The St Marylebone Festival

Join us for the 3rd St Marylebone Festival
21-27July 2018

ST MARYLEBONE FESTIVAL
Saturday 22 - Friday 28 July 2017

The Second St Marylebone Festival marks the 900th Anniversary of the Parish that is now St Marylebone and the 200th Anniversary of the present Parish Church. It also marks the 30th Anniversary of the installation of our Rieger organ. During a week of music and festivities we celebrate the rich cultural history of the church and the many personalities connected with it.
Admiral Nelson’s daughter, Horatio was baptised at the church and we open with a ‘come and sing’ day culminating in a performance of Haydn’s Nelson Mass. A complete Browning Day celebrates the clandestine marriage of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning in 1846. There is a chamber performance of Brahms’ Requiem as it was premiered in a private house in Wimpole Street in 1871. On two pianos, we re-stage the infamous piano duel between Beethoven and Joseph Woefl, the Austrian composer who lived and died in Marylebone and was, in his day, more famous than Mozart.
A concert of music from the period recreates the essence of the Pleasure Gardens of Old Marylebone at their height; we welcome Gabriel Woolf on the genius of Charles Dickens, who wrote many of his best-known novels as a resident of Marylebone. There is a return visit from the popular counter-tenor, Andrew Watts, a specially-commissioned mass by Paul Mealor (who rose to fame following his setting of Ubi caritas at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge), a celebration of contemporary multi-faith artists and composers and even a Teddy Bear’s Picnic for the children amongst us as a salute to London Zoo. There is something for everyone and those who attended last year’s Festival will recall the convivial welcoming atmosphere.

Gavin Roberts, Director of Music, St Marylebone Parish Church