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2020 Spring Festival Update

As Chair, and on behalf of the Trustees of the North London Festival, I am very sorry to announce that the remainder of the North London Festival’s Spring 2020 programme is now cancelled.

This was a difficult decision. We are very aware of all the hard work put in by our entrants, teachers, adjudicators and volunteers to ensure challenging and rewarding events, and of the remarkable and welcome support shown by so many families.

As with many other cultural organisations in the UK, we are working hard on initiatives we could offer online in the next few months and we are hoping to run the Drama weekend in November. Other sections also have specific plans. We will give you further updates as soon as we have them. We look forward to keeping in touch via our website, mailing list and social media. Please tell us about anything you are doing to progress your musical and dramatic skills that you would be happy for us to share.

Our Section Heads will shortly get in touch with guidance on how to claim refunds. The cut-off point for claims is the 30 April 2020. We will endeavour to make this process as simple as possible.

The Festival runs on an incredibly tight budget and entirely through volunteers. Donations and ticket sales make or break a year for us. Cancelling the Festival has put our very future in jeopardy. If you are able to consider donating your entrance fees at this difficult time, we would be hugely grateful.

2020 is the Festival’s Centenary Year. We have survived war and recession. We are determined that with your help and understanding we will also survive this global pandemic. Our aim is to come back in 2021 with the best Festival yet.

Frank Wibaut

Acting Chair, North London Festival

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It is with sadness that we announce the death of Jennifer Bate, OBE, renowned organist and Vice President of the North London Festival. Though much of her work was carried out overseas, Miss Bate remained based in Muswell Hill, where her father had been organist and choirmaster at St James’ Church. We are grateful to her for her help and support over many years.

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To read more about the 2020 festival that was planned, including events and opportunities linked to the festival’s centenary, click the ‘read more’ link below.

The 2020 Festival was planned to 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. To request a printed syllabus, please email admin@northlondonfestival.org.uk

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.

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 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. Unfortunately, this competition, along with so many other musical events, was cancelled. 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.