One of the country’s most revered composers - Sir Edward Elgar - and his musical legacy are celebrated at the annual Elgar Festival, which takes place in the heart of ‘Elgar Country’ - Worcester and Malvern, from Sat 24th May - Sun 1st June.

The Elgar Festival is established as a major event in the national festival calendar. Lauded as Critic’s Pick in The Guardian in 2018 and featured as one of the top 20 Jubilee events in 2022, it offers a wide programme combining concerts of popular repertoire and new commissions performed by internationally recognised guest artists as well as the cream of the region’s musicians, with talks, masterclasses, workshops, film screenings and family-friendly events.

2025 Festival Highlights

"This year’s Elgar Festival, themed ‘Celebrate with Elgar’, promises nine days packed with events that will do just that!”, says Sue Voysey, Executive Director.

“We’ll celebrate great music-making, our natural environment, young musicians, diversity, the music of today as well as music of the past, historic buildings, community and participation.”

Amongst highlights are symphonic and ensemble concerts given by the Festival’s orchestra-in-residence -\the English Symphony Orchestra - under their Principal Conductor and Festival Artistic Director, Kenneth Woods. World-renowned guest artists taking part include Raphael Wallfisch, Gareth Brynmor John, April Fredrick, Simon Callaghan, Rosalind Ventris, and David Briggs. 

Since its inception in 2018, the Elgar Festival has grown from a weekend to a 9-day celebration of the life and music of Worcester’s most famous son and Britain’s great composer, Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), held at a number of integral and accessible venues of historic interest and personal significance to the composer including Worcester Cathedral and Guildhall, St George’s RC Church and Great Malvern Priory.

“There are few composers whose sense of home, community and place was as closely connected to their creative work as Elgar and it’s easy to understand how the beauty of Elgar Country - Worcestershire and the Malvern Hills - inspired him," says Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the ESO, Kenneth Woods. “First time visitors to the Elgar Festival are often surprised and hugely excited by just how much of a presence Elgar is here.”

This year's festival's Featured Composer is another well-loved Worcester resident. In a tribute from his home City of Worcester, Ian Venables, who is celebrating his 70th birthday in 2025, is this year’s featured composer with his works programmed in no fewer than eight concerts.

Acclaimed as 'Britain’s greatest living composer of art songs', the undoubted highlight will be the World Premiere of his song-cycle, Out of the Shadows, in its orchestral version, which forms part of a Gala Concert in Worcester Cathedral where the combined forces of the English Symphony Orchestra (ESO) and the Elgar Festival Chorus conducted by Kenneth Woods will perform John Ireland’s oratorio These Things Shall Be featuring baritone soloist Gareth Brynmor John and Edward Elgar’s Symphony no.2.

For those unfamiliar with his work, a film screening of Ian Venables: Hidden Music at The Firs (Elgar’s Birthplace) provides a biographical journey through the composer’s music, much of it filmed in the locality, with contributions from esteemed artists and music authorities. The event includes a Q & A with the composer himself, hosted by Classic FM’s Zeb Soanes.

Elgar and Venables’ music can also be heard in the highly anticipated ESO Strings’ concert at Great Malvern Priory featuring award-winning viola soloist Rosalind Ventris, and there’s a thrilling Sonata for Strings by William Walton.

The abundance and variety of choral and song repertoire is regularly showcased at the Elgar Festival by the region’s well-loved ensembles, represented this year in a programme of Part Songs by Elgar, Parry and Stanford performed by the Proteus Ensemble; the acclaimed Midlands chamber choir directed by Stephen Shellard. 

The Jenny Lind Singers is a virtuosic female voice choir named after the Swedish Nightingale under the leadership of Lynne Lindner; their programme provides a chance to hear works by Errolyn Wallen, Master of the King’s Music, and award-winning Worcestershire-based composer, Liz Dilnot Johnson. 

The Elgar Chorale has established itself as one of the leading specialist choirs in the West Midlands and will be performing works by Elgar, Coleridge-Taylor, Stanford and Ian Venables under the direction of Piers Maxim.

Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra, which Elgar helped to found in 1905, will perform popular works by Elgar and Mozart and a more recent re-discovery by Midlands-based composer Ruth Gipps, entitled Cringlemire Garden and inspired by the Lake District.

To ensure accessibility for everyone, all concerts at the Elgar Festival offer free entry for under 18s accompanied by full-paying adults. Many other events are free-of-charge including relaxed concerts, talks, film, an exhibition, and there’s also an outside performance by Worcester Concert Brass in Worcester’s Cathedral Square. Early evening Club Elgar at West Malvern Social Club features a Retro 70’s Fusion where 70’s fancy dress is recommended, priced at just £10. This is truly ‘Elgar for Everyone’!