A MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIRMAN

One of the hallmarks of the Wimbledon International Music Festival is the sheer variety of the concerts which Anthony Wilkinson succeeds in putting together each year. This 15th Festival is no exception. As you will see, the programme ranges from the large-scale choral and symphonic works to be performed by the Academy Choir and the Philharmonia, to a Mozart opera, the traditional jazz evening, a wide variety of chamber groups, solo piano recitals and a virtuoso accordionist. Alongside artists with established international reputations, such as Sofya Gulyak, Roderick Williams and the Chooi brothers we have up and coming young musicians, such as the Morningside Music Bridge Trio, the Meliora Collective and players from the Yehudi Menuhin School. We can look forward to familiar repertoire in the concert of Mozart’s Greatest Wind Music and the Glories of English Song but also opportunities to get acquainted with less well-known masterpieces such as the Cozzolani Vespers, written by a 17th Century nun, to be conducted by Olivia Shotton

Contemporary music features in a number of concerts including Ashley Wass’s piano recital. The typically eclectic concert to be given by Lunaris, a virtuoso violin and recorder group, spans music from the 13th to the 20th centuries.

Budding local performers are encouraged to take part in PlayFest, a day of informal music making on Saturday 4 November (see page 12 for details).

The trustees hope that you will indulge yourselves by coming to as many concerts as you can. In this way you will be ensuring the continued success of the Festival which depends on ticket sales as its main source of earned income.

We are hugely grateful to our major benefactors for their wonderful support particularly the Tertis Foundation, The Taylor Family Foundation, and grants from Arts Council England Lottery Fund; and to our longstanding event sponsors, Robert Holmes, Marcus Beale Architects, WSM Private Clients, TWM Solicitors, John Dyer-Grimes Architects, Stephen and Vicky Streater, and huge thanks to our loyal group of Benefactors and Friends.

New Friends and Sponsors are always welcome and would make a significant difference to secure our future and help make Wimbledon a flourishing cultural dwestination. Details of how to become a Friend are at page 31. You may wish to consider leaving a legacy for the Festival.

Finally, the trustees wish to pay tribute to our superb team of local volunteers who act as ushers and bar staff for all the concerts and without whom the Festival could not proceed. I very much look forward to seeing you at the Festival!

Bringing the BEST to Wimbledonwe need your help

The Trustees of the Wimbledon International Music Festival hope you are as excited as we are about the wonderful programme that our Founder and Director, Anthony Wilkinson, has put together for our 2023 Festival this November. As always since our founding in 2009, we will have the unique pleasure of seeing and hearing world class performers here at our venues in Wimbledon.

For this to continue in future years, we really need to ask for your help. As with most classical music concerts, the price of the tickets only covers around half of the full costs the Festival incurs and so we always rely on the generosity of our donors, sponsors, patrons and friends, as well as, historically, grants from the Arts Council, to allow us to continue the high quality of performance to which we aspire. And as you will be aware, the future of live classical music has never been under more threat. Just as music finances have been recovering from the effects of the pandemic, many ensembles, particularly those based in London and the South East, have been hit by severe cuts in funding from the Arts Council and other public bodies. Now more than ever, those of us who love live classical music need to support artists and ensembles, and charities like the Wimbledon International Music Festival, which provide them with a platform for their talents.

This year, we have a particular reason to ask for your help. Since our founding, our most generous and long-standing supporter has been the Wimbledon-based Tertis Foundation, named for the famous British violist, Lionel Tertis, in whose memory we have a viola concert every year. The Tertis Trustees have now decided that time has come to wind up the Foundation and have expressed a willingness to make the Festival a beneficiary of a substantial sum in recognition of our longstanding partnership. The Foundation would like to help us ensure the future financial health of the Festival by giving this as a restricted capital sum which they would expect us to preserve for the long-term. The Tertis Trustees are also giving this in the expectation that Festival raises significantly more than we have raised historically from donors and sponsors.

These two factors, the possible decrease of future Arts Council funding, and the need to respond to the Tertis Foundation’s challenge, means that we are asking you to consider giving generously, and increasing your contribution if you already support us. As trustee with particular responsibility for fundraising, I would be delighted to discuss this with you in more detail at any time. Many thanks!

FAMILY CONCERT with PRISM Ensemble

Handel: Israel in Egypt Academy Choir, Academy Baroque Players

Philharmonia Orchestra

LUNCHTIME CONCERT: ASHLEY WASS, piano

THE VIRTUOSO ACCORDION

Samuel Telari

LUNCHTIME CONCERT: THE MELIORA COLLECTIVE Meera Maharaj, flute

GLORIES OF ENGLISH SONG

VIENNA TO HOLLYWOOD

Tippett Quartet

INTERNATIONAL PIANO RECITAL

Sofya Gulyak

LUNCHTIME CONCERT: YEHUDI MENUHIN SCHOOL SHOWCASE

THE FORGOTTEN SCARLATTI

The Armonico Consort

MOZART’S GREATEST WIND MUSIC Wigmore Soloists

JUILLIARD QUARTET

Two Last Quartets

JUILLIARD QUARTET

Cavatina

LUNCHTIME CONCERT: MORNINGSIDE PIANO TRIO

LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY

Roderick Williams, baritone

Iain Burnside, piano

CHOOI BROTHERS

Nikki & Timothy Chooi, violins

Clayton Stephenson, piano

LUNARIS: Violin and Recorder

Virtuosi take a journey through The FOUR PHASES of the MOON