ISSUE NINE OCTOBER 2020
NEW FESTIVAL DATES & PROGRAMME BUXTON’S LESSONS IN LOCKDOWN
OVERTURE
THE BIRTH OF THE FRIENDS
THE NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS OF BUXTON INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 1
Dear Friends
Message from the Chief Executive of BIF We look forward to seeing you in 2021. The Festival feast that we prepare every year is not possible without the Friends of BIF. We were devastated to cancel the 2020 Buxton International Festival, particularly after the success of our 40th Festival in 2019. We responded quickly by crafting online content and for two weeks released a new event each day which focused on books, music, and opera. The content was diverse, accessible, and free and something we had never done before, but it was a way of keeping our company alive in the hearts and minds of our patrons. The best thing we can do in this time of crisis is to remind ourselves how important live performances are; music is a remedy that restores our hearts and souls. It is also a time to reflect upon our business, how we go about making art, supporting our artists, and appreciating anew just how important the festival is to you, our Friends of BIF. When we decided to cancel the Festival, everyone in the organisation took a 20% temporary pay cut and none of the staff was made redundant. We assured our seasonal staff that they will return in the new year.
‘We are already planning the next season.’ Our board started planning different festival scenarios for 2021, mindful of our partnership with the Buxton Opera House. The loyalty of our friends and wider audiences in donating the cost of their tickets to our appeal has been 2
inspirational. We have a shared responsibility to manage this crisis and get live performances back onto the stage of our beloved opera house. This will mean our audiences will need to adjust to new conditions, and we will need to talk to them honestly about the challenges we face. It’s not always about giving money, but attending performances and going to more events. We will be sending out a survey which will provide us with valuable information about how you feel about returning to live performances. If you really want to support BIF, please respond as fully as you are able. We are already planning next season as scheduled in this newsletter. Ciboulette has had to be postponed but we will bring you instead an exciting new co-production with Salzburg State Theatre, Viva La Diva, plus all the other delights to which you were so looking forward. However, if social distancing restrictions are still in place in July 2021, we will not be able to mount productions in the Opera House. Instead we will occupy the recently restored Octagon concert hall and mount different operas more suited to this wide-open space. The decision will be made before the Festival brochure arrives on your doorsteps in March next year, giving you plenty of notice of any change to the operas. Everything else will remain the same. Our top priority is to keep you safe while you enjoy the wonderful Festival of operas, music and books lined up for you next year. We look forward to seeing you again in July 2021. Michael Williams Chief Executive, BIF
We Cannot Wait to See You Message from the Chairman of BIF
I hope this finds you well. Cancelling the Festival for the first time in 40 years was a terrible decision to have to take but it has demonstrated just how much the Festival is valued by you, the artists, the wider audience, the sponsors and the staff. We are very fortunate to have such an incredible network of support which is the envy of many other Arts organisations. Your subscriptions and lovely messages of support are what keep us going. A huge thank you to David Brindley for his hard work and wonderful support as Chairman of the Friends these past few years and to Pete Spriggs who has already proved himself a formidable supporter of BIF and now takes on the role as the new Friends’ Chairman. ‘Lock-down’ has been a time of planning for the future. Michael Williams, Adrian
A Huge Thank You The BIF Future Appeal has raised over £70K
Thanks to all our amazing friends and supporters across the UK, the BIF Future Appeal has raised over £70K. All this funding will go towards keeping the Festival alive and BIF 2021. As well as funds, your messages looking forward to next year have also kept us going. ‘We have every confidence it will bounce back full of energy and first rate entertainment in 2021.’ Andrew & Mary
Kelly and the team have already lined up a wonderful array of treats for next year. Meanwhile, we hope you are enjoying the BIF digital delights and if you have not discovered them yet go to our web site where you will find Matthew Parris and Charles Moore, Dame Sarah Connolly and the BBC Philharmonic among many others waiting to entertain you. We do miss you and raised a glass to our many absent Friends when a few of us gathered outside the Opera House to mark the passing of BIF 2020 with an impromptu mini concert by four of our wonderful orchestra, the NCO. Please put 8th - 25th July in your 2021 diary. We cannot wait to see you. As ever, Felicity Goodey, CBE, DL Chairman, BIF
Supporting Businesses We continue to work with local businesses through Festival Circle and sponsorships and we know how important the festival is in bringing life into Buxton and supporting the local economy. We look forward to working with our partners in 2021: Parkwood, The Crescent & Old Hall Hotels, Longcliffe, No. 6 Tearooms, Shacklefords, Noble Caledonia, Quilter Cheviot, Waterstones, University of Derby, Avanti trains and all our Festival Circle members. We are very proud to be part of your community. 3
New Festival Dates & Programme Buxton International Festival is pleased to announce the opera and musical theatre programme for the 2021 Festival Thursday 8th - Sunday 25th July. We are pleased to announce the Salzburg State Theatre production of Donizetti’s opera buffa, Viva la Diva, will be mounted at the Buxton Opera House in 2021.
Viva La Diva
Music by Gaetano Donizetti Adapted from plays by Simeone Antonio Sografi, new English version by Kit Hesketh-Harvey Iwan Davies, Conductor Stephen Medcalf, Director Yannis Thavoris, Designer Kate Watson, Choreography A Salzburg State Theatre production in association with Buxton International Festival Dates: Sun 11th (matinee), Wed 14th, Sat 17th, Wed 21st, Fri 23rd (tbc) July 2021 4
Donizetti’s opera, originally titled Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali, is a delightful spoof about a regional opera company’s preparation and rehearsal for a performance of an opera seria. The plot centres on Agatha, an aging diva and mother to one of the singers, who announces that she will take on a role in the opera. The role is written for a baritone and George Humphreys (who sang the title role in Eugene Onegin last year) slips into the role of the indestructible Agatha as if born to it. While Mozart and Strauss wrote several male roles for mezzo-sopranos, after seeing George in Salzburg portraying this stage mother from hell, one wonders why opera composers have not written more female roles for baritones and basses. Donizetti’s score is a celebration of virtuosic music, brim filled with parody and a combination of traditional forms that lovers of opera seria will easily recognise. The opera was a great success after its world premiere in 1827 but was soon forgotten. Stephen Medcalf (a regular Buxton Festival director) will head the Salzburg creative team and, as our two stages are almost identical, we will be able to mount the production with very few modifications for the festival. We will also transfer the opera’s plot to the British opera scene and have commissioned a new text and translation from Kit Hesketh-Harvey especially for the UK premier.
We are so pleased to be able to confirm that the majority of our concert artists who were to perform with us this summer are able to return to us for 2021. This includes Dame Sarah Connolly, Iestyn Davies, Artist in Residence Jennifer Pike, pianists Martin
Roscoe and Freddy Kempf, La Serenissima, the Fibonacci Sequence, and of course, the Northern Chamber Orchestra. Discussions are still taking place with many more and we look forward to being able to confirm them in due course.
La donna del Lago
Acis and Galatea
Music by Gioachino Rossini, libretto by Andrea Leone Tortola
Music by George Frideric Handel, libretto by John Gay
Adrian Kelly, Conductor Jacopo Spirei, Director Madeleine Boyd, Designer Ben Pickersgill, Lighting Designer
Christian Curnyn, Conductor Martin Constantine, Director Anisha Fields, Designer
A Buxton International Festival production
A co-production with the Early Opera Company
Dates: Fri 9th, Tue 13th, Fri 16th, Mon 19th, Thur 22nd July 2021
Dates: Mon 12th, Sun 18th (matinee), Tue 20th July 2021 5
A Little Night Music
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler Wyn Davies, Conductor Paul Kerryson, Director Charles Cusick Smith & Phil R Daniels, Set and Costume Design Ben Pickersgill, Lighting Designer A Buxton Opera House and Buxton International Festival production
Original orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick Suggested by a Film by Ingmar Bergman. Originally Produced and Directed on Broadway by Harold Prince. Performed by arrangement with Music Theatre International (Europe) Limited. Thanks to the Foyle Foundations and the members of the A Little Night Music Syndicate for their support. Dates: Thur 8th (Preview), Sat 10th (evening), Thur 15th (matinee & evening), Sat 24th (matinee & evening) July 2021 6
Our Future, In Your Hands
Music by Kate Whitley, written by Laura Attridge Tom Newall, Conductor Mark Burns, Director The opera oratorio, commissioned by Buxton International Festival, is in collaboration with Royal Overseas League Thanks to the PRS Foundation, Granada Foundation, Golden Jubilee Trust (via ROSL), The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, Ida Carroll Trust, Borletti-Buitoni Trust, Samuel Gardner Memorial Trust, Andre Bernheim Trust, RVW Trust, The Michael Guest Charitable Foundation, Orchestras Live. Thanks to members of the Our Future in Your Hands Syndicate, in memory of Emilie Schmid-TrÜndle. Dates: Mon 12th (4pm), Thur 15th (7.30pm) July 2021
BIF DIGITAL 2020 13th - 25th July 2020 14 videos 896 hours of play-time 5700 views during July 178 YouTube subscribers Follow us online @BuxtonFestival
buxtonfestival.co.uk 7
Live Music in the Sunshine Northern Chamber Orchestra perform outside the Buxton Opera House It was due to take place on a Saturday afternoon in July but the weather put paid to that idea. So after a few phone calls were made and availability checked, things were swiftly re-arranged for the Sunday. And what a Sunday it was! The sun shone, the wind calmed down and the people arrived on mass! I am talking about the amazing afternoon spent with string principals from the Northern Chamber Orchestra performing on the forecourt of the Buxton Opera House. It all started off as a little idea to try and bring some live musicians to Buxton as part of our BIF Digital. Not surprisingly, the musicians jumped at the opportunity to play together again in Buxton and it was a pleasure to be able to invite them over. The string quartet was led by Nicholas 8
Ward who travelled up from London. Louise Latham (violin) and Barbara Grunthal (cello) are both Manchester based and principal viola, Richard Muncey, drove up from Birmingham. Over 350 people came and supported them (keeping socially distanced, of course). Any opportunity to play at the moment is grabbed eagerly with both hands by any musician. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, the musicians were able to make some money, were fed, watered and went home very happy and appreciated. Thank you to everyone who came out to enjoy the afternoon. Caroline Hewitt Artistic Administrator, BIF Photos taken by Mo El-Fatih: Front cover, p.8, p.9
Vicky’s Lockdown Reading Vicky Dawson, Book Festival Director I whisper it. I have rather enjoyed lockdown. I don’t really need an excuse to read books but I’ve tried to make the most of more time at home. Like many people I read Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year and Albert Camus’s The Plague (both Penguin). I thoroughly enjoyed the former and struggled with the latter. Lots of walking around my local patch in Derbyshire had me reaching for Stephen Bailey’s The Old Roads of Derbyshire (Matador) which may inspire a series of book events in 2021. One of the most incredible novels I’ve read this summer is The Mating Habits of Stags by Ray Robinson (Lightning Books). This is an astounding piece of nature writing by way of a redemption tale, a man hunt and with a strong hint of the epic Western. That it is set in North Yorkshire makes it all the more compelling. Old friends have made for page-turning comfort reading. Revisiting the novels of Penelope Lively and PD James (thanks to a suggestion by our crime panel at BIF Digital) have led to happy hours largely spent reclining in
the garden. The new novel by Ali Smith, Summer, (Penguin) finishes off her state of nation Seasons Quartet on sparkling form. The four books have been written and published quickly to capture a moment in our nation’s history largely inspired by a Shakespearean novel - in the case of Summer by The Winter’s Tale. Caroline MacLean’s Circles and Squares: The Lives & Art of the Hampstead Modernists (Bloomsbury) was a natural next step from last year’s festival celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the Bauhaus. Sadly, it reminded me how much I was missing art galleries alongside cinema, live music and, of course, putting on our Festival. And next on the reading list? In Keith Lowe’s Prisoners of History: What Monuments to the Second World War Tell Us About Our History and Ourselves (William Collins), Sir Max Hastings in The Sunday Times suggested ‘this sensitive, disturbing book should be compulsory reading for both statue builders and statue topplers.’ Well goodness me, I had to buy that. 9
Buxton’s 600-Year-Old Lessons in Lockdown Welcome to Buxton Festival 1983, when that year’s opera gem has become a must-read in the Age of Coronavirus: The Decameron. Ten days of lockdown as a dangerous disease from the East stalks the land, and nothing to do but tell tales while hoping normality will soon return… Welcome to Buxton Festival 1983, when that year’s hidden opera gem brought back to life at the Opera House was a story from the father of Italian prose - whose work has become a must-read in the Age of Coronavirus: The Decameron. Giovanni Boccaccio’s 1353 masterpiece is a fictional account of a group of young Florentines who flee the city and spend ten days in a deserted villa in the hope of escaping the plague that tore through Europe in the late 1300s. Vivaldi turned one of those tales into his opera Griselda, which Buxton gave its first full theatrical performance since the work’s 1735 premiere in Venice.
‘The Decameron reads in some ways as a guide to social distancing and self-isolation.’ The New Statesman has called The Decameron ‘the 14th-century Italian book that shows us how to survive coronavirus’, while the New York Times said: ‘The Decameron reads in some ways as a guide to social distancing and self-isolation.’
Festival’s 1983 production centred on Buxton’s role throughout its history as a haven of health in dangerous times, from its Roman origins and period as a Medieval pilgrimage destination to becoming a Georgian spa and later a convalescent town for Industrial Revolution workers and wounded WW1 soldiers. Boccaccio’s masterpiece has begun trending on Twitter, with new readers and cultural critics alike quoting daily from the text, now ranking at number one on Amazon’s Best Sellers in Italian Literature list. Massimo Riva, chair of the Italian Studies Department in America at Brown University, told Town and County magazine that the stories demonstrated the ethical dilemma the protagonists face in their decision to temporarily abandon the city: ‘This decision can be interpreted as an escape from the common destiny of those who can afford a luxurious shelter, similar to the doomsday bunkers that very rich people build for themselves today, and as the utopian desire to rebuild together a better, more ethical and harmoniously natural way of life, out of the ruins of the old world.’ Next year Buxton Festival will again be flying the flag for the town’s centuries-old tradition of providing health and happiness by bringing back that harmony through music and literature.
Wildly influential on Renaissance literature, The Decameron is alternately tragic and comic, and demonstrated a way to survive the worst days of a pandemic through storytelling while in isolation.
1983 Buxton Festival, Griselda
Much of the publicity surrounding the
Article by John Philips
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Paula Scalera, Costanza Christine Batty, Corrado Robin Martin-Oliver, Roberto John Mitchinson, Gualtiero
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New Books for Autumn There is an embarrassment of riches in the Autumn 2020 publishing schedule as the summer’s much anticipated hardbacks, postponed due to the pandemic, jostle for space with Christmas lead titles. I have chosen just a few and by way of a fantasy line up. James Rebanks’ English Pastoral (Penguin 3rd September) returns to the theme of inheritance first written about so passionately in his bestselling The Shepherd’s Life. BIF supporter and guest editor, naturalist and reviewer Mark Cocker is championing The Book of Trespass (Bloomsbury 20th August) by Nick Hayes. Mark has seen an early copy of the book and calls it ‘an astonishing take on land reform’. Matthew Parris showed us what a fine political interviewer he is with his gentle but penetrating interview of Charles Moore for BIF Digital. Matthew brings us an exploration of trauma and greatness in his new book Fracture (Profile Books 5th November). Broadcaster Andrew Marr is a treat to listen to at any time. His
new book Elizabethans (William Collins 1st October) looks at the last seven decades and the people who shaped it. Ben Macintyre is surely our greatest biographer of spies and their motivations. His new book Agent Sonya (Penguin 17th September) uncovers the life of ‘Mrs Burton’, an English housewife certainly not what she seemed. And finally an old colleague of mine Esther Woolfson’s taking on a big subject, man’s relationship with animals and the consequences of our belief in human superiority. Between the Light and the Storm (Granta) is published on the 3rd of September. It is both a point of pride and for a book festival programmer, slightly intimidating, that many of these bestselling authors have appeared extremely successfully at BIF in the past. I look forward to programming authors and thinkers such as these in 2021. Vicky Dawson Book Festival Director, BIF
BIF in the Community Kaleidoscope Choir has continued throughout lockdown – digitally! Thanks to the amazing Carol Bowns, Choir Leader of the Kaleidoscope Choir, who has continued to rehearse throughout lockdown singing over Zoom. This community choir, open to all, is planning to start singing together again in October working within current guidelines. All our projects with schools are understandably on hold, however we will continue as soon as it’s safe to do so with Jamie from NCO leading the classical / contemporary mash up project and Kate Whitely and the team creating the Oratorio which will be performed at BIF 2021. 12
The Bookshelf I am asked ‘Who will we programme in books in BIF 2021?’ The joy and constraint of a literary festival heavy on current affairs and politics is that it should be topical and, as we bill it, ‘opinion forming’. Many of our 2020 line up will already be working on their next book and publicity tours, such are the demands of modern publishing. Working with our partners at the British Academy and with Lord Hennessy as our guide, inspiration and sounding board, we hope that our Perspectives series captures the zeitgeist of the moment. Goodness knows what that moment of 8th July 2021 will look and feel like. It both gladdens my heart and breaks my heart each time one of ‘our’ 2020 authors finds a spotlight in the media. David Olusoga is currently the softly spoken and thoughtful voice of BAME experience in this country and shares his
‘long view’; Nicola Upson’s new book Sorry For the Dead was Thriller of the Month at Waterstones in July; Patrick Barkham’s Wild Child has had astonishing reviews and comes closest for me in capturing the spirit of the time – reconnecting with the natural world and navigating childhood freedoms. No disrespect to our illustrious speakers Isabel Hardman, David Reynolds and Vernon Bogdanor but suddenly Brexit Britain feels like … another era… but a time which by necessity will come again. So the answer to the question is, I can’t say. ‘Same author, new book’; ‘Too good not to host in Buxton Opera House’; ‘Too brilliant a writer not to include in 2021’ – these will be amongst the post-it notes on my pin board in the coming months.
Friends Events
Not on email?
Hello from the Events Team; we have missed you!
Or changed your email address recently?
Sadly, it was necessary to suspend our Friends’ events programme for 2020 but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been planning with optimism, positive thinking and thought for safety and spacing, to take the events programme forward into 2021. We hope that very soon we will be able to give you some details; please ensure that we have your email address. Be assured that regular favourites like the Opera Study Day, interesting Coffee Morning Talks and piano and operatic recitals will be included. We look forward to enjoying your company and support again.
Vicky Dawson Book Festival Director, BIF
Communicating by email saves us money, and makes it easy to provide regular updates and news for our Friends. But if you do not use email, we don’t want you to be left out. So for those of you for whom we do not have an email address, we will continue to send out information by post. As a check on our email address list, we’ll send out an email on October 1st 2020. If you receive this email, you need do nothing. If you do not, and you do use email, then we do not know your address or we may have an out-of-date email address. So please drop us an email at friends@buxtonfestival.co.uk and we will update our records. 13
Friends at the Centre Buxton Opera House A message from the Chairman of Friends of BIF Image by kind permission of ©Karl Schindler
FriendsChairman@buxtonfestival.co.uk
All proceeds from the sale of these cards will benefit Buxton International Festival
When I became Chair of the Friends back in February I had hoped that my first newsletter piece would be to recognise and celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Friends, as well as to share our excitement at the programme for the 2020 Buxton International Festival (the priority booking rates were the best we’d seen for some time).
confidence for 2021, 2022 and beyond. With membership renewals around the corner we hope that you will stay with us and maintain your connection to the Festival family. As a small thank you next year we will be holding recitals exclusively for Friends on the Friends’ Days in each week of the Festival. The artists involved 3 The Square, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6AZ haveTel:generously 01298 70395 donated their services www.buxtonfestival.co.uk free of charge to show their support for the How much can change in seven months. Registered Charity No. 276957 Festival. We are also hoping to encourage In years to come I believe that the 40th the ‘Next Generation’ of Friends with a anniversary of the Friends won’t be marked category aimed at those under 35; more as the year the Festival didn’t happen but details to follow. celebrated as the year the Friends played With the current plans for events to P7R 0001 a central part in saving the Festival for the restart in the Spring we are conscious that future. Your collective generosity (and the Friends and the Festival may still seem patience with us as we navigated more distant than in previous years. Stay communicating with you whilst Festival with us as the Team work hard to deliver a Staff were on furlough and the Festival Festival we can all be proud of. A survey is Office was closed) has been humbling. I planned for later in the Autumn to gather have read many words of support and have your views on how to ensure you are able been overwhelmed by the kindness of to join us once again with confidence, but Friends who turned tickets purchased into in the meantime if you would like to raise donations, gave online and via the good anything please do drop me a line; the old fashioned ‘cheque in the post’. Festival Team and the Friends Thank you. Committee would all be interested to hear your thoughts on Absence truly does make one fully what we need to appreciate what you once had and I keep doing and believe our lives have all been diminished improve on as we by the lack of live performance in all its look to 2021. forms. The importance of the arts to challenge, inspire, delight and celebrate Pete Spriggs human connections is as critical now as it Chairman, has ever been. Friends of BIF © The Great British Card Company, Gloucester www.greatbritishcards.co.uk
The Buxton International Festival is part of our cultural landscape and your continued support allows the Festival to plan with 14
Angel Playing a Flageolet, 1878 Image by Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-98)
All proceeds from the sale of these cards will benefit Buxton International Festival
3 The Square, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6AZ Tel: 01298 70395 www.buxtonfestival.co.uk Registered Charity No. 276957
© The Great British Card Company, Gloucester www.greatbritishcards.co.uk Medici is a registered Trademark of the Medici Society Ltd and is used under licence
M3R 0257
Buxton Opera House Image by kind permission of (c) Karl Schindler
Angel Playing a Flageolet, 1878 Image by Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-98)
Festival Christmas Cards It’s becoming that time of year again! Get ready for the festive season with our attractive range of Christmas cards. With two designs available, there are 10 cards with envelopes in each pack. The greeting inside the cards reads: With Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year. £4.25 for Angel Playing a Flageolet
Or alternatively, please indicate the design and quantity you require and send cheques made payable to ‘Buxton Arts Festival Ltd’, marked for the attention of Lucy Marsden. To order one pack of Christmas Cards add £1.50 postage or to order two packs or more, please add £3.50 postage. Please allow 7 – 10 days for delivery.
£4.95 for Buxton Opera House
All proceeds from the sale of these cards benefit Buxton International Festival.
Cards are available to purchase from BIF’s website under Support Us, Merchandise.
buxtonfestival.co.uk/support-us 15
The Birth of the Friends
2020 represents the 40th Anniversary of the Friends of Buxton Festival. With sadly no Festival to recognise this milestone we thank Judith Tanner, a tireless Friend of the Festival, for sharing her personal recollection of how it all began. In July 1979 I saw a front-page newspaper report of the off-stage melodrama taking place in the Derbyshire town of Buxton, where a new opera festival was frantically trying to find a last-minute replacement for the soprano in its opening production of Lucia di Lammermoor. This was how I first became aware of the existence of Buxton Festival. I was then on the look-out to see if it would make it to the starting gate in 1980. It did, and I was there. The artistic highs and financial lows of the 1980 Festival have already been well documented (in particular by Michael Kennedy). I was utterly enchanted, both by my first visit to Buxton and its newly-restored Opera House, and also by the Festival’s artistic vision and the 16
excellence of what I saw and heard on stage. In the week that I spent there, I saw the wonderful Thomas Allen in the title role of Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet; and I had
also booked for one performance of Berlioz’ Beatrice and Benedict (with Ann Murray and Philip Langridge) but, as word of the daily cash crisis spread around the town, I bought additional tickets for the remaining two performances, this being the only gesture of support that was readily available to me at the time. A note in the Festival programme invited expressions of interest and support from audience members, and I responded with a supportive letter enclosing a range of suggestions in the area of marketing. This initial correspondence with Malcolm Fraser led to an invitation to Buxton on 22nd November 1980, starting with a guided tour of the Opera House in the morning, followed by lunch and a meeting at the Lee Wood Hotel for the purpose of discussing ‘the establishment of a number of regional “Friends” organisations’.
‘no record of that [first] meeting has survived.’ I lived near Nottingham at the time, and was therefore able readily to accept the invitation. In addition to our host, Margaret Millican, I know that those present at the Lee Wood included David Hunter, Anthony Hose and Malcolm Fraser. I knew no-one in Buxton at the time, and can recall no other names, but there may have been possibly 15 or so people gathered round a large table. I sat between Malcolm and Anthony, and found I was in quite lively company; people who knew Malcolm will probably not be surprised to hear that there seemed to be a mischievous (almost subversive) imp hovering around our corner.
Human nature being what it is, the only specific item which I can recall with any clarity is my own contribution to the proceedings! As discussion of the embryonic supporters’ organisation got under way, I heard a number of references to ‘The Guild’, and had the temerity to ask if we could discuss the name before taking matters further. A rather surprised voice asked whether I had a problem with ‘Guild’ and, when I irreverently suggested that it sounded a bit like a cross between the WI and medieval Nuremberg, the inevitable response was ‘Well, what would you suggest?’ Off the top of my head I could only think of ‘Buxton Festival Society’ ... and so the meeting nodded its acceptance and moved on. It is interesting – in the light of the subsequent change of title – to see that Malcolm Fraser had referred to supporters as ‘Friends’ in the first place! I wish now that I had made some notes, because it seems that no record of that meeting has survived. There is reference in the Festival archive to a ‘public meeting’ having been held on 10th December 1980 to formalise the establishment of the Buxton Festival Society and its functions, though – again – there appear to be no actual minutes of that meeting. Nor is there any mention in this archive document of the previous meeting where proposals and ideas had first been tossed around and actions agreed – but you can take it from me that the Buxton Festival Society was born at the Lee Wood Hotel on 22nd November 1980. Judith Tanner Friend of Buxton International Festival
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Buxton Festival Foundation Leaving a legacy helps to secure the Festival for future generations Buxton Festival Foundation Since its inception in 2003, the Foundation has gifted almost £250,000 to the Buxton Festival and has provided regular interest-free loans to support the Festival’s cash flow. Our most recent grant was for £97,908 in 2019 which represented a significant proportion of our reserves and which cleared a historic deficit arising from previous Festivals. The Trustees’ decision to make this grant was influenced by our confidence in the ability of the current directors, Michael Williams and Adrian Kelly, to deliver an exciting Festival programme within the financial constraints of the organisation. At 31st August 2020, the Foundation had net assets of just over £175,000. Generous Legacy We were most grateful this year to receive a legacy of £25,000 from the late Alan Fraser of Carlisle who made several donations to the Foundation after a chance meeting in Glyndebourne with Charles Richardson, a former chairman of the Friends. Mr Fraser had a long legal career in local government and on his retirement was Cumbria’s County Solicitor. His gift will be well used. New Pledge Late last year Michael Williams took a call from Benjamin Hargreaves who was making a new will and wanted to understand how the Foundation and the Festival work together so that he could direct his legacy to the appropriate organisation. Once this had been sorted 18
out we asked Benjamin why he had chosen to leave a sum to the Foundation and this was his response:
‘I want to leave a legacy for the Buxton Festival’ ‘I want to leave a legacy for the Buxton Festival Foundation first because I have enjoyed the enrichment given by so many Buxton Festivals, and wish others to go on doing the same, but more than this, I believe the arts connect us with levels of meaning and help us to understand the nature of life (and who we are). We need this (and it is not a luxury or just entertainment).’ Leaving a legacy helps to secure for future generations the Festival you have enjoyed in your lifetime; please contact me if you have any questions about how you can do the same. Following on from the conclusion of the three-year 40th Anniversary Appeal, we are delighted to report that so far well over half of those contributing to the Appeal by standing order have continued to make regular donations to the Foundation, and some have even increased their subscription. We are most grateful to everyone for their valuable support to help grow our endowment fund. Jane Davies OBE Chairman, Buxton Festival Foundation
Holidays for Friends of BIF With John Whibley’s ‘Holidays with Music’ From world-renowned festivals to city breaks and small chamber music festivals, John Whibley will take you to wonderful and historically interesting places to listen to some of the world’s best music, whether it be Orchestral, Choral, Chamber Music or Opera. Since 2017, John Whibley ‘Holidays with Music’ and Buxton International Festival have worked together to provide holidays for the Festival Friends and raise funds for the Festival. As a Friend, if you book one of our Opera holidays below, we will donate £50 per person for a UK based holiday or £100 for a foreign holiday. So, come on holiday with us and help your Festival. 2021 Opera Holidays Hamburg 18th - 22nd March Welsh National Opera in Llandudno 12th - 15th May Opera at Garsington and Longborough Late June Savonlinna Opera Festival 7th - 11th July Opera in Munich 12th - 16th July Buxton International Festival 14th - 18th July Opera in Verona 1st - 5th September Glyndebourne Tour at Glyndebourne October Welsh National Opera in Llandudno November Leipzig Christmas Oratorio 9th - 13th December If you would like more information, or receive our brochure, please contact us. 01663 746 578 | john@whibley.co.uk | whibley.co.uk
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8 simple ways you can continue to support the Festival... 1. Tell us your email address so where possible we can communicate with you electronically. 2. Sign a Gift Aid declaration form to allow us to claim 25% on your membership / donations. 3. Renew your membership in November, and consider upgrading to a higher tier. 4. Encourage someone you know to become a Friend and receive a £10 ‘Recommend a Friend’ voucher if they quote your name when joining. 5. Make a donation to our COVID-19 Appeal via the Festival website or send a cheque to the office. 6. Sponsor an artist at the 2021 Festival. Contact Joanne at Joanne.Williams@buxtonfestival.co.uk. 7. Fill out our audience survey in November. We need your views to help us plan BIF 202. 8. Join us at the Festival in 2021!
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