‘Mr Pritchard (“I love music…I’m a Welshman”) … as leader of Wrexham Borough Council, voted with his fellow councillors to cut the budget for its music service, which gives free lessons to children who want to learn an instrument, by 72%. He says they had little choice.’ Economist

Patrick Gale, Sunday Times best selling novelist, and internationally renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber discuss the vital importance and lifelong effect of great music teaching on all young people. Patrick’s latest novel has a character based on the legendary cello teacher Jane Cowan, who taught Patrick among many others including Steven Isserlis, who is playing at Chipping Campden Music Festival on Wednesday 22 and Friday 24 May.

INTERVAL

Patrick Gale talks about and reads from his poignant, gently humorous story of how music-making brings release for ten-year-old oddball Eustace, an only child who is discovering he is an emotional volcano.

‘Gale weaves his life experience with his fertile imagination’ Irish Times

This evening is chaired by Charlie Bennett, Artistic Director of Chipping Campden Music Festival.

Julian Lloyd Webber, Fellow of the Royal College of Music, is the Principal of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Described by Strad magazine as ‘the doyen of British cellists’, he has enjoyed one of the most creative and successful careers in classical music today. As founder of the British Government’s In Harmony programme and the Chair of Sistema England, he continues to promote personal and community development in some of England’s most deprived areas. He was elected President of the Elgar Society in 2009 and is Patron of Chipping Campden Music Festival’s Education Programme.
Patrick Gale spent his infancy at Wandsworth Prison, which his father governed, then grew up in Winchester before going to Oxford University. One of this country’s best-loved novelists, his most recent works are A Perfectly Good Man, the Richard and Judy bestseller Notes From An Exhibition, and the Costa-shortlisted A Place Called Winter. His original BBC television drama, Man In An Orange Shirt, was shown to great acclaim in 2017 as part of the BBC’s Queer Britannia series, leading viewers around the world to discover his novels.

This evening’s event is sponsored by Paula Kaplan