The Lichfield Festival

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The Lichfield Festival is an annual multi-art-form festival held in Lichfield, Staffordshire, which aims to combine high quality, challenging and diverse events of an international calibre, alongside community-based, locally-sourced activities. Performances include drama, dance, film, literature, visual arts, jazz, folk, classical and world music. Performances take place principally in the medieval Lichfield Cathedral and the twenty-first century Lichfield Garrick theatre, alongside non-traditional venues across the County. The Festival also incorporates two free community events – a Medieval Market and the Festival Fireworks.[1][dead link]

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] 1981–1989

The Lichfield Festival was founded in 1981 by the then Dean of Lichfield Cathedral, John Lang; and Gordon Clark, who was head of music at Abbotsholme School and Artistic Director of the Abbotsholme Arts Society. Clark, while continuing his work at Abbotsholme, was the Festival’s first Artistic Director (the link between the two programmes continues to this day); and the founding team was completed by Financial Director John Round and Patrick Lichfield, then Earl of Lichfield, who was one of the first financial contributors.[2][dead link]

The inaugural Festival opened on 3 July 1982 with the Band of the Royal Marines processing from the market square in Lichfield to the west door of the Cathedral, which John Lang described as ‘a kind of trumpet call to the City to be aware of our plans for pleasures to come’.[2][dead link] Further highlights of the opening year included performances by the Hallé and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras; and the Cambridge Footlights Revue, featuring the then relatively unknown Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and Emma Thompson. The Endellion Quartet were artists in residence and returned many times in subsequent years. There were also international contributions from the Japanese Suzuki Tour Company, the French Rouen Officium Pastorum and the German Antiqua Cologne. As Lang said, all were ‘a foretaste of what was to become normal festival fayre’.[2][dead link]

Highlights from the rest of the eighties included the visit of sitar legend Ravi Shankar together with tabla virtuoso Alla Rakha in 1984 — a year which also saw the Festival’s one and only foray into musical theatre, with the Lichfield Cathedral School’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – a visit from Oscar Peterson in 1985, and skiffle Legend Lonnie Donegan came along with his dancing sunshine band in 1987. The Festival also experimented with a two-day show-jumping event in 1989, which managed a reprise in 1990 but hasn’t been heard of since. In 1985, conductor Valery Gergiev, pianist Evgeny Kissin, and violinists Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin all received their UK debuts at the Lichfield Festival.

[edit] 1990–2001

Gordon Clark’s tenure as Artistic Director ended with his untimely death in August 1989.[2][dead link] Clark was succeeded by Paul Spicer, the longest serving Artistic Director to date. Spicer sought to ‘cater for all tastes and provide something for everyone’. Different thematic strands were brought into the programme to encourage what Spicer called ‘cohesion and unity’. The first of these were the music of Mozart, Samuel Barber, and Cole Porter in 1991. The bi-centenary of Mozart’s death in this year also saw the Festival’s first opera – a full production of the The Marriage of Figaro. The Festival acquired a logo – a stylised cello headstock with ‘The Lichfield Festival’ encircling it – and a Fringe, with events taking place in sixteen venues around the city, in 1994.

Spicer also introduced the concept of having a composer-in-residence to Lichfield, the first of whom was William Mathias, who was succeeded by such luminaries as Robert Saxton, Sir Michael Tippett was not a composer-in-residence, but did send in his best wishes in 1992.

Returning artists: András Schiff, Humphrey Lyttelton, Endellion Quartet, National Youth Jazz Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Ex Cathedra, BBC Philharmonic.

[edit] 2002–2004

Paul Spicer was followed by Meurig Bowen. Bowen had come from a job in Australia, and his first festival, in 2002, showed an increased antipodean influence which would point the way towards a general expansion of scope.

Some of the highlights included William Barton, an aboriginal didgeridoo player, who performed a European premiere of Peter Sculthorpe’s Requiem for mixed chorus, dideridoo and orchestra.

A new logo, typeface and corporate structure were introduced following Bowen’s arrival, signalling a gentle loosening of the link between the Festival and the Cathedral. The closure of Lichfield Civic Hall in 2001 led to the use of venues including Sutton Coldfield Town Hall during the festivals of 2002/2003, while film screenings were moved to the theatre at the Friary School in Lichfield. In 2003 the Lichfield Garrick theatre, which had arisen quite literally from the ashes of the Civic Hall, was opened on the same night as that year’s Festival, with a performance by the Jazz Jamaica All-Stars.[3]

[edit] The Festival Today

After a short three year stint at Lichfield, Bowen left to take up a position with Aldeburgh Productions, and was succeeded in Lichfield by Richard Hawley, previously orchestra manager with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO).

Philip Glass performed a rare solo piano recital in 2007[4], while virtuoso double bass player François Rabbath made an extremely rare visit to England to perform at Lichfield in 2006,[4] alongside rising British jazz star Gwilym Simcock, who was an artist-in-residence in the same year.[4] Simcock's 2006 residency also included the first ever non-London performance of the Gwilym Simcock Big Band and a major big band commission entitled The Lichfield Suite, which was subsequently programmed by the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and shortlisted for a 2007 British Composer Award.[5] The Festival continues to expand and fulfil the aims of its founders.

[edit] Literature Weekend

October 2006 saw the First Lichfield Literature Weekend, a spin-off from the summer Festival. 3 days of talks from authors including John Carey, David Crystal and Robert Hutchinson took place in the city’s George Hotel.[4] The Literature Weekend is already established as an annual fixture in the city’s calendar.[6]

[edit] Country Churches/FEAST

The first instance of a local church being used as a concert venue for the Lichfield Festival occurred in 1992, when St. John’s Hospital Chapel in Lichfield and St. Matthew’s Hospital Chapel in Burntwood were added to the roster.

From 1997–2007 the events in Lichfield were augmented by concerts in churches around Staffordshire, with the aim to provide exposure to the arts for as wide an audience as possible under the Lichfield Festival banner. It was then and remains policy to avoid, as much as possible, repetition of venues, and performances have taken place in Yoxall, Alrewas, Hawksyard, Hoar Cross, amongst many others.

From 2008 the country church series was relabelled as FEAST (Festival Events Around Staffordshire), with the scope for venues, beyond churches and beyond the traditional understanding of what a venue can be, to be brought into the Festival fold.

[edit] Medieval Market

Since 1995 the Festival has incorporated a Medieval Market, taking place in the Cathedral Close and attracting up to 30,000 visitors.

[edit] Education

Each year Lichfield schools participate in education projects, culminating in a performance in Lichfield Cathedral.

[edit] Volunteers

Beyond a small core team the Festival is staffed almost entirely by volunteers. Each year approximately 200 people give up their time to ensure the Festival’s continued existence and development, and to cement the relationship between the Festival and the town which bears its name.

[edit] Fireworks

Since its inception the Festival has been closed with a firework display, attracting up to 10,000 attendees.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.lichfieldfestival.org/site2007/content/view/25/40/
  2. ^ a b c d A Personal Account of the Lichfield Festival, 1981–2006 by John Lang http://www.lichfieldfestival.org/site2007/images/stories/lang-festival-history.doc
  3. ^ BBC Staffordshire - Lichfield Festival
  4. ^ a b c d http://www.lichfieldfestival.org/2008/images/stories/2007%20festival%20booking%20brochure.pdf
  5. ^ British Composer Awards 2007 - Nominations
  6. ^ untitled

[edit] External Links