Dear Blogger
Message from Whittington Music Festival
Remember the dates
Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 May 2025 | | | | Festival News
The fantastic 2025 Festival programme is ready and details are on the website www.whittingtonmusicfestival.org.uk/festival-programme/.
Publicity leaflets will be mailed out in early November. If you haven't previously received these by post and would like to, please email your postal address to admin@whittingtonmusicfestival.org.uk
If you are able to help distribute leaflets to locations in Wrexham, Chester, Llangollen, North and Mid-Wales and Shrewsbury please let us know by emailing the address above. Your help will be much appreciated.
The Saturday morning Masterclass sessions and afternoon Family Concert have been arranged, so we have some very excited young people! Both Braimah Kanneh-Mason and Mark Padmore will be coaching, as well as stunning saxophonist Rob Burton. There's free admission to the Saturday morning session and all of our concerts are free for under 26's. | | | | Christmas Gift Vouchers
For the first time, gift vouchers will be available from the festival box office from mid-November. An ideal Christmas present for a music lover! | | | | Date for your Diary
On Saturday 16th November at 7.30pm in Whittington Church the Scholars and Gentlemen choir will be singing a programme of Palestrina, directed by Mike Donkin. This is a fundraising concert for the festival, so please bring a friend! Tickets on the door, price £12. Bar available. | | | | Music Education and Outreach
Last month we focused on the effect our outreach sessions have on our musicians, and how they benefit from the experience. This month here is the enthusiastic reaction of the Head of Performing Arts at Derwen College:
"Our students loved their session and the experience of being amongst live musicians. They especially enjoyed getting the chance to conduct the orchestra and we saw some ordinarily rather shy students come out of their shell. Everyone left with a smile. One of our students with perfect pitch engaged in a call and response activity with one of the violinists. The opportunity for an autistic learner to engage in this form of conversation with a stranger was invaluable in his development and confidence. He was also welcomed by Sophia to sit with her and play along with some of the other parts of the session, during which he seemed really engaged".
| | | | Whittington's Wonderful Musicians Regular Whittington concertgoers will remember David Shaw, violin, viola, voice and visual artist, who will be returning in 2025. Now known as David Edward, he has thousands of followers on YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHmeto5X4Xk as he develops his extraordinary singing voice and composes new material. See David in action on Friday 16th May, singing his own composition 'Life Prayer', and in the Jazz on Saturday afternoon, and then playing violin on Saturday 17th May (Schubert's 'Death and the Maiden' quartet) and Sunday 18th May (Schoenberg's 'Verklarte Nacht' and Brahms Sextet in G Major Op. 36). | | | | |
