Next Festival

Friday 18,19 & 20 March 2011

Join us for a weekend featuring the music of Mozart and his contemporaries.

All 2011 Festival details will be included once the programme is confirmed.

Music Festivals play an important role in Western cultural traditions.  One could cite the contributions of the great European Festivals such as the “Monteverdi Festival” in Cremona, Italy; the “Bach Festival” in Leipzig, Germany; the “Richard Wagner Festival” in Bayreuth, Germany; the “Salzburg Festival” in Austria; the “Carcassonne Music Festival” in France; the “Three Choirs Festival” (the oldest extant festival in Europe) in Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester, England; to name but a few.

Many of these festivals have their origins in the patronage of the Church and church buildings and church musicians have played, and continue to play important roles in these historic and significant festivals.

 It is this tradition that the “Bowral Autumn Music Festival” was founded in 2007.  Its goal is to present high quality classical chamber music centred on the Anglican Church of St Simon and St Jude (“St Jude’s”) in Bowral amid the lovely autumnal colours of the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.  Conveniently located mid-way between the metropolitan areas of Sydney and Canberra, Bowral offers a perfect location for a weekend of fine music.

The festival is generally held on the last week-end in March (depending upon the timing of Easter or other major activities at St Jude’s) with five concerts in St Jude’s and one in the Playhouse Theatre in the neighbouring town of Mittagong.  In addition there is a Festival Service at which a Festival Chorus sings one of the classical musical settings to the Holy Communion.

Although in its infancy, the Bowral Autumn Music Festival has already developed an enviable reputation for the quality of its concerts and recitals.  Under the direction of Artistic Director Yvette Goodchild, it attracts some of Australia’s leading classical musicians.

Plan to visit the Southern Highlands in Autumn and make the Bowral Autumn Music Festival a regular event in your annual musical calendar.

Bowral Autumn Music Festival

All Enquiries to:

Ph:        (02) 4871 1086

Email:   enquiries@bowralautumnmusicfestival.org.au