The Brackley area has many delights to offer visitors and residents alike, and our annual Music Festival is perhaps one of the most enjoyable. This year we are celebrating our 13th Festival.

Over a period of two weeks in the summer, the Festival brings together young and old, amateur and professional, with a shared enthusiasm for the joy of live music either as performer or member of the audience.

The programme features both local talent and performers from further afield in the UK and internationally. As always, our programme this year is varied and talented, traditional and excitingly new, and we will be delighted if you can joined us for this "high summer" of musical pleasure.

History

Brackley Music Festival started with a weekend in July 1996. The founder, Norman Teager, had the idea of bringing together music for all tastes, presented by local musicians young and old, amateur and professional. Since then, every summer the Festival has provided a platform both for the great variety of music groups and musicians who live in and around Brackley and also for those who are nationally and internationally recognised.

A much loved contributor to those early music festivals was Edward Palmer, Conductor of the Jubilee Choir (also well remembered by students in the MCS Maths department). The Festival in 2001 was dedicated "to the memory of Eddie Palmer, a stalwart of music and the festival in Brackley for many years". His family set up a scholarship for talented young organists, one of whom, Nicholas Prozillo, we had the pleasure of hearing in a recital in July 2005.

Now the Brackley Music Festival has expanded to cover two whole weeks. We shall be celebrating our 13th anniversary with some of the original groups who are still going strong: the Jubilee Choir, the Music Schools, and Brackley and District Brass Band. Joining them over the two weeks will be performers from far and wide.

Commitee

The Music Festival relies on a hardworking Committee of volunteers to make it a success.

Chaired by Councillor Blake Stimpson, the Committee gathers each year to decide on the programme, book performers and venues, organize ticket and brochure printing and distribution, gather information on each performance and write and print programmes, handle ticket and money collection at each performance, and the many other activities large and small needed to make such an undertaking the success it is.

We are always interested in hearing from people who would like to join the Committee and help make the Festival a success. Please contact us for details. No musical talent required!