Music festival 2026
At a glance
Sunday 16 August
3pm Rectory Gardens
Tea Party and live music
6.30pm St Mary’s Church
Festival Evensong
Tuesday 18 August
11.30am St Mary’s Church
Castaway with David Gordon
7pm St Mary’s Church
Folk: Amelia Coburn
9.45pm St Mary’s Church
Late Night Recital
Wednesday 19 August
12 Noon St Mary’s Church
Lunchtime Concert
7pm St Mary’s Church
Jazz Concert
9.45pm St Mary’s Church
Late Night Recital
Thursday 20 August
12 Noon St Mary’s Church
Lunchtime Concert
7pm St Mary’s Church
Chamber Concert
9.45pm St Mary’s Church
Late Night Recital
Friday 21 August
7pm St Mary’s Church
Gala Concert
Occasionally programmes can be subject to change.
Sunday 16 August
3pm Rectory Gardens
Tea Party
Tea is served! Enjoy a relaxing afternoon in the lovely Rectory Gardens accompanied by live music with local musicians.
Free Entry.
Tea and cakes available.
Sponsored by
Alan, Maureen, Bernie & Edita
6.30pm St Mary's Church
Evensong
The service will be led by
Reverend Andrew Rawding.
The organist is Paul Cheater
with the choir from Litton Cheney.
Tuesday 18 August
11.30pm St Mary's Church
Castaway
Musical polyglot, David Gordon, in conversation with Sandy Burnett. An award-winning composer, acclaimed jazz pianist, and one of the UK’s most sought-after harpsichordists, David works with ensembles throughout the UK and Europe, He talks about studying logic and the unusual career path he’s followed.
Sponsored by The Seaside Boarding House, Burton Bradstock
7pm St Mary's Church
Amelia Coburn
Amelia Coburn has a knack for making the unusual sound timeless. Her honest, occasionally hilarious and quintessentially north-eastern persona disarms and beguiles in equal measure. Inspired by gothic literature and the allure of film noir, her songs are populated by vivid characters and nocturnal creatures that inhabit the liminal space “between the moon and the milkman”. Her Bill Ryder-Jones-produced debut album gained a cult following, with national radio play across BBC Radio 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Amelia also featured on Paul Weller’s latest album ‘Find El Dorado’ Audiences continued to grow thanks to enchanting support slots with the likes of The Levellers, Rianne Downey, Hamish Hawk, Stornoway, Rumer and Katherine Priddy – not to mention her own sold-out Royal Albert Hall ‘Elgar Room’ show and mesmerising sets at some of the UK’s best-loved boutique festivals. Coburn’s latest single, ‘Something Wild’, continues to solidify her burgeoning reputation.
Sponsored by Sue and Duncan Ouseley
“A great voice with great tunes”
Paul Weller, Mojo Magazine
“What a voice! Really, really lovely”
Jo Whiley, BBC Radio 2 “Absolutely genius”
Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 6 Music
9.45pm St Mary's Church
Late Night Concert
Craig Ogden guitar
David Juritz violin
Miloš Milivojević accordion
Monks, a Monastery and and a Pilgrim
Craig Ogden plays the modern guitar classic, Koyunbaba, by Carlo Domeniconi. Named after a 13th-century Turkish saint, it was inspired by the ‘natural beauty of a bay’ overlooking the Aegean where Koyunbaba (the father of sheep) is said to have lived.
Vladimir Zolotaryov’s The Monastery of Ferapont is dedicated to one of Russia’s most revered cultural and spiritual treasures; founded in 1398 by Saint Ferapont, the monastery survived revolution, wars and the Soviet intact.
John Dowland’s Pilgrimes Solace is his final collection of songs. Disappointed by his failure to secure employment at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, Dowland spent much of his career moving between European centres before eventually becoming a lutenist to King James I.
Sponsored by Carpet World, Bridport & Two Festival Supporters
The bar will be open in the Village Hall
after the Evening Concert and before
the Late Night Recital
Wednesday 19 August
12 noon St Mary's Church
Lunchtime Concert
Philip Haworth oboe
Craig Ogden guitar
Fiona McCapra violin
Anja Milojević violin
David Juritz viola
Adrian Bradbury cello
WA Mozart (1756-1791) Oboe Quartet in F major
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) Suite popular Española
Alessandro Marcello (1673-1747) Oboe Concerto in D minor
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) Guitar Quintet ‘Fandango’
Philip Haworth takes centre stage in Mozart’s Oboe Quartet, a showcase for the virtuosity of Mozart’s friend, Franz Ramm. After that we head to southern Europe where Manuel de Falla took Spanish traditional songs about the ups and downs of love as inspiration for his Suite populaire Espagnole, for cello and guitar. Marcello’s oboe concerto is an essential item in any oboist’s repertoire. Written in the Venetian baroque style it was so admired by Bach that he produced his own transcription of the concerto. Italian-born Luigi Boccherini was equally famed as a composer and a virtuoso cellist. His ‘Fandango’ Quintet finishes with a good-natured ‘play-off’ as guitar and cello try to outdo one another.
To include a picnic platter
sponsored by Ailm / Profysio
and a glass of wine
in the rectory gardens.
Sponsored by
Nantes Solicitors & Notaries, Bridport
7pm St Mary's Church
Jazz Concert
Lucy Dixon vocals
Chris Garrick violin
David Gordon piano
Sandy Burnett bass
Paul Cavaciuti drums
The sensational singer and tap-dancer, Lucy Dixon (‘Completely riveting’, ‘utterly captivating and more focused and intense than ever!’), and ground-breaking jazz violinist, Chris Garrick (‘simply the most accomplished and expressive jazz violinist on today’s jazz scene…’), join David Gordon for an evening of swing, humour and musical high jinks. Together with bassist Sandy Burnett and Paul Cavaciuti on kit, Lucy, a star of the global hit musical Stomp, Chris and David reprise their programme that wowed Parisian audiences with music by Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Bill Evans and Miles Davis.
Sponsored by C G Fry and Son
9.45pm St Mary's Church
Late Night Concert
Natalia Lomeiko violin
Yuri Zhislin viola
Anya Zhislin piano
Lomeiko-Zhislin duo
The renowned husband and wife duo play Bartok’s folk-inspired duets for two violins, music by Debussy and Schubert’s Sonatina in D major with their pianist daughter, Anya Zhislin.
The bar will be open in the Village Hall
after the Evening Concert and before
the Late Night Recital
Sponsored by Dream Cottages
& by Gillian Collins in loving memory of
Barrie and Alex
Thursday 20 August
12 noon St Mary's Church
Lunchtime Concert
Anna Hashimoto clarinet
Philip Haworth oboe
Japheth Law flute
Ashley Myall bassoon
Chris Beagles horn
Craig Ogden guitar
Songs and dances
Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006) Three Shanties Op.4
George Gershwin (1898-1937) A Foggy Day
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Pièce en forme de Habanera
Otto Mortensen (1907-1986) Wind Quintet
Antonin Reicha (1770-1936) Andante pour le Cor Anglais
The leading wind ensemble of their generation, the Atéa Quintet joins forces with guitar virtuoso Craig Ogden for a programme that includes Sea Shanties by Malcolm Arnold, Gershwin in song and a gently lilting Habanera by Ravel. Also included are alluring Cor Anglais melodies by Anton Reicha and Otto Mortensen’s Quintet, inspired by the pastoral but dramatic Danish countryside. A concert that will leave you tapping your toes
Sponsored by Friends in Shipton Gorge
7pm St Mary's Church
Chamber Concert
Festival Players
Anna Hashimoto clarinet
Miloš Milivojević accordion
David Juritz, Natalia Lomeiko,
Fiona McCapra, Anja Milivojević violins
Yuri Zhislin, Rachel Byrt viola
Adrian Bradbury cello
Sam Reider Quintet for accordion and strings
Hans Gál (1890-1987) Clarinet Quintet Op. 107
W.A. Mozart (1756-1791) String Quintet in G minor K.516
Sam Reider’s Accordion Quintet fizzes with jazzy, West Coast energy from its very first notes. Hans Gál settled in Edinburgh after arriving as a refugee in the late 1930s. The lyricism of his Clarinet Quintet is rooted in the Vienna of his youth. Mozart’s G minor Viola Quintet, was completed in May 1787, mere days before the death of his estranged father. The rich but dark sonority of two violas and labyrinthine undertones are reflected in Wolfgang’s final letter to the gravely-ill Leopold, ‘I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind [death] that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling!’ – a reconciliation that perhaps inspired the remarkable transformation in the quintet’s light and vivacious finale.
Sponsored by Friends of the Festival
9.45pm St Mary's Church
Late Night Concert
David Gordon piano
Paul Cavaciuti drums, percussion
Sandy Burnett bass
With the Festival Players
David Gordon and friends
David Gordon leads his colleagues in a joyous romp through the music of John Dowland, Manuel de Falla and Miles Davis. Nobody knows what to expect – except for a lot of fun.
The bar will be open in the Village Hall after the Evening Concert and before the Late Night Recital
Sponsored by Frampton’s Butchers, Bridport
Friday 21 August
7pm St Mary's Church
Gala Concert
Festival Orchestra including:
Japheth Law flute
Philip Haworth oboe
Anna Hashimoto clarinet
Ashley Myall bassoon
Christopher Beagles horn
Craig Ogden guitar
Miloš Milivojević accordion
David Juritz, Natalia Lomeiko,
Fiona McCapra, Bridget Pearse,
Anja Milivojević, Anya Zhislin violin
Yuri Zhislin, Rachel Byrt viola
Adrian Bradbury, Lionel Handy cello
Sandy Burnett bass
David Gordon piano
Paul Cavaciuti percussion
Sponsored by Alan Williams
Richard Wagner (1813-1883) Siegfried Idyll
Aileen Sweeney Accordion Concerto, ‘Winter’
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Concerto for four violins in B minor
Aleksandr Glazunov (1865-1936) Meditation Op.32
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) Suite No. 1
from The Three Cornered Hat
On Christmas morning, 1870, Cosima Wagner woke to the sounds of a small orchestra playing in her hallway. Richard Wagner had rehearsed his musicians on a boat in the middle of Lake Lucerne in order to keep the first performance of Siegfried Idyll a complete secret! Aileen Sweeney’s concerto for accordion, ‘Winter’ won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s prestigious composition prize in 2023. Born and bred in Glasgow, Sweeney’s concerto explores three different winter festivals celebrated by the Ancient Celts. Manuel de Falla’s ballet, Three Cornered Hat, was based on a novel by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón and tells the tale of an elderly and corrupt Governor, a crafty miller and his beautiful, and faithful wife, who becomes the object of the Governor’s unwanted attention. It was given a sensational premier in London in 1919 by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes with sets designed by Pablo Picasso.
44th FESTIVAL
15-23 AUGUST 2026
Classical, jazz, folk and world music with internationally acclaimed performers and a nine-day exhibition featuring some of the finest art and ceramics in the South West