and the winner is...

Valery Gergiev, Lichfield Festival's Patron, has just won the Conductor category of this year's Royal Philharmonic Society Awards. As the jury writes,

The award goes to a conductor of unique talent and personality. A mercurial figure on the international musical stage, he chooses to devote a significant amount of time to music making in the UK, particularly with the London Symphony Orchestra. Intensity and passion - and a high level of risk taking - are the hallmarks of his conducting, and he pursues a single-minded advocacy of composers in whom he believes. He is a conductor who makes things happen - an inspiration to players and audiences alike: Valery Gergiev.

patrons on rps shortlist

the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards shortlists were announced yesterday, and I was delighted to see that the Patrons of both the Lichfield Festival and the Abbotsholme Arts Society are amongst those listed. Valery Gerviev is shortlisted in the Conductor category and Steven Isserlis is shortlisted in the Instrumentalist category.
In the Concert Series and Festivals category in which we were shortlisted last year, only the East Neuk Festival is flying the flag for British festivals. Winners are announced on 12 May.

Gergiev is the new Festival Patron

Last night at Swinfen Hall Hotel we launched the 2009 Festival to the Gold and Platinum members of the LFA. As is often the way at this time of year, there remain events that have yet to settle down, but on the whole it was our first opportunity to start talking openly about what is planned this July.

Last night also gave me the opportunity to announce that Valery Gergiev, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic and general director of the Marinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, is the new Patron of the Lichfield Festival, finally filling the huge gap left when Patrick Lichfield died in November 2005.

A 34-year-old Gergiev made his British debut at the 1987 Lichfield Festival, and remembers his time here very well. Becoming our Patron is him returning the favour. Gergiev actually accepted our long-standing invitation last October, but trips to Australia and Christmas got in the way, so it has taken until now to release this news.

That an artist if Gergiev's international stature has accepted this honorary position is of enormous importance to Lichfield and the wider Midlands. That he is particularly keen to support our ongoing commitment to giving opportunities to rising talent is of key significance, and could lead to specific programming opportunities over the next decade. We do not present a formal Young Artists Platform, and we don't have an ongoing association with, say, BBC New Generation Artists, YCAT, Park Lane Group, or the Tillet Trust. Lichfield Festival just has a long history of independently backing young musicians with sometimes key opportunities that they might not otherwise get. Hopefully, with Gergiev's support, this programming thread will grow and resonate even further.

london debut for volodin

Alexei Volodin, the brilliant young pianist who performed at the 2007 and 2008 Lichfield Festivals, will finally have his London debut this saturday evening as part of the London Symphony Orchestra's Rachmaninoff Festival, which is part of their Emigre Series. Conducted by Valery Gergiev, Alexei will be performing Rachmaninoff's 3rd and 4th piano concerto on saturday and sunday respectively. Saturday night officially sold out several weeks ago (although there do seem to still be a handful remaining) and there are a few dotted around for the sunday evening. For Rachmaninoff anoraks (or should that be anoRachs), there is also a sunday afternoon concert. I predict that after hearing Alexei perform on the Saturday night, Sunday night will also sell out, despie the 4th being less popular than the 3rd.

The Lichfield Festival is taking a coach load of Lichfield Festival Association members down to support Alexei, as he's performed here for the last two years, and I'm hoping Alexei will have the opportunity to come front of house to say hi. I know he arrived into London last night, and that he's here and happy. For the record we still one or two available tickets if there are any LFA members out there who think they might like to go afterall.

As mentioned previously, Gergiev's own links to the Lichfield Festival go back to 1985, just before his London debut.

quiet recognition at last

Finally, after seeing article after article come out in the UK regarding Valery Gergiev, Lichfield Festival has finally had some public acknowledgement for giving him his UK debut in 1987. While this appeared in last Saturday's The Knowledge, the hard copy was dropped through the Festival Office earlier today. Our scanner couldn't cope with the whole article, but we're right there at the start of the graph.

'A low-key British debut at the Lichfield Festival gets a thumbs-up from The Times: Gergiev is "magnificently in control" in a programme of typically Russian highlights, the overture to Ruslan and Ludmila and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony'