Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival

Welcome to the Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival website.

Introduction
The Festival began in 1885 when Mary Wakefield, an accomplished amateur musician, organised a competition in the grounds of Sedgwick House near Kendal to raise money for her local church. The idea took hold and very quickly became an established annual event. It also spread to other parts of the country – several distinguished Festivals, such as Leith Hill in Dorking, were modelled directly on our Festival, and the whole music festival movement can truthfully be said to be derived from it.
The original aim of the Festival was to encourage the love of choral singing and this is still a strong element in the Festival.
Choirs were started up by Mary Wakefield in a number of villages specifically to support the Festival and many of these still exist today. A major feature of the Festival has always been the Festival Choral Concert, for which a large chorus is put together from the local choirs to sing a major choral work under the direction of a nationally-known conductor with a professional orchestra and soloists.

The Festival Today

Now a biennial event, the Festival lasts a week, of which four days are devoted to adjudicated classes covering a wide range of vocal and instrumental work and designed for all age groups.

The exact choice of classes varies from time to time to reflect changing interests – for instance, there is an evening for school rock groups and classes for composers.

A huge variety of ways of making music is covered, and the aim is to appeal not just to school pupils and teachers but also to community groups of all kinds.

An important and unusual feature of the Festival is the workshops offered to both primary and secondary schools.

A workshop leader is chosen to develop a particular speciality during a day's work with participating schools and work is presented at the end of the day to parents and friends;
the Friday night Secondary Schools concert is always extremely popular and acts as a showcase for the Westorland Youth Orchestra as well as featuring the finals of the Jim Noble Award.

Using funds generously donated in memory of a well-known and much-admired local musician, the Award is given to the solo performer showing the most promise, and is adjudicated separately.

It should be noted that the Festival is open only to entrants living in the former County of Westmorland or within 25 miles of Kendal.

There are no money prizes.

The Syllabus of Adjudicated Classes will be published later in the year and will appear on a separate website.

Next year – 2009

The Festival will take place from 14th - 21st March 2009.

The Festival Choral Concert will feature Handel's Israel in Egypt and will take place in Kendal Parish Church on Saturday 21st March 2009 at 7.30 pm.

We are looking forward very much to working with David Lawrence, our Conductor, and Chorus Master Ian Jones.

Soloists will be provided by the Royal Northern College of Music and the orchestra will be the Northern Chamber Orchestra.
Details of the concert and the rehearsal timetable can be found at Rehearsal Timetable page on www.mwwf.co.uk

Anyone wishing to apply to join the Festival Chorus can print off the form and post it to Mrs. Jean Charlton, 4 Rigmaden Farm Cottages, Mansergh, Carnforth LA6 2ET.