Keble Early Music Festival 2023
The closing concert of the 2023 Keble Early Music Festival © Jonathan Slade
Christopher Bucknall, Director of Music, writes:
This February, we had another hugely successful Keble Early Music Festival. It was my first as Artistic Director and I very much enjoyed planning the programme of events around the structure of the previous Festivals, whilst also thinking how we might offer different elements in the future.
The Festival began with two workshops, one hosted by our friends at Instruments of Time and Truth (Oxford’s Baroque orchestra) and directed towards school-age string players and the second run by the Thames Valley Early Music Forum and giving adult amateur players and singers a day to explore the sacred music of the great French baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The educational thread of the festival continued through the week with a coffee concert performed by the University’s Historical Performance Ensemble, the Bate Collective, and a lunch-time concert of renaissance and baroque favourites from the Graduate singers within Keble College Choir.
This February, we had another hugely successful Keble Early Music Festival
The Choir itself took centre stage for much of the week, singing a Eucharist for Ash Wednesday with music by the great William Byrd, Compline with music by Christopher Tye and Thomas Tallis, and then contributing superbly to the final concert of the Festival, Baroque Birthdays, singing two wonderful Birthday Cantatas by Handel and Bach. This was undoubtedly the highlight of the week, with a 22 strong baroque orchestra and stellar soloists celebrating the end of the Festival. It was a particularly special event as we were joined by the former Warden Sir Jonathan and his wife Lady Philips in celebration of the generous endowment made in his honour to support the final concert of the Festival.
The Choir took centre stage for much of the week
In addition to many wonderful contributions from the choir, we were treated to some exceptional concerts from internationally acclaimed artists. Highlights were Festival Patron Mahan Esfahani’s recital of part of the second book of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier in the O’Reilly Theatre, Rachel Podger’s glorious solo violin recital in the Chapel, Edward Higginbottom’s performance of some rare French baroque gems and Ensemble Pro Victoria’s sensitive concert of music for Lent, including Domenico Scarlatti’s glorious Stabat Mater.
The Festival’s success was due in no small part to the amazing work behind the scenes by Pippa Thynne, our music administrator, and also our fantastic Graduate Choral Award holders who took on myriad responsibilities through the week, ranging from Social Media and Programme notes to stage-managing and interval drinks. I’m hugely grateful to everybody for the help in making it such a great success.
