‘Celebrate with Elgar’ in Worcester and Malvern – the Heart of Elgar Country
24 May to 1 June 2025
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Ian Venables is celebrated as Featured Composer in this his 70th year at the 2025 Elgar Festival; 24 May – 1 June in Worcester and Malvern; the annual celebration of Sir Edward Elgar’s music and with whom he shares both a home and the inspirational landscape of Worcestershire. Symphonic and ensemble concerts are given by the Festival’s orchestra-in-residence, the English Symphony Orchestra under Principal Conductor and Festival Artistic Director, Kenneth Woods. World-renowned guest artists taking part include Raphael Wallfisch, Gareth Brynmor John, April Fredrick, Simon Callaghan and David Briggs. Tickets are now on sale.
Since its inception in 2018, the annual Elgar Festival has grown from a weekend to a nine-day celebration of the life and music of Worcester’s most famous son and Britain’s great composer, Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), and held at a number of integral venues of both historic interest and personal significance to the composer including Worcester Cathedral and Guildhall, St George’s RC Church and Great Malvern Priory.
‘There are few composers whose sense of home, community and place was as closely connected to their creative work as Elgar, says Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Kenneth Woods. ‘First time visitors to the Elgar Festival are often surprised and hugely excited by just how much of a presence Elgar is here.’
GALA CONCERT IN WORCESTER CATHEDRAL: Kenneth Woods will conduct the Festival Gala Concert in Worcester Cathedral when the English Symphony Orchestra performs Elgar’s Symphony No.2 and John Ireland’s oratorio ‘These Things Shall Be’ joined by the Festival Chorus and baritone soloist Gareth Brynmor John.
Also featured in the concert will be a work by this year’s featured composer Ian Venables, entitled ‘Out of the Shadows’, in a World Premiere of the orchestral version. Written as a cycle of songs exploring themes of love and sexuality, the composer has set the words of Constantine Cavafy, Lord Tennyson, Horatio Brown, John Addington Symonds and Edward Perry Warren.
‘I wanted to end the work with a celebration of the universality of love and especially the deep love that is found in a long-lasting relationship’, explains Ian Venables.
‘BRITAIN’S GREATEST LIVING COMPOSER OF ART SONGS’ CELEBRATED AS FEATURED COMPOSER: Each year the Elgar Festival celebrates the work of a featured living British composer – these have included David Matthews, Steve Elcock and Donald Fraser, and commissions and world premieres form an important part of the programming.
This year’s Featured Composer, Ian Venables, has made his home in Worcester and celebrates his 70th birthday in 2025. Acclaimed as ‘Britain’s greatest living composer of art songs’ by Musical Opinion, and as ‘a song composer as fine as Finzi and Gurney’ by BBC Music, audiences to the Elgar Festival will recall a memorable performance of the composer’s Requiem by the ESO, Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir and Saint Cecilia Singers which took place in Great Malvern Priory a couple of years ago.
‘I am absolutely delighted to be this year’s featured composer at the Elgar Festival’, says Ian Venables. ‘The Festival, held in my hometown of Worcester is one of the musical highlights of the year and I am very much looking forward to working with some of the county’s talented young musicians and composers and to attending the many exciting concerts that Kenneth Woods and the English Symphony Orchestra have programmed. The Festival is an event not to be missed!’
For those unfamiliar with Venables’s work, a film screening of Hidden Music; a biographical journey through the composer’s music directed by Anthony Cheng, will explore how his love of music, and in return his friends and industry colleagues’ regard of him, have shaped the life of one of the country’s most respected composers, with contributions from Roderick Williams, Alessandro Fisher, Simon Heffer and Stephen Johnson amongst others. This will be followed by a Q&A with the composer himself hosted by Classic FM’s Zeb Soanes alongside chamber works.
CHORAL AND VOCAL SHOWCASE: The abundance and variety of choral and song repertoire is showcased by the region’s well-loved ensembles at the Elgar Festival, represented this year in a programme of Part Songs by Elgar, Parry and Stanford performed by the Proteus Ensemble; an acclaimed Midlands chamber choir directed by Stephen Shellard. The Jenny Lind Singers – a virtuosic female voice choir named after the ‘Swedish Nightingale’ under the leadership of Lynne Lindner – provide a chance to hear works by Errolyn Wallen, Master of the Kings Music, and award-winning Worcestershire-based composer, Liz Dilnot Johnson. The Elgar Chorale perform works by Elgar, Coleridge-Taylor, Stanford and Ian Venables under the direction of Piers Maxim.
Also in recital, soprano April Fredrick, who is well-known to audiences for her many fine performances and recordings with the ESO, will be joined by Eric McElroy; ‘one of the leading composer-pianists of his generation’, according to Musical Opinion, for a performance of his own song-cycle, ‘A Dead Man’s Embers’ alongside works by Lennox Berkeley, Ian Venables and Elgar and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur Bliss.
ENGLISH STRING ‘GREATS’ AND NEW DISCOVERIES: There are a number of opportunities to hear players from the English Symphony Orchestra, as orchestra-in-residence at the Elgar Festival, in romances and serenades for wind quintet and chamber orchestra by Elgar, Mozart and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who was championed by Elgar himself.
British composers have been at the forefront in writing some of the world’s most beautiful and accomplished music for strings throughout the twentieth century and perhaps no other orchestra has done more to champion the tradition of British music for strings as the English String Orchestra. Always highly anticipated, this year’s concert features award-winning viola soloist Rosalind Ventris and programmes works by Elgar, Peter Fribbins and Ian Venables, concluding with William Walton’s thrilling Sonata for Strings, arranged from his String Quartet No.2.
Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra, which Elgar helped to found in 1905, will perform popular works by Elgar and Mozart and a more recent discovery, ‘Cringlemire Garden’ by Ruth Gipps (1921-1999); a pastoral miniature inspired by the Lake District and first heard at Birmingham Town Hall in 1952. Recently featured as BBC Radio 3’s ‘Composer of the Week’, Gipps was a respected conductor, teacher, performer and soloist (of oboe, cor anglais and piano) as well as a composer of more than seventy works, including five symphonies, which are now becoming better-known thanks to recordings and performances.
The Elgar Festival is delighted to be welcoming esteemed organ virtuoso, David Briggs, who can be heard performing the organ arrangement of Elgar’s Symphony No.1, alongside a work by Ian Venables dedicated to composer Herbert Howells.
Entitled ‘Elgar: A Critic’s View’, this year’s AT Shaw Lecture is to be given by long-time music critic and reviewer from the Birmingham Post, Christopher Morley.
Cellist Raphael Wallfisch and pianist Simon Callaghan bring the Festival to a close with an intimate programme of works by British composers Kenneth Leighton and Ian Venables alongside John Ireland’s powerfully intense Cello Sonata and Elgar’s Violin Sonata in the arrangement for cello and piano by Donald Fraser.
PARTICIPATORY EVENTS FOR YOUNG MUSICIANS: As a major community event with a commitment to attract the widest possible audience, the Elgar Festival provides inspiring performance opportunities for children, young people and adults through initiatives including the ‘Elgar for Everyone’ Family Concert, Young Composers’ Competition, Elgar Festival Chorus, and by way of masterclasses and workshops, giving hundreds of people the chance to participate. Amongst the youth courses is a new performance partnership with students from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
The ‘Elgar for Everyone’ Family Concert in Worcester Cathedral is to be presented by Classic FM broadcaster Zeb Soanes and provides a platform for ESO Youth Orchestras and Ensembles – young musicians from across the Midlands’ region. During the concert there will be the opportunity to hear the winning entries from this year’s Young Composers’ Competition.
Other participatory events include ‘Come and Play Elgar 1’ and a Young Singers Masterclass, where students work on a song of their choice by a British composer with soprano April Fredrick and featured composer Ian Venables.
‘ELGAR FOR EVERYONE’ FREE AND INFORMAL EVENTS: All concerts at the Elgar Festival offer free entry for under 18s accompanied by full-paying adults. Many other events are free-of-charge including relaxed concerts, talks, film and an exhibition.
Informal events include a performance by Worcester Concert Brass – also free-of-charge – in Cathedral Square, and early evening Club Elgar at West Malvern Social Club featuring a Retro 70’s Fusion where 70’s fancy dress is recommended! ‘In Elgar’s Footsteps’ is a guided walk from the top of the Malvern Hills to St Wulstan’s Church culminating with a short recital, while Festival Evensong in the Cathedral is a fitting conclusion celebrating the music of Edward Elgar and Ian Venables and to which all are invited.
ESO Records release first ever Elgar album: The first recording on the new English Symphony Orchestra’s own label is out now (news here) and features live performances of Elgar’s In the South (Alassio) and Symphony No.1, recorded at the Elgar Festival.
SUPPORT THE ELGAR FESTIVAL: The Elgar Festival is raising money (information here) to help deliver its 2025 iteration and to continue the development of its range of events for people of all ages, interests, and lifestyles. Funding continues to be a huge challenge across all arts organisations and donations are valuable in helping to continue the legacy of one of England’s most revered composers, contributing towards costs for relaxed concerts, artist’s fees and instrument and venue hire, and keeping the Free events free for all.
FURTHER INFORMATION AND TO BOOK TICKETS
Elgar Festival 2025
Patron: Julian Lloyd Webber
Artistic Director: Kenneth Woods
Orchestra-in-Residence: English Symphony Orchestra
Programme information and ticket sales
Online or Telephone: 01905 611 427
or In person: Worcester Theatres, Huntingdon Hall Box Office, CrownGate, Worcester WR1 3LD