Our Festival

Artistic Director: Kate Gould

Winchester Chamber Music Festival is an annual four-day Festival of chamber music concerts, schools’ concerts, family concerts, masterclasses, talks and community events which take place at the Festival home, St Paul’s Church, as well as throughout the city over the first May Bank Holiday weekend.  It is a vibrant, inclusive and high quality event, which is much anticipated by many regular concert-goers who live locally, as well as attracting audiences from afar, and introducing chamber music to those who do not normally have the opportunity to hear it live.

Artistic Director and cellist, Kate Gould, founded the Festival in 2007 with pianist Daniel Tong. She invites international chamber music colleagues along with an Emerging Quartet-in-Residence of student musicians to collaborate in a long weekend of concerts of the highest musical calibre each year.

Over the past 18 years, the Festival has welcomed many internationally renowned performers to its stage – leaders of renowned orchestras such as English National Opera and the Royal Opera House alongside principal players from Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Philharmonia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, well-known ensembles such as the London Bridge Trio, Gould Piano Trio, Nash Ensemble, and the Doric, Castallian, Navarra, Heath, Carducci and Sacconi string quartets, celebrated singers such as James Gilchrist, Katharine Dain, Ivan Ludlow, and notable pianists including Simon Crawford-Phillips, Tim Horton, Huw Watkins, Philip Moore and Benjamin Frith.

The concert programme is focused on the established chamber music canon of British and European composers. It also features works by contemporary composers and new commissions, and includes neglected and lesser-known pieces by a diverse range composers.

The Festival is proud of its strong connections with the local community through its education and outreach events, both by bringing music to those who are less able to attend more regular concert venues – taking performers into schools, charity events and care homes – and also encouraging participation in the Festival by local schoolchildren, budding young local musicians, and talented quartets emerging onto the international scene.

Chairman Tony Stoller said “We are delighted to welcome world-class musicians to Winchester every year.  Our aim is to make the Festival accessible to as many different people as possible – from longstanding supporters to those trying classical chamber music for the first time”.