I've just had this email about the English Music Festival if anyone is interested


This is a plea for you to come along and show your support for the English Music Festival, which is now only a few days away! I have to report that ticket sales have been slower than anticipated and as a result the EMF Trustees are taking a huge financial risk by deciding to go ahead with such an ambitious festival - but we are determined to make this the great success that it deserves to be. I have been working flat-out for the past five years to make this happen - and I am counting on the support of people like yourself to bring this vision to reality.



The much-awaited Festival opens this Friday evening (20th October) with a major concert at Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire, by Julian Lloyd Webber and the BBC Concert Orchestra, who will perform a selection of inspirational works by Holst, Vaughan Williams, Bridge and Sullivan. (The concert will be broadcast later by the BBC as part of the "Listen Up" festival.)



Other concerts and events celebrating Britain's glorious and diverse musical heritage will be taking place at the Abbey and other Oxfordshire venues including Sutton Courtenay Church and Radley College, between 20th and 24th October - making Oxfordshire "the place to be" for music-lovers at the start of the Autumn half-term break! In addition to the world-class musicians performing at the Festival, I'm delighted to announce that the Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons will also be taking part, as narrator of Vaughan Williams's highly evocative Oxford Elegy.



For full programme details go to www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk . All tickets, including day tickets and festival passes, are available from the festival box office - 020 7241 8953 until Thursday, thereafter at the White Hart Hotel, Dorchester-on-Thames. Dorchester is easy to get to and we will be running shuttle buses between venues, as well meeting the Didcot evening train with a large bus (at 6p.m.) - do check the website for further details.



Please, please do come along if at all possible, and I would be extremely grateful if you could forward this email to all friends and acquaintances who might be interested in attending, and experiencing for themselves how exciting English music can be! I now need your help to make this the spectacular success it CAN be - there is nowhere else in the world that you could go to hear such works, so please help me get people there to enjoy it!