The annual live celebration of the life and music of Worcester’s most famous son and Britain’s great composer, Sir Edward Elgar, returns from Monday 27 May until Sunday 2 June.

Set in and around the composer’s home city, the Elgar Festival comprises concerts given by the resident English Symphony Orchestra (ESO) under their Principal Conductor and Festival Artistic Director, Kenneth Woods, with guest artists including Zoë Beyers and Esther Abrami and featured composer, Steve Elcock.

This year’s festival is built around Elgar's Violin Concerto and explores the composer’s personal inspirations, alongside those of his followers, with the theme ‘The Origins of Inspiration’.  A performance will feature in the Gala Concert when Kenneth Woods conducts the English Symphony Orchestra in Worcester Cathedral, with Zoë Beyers as soloist, alongside another of Elgar’s finest works, his ‘Cockaigne’ Overture.

This year’s featured composer is Steve Elcock, with whom the ESO has enjoyed a long and fruitful association. Elcock’s residency as John McCabe ‘Composer-In-Association’ resulted in premiere performances and recordings of his Symphony No.8 and Violin Concerto.  

Elcock’s ‘Wreck’ Op.10 from 1998 and premiered by the ESO features in the Gala Concert and brings to life a ship at sea, battered by the elements, in what the composer refers to as a ‘‘symphonic allegory’’. Elcock will also give an audience at The Firs - Elgar’s Birthplace, and there will be the opportunity to hear Elgar and Elcock’s Piano Quintets back-to-back, played by the world-class principals of the ESO.

The Elgar Festival is committed to working with and inspiring young musicians and listeners and there are numerous opportunities for engagement including a Young Composers' Competition, Conducting Masterclasses and a Family concert. Violin soloist, Esther Abrami, is one such ambassador, being a star of the younger generation who has found fame through her TikTok profile which attracts thousands of young admirers.

The ‘Elgar for Everyone’ Family Concert in Worcester Cathedral is to be co-hosted by Esther Abrami and Festival Patron, Julian Lloyd Webber, and provides a platform for ESO Youth Orchestras and Ensembles - young musicians from across the Midlands’ region - in music by Ravi Shankar and Skaila Kanga, Morfydd Owen and Monika Stadler. Abrami will also feature traditional favourites by Elgar and Vaughan Williams during the Festival and hosts her own late-night ‘Club Elgar’ showcase.

In addition to Esther Abrami’s showcase, Elgar Festival Artistic Director and Conductor, Kenneth Woods, will swap baton for guitar when he welcomes some of the UK’s finest blues and jazz musicians, including rising star guitarist Alex Voysey, to celebrate the music of Elgar and his followers in a late-night Club Elgar fixture.

The English String Orchestra will perform Imogen Holst's Variations on ‘Loth To Depart’; the World Premiere of Steve Elcock's Concerto Grosso, and Elgar's String Quartet arranged by David Matthews. Choral works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Elgar’s ‘Sea Pictures’ arranged for choir, are to be performed by The Elgar Chorale, and the Jenny Lind Singers bring repertoire both new and familiar by female and local composers, while Choral Evensong at the Cathedral provides a welcome addition to the Festival programme. Meanwhile, the Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra, which Elgar helped to found in 1905, will be ‘Discovering Elgar’s Orchestra’ and performing his dazzling audience favourite, ‘Introduction and Allegro’ for strings.

All concerts at the Elgar Festival offer free tickets for under 18s accompanied by full-paying adults. Many of the festival’s events are free-of-charge and include a conducting masterclass, youth workshops, relaxed concerts, talks, a film, and an illuminating exhibition.

Tickets for Elgar Festival 2024 are now on sale at elgarfestival.org.