Throughout March venues around Barnes listened to the sounds of classical music as part of a local festival.
Barnes Music Festival is an annual event that ran from the 9th of March until the 24th this year and had the theme of Legends.
The festival first began in March 2013 and has had a multitude of themes throughout the 11 years of events.
Pauline Crawford, the founder of Barnes Community Choir, who have participated since the first ever event said: “I think it’s really good that we have a mixture of very top class musicians that are accessible to people in their local venue.”
Barnes Community Choir performed on the 21st of March at St Mary’s alongside 26-year-old soprano Sofia Kirwan-Baez.
Sofia is an up and coming star in the opera world who is a Josephine Baker Trust artist as well as a Young Artist on the National Opera Studio’s Global Talent Programme.
Pauline said: “She was perfect for the evening.
“We had a real good mixture of classical and opera and her lovely jazzy lounge music.
“She accompanied herself on the piano and we had a great range of music this year as well.
“We did a bit more contemporary songs than we usually do.”
Sofia said that combining lounge music and more serious classical was her: “Taking timeless icons from both sides, and mixing them up.”
On the 19th of March Concert Violinist Madeleine Mitchell played violin alongside longtime collaborator Nigel Clayton on piano.
Madeleine has performed in 50 countries and considers her violin as a passport.
She also teaches at The Royal College of Music and is a Director of the London Chamber Ensemble.
Madeleine said: “It’s a collaborative thing between the people who run the festival and the Music Society, wanting to have a popular program, which will appeal to audiences.
“And then the theme of the band’s music festival this year is legends, which lends itself nicely to music.
“I immediately thought of this piece by the British composer Delius, written in 1895.
“It’s a beautiful piece, I’ve played it a lot.”
Jack Hancher, an accomplished classical guitarist and resident of Barnes for almost 10 years performed a recital on the 18th.
Jack said: “As a local, I always thought it’d be nice to be involved in the festival”
He also said the festival is a great opportunity for communities to hear world class musicians on their doorstep.
Jack said: “I think the vast number of lunchtime concerts was great too as many people don’t have the time out of a working day to get to somewhere like the Wigmore Hall for a lunchtime concert.
“But for people who work locally or work from home, they can just pop up the road during their lunch break to see these musicians without it completely disrupting a work day.”
Other performances included but are not limited to a piano recital by Imogen Cooper, DBE.
Gustav’s Great Galactic Adventure where multiple local primary schools came together to learn and perform a piece of music.
There was a piano recital by London based pianist Pavel Kolesnikov.
There was also a toddlers concert called Journey to Space.
Pianist Lucy Parham performed a piano alongside actress and Barnes resident Patricia Hodge, known for her role in Miranda, narrating the life of composer Clara Schumann.
The festival finished on the 24th with a Choral Evensong at St Mary’s sung by the choirs of both St Mary’s, Barnes and St Michael’s Barnes.
Featured Photo by Rob Simmons on Unsplash
