Welcome to the Freshwater Festival of Chamber Music for 2012. For those of you who attended the festival in 2010 you will remember how enjoyable the week-end  was.

The concerts alone were intimately beautiful events, interspersed with early period dancing, an art exhibition and a schools chamber music competition.

The feed-back we received from artists and audience members was overwhelmingly positive.  Fortunately, like child-birth, it’s the happy images we recall from 2010 as we work through the labyrinth of  production issues to bring the next festival to life. It’s not easy and our administrative team is “compact”. However, we’re resolute in our desire to generate a deep love of chamber music in as many people on the Northern Beaches as possible.

To this end, I have continued the format we created with the previous festival:

• three concerts
• early period dancing
• the schools chamber music competition
• an art exhibition and
• open dress rehearsals across the weekend prior to the Festival

The concerts remain the highlight, the programs for which are very inviting with a mix of standard and new works.

The Jewels-in-the-Crown of the Festival are of course the musicians and these include Diana Doherty, Sara Macliver, Claire Edwardes and players from the ACO. Of particular note is the Festival commission of a work by Alex Pozniak, a Sydney-based composer with a burgeoning career.  Food and drink are all provided on the day of concerts, to be enjoyed in the grounds of the beautiful Freshwater Campus.

I do hope you’ll join us for this  stimulating week-end of classic culture.