Celebrated composer to feature at this year’s Elgar Festival

Michael Berkeley is the featured composer at this year’s festival.

Organisers of one of the county’s most successful festivals have announced the attendance of a special guest.

The Elgar Festival – which runs from Tuesday 30 May until Sunday 4 June this year – will welcome Michael Berkeley, one of Britain’s most famous living composers.

His music will be performed by the English Symphony Orchestra, alongside the music of Sir Edward Elgar, at concerts in Worcester and Malvern.

Berkeley’s colourful and ebullient work ‘The Secret Garden’ will be heard at the Gala Concert in Worcester Cathedral on Saturday 3 June, while music by his father, Sir Lennox Berkeley and his godfather, Benjamin Britten, will feature in ‘Elgar’s Strings – Connections’ at Worcester’s Guildhall.

Michael is one of Britain’s most admired composers and broadcasters and the only professional musician in the House of Lords where he champions human rights, protection for young girls from exploitation and assault, as well as campaigning for the arts.

During the festival, Michael will celebrate his 75^th birthday.

Kenneth Woods, Artistic Director at the Elgar Festival said: “It’s a thrill and an honour to be celebrating Michael Berkeley’s 75^th birthday at the Elgar Festival.  He is not only one of our most important and engaging composers, but also a living link to our musical heritage.”

Themed ‘We are the Music Makers’, this year’s 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.

Tickets for the Gala Concert cost between £5.00 and £28.00 each.

During the festival, Michael will also be at the following venues:

• The Firs – Elgar’s birthplace in Lower Broadheath, Worcester – to discuss his life in music and his connections with the great composers of the last 50 years, on Friday 2 June;
• Royal Porcelain Works to speak about what Elgar’s legacy means to composers today on Sunday 4 June;
• Again, at the Royal Porcelain Works where his ‘Torque and Velocity’ string quartet will be performed together with Elgar’s own quartet on Sunday 4 June.

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

Since it began – 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.