Where did the summer go? Suddenly autumn is upon us, which can 18only mean one thing - Whittington Music Festival will be back next spring!
Repairs to St John's church Whittington will commence next month, and are scheduled for completion in February 2027,
so our spiritual home should have a lovely new floor for May.
We'll be celebrating 200 years since the death of Beethoven in various ways. Excitingly, one of our brilliant festival regular violinists, Rosa Hartley, will collaborate with Sophia in a performance of the monumental (and fiendishly difficult) Kreutzer Sonata. Janácek's Kreutzer Quartet provides a counterpoint. Written in 1923 when he was sixty-nine, this his first quartet was inspired by Tolstoy's novella 'The Kreutzer Sonata'. It will be interspersed with readings by Braimah Kanneh-Mason who will also be playing violin in the Janácek.
We are thrilled that all members of our in-house Whittington Festival String Quartet - Rosa, Braimah, Ami-Louise Johnsson and Nina Kiva - are returning in 2027, along with Christina Schoonakker (viola), Daniel Brandon (cello) and clarinettist Mebrakh Haughton-Johnson, who were such a hit with our audiences this year. We're delighted that Katherine Hunka will also be joining us again.
Katherine's UK premiere of 'Break Out' was one of the highlights of 2026, and following in the footsteps of Jeremy Sams and Katherine we hope to commission a new short chamber work for clarinet quintet by Flintshire-based pianist and composer Cameron Biles-Liddell, whom some of you might already know. This will be another world premiere for Whittington. More details in our October mailing.
Our first fundraiser of the season is a harp recital by Bethan Conway whose biography is on the home page of our website. I guarantee a delightful afternoon of beautiful music, with tea and home-made scones to tempt you even further! The venue is Christ Church, Oswestry, due to building work at Whittington church and the road closure on the A483/A495 roundabout at Whittington Rd. Please come along and support the festival.
Supporting the Festival
As an independent, volunteer-run community organisation your support is vital. We receive no direct government or local authority funding, and so every penny from Friends' subscriptions, concert sponsorship and individual donations goes towards the festival itself.
By donating and becoming a Friend, Benefactor or Sponsor you help us to support emerging artists and bring world class performances to rural North Shropshire. You also make possible our exciting outreach sessions for primary school pupils and students at Derwen College in Gobowen.
