2024's Letter from Festival Director, Caz Weller Knight

 

We are delighted to celebrate a significant milestone this year with the 21st birthday of the music festival. As always I hope our series of concerts and lectures will be uplifting and entertaining, as well as playing their part in bringing people together to have fun while also supporting the life of the arts in our beautiful part of the world. I am very pleased that the BBC has returned to record the majority of our 2024 concerts - a testament not only to the excellent acoustics of St Marys’ but also to the excellence of the concerts! I sincerely thank our sponsors, our Dolphins, our audience, and last but certainly not least, our volunteers; we are all ingredients in the magical alchemy that makes this festival possible.

 

Having officially ‘come of age’ however, now is a good moment to reflect on the future of the festival and its evolution in an ever-changing world. One abiding concern for classical music enthusiasts is the question of how we engage younger generations. With diminishing budgets for music education in schools and reduced numbers of local music hubs (these were the successors to County Music Services) we have to wonder where the next generation of classical music lovers will come from? In response to this concern, we are delighted to welcome George Wheeler-Carmichael as a new trustee to the festival team. George is not only an ardent supporter of the festival but is also passionate about fostering connections with schools and local music groups. He will focus on ensuring that we are informed about what local needs are, so that we can better find opportunities to share the joy and value of the festival with the area’s youngsters.

 

Regular visitors to Tetbury may also have noticed a new music festival initiative in the town in the form of a musical ‘Best Dressed Window Competition’. Inspired by trustee Helen Priday’s admiration for the success of ‘Chelsea in Bloom’, where businesses in Chelsea decorate their shop fronts with flowers to support the Chelsea Flower Show and end up being destinations in their own right, I hit the streets of Tetbury to invite local businesses to decorate their windows with a musical theme. I am delighted to say that there was an extremely enthusiastic and supportive response with a large number of Tetbury shops getting behind the idea of transforming Tetbury into a vibrant musical space that would, we hoped, attract lots of visitors to ‘the high street’. This would benefit all the fabulous independent shops but also raise our profile locally so that every musical youngster might discover us. At the same time, thanks to a generous sponsor, we would raise funds for St Mary’s Primary School in Tetbury to enhance their music provision. A special salute goes to Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, the TV celebrity, interior designer and music lover, who agreed to come to Tetbury to judge the windows; his generosity and support was the absolute booster rocket on this venture, thank you Laurence!

 

So, as we look forward to our next decade of wonderful music making, I warmly invite you to come back to the festival next year bringing a younger relative or friend with you to at least one of the concerts – for my part, I will make sure that the programming is as inviting as possible!

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Caz Weller Knight
Festival Director