St. Endellion Easter Festival 12th April - 20th April 2025
We are delighted to present an exciting programme of repertoire and events for the Easter Festival 2025. Booking won’t open until 10am on Friday 28th February for Friends and at 10am on Saturday 15th March for the general public; however, here is what we have in store!
The festival opens with our Come & Sing, on Saturday 12th April, directed by Oliver Tarney and featuring a selection of choruses from Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Open to all, 10:00 – 15:00. With a free performance at 2pm/14:00. For information and registration contact Janet Morley via tickets@endellionfestivals.org.uk
Choral Evensong is at 4pm on Palm Sunday featuring music by Annabel Rooney and Orlando Gibbons.
You are most welcome to join Festival members enthusiastically heading to St Minver to take part in and support Paul Fiddes’ Shakespearean liturgy Facing the Storm with Love: A Liturgy based on Shakespeare’s Play, The Tempest, an event of Christian worship, presented by members from the North Cornwall Cluster of Churches with new music and poetry performed by the poet Christopher Southgate.
The festival’s Opening Concert is on Monday 14th April at 19:30 and will include Beethoven’s 1st Symphony, directed by Principal Conductor David Watkin preceded by two beautiful works of Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and Jesu, meine Freude with the full chorus.
In Tuesday’s chamber concert we are thrilled to present a programme of Lieder featuring internationally renowned performers Rachel Nicholls (soprano) and Michael Dussek (piano). Schumann’s pioneering and exciting Piano Quintet follows in the second half.
A late night Organ recital follows in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the St Endellion Goetze and Gwynn organ, also incorporating harpsichord and chamber organ and performed by Robert Quinney, Jamal Sutton and Nigel Spooner.
Wednesday 16th features the festival chorus and orchestra in an evening concert. Shostakovich’s exhilarating 9th Symphony is preceded by an exquisite selection of works for chorus and brass by Gesualdo, Bruckner and Stravinsky, curated and directed by Harry Bradford. These works form part of our Lamentations series which runs through the concerts on Wednesday and Thursday, and finishes with the Tenebrae Service on Good Friday.
On Maundy Thursday we are at St Kew for a lunchtime concert of around an hour’s music curated and directed by distinguished violinist Paul Barritt; works by Mozart, Schumann, Rebecca Clarke and Ernö Dohnányi resound in a wonderful acoustic.
Then, back at St Endellion, we continue our Lamentations series, with a short afternoon concert of around an hour, starting at 17:30 Exploring themes of grief, loss and suffering as reflected in the Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet, this programme features laments through the ages – including works by Zelenka, Schubert, Bridge and featuring a new piece commissioned by the Easter Festival from the winner of our 2025 Composition Competition.
On Good Friday, we perform Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, a beautiful and moving sacred oratorio to the text of a medieval devotional poem depicting the suffering of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross. Soloists include Rachel Nicholls (soprano), Peter Hoare (tenor), and Claire Sutton-Williams (mezzo)
The Friday concert is followed by a short Tenebrae service containing Responses and Lamentations for Holy Saturday, open to all who wish to attend, and concluding our Lamentations series.
Saturday 19th April brings an evening Chamber Concert which in true Endellion Festival tradition showcases a varied selection of works for more unusual instrumental combinations. Featuring works composed in the 1920s from all over the world, this concert tours the diversity of musical styles during that roaring, tumultuous decade.
The Easter Sunday Eucharist service at 11:00 features the full festival chorus and we conclude the festival with the exuberant, joyful Easter Oratorio by J.S. Bach, in a concert commencing at 16:00.
