The English Music Festival (also known as EMF) is an annual four-day event held over the second May bank holiday, dedicated to the performance of British composers from the mediaeval to the present day with a strong focus on the early to mid twentieth century. Founded and organised by

Em Marshall EM, Em or em may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * EM, the E major musical scale * Em, the E minor musical scale * Electronic music, music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production * Ency ...

in 2006, the Festival takes place in

Dorchester on Thames Dorchester on Thames (or Dorchester-on-Thames) is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northwest of Wallingford and southeast of Oxford. The town is a few hundred yards from the confluence of the River Thames and River Thame. A c ...

, Oxfordshire and the surrounding area. Now in its seventh year, the festival is rapidly expanding to become one of Britain's major

classical music festivals Classical may refer to: European antiquity *Classical antiquity, a period of history from roughly the 7th or 8th century B.C.E. to the 5th century C.E. centered on the Mediterranean Sea *Classical architecture, architecture derived from Greek and ...

, performing many neglected and previously unperformed works by composers as diverse as

Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

and

Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...

Joseph Holbrooke Joseph Charles Holbrooke (5 July 18785 August 1958) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. Life Early years Joseph Holbrooke was born Joseph Charles Holbrook in Croydon, Surrey. His father, also named Joseph, was a music hall music ...

and Edwin York Bowen. The festival also presents world premiers by contemporary composers such as Matthew Curtis,

Cecilia McDowall Cecilia McDowall (born 1951 in London, England) is a British composer, particularly known for her choral compositions. Life and career McDowall read music at the University of Edinburgh, continuing her studies at Trinity College of Music, London ...

, Paul Carr and Tom Rose. EMF's concerts are regularly broadcast by

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

, and the festival has established relationships with such orchestras as the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale symp ...

, the Orchestra of St Paul's and City of London Choir, and artists such as

David Owen Norris David Owen Norris, (born 1953) is a British pianist, composer, academic, and broadcaster. Early life Norris was born in 1953 in Long Buckby in Northamptonshire, England, later attending Daventry Grammar School. He took lessons locally from c ...

, James Gilchrist and

Janice Watson Janice may refer to: * Janice (given name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) * ''Janice & Abbey'', a reality TV series * Processor codename of the Samsung Galaxy S Advance Android smartphone * Janice, Łódź Voivodes ...

Background and general information

The EMF held its first festival in October 2006 following a four-year fundraising effort and development by Em Marshall. A founder member (and now Chairman of) the

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

Society (RVW Society), Marshall first conceived of the idea while working at Thames Music Publishing in the late Nineties. The aim of the Festival has been to draw attention to the large amount of neglected, unperformed, and sometimes unpublished works by British composers in the early years of the twentieth Century. Since its inaugural Festival, the EMF has been based in Dorchester Abbey, Dorchester on Thames in Oxfordshire, and concerts are also held in

Sutton Courtenay Sutton Courtenay is a village and civil parish on the River Thames south of Abingdon-on-Thames and northwest of Didcot. Historically part of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of Oxfordshire since the 1974 boundary changes. The 201 ...

Radley Radley is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish about northeast of the centre of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Abingdon, Oxfordshire. The parish includes the Hamlet (place), hamlet of Lower Radley on the River Thames. It was part of B ...

, and Oxford. The Festival has an average of fifteen concerts a year, and an additional series of fringe talks. The concerts range from small scale recitals to full scale orchestral pieces, and has recently branched into semi staged opera. Attendance has increased greatly as the Festival has progressed. Funding for the Festival is based entirely on individual supporters and charitable organisation. The Festival receives no government funding as yet. Vice-presidents of the Festival include Julian Lloyd Webber, Jeremy Irons, and the Marquess of Salisbury.

Future development

EM Records is the recording arm of the English Music Festival, and was created to fulfil the EMF's aims of celebrating and preserving overlooked works by British composers. EM Records first CD release, produced by Em Marshall, was in March 2011. So far, the recording has been received with enthusiasm by the critics. It features two world premiere recordings together with an unjustly-neglected work. The Violin Sonatas by

Arthur Bliss Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss (2 August 189127 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor. Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army. In the post-war years he qu ...

and

Henry Walford Davies Sir Henry Walford Davies (6 September 1869 – 11 March 1941) was an English composer, organist, and educator who held the title Master of the King's Music from 1934 until 1941. He served with the Royal Air Force during the First World War, dur ...

have languished in manuscript form for over one hundred years, and were performed at the 2010 English Music Festival by regular EMF artists

Rupert Marshall-Luck Rupert Marshall-Luck (born Rupert Luck) is a British violinist and musicologist. After reading Music at Cambridge University, he was awarded a postgraduate scholarship to continue his studies with the eminent pedagogue Simon Fischer and thereafte ...

and Matthew Rickard. These works are presented alongside the opulent and darkly turbulent Violin Sonata by

York Bowen Edwin York Bowen (22 February 1884 – 23 November 1961) was an English composer and pianist. Bowen's musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a ...

. In future the label will produce both recordings of live concerts and specifically recorded work. Plans are already underway for future releases. These include the World Premiere recording of Gustav Holst's ''The Coming of Christ'' (which received its first contemporary performance in the 2010 EMF) performed by the City of London Choir under

Hilary Davan Wetton Hilary John Davan Wetton (born 23 December 1943) is a British conductor. Biography Hilary Davan Wetton was educated at Westminster School and Oxford University. He has married three times, in 1964 to Elizabeth Tayler and in 1989 to Alison Kell ...

; and a recording of Roger Quilter's piano music by David Owen Norris. Also forthcoming is a live recording, to be made at the 2011 Festival, of part-songs by Rawsthorne and

Haydn Wood Haydn Wood (25 March 1882 – 11 March 1959) was a 20th-century English composer and concert violinist, best known for his 200 or so ballad style songs, including the popular ''Roses of Picardy''. Life Haydn Wood was born in the West Riding ...

performed by the Syred Consort under their director, Ben Palmer. Educating both audiences and children about English music is also part of the EMF mission. The festival has run several education projects, such as joint schools concerts. A current project is still in development.

References

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Background and general information

Future development

See also

References

External links