Dartington Music Summer School celebrated 75th anniversary in 2023 with Dame Thea Musgrave as composer-in-residence and much more

Dartington Music Summer School returns in 2023 with four weeks of courses and shared music-making from 22 July to 19 August 2023 curated by artistic director Sara Mohr-Pietsch. And 2023 also celebrates a double anniversary, 75 years since the Summer School was founded and 70 years since it found a home at Dartington Hall in Devon.

For 2023, Thea Musgrave will be composer-in-residence, and conductor Anna Lapwood (in her Dartington debut) will be directing Musgrave's Missa Brevis. There will be new courses in a wide range of composition for amateur musicians, with film composer Isobel Waller-Bridge, composer/performer Héloïse Werner and singer-songwriter Ana Silvera, whilst composer Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian leads a composition course in writing for historical and newly-devised instruments and electronics, and cellist Matthew Barley explores improvisation.

During lockdown, Robert Hollingworth and I Fagiolini produced a series on YouTube, Singing the Score and they will be returning to Dartington with live, interactive version.  John Butt and the Dunedin Consort will be leading a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor.

There will also be coaching from sopranos Mary Bevan and Mhairi Lawson, tenor James Gilchrist, pianist Anna Lapwood, conductor Alice Farnham, Black Voices and ensembles Mediva, Fretwork, Magnard Ensemble and Leonore Piano Trio

Conductor Grace Rossiter will direct the Big Choir in a performance of Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Composer Robin Haigh and recorder virtuoso Tabea Debus will be leading OUR DEAR FOREST, a large-scale outdoor installation performance in Dartington’s Deer Park, co-created with recorder players of all ages and abilities.

Full details from the Dartington Music Summer School's website.