Our inaugural Salisbury Musick festival in 2025 takes its inspiration from the annual music festivals of 18th century Salisbury which drew large audiences and featured many of the leading performers of the day. The modern festival is named after the ‘Salisbury Society of Musick’ – the group of local players and singers who formed the core of the festival musicians. Taking the festival of 250 years ago, in October 1775, as a starting point, Nigel Wyatt will discuss the origins of the festivals and those who performed at them. He will explore the factors that led to the success of the annual events and the reasons behind their sudden decline after 1780.

As well as enjoying the talk, you can choose to buy an extra voucher for a hot drink and cake in the Museum café for £6.  You can use this before or after the talk.  Nigel will come to the café as soon as he can after the talk. 

Performing on a variety of fascinating instruments, Sounds Historical put women at the centre of their latest programme and introduce you to some remarkable females who left a tangible musical legacy in many ways - from patrons to poets, printers to publishers and composers, students and scribes, including Isabella d'Este, Anne of Denmark, Anne Boleyn, Lady Russell Countess of Bedford, Jane Pickeringe, Isabella Leonarda, Elizabeth Herbert Countess of Pembroke and Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.
soundshistorical.com

Tickets for this event are £20, or £2 for any child under 18. Multi-buy discounts apply to online purchases of tickets for the concerts by visiting professionals, with tickets for 4 events at £65, or all 5 events for £80, when purchased at the same time.

Come and enjoy by candlelight an evocative evening of solo violin music from the 17th and 18th centuries.  This was an extraordinary period of development for the violin and this concert will include selected movements from the sonatas and partitas by the great JS  Bach, fantasies by the highly popular GF Telemann, and feature in particular the iconic Passacaglia in D minor by the earlier virtuosic violinist and composer Heinrich Biber, a work which was to have a huge influence on the masterpieces for solo violin which were to come later. 

With the pace and noise of modern life ever more hectic, here is an opportunity to step back in time for an hour of sublime, intimate music from the Baroque!

Tickets for this event are £20, or £2 for any child under 18. Multi-buy discounts apply to online purchases of tickets for the concerts by visiting professionals, with tickets for 4 events at £65, or all 5 events for £80, when purchased at the same time.

Preparing to perform any work requires time, thought and practice but with a masterwork like Bach's Mass in B minor this process is even more fascinating.  Colin Howard recently conducted a performance with Dorchester Choral Society.  Julia Bishop led the orchestra for that performance and leads the performance that concludes our festival.  Come along to hear more about this remarkable work and how musicians prepare for it.  

As well as enjoying the talk, you can choose to buy an extra voucher for tea or coffee and cake in the Museum café for £6.  You can use this before or after the talk. The speakers will come to the café as soon as they can after the talk. 

Internationally acclaimed concert artist David Wright will celebrate the golden age of the harpsichord with dazzling works by baroque giants Bach, Handel and Scarlatti alongside some of their lesser known contemporaries. This recital will be presented with anecdotes about the composers and musical life at the time and will prove to be a very entertaining evening.

Tickets for this event are £20, or £2 for any child under 18. Multi-buy discounts apply to online purchases of tickets for the concerts by visiting professionals, with tickets for 4 events at £65, or all 5 events for £80, when purchased at the same time.

This intimate, candlelit concert explores the rich repertoire of lute song in England and France at the turn of the seventeenth century.  Soprano Charlotte La Thrope and tenor Hugo Hymas, with lutenist Sergio Bucheli, present music of love and longing by Dowland, Campion and Purcell, alongside rarely heard Airs de Cour by composers such as Ambruys and Lambert.  This programme will trace the expressive range of early song from private melancholy to courtly elegance, performed here in historically informed style and atmospheric surroundings.

Tickets for this event are £20, or £2 for any child under 18. Multi-buy discounts apply to online purchases of tickets for the concerts by visiting professionals, with tickets for 4 events at £65, or all 5 events for £80, when purchased at the same time.

“Come and Join the Party”

We are throwing a musical party to celebrate all the fun of the festival. We need your help to get ready and to bring the party to life, but will all go to plan?!

Led by Alice Poppleton, who grew up in Salisbury and is now working professionally as a musician, this concert will explore the wonders of baroque music with pre-school children and their parents or carers.   

Please note that all children must be accompanied by an adult.  Alice will be assisted by Jacob Garside (baroque cello).

We are grateful to H R Tribbeck and Son for supporting this event.  

“Come and Join the Party”

We are throwing a musical party to celebrate all the fun of the festival. We need your help to get ready and to bring the party to life, but will all go to plan?!

Led by Alice Poppleton, who grew up in Salisbury and is now working professionally as a musician, this concert will explore the wonders of baroque music with pre-school children and their parents or carers.   

Please note that all children must be accompanied by an adult.  Alice will be assisted by Jacob Garside (baroque cello).

We are grateful to H R Tribbeck and Son for supporting this event.  

18th century Italy was a hot-bed of musical creativity, inspiring composers throughout Europe. This afternoon's programme is a musical ‘Lasagne’, mostly Italian, but with layers from France and Germany - and a sprinkle of folk-music for seasoning. 

The four musicians of Early Bird present solos, duos, trios and quartets by Antonio Vivaldi, Anna Bon di Venezia, Tommaso Giordani and Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, along with grand desserts by Handel and Bach.

Followers of Early Bird will recognise the names of Anna Bon and Elisabeth Jacquet as the creators of unexpectedly popular items performed in recent concerts by the group. In response to requests for more from these two neglected geniuses, Early Bird brings you a Venetian Divertimento and a Parisian Sonata, each featuring the three string instruments and harpsichord.

Solo items include Bach's 'Aria variata alla maniera italiana' and fiddle tunes from Calabria, Puglia and Alsace. Outer layers of the lasagne are provided by chamber works from Vivaldi and the four years' Italian resident, Handel.

Tickets for this event are £20, or £2 for any child under 18. Multi-buy discounts apply to online purchases of tickets for the concerts by visiting professionals, with tickets for 4 events at £65, or all 5 events for £80, when purchased at the same time.

Bach's Mass in B minor has been described by many as a masterpiece and the greatest choral work ever composed.  This gala concert will bring together two local groups, visiting professional players and a world class team of soloists under the baton of Philip Lawson as a fitting conclusion to our inaugural festival.  

Philip Lawson, conductor

For 18 years Philip Lawson sang baritone with The King’s Singers, replacing founder-member Simon Carrington in 1993, and performing over 2,000 concerts worldwide, recording many CDs and DVDs, and co-leading hundreds of choral workshops. For most of that time he was also the group’s principal arranger, contributing more than 50 arrangements to the repertoire, including 10 for the 2008 CD “Simple Gifts” which went on to win the GRAMMY for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2009. Prior to this Philip was Director of Music at Chafyn Grove school in Salisbury, and a Lay Clerk in the cathedral choir, and before that worked in London with all the major professional choirs, including the BBC Singers, The Sixteen, St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. He now divides his time between choral conducting, teaching and composing/arranging, and has a catalogue of over 300 published titles. www.philiplawson.net

Charlotte La Thrope, soprano  

English soprano Charlotte La Thrope graduated with first class honours in Music from the University of Durham, majoring in performance. She then went on to study at The Royal Academy of Music where she graduated in 2018 with distinction. In 2018 Charlotte was given a place on the Monteverdi Apprentices Programme and was involved in many projects with John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi ensembles, including European tours of Handel’s Semele and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini. Upon completion of the Programme, Charlotte now sings regularly with the Monteverdi Choir.  Charlotte has appeared on the concert platform throughout Europe and in South America and performs regularly as a soloist, alongside acclaimed ensembles. When singing as Angel in Handel’s Jephtha she was described as ‘an Angel stands out from the crowd… the best singing - poised, sweet and true’ by Rupert Christiansen (The Telegraph). 

Rebecca Leggett, alto

Rebecca Leggett is a 2023/25 ‘Rising Star of the Enlightenment’ with the OAE and last year performed Bach’s Easter Oratorio with the group at the Southbank Centre. Rebecca works regularly with Les Arts Florissants and in the last year has toured with the group to venues such as Carnegie Hall, Teatro alla Scala and The Royal Albert Hall.
Rebecca was a finalist at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2023 at the Wigmore Hall and in recent years she has given recitals for both the Lewes Song Festival, London Song Festival and Oxford Lieder Festival. Rebecca gave a Sussex themed recital entitled 'The South Country' alongside Hugh Cutting and George Ireland for the Brighton Festival in May 2024.

Hugo Hymas, tenor

British tenor Hugo Hymas is in much demand for his interpretations of the baroque and renaissance repertoire and enjoys collaborations with the foremost practitioners of the genre.​ His 24/25 season reflects many established relationships: he sings Bach St John Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Jonathan Cohen as well making his début with Les Violons du Roy with the same conductor. He joins John Butt for Handel Esther with The English Concert and for Bach with the Dunedin Consort and he sings Messiah with both the Sinfonieorchester Basel and the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich under Ivor Bolton. Hymas will make his Bergen Philharmonic debut with Bach Weihnachts-Oratorium under Dinis Sousa.

William Drakett, bass

William Drakett studied singing under Prof. Konrad Jarnot at the Robert Schumann Conservatoire in Düsseldorf, following organ and harpsichord studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He has performed on the stage in a range of operatic roles and is in demand as a concert soloist in England and Germany in works including Elijah (Mendelssohn), Dream of Gerontius (Elgar), St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio & B Minor Mass (Bach), A German Requiem (Brahms), Five Mystical Songs (Vaughan Williams), Requiem (Mozart, Fauré & Duruflé) and In Terra Pax (Martin).  He now lives in Wells where he is a Vicar Choral in the choir of Wells Cathedral, and continues his studies privately with John Evans.

The Farrant Singers is the longest-established chamber choir in Salisbury, with close links to the medieval city, the surrounding Wiltshire villages and the Cathedral, where the choir occasionally sings at services.  It was founded in 1958 by composer and organist Richard Lloyd, initially to give performances of church music in the diocese. Conductors since then have included Mark Deller, Richard Shephard, David Halls, Colin Howard, Daniel Cook and Andrew Mackay, with Philip Lawson taking over the baton in 2021. The group currently comprises around 35 singers and its repertoire includes a wide range of sacred and secular music. Concerts are given in Salisbury and in smaller venues around the region, and the choir occasionally sings further afield in the UK and Europe.

Salisbury Baroque is Salisbury’s only period-instrument orchestra. It was set up by our founding patron David Morgan to enable local players (and some colleagues from further afield) to share their passion for late 17th and 18th century music through concerts and workshops.  Using copies of instruments of the period and authentic playing style, the group is able to bring to its audience a sense of intimacy and style difficult to achieve with larger forces and modern, heavier instruments.

Adult tickets are £20 if bought before 11.59 pm on Saturday 4th October.  If there are any remaining tickets these will be available on the door, price £25.  Children's tickets are always £2.