Welcome to the 21st birthday of the Leicester International Music Festival which celebrates English Music.

 

I am delighted that our 2008 festival string quartet of Priya Mitchell, Sasha Sitkovetsky, Guy Ben-Ziony and Natalie Clein will once again be with us to join in our 21st birthday celebrations as will our wonderful pianist Katya Apekisheva. Katya will be joined this year by one of the world's greatest accompanists, Julius Drake, whom many of you will know from Lunchtime Concerts. And we welcome a third great pianist this year, Anna Tilbrook, who will be accompanying one of the world's leading tenors, James Gilchrist.

 

Our composer in residence is Tansy Davies who is building a substantial reputation among modern composers. I greatly enjoy playing her work and she has promised to write another short piece for oboe and a new song for James, both of which will be world premières. She will also be running our 2009 festival master class for young composers. All of which we hope will leave her enough time to complete a major new commission for the 2010 BBC Proms.

 

Nicholas Daniel