Malcolm Arnold Festival to return with performances to honour the acclaimed composer
The annual Malcolm Arnold Festival will return to Northampton next month with live performances to honour the acclaimed composer.
The event will include performances by celebrated cellist Julian Llody Webber, Jiaxin Lloyd Webber, the Northampton Symphony Orchestra, the Towcester Studio Band and other guest soloists.
The festival, back for its 21st year, will take place on Saturday, October 24, and be followed by a live stream in November.
The day concerts will take place at Cripps Hall at Northampton School For Boys and the evening concert at St Matthew’s Church.
Festival founder and director Paul Harris is a renowned composer, clarinettist and leading music educator.
As Arnold's co-biographer, he continues to champion the composer’s legacy by presenting his musical style through accessible and engaging formats for both professional and student musicians.
He said: “We’re delighted to be returning to Cripps Hall which is part of Northampton School for Boys – the very school the young Malcolm Arnold attended
“Highlights include a world premiere performance of Malcolm’s unfinished Violin Concerto, orchestrated from the composer’s detailed sketches by Jonathan Whiting and performed by rising star Elif Cansever, who’s playing was so rapturously received during last year’s festival.
“For our Saturday evening extravaganza, we transfer to St Matthew’s Church and the opportunity to hear music from one of the composer’s classic film scores, The Sound Barrier, alongside his powerhouse Philharmonic Concerto as part of an entertainment-packed Gala Concert performed by Northampton Symphony Orchestra.”
Probably best known for his internationally famous film scores, symphonic showpieces and a canon of semi-autobiographical symphonies, the Malcolm Arnold Festival is an annual programme of events celebrating one of England’s most prolific, colourful and charismatic composers
It will be opened by its president, the internationally-renowned cellist and music educator Julian Lloyd Webber.
Malcolm Arnold wrote his Fantasy for Cello for the cellist in 1986.
Consisting of seven short continuous movements, the work conveys the same intensity of expression found in Arnold’s finest works and it will be Lloyd Webber’s wife, Jiaxin Cheng Lloyd Webber – herself an acclaimed cellist – who will take centre stage in this performance.
Joining Jiaxin will be guest ensembles including the Albion Orchestra, Towcester Studio Band, Roger Coull (violin), Nicholas Roberts (cello) and Lynn Arnold (piano) as well as rising stars from the premier international music academies and conservatoires.
St Matthew’s Church will host the festival’s Gala Concert where the Northampton Symphony Orchestra will present a celebration of orchestral music by Malcolm Arnold alongside two of his fellow-composers and performed under the baton of the orchestra’s musical director and life-long Arnold champion John Gibbons BEM.
Full details of all the performances at both events are available online.
The Malcolm Arnold Festival will return with a free-to-view live stream on Sunday, November 1, which will present an additional programme themed around the composer’s music of 1956 and a discovery of his piano repertoire.
Tickets for the performances at Cripps Hall in Billing Road, Northampton, cost £18 for adults. Admission is free for under 18 and students. The programme begins at 11am.
Tickets for the Gala Concert at Saint Matthew's Church, cost £15 for adults, £12 for concessions and £5 for under 18s. The programme begins at 7.30pm.
To book, visit https://ti.to/nso/nsoconcert241026
For more information visit www.malcolmarnoldfestival.com