Honorary Patron: Steven Isserlis CBE
Artistic Director: Sophia Rahman

“Whittington Music Festival provides a vibrant and inspiring environment for both established and aspiring musicians to come together and make music. Its mixture of elite musicianship with friendly experimentation; jaw-dropping excellence with open-armed encouragement, makes this festival hugely important for the community, for families, for young people and for the future of music. 

I loved the generous inclusion of budding musicians, encouraged to learn and showcase their talent, with the joyful virtuosity of experienced musicians, producing world-class performances. The need for and the success of Whittington Festival is obvious in the size of its audiences and their enthusiastic response. It was a privilege to take part in Whittington Festival this year!”

Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason

Looking Forward to Next Year

The 2026 Whittington Music Festival took place on 14th – 17th May at St. John the Baptist Church in Whittington. Photographs and audience feedback from the festival are available on this site.

Save The Date

The 2027 Whittington Music Festival will take place from 13-16 May. 

We look forward to seeing you there!

Details of the 2027 festival will appear here in the autumn.

Whittington Music Festival 2026
First Impressions

Schumann Piano Quintet, Whittington Music Festival 2026

“Just to say how very much I enjoyed the concerts I attended on Friday and Saturday nights.  All the musicians were brilliant.  Sophia is to be congratulated on putting together such inspirational programming, variety and talent.  Please do kindly pass this on to her.  The calibre of performance, as clearly enjoyed by the audiences, is outstanding.  Having played the Schumann Piano Quintet myself many times (as a violinist), I have never heard it performed with such a wide range of dynamics, sensitivity and innovative interpretation, to say nothing of the beautiful playing.  It was a revelation to me!  The atmosphere at Whittington is electrifying, and clearly, we are enormously lucky to be able to enjoy such a high standard of musicianship throughout.  Thank you all very much indeed.

Looking forward already to next year!”

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Whittington Music Festival is a non-profit Registered Charity. Our core principles can be found here. Please consider making a donation towards this year’s festival and future events.

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About the Festival

Find out more

In just a few years, Whittington Music Festival has built a reputation as one of the best festivals of its kind in the UK.

2026 – Another Successful Year!

Read all the reactions to the 2026 Whittington Music Festival or see them one at a time below:

Audience and Artists’ reactions 2026:

The Whittington Festival provides an environment that allows for musicians to interact in imaginative ways due to Sophia Rahman’s visionary approach.

I was delighted to compose a new piece, “ Break Out”, for the 2026 festival. It is a special experience to play and direct my own work. This gives scope for endless artistic discoveries and a workshopping approach in rehearsal that is artistically rich.

We took the new work to Derwen College and played an excerpt to the students there. It was wonderful to see and hear their reaction to the music. It is so important to connect with local communities in a variety of ways, and I believe that we did exactly that.

Katherine Hunka, composer-in-residence, violin, viola

The Whittington Music Festival concert on Friday night was an incredible evening full of high-class performances. I particularly enjoyed the Finzi Clarinet pieces and would love to see more woodwind or brass instrumentalists performing. The accompanying string players were brilliant, performing with such ease and communicating so well with each other even after only a few rehearsals. The BSL was a nice touch without being overdone or distracting, and the local singers were truly world-class.  All-round brilliant!

I love the quirky and varied programme, the quality of the musicianship and the acoustic, and the friendliness of everyone.  Thank you, thank you.
This festival is known for surprising us with unusual combinations of instruments playing familiar works.  Excellent programming and young talent.
The standard of the music is exceptional and it is wonderful to see such talented young players.  What a treat for those of us lucky enough to hear them!
Varied programme – some favourites, some surprises.  Quality of music superb.  Love the ethos of the music festival, showcasing young musicians.  Love the contemporary pieces.  Who knew there was so much beauty in brambles!  Wonderful finale – so much to love about the whole festival.  Thank you.
The Katherine Hunka Break Out was heartbreakingly beautiful – really spoke to me and Pete.  Fantastic piece.  Sunday was both profoundly moving and great fun.
To quote Caliban of his island, the festival is full of “sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not”.  It offers many wonders.  It is a privilege that so many (mostly) young people bring their passion, charm, creativity and incredible talent to our small rural community.  Long may it continue!
Fabulous.  Very varied programme.  Very enjoyable.  Thrilling.  I loved having some Shostakovich, Saint Saens and even Klezmer, Gershwin and Schumann, Mozart and bumblebees.  Lovely seeing the young musicians year after year with all their enthusiasm and new people’s brilliance and great sense of working together.  Irish contingent superb!
The bringing together and gathering of musicians and nurturing them so they flower and shine is a wonderful and heart-warming phenomenon.  The programming is imaginative and inventive and we always hear something new and inspiring.  To coin a phrase from Animal Farm, “Some festivals are equal but some are more equal than others” – Whittington!