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BE PART OF THE CORBRIDGE CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL ST. WILFRID CELEBRATIONS!

2025 marks the 1350th anniversary of the founding of St. Andrew’s Church, Corbridge by St. Wilfrid.

To celebrate this major milestone, Corbridge Chamber Music Festival is commissioning a new work from the distinguished composer Piers Hellawell, to be performed by our Artistic Directors, the Gould Piano Trio and clarinettist Robert Plane.

Piers was composer-in-residence in 2022 and has been one of our most popular visitors, memorable both for his striking, haunting music as well as his learned and witty pre-concert talks. Some of you may remember Piers was due to be composer-in-residence in 2020 when Covid forced our festival online. Our Composer Profile feature on him can still be seen on YouTube

St. Wilfrid is synonymous with Northumberland, although he also travelled widely. The Goulds and Rob hope to tour this new piece to the many places closely associated with him, as far apart as Chichester on the South Coast to Ripon, Hexham Abbey, Lindisfarne and the Borders. The new work (which incorporates audience participation too…) will be a centrepiece of the St. Andrew’s Corbridge Wilfrid celebrations and the 2025 Corbridge Chamber Music Festival.

Corbridge Chamber Music Festival will also mount an exhibition of new, Wilfrid-inspired work by local artist and printmaker Jo Westgate to run alongside the premiere of Piers’ new composition.

Please email us on info@corbridgefestival.co.uk if you would like to buy a bar, phrase, page or indeed the whole piece. We hope you will be as excited as we are about the creation of this new musical work to celebrate our special ‘home’ during the 27th Corbridge Chamber Music Festival 2025.

24 -27 July 2025

Help make this commission a reality by supporting a part of the compositional process through our Buy-a-Bar scheme.

Supporters will be invited to an Open Rehearsal with Piers Hellawell and the Gould Piano Trio/ Robert Plane during the 2025 Festival.

Jo Westgate

BUY-A-BAR £30

Includes an optional dedication in the programme.