciated. Thanks too are due to the Patrons of Lake District Summer Music, Lakeland Sinfonia and Amabile Choirs, who are all offering special awards for certain classes.
The other big change is that we have moved the Festival performance events into July. The weekend of 11th-12th July will start with a ‘Come and Sing’ event led by Hilary Davies in St. Thomas’s Church Kendal, followed by a chamber concert by the Herdwyck Consort in Ings church.
Finally, on Sunday 12th July there will be our usual big Festival Concert in Kendal Parish Church. This year it will be Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Northern Chamber Orchestra, a team of professional soloists and a large chorus drawn from the area. This year Ian Jones will not only be the Chorus Master, but will also conduct the concert itself. And finally there will be a workshop and performance day for Primary School pupils in October featuring Ocean World.
So a very busy year of music making ahead! We hope you will find it all rewarding and entertaining and don’t forget that audience are welcome at all the events described.
Jolyon Dodgson - Chairman
