Taken from 'The Castle Bridge, Downton' Watercolour by Thomas Hearne (1744 -1817). From a private collection.

The sixth Arcadia Festival is in Leintwardine, Kingsland, Brampton Bryan and Downton and this year has the theme Youth, Age and Love. Arcadia, this year extended to include film and poetry, is devised and directed by composer/pianist Eleanor Alberga and violinist Thomas Bowes and brings together what Christopher Morley of the Birmingham Post called a ‘hand-picked bunch of world-class instrumentalists’.

This Year's Arcadians

Click on the names for biographies.

Flute: Sarah Newbold
Oboe: Jane Marshall
Clarinet: Sacha Rattle
Bassoon: Bartosz Kwasecki

Horn: Victoria Swensen
Violin: Thomas Bowes
Violin: Patrick Kiernan
Viola: Louise Williams

Cello: Robert Irvine
Double Bass: Chi-chi Nwanoku MBE
Conductor and composer: Eleanor Alberga
Poet: Pele Cox

Arcadia event 1

7.30 pm Thursday 1^st October at The Sun Inn, Rosemary Lane, Leintwardine SY7 0LP
An opening free ‘taster’ concert. Informal and fun - a great opportunity to meet and hear the artists.
Tickets

Arcadia event 2

3.00 pm Friday 2^nd October at Leintwardine Community Centre SY7 0LB
Screening of Yaron Zilberman’s film ‘A Late Quartet’ followed by a discussion of life in a string quartet with four who have lived through it.
Link to IMDB site for information and reviews of the film
Tickets

Arcadia event 3

Programme notes

7.30 pm Friday 2^nd October at St Mary Magdalene, Leintwardine SY7 0LJ 

Dvořák Quintet op 77 - see BBC site for more on Dvořák
Eleanor Alberga ‘Langvad’ UK premiere - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p032c946 to hear her commission for the Last Night of the Proms 2015
Beethoven String Quartet in C sharp minor op 131 - see BBC site for more on this quartet
Tickets

Arcadia event 4

3.00 pm Saturday 3^rd October at  Aardvark Books, Brampton Bryan SY7 0DH
A reading of her collection ‘The Mistress Account’ by the poet Pele Cox.
See Pele Cox site for more information on the poet.
Tickets

Arcadia event 5

Programme notes

7.30 pm Saturday 3^rd October at St Michael and All Angels, Kingsland HR6 9QW

Dohnányi Serenade for string trio op 10
Brahms Clarinet quintet op 115 - see BBC site for more on Brahms' chamber music
Spohr Grand Nonet op 31 - see BBC site for more on this work
Tickets

Arcadia event 6

Programme notes

4.00 pm Sunday 4^th October at St Giles Downton-on-the-Rock SY8 2HU

Samuel Barber Summer Music - see BBC site for more on Barber
Janáček String Quartet No.2 ‘Intimate Letters’ - see BBC site for more on Janáček's quartets
Beethoven Septet in E flat major op 20 - see BBC site for more on Beethoven
Tickets