About the Festival

The Chelsea Schubert Festival was founded in 2005 by Andrew O’Brien and Hugo Shirley. The festival has featured young outstanding artists as well many established masters; a highlight was a performance of Schubert’s Wintereise with Ian Partridge accompanied by Sholto Kynoch in 2006 and Sally Burges’s recital in the 2007. Our professed aim is to give performance opportunities to young, gifted musicians and to put on performances of a variety of instrumental and vocal works by Schubert. Luckily, Schubert’s role as the “father of lied” means that his influence in the art-song genre is all-pervasive; as programmers this gives us liberty to programme composers as diverse as Beethoven and Benjamin Britten, Brahms and Elgar.

We believe that this great music can speak for itself and set out to produce programmes that are enticing and entertaining to someone new to classical music, whilst remaining intriguing and interesting for more seasoned concert goers. The festival has grown from strength to strength and attracts musicians from across the UK and Europe. The best festivals are about celebrating great music as well as bringing great performers to the locality. Chelsea is an extraordinary and vibrant area and it offers a perfect surrounding for our contribution to the cultural landscape of this great cosmopolitan ‘world city’.

The Committee

	Andrew O'Brien MMP MMus MA Artistic Director, Co-Founder Andrew is a freelance tenor and choral conductor who has recently completed his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Andrew is the Master of Music at Holy Trinity Sloane Street and founding Artistic Director of the Chelsea Schubert Festival. Recent performances include Britten’s ‘Winterwords’ at the Wigmore Hall, Handel’s Messiah at the Rose Theatre, New York, Royal Festival Hall and Cadogan Hall, Bach’s B minor mass in Aldeburgh Festival with Suzuki. aobtenor@hotmail.com
	Marc Verter MMus Artistic Director Marc Verter is a vocal coach at the Guildhall School of Music. He is very much in demand as an accompanist and has won several awards. He is studying towards his doctorate which he hopes to complete next year. marcverter@yahoo.co.uk
	Kevin Muncey BSc (hons.) Website Marketing & Events Management Kevin is Managing Director of Pimlico Computers Ltd, an IT Solutions company providing computer support and website design to businesses in London. His previous roles include running a website design company, and being a consultant for the Financial Times. kevin@pimlicocomputers.co.uk
	Paul de Thierry Marketing Director Paul de Thierry is a freelance baritone based in London and sings regularly at Holy Trinity, Sloane Square. He was previously a Lay-Clerk at Bristol Cathedral and a Choral Scholar at Durham Cathedral. He is also a Director of Historic House Retreats, which lets an Edwardian Villa above Portmeirion Village in North Wales. After graduating from Durham University in 1993, Paul forged a successful career in the City, becoming an Executive Director of Westlb Panmure in 2000. In 2002, Paul accepted an offer to manage a remote safari lodge in Botswana's Okavango Delta for Wilderness Safaris which, in addition to taking his pilots licence, he managed for 5 years.
	Alexandra Stevenson MA (Hons) Festival Co-ordinator Alexandra is a freelance Soprano, who studies with Ashley Stafford and has coaching with Marco Ozbic (Vienna State Opera). Her recital venues include the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, The National Gallery in London, as well as Holy Trinity, Sloane Square. At Holy Trinity, she has also sung with the choir, is a member of the church council and a Director of the Arts and Crafts Guild. Before she began her singing career, she did a degree in History of Art at Edinburgh and spent 3 years working in the executive search industry in London. She is also involved with Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, for whom she organised a sang a concert in September 2010 which raised several thousand pounds. friends@chelseaschubertfest.co.uk

Patrons: Julian Lloyd Webber, Sarah Walker CBE, Graham Johnson OBE, Ian Partridge CBE, Eugene Asti, Philip Carne, Dr Charles Volkers, Barry Ife CBE, Nelly Miricioiu, Gillian Humphreys, Yvonne Kenny, Patricia Routledge CBE, Simon Lepper.

Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828), a prodigiously gifted composer of both secular and sacred music, lived most of his short life in Vienna, but failed to make the same kind of decisive breakthrough in the city achieved by his older contemporary, Beethoven. It was thanks largely to the keen awareness of later composers like Schumann and Brahms, conductors like Johann Herbeck and, in England, the endeavours of Arthur Sullivan and George Grove, that he gradually achieved the international fame and popularity denied him during his lifetime. His finest works, which include the two-movement ‘Unfinished’ and ‘Great’ C-major symphonies, the ‘Trout’ Quintet, the C-major String Quintet, the three ‘late’ String Quartets in A minor (‘Rosamunde’), D minor (‘Death and the Maiden’) and G major, the Moments Musicaux, two sets of Impromptus and several sonatas for piano, the Masses in A flat and E flat, and a number of fine songs culminating in the song-cycles Die schöne Müllerin, Winterreise (both settings of poems by Wilhelm Müller) and Schwanengesang (two groups of songs to texts by Heine and Rellstab) illustrate Schubert’s capacity to combine great melodic fluency with intense harmonic richness.

Crawford Howie

Holy Trinity Church

Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square is right at the heart of London, with prayer right at its heart. The former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman called Holy Trinity Church the ‘Cathedral of the Arts & Crafts Movement’, and that indeed is what it is, containing treasures by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones among many others. But first and foremost it is a house of prayer, the dwelling-place of God. Holy Trinity Church is much more than just an architectural miracle, though it is certainly that, in more ways than one. This church marvellously illustrates this philosophy in sculpture, stained glass, metalwork and the whole splendid Gothic style. It is not only an exhibition place but carries on the spiritual concern for people, started by the originators of the Arts and Crafts movement. The roof was totally destroyed by incendiary bombs in the Second World War. The damage was considerable, but the stained glass windows withstood the blast and were undamaged. This East window is the largest stained glass window that William Morris & Co ever made. It was one of the greatest contributory factors in keeping the church open through the seventies, when there were moves afoot to close the church and possibly demolish it. As well as being a member of the Church of England in the Diocese of London and the worldwide Anglican Communion, Holy Trinity is open all day and everyday for everyone of whatever religion and none, with prayer at its heart.