Whittington Music Festival

In 2011 cellist James Barralet suggested to his recently-retired parents that they might work with him in setting up a classical music festival in the Welsh marches of NW Shropshire.
A successful ‘taster’ concert in 2012 revealed that Whittington church was ideal in almost every respect for such a venture, with an unrivalled acoustic, unimpeded sight-lines, ample car parking, two nearby pubs, and a hospitable church community.
After winning the agreement of Steven Isserlis to become Honorary Patron, a management group was set up which soon became a charitable Trust.
In May 2013, James invited sixteen colleagues to celebrate the 180th anniversary of Brahms’ birth by performing his entire chamber music output in the space of just nine days. The residency for soloist-calibre musicians was key to an exciting vibrancy of performance. The following four years remained true to the single-composer precedent, focusing in turn on Schubert, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Beethoven.
2018 set a new course with six concerts of British music, including an hour of Scottish folk with Donald Grant and the Elias quartet, and was followed in 2019 by a programme of music by Dvorak and other Czech composers.
The folk theme was to have been picked up again in 2020 with a programme exploring classical works inspired by European folk music. However, due to the global pandemic, the festival had to be cancelled, allowing James and his parents to end their involvement in the management of the festival.
Sophia Rahman took over as Artistic Director late in 2020 and signalled another change of direction with a programme that included orchestral chamber works and a world premiere. The three-day 2021 festival opened within days of the ban on live performances being lifted to the delight of audience and artists alike. Social distancing rules seriously reduced audience numbers despite the temporary move to a much larger church in Oswestry.
The 2022 festival returned to Whittington and continued to innovate with a programme of seven concerts over four days including, for the first time, jazz, song and public masterclasses, all of which are now established elements of the festival, as is newly commissioned music. The 2023 festival starred baritone Roderick Williams, fresh from his appearance at the coronation of King Charles III and the Far Flung Trio from Ireland made their festival debut with a hugely diverse repertoire ranging from classical to gypsy jazz.

2024 highlighted the festival’s young professional artist residency programme and a thrilling new Whittington string quartet was born. A sold-out performance of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons revisited chamber orchestra repertoire.
The festival has steadily expanded its outreach programme in recent years, offering interactive concerts and workshops to various sectors of the community whose members might otherwise find it difficult to access the joys of live classical music and to experience world-class ensemble performances.

The 2025 festival takes place from 15th to 18th May.