Annual Elgar Festival dates announced for 2023

The annual celebration of the life and music of Worcestershire’s most famous composer will return to the county in early summer.

Organisers of The Elgar Festival have announced the dates for the 2023 event, which will take place between Tuesday 30 May and Sunday 4 June.

The Festival – which was launched in 2018 – was established by decree of Worcester City Council and is traditionally held on the weekend closest to Elgar’s birthday, 2 June 1857.

This year’s Festival will combine orchestral, chamber, vocal and choral concerts with exhibits and lectures to celebrate the life and music of Sir Edward Elgar at various venues in Worcestershire.  Entitled ‘We are the Music Makers’, the Festival brings together an array of internationally renowned guest artists, placing the music of Worcester’s most famous son alongside that of his contemporaries and some of today’s leading composers and arrangers.

Kenneth Woods, Artistic Director of The Elgar Festival said : “Our festival culminates in Elgar’s ‘The Music Makers’, a setting of Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s ‘Ode’.  We read the poem’s opening line, ‘We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams’ as a call to action and unity for our community.  Our celebration of the life and music of Elgar in the city of his birth engages and embraces people of all backgrounds.  It is a programme which celebrates sense of place and community, Elgar’s music, the music of today, and which provides a showcase for music of composers of diverse backgrounds.”

Some of the highlights for 2023 include:

• At the heart of the Festival is the Gala Concert by the English Symphony Orchestra and the Elgar Festival Chorus at Worcester Cathedral on Saturday 3 June at 7.30pm;
• The annual Elgar’s Strings by the English String Orchestra concert at Worcester Guildhall;
• Late night Club Elgar concerts featuring jazz, world music, blues and more with some of the UK’s most interesting musicians;
• An evening concert in Malvern Priory featuring the music of Worcester’s greatest living composer, Ian Venables;
• Throughout the Festival, The Guildhall in Worcester, will have an exhibition on display of Elgar memorabilia on loan from prestigious private collections.

Since it began in 2018 – lauded as ‘Critic’s Pick’ in both The Guardian and The Times – the Festival has doubled in size and scale and championed Sir Edward to as wide an audience as possible.

For a full list of events, costs and booking information, please visit www.elgarfestival.org.