History
The first iteration of the current Festival began life in 1996, as the Stratford upon Avon & District English Music Festival. In 2017, David Mills, a retired barrister and solicitor, and active amateur musician, was invited to take over as Artistic Director, in which task he prevailed famously, bringing together a roster of exciting young artists to perform a diverse programme of works over 14 lunchtime and evening concerts. He secured additionally the support and co-operation of BBC Radio 3, which broadcast a number of lunchtime events, as well as the New Generation Artists’ programme – a legacy that will continue to enrich the Festival in 2018.
After the curtain fell on the 2017 Festival, David invited another lawyer, the barrister Matthew Boyden, to replace him as Artistic Director, with David moving to the post of Festival CEO. Before joining the Bar, Matthew was a musicologist, critic and broadcaster, so the two of them had much to talk about. The place of words and music in their lives led, inevitably perhaps, to their reconstruction of the Festival; and so, in 2018, it has been reformed.
The focus on language more generally (a factor for David, who is fluent in Italian and Latin, and for Matthew, who is fluent in French) has widened dramatically the profile of the Festival. With the Marquess of Hertford’s patronage, and with Tamsin Waley-Cohen and the Albion String Quartet agreeing to become the Festival’s Artists in Residence there is a genuine opportunity to create a community of the interested and the interesting in Stratford upon Avon, for locals and visitors alike. Of course, the additional benefits of web streaming (of concerts as well as talks), enable the Festival to reach an international audience – in tandem with the Festival’s Partnerships with the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the British Library and the City University of Birmingham.