Home - North London Festival of Music, Speech and Drama

Welcome

The 2020 Festival will run from Monday 2nd March to Friday 3rd April and from Thursday 16th April to Monday 25th May. The syllabus files for the individual sections have now been loaded to the website and we are able to accept entries. To request a printed syllabus, please email admin@northlondonfestival.org.uk

The closing date for the wind and string sections of the festival has now passed. We may still be able to accept entries, but please contact the section secretary before applying.

From the separate pages for the sections of the festival you can download the section syllabuses and enter online. In many cases competition numbers are different from the numbers used in previous years, so take care when applying that you are applying for the correct competition.

We have relaunched our wind, brass and guitar sections, extended our chamber music and ensemble offerings, reinvigorated our choir competitions, have more non-competitive ‘classes’ and are offering more performance opportunities to prize-winners. Look out for an impressive line up of adjudicators.

We warmly welcome audience members at all our competitions. To hear news of the festival, sign up to our mailing list either by using the box in the webpage footer or by emailing enquiriesnlf@outlook.com and letting us know which areas of the festival you are interested in.

To read more about the festival, including events and opportunities linked to the festival’s centenary, click the ‘read more’ link below.

Tickets for Festival Audiences

To help cover the costs of running the festival we charge modest admission fees to everyone over the age of 18, except festival members and accompanists. Entry for a single day costs £5 or £10 for each Elite competition. A season ticket for the under 18 competitions costs £9.

Countdown to 100 Years

The Centenary of the North London Festival is in November 2020 and we have planned the 2020 festival to be as special as possible.

We have reviewed and revitalised our offering of competitions, and especially what we offer to woodwind, brass and guitar players. Chamber Music competitions have been re-organised with one day concentrating on string groups and another on wind groups. (See the Orchestras and Ensembles page.) Harp chamber music is now combined with string chamber music. We have introduced more master classes and are promoting more performance opportunities to outstanding entrants to the Festival.

There are two special competitions to celebrate the Festival’s Centenary:

See the Composition Page for information about composing a fanfare to celebrate the Festival’s Centenary
See the Speech and Drama Page for information about composing a poem to celebrate the Festival’s Centenary

Memories of the Festival

Also as part of the centenary celebrations we would love to hear from anyone and especially professional musicians who took part in the festival as children.

News of Asagi Nakata – Winner of the Emanuel Trophy in 2008

We are very pleased to congratulate Asagi Nakata on winning 1st Prize at the Budapest Liszt Ferenc Competition in July and on being selected as one of the 14 pianists to participate in the 12th Liszt International Competition, Utrecht. Asagi’s website is https://www.asaginakatapianist.com/

Festival Members

The Members of the North London Festival participate in the Festival’s most important decisions and perform a crucial role in holding the Executive to account. The Festival is actively seeking new Members, whether they simply attend the AGM once a year and vote, or are able to contribute ideas, contacts and active support. A modest annual subscription is payable. This entitles you to free entry to all festival competitions. To request more information on Membership, or a Membership Application Form, or to discuss possible participation in other ways, please email enquiriesnlf@outlook.com.

Highlights from the 2018 and 2019 festivals

We videoed many of the excellent performances from the 2018 and 2019 festivals. Please go to the piano, string, singing and harp pages of the website to view these.

For more information about the festival and its history, please click on the History link in the footer of this page.