The Winchester Chamber Music Festival, artistic director Kate Gould, returns from 2 to 5 May 2025 for the 18th festival, with a wide range of performances, schools performances, family concerts, talks and masterclasses at venues across Winchester including St. Paul’s Church, St Lawrence Church and the Theatre Royal.
Music performed includes the Clarinet Quintet by the English composer Pamela Harrison (1915-1990) who was a pupil of Gordon Jacob and Arthur Benjamin, the Voice of the Whale by George Crumb (1929-2022), Branching Patterns by New York-based composer Inti Figgis-Vizueta [whose orchestra piece devour I reviewed recently], Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 in Webern’s arrangement for piano quintet, Hanns Eisler’s Scherzo, Ailie Robertson‘s Beannacht (Blessing) for solo viola and electronics, Jessie Montgomery‘s Voodoo Dolls, Clarinettino by Czech composer Ondrej Kukal, and Caroline Shaw‘s Punktum plus music by Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler, Saint-Saens, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninov, Villalobos, Prokofiev, Holst, Shostakovich, Britten.
For the festival performers, artistic director, cellist Kate Gould has gathered around her a group of distinguished chamber musicians many of whom have featured at previous festivals including David Adams violin, Lucy Gould violin, Magnus Johnston violin, Scott Dickinson viola, Richard Lester cello, Ronan Dunne double bass, Zenith Quartet, Matthew Featherstone flute, Robert Plane clarinet, Simon Crawford-Phillips piano, Philip Moore piano, and Julian Milford piano.
Full details from the festival website.