Quality is the promise at Neston music festival

Aug 27 2008 by Lorna Hughes, Heswall News

ORGANISERS of this weekend’s Neston Music Festival are promising two concerts of “high quality, live musical performance”.

The annual festival started in 2000 with a small-scale concert to raise money for the restoration of St Thomas’ Church, Parkgate.

So far the event has raised £6,700 for Claire House Hospice and the Wirral Churches’ Ark Project.

This year will take a similar format to the 2007 festival, with an orchestral on the Saturday evening and a concert by Bactiguard Wire Brass on the Sunday.

In a classical concert on Saturday (August 30) pianist Jesse Beaumont will be the soloist in Grieg’s Piano Concerto.

A spokesman for the festival said: “Jesse Beaumont jointly won the International Piano Competition 'Le Concours Musicale de France' in Paris 2007.

“He was also 1st Prize winner of the International Competition Fondazione Pescetto Edizione 2007 in Varazze, Italy.

“He studied music at Oxford University where he performed Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto with the Oxford Philharmonia Orchestra in the Sheldonian Theatre.

“He went on to study as a postgraduate at Trinity College of Music, where he won various prizes including the Cavatina Chamber Music Competition 2005 with the Bomond Trio and the John Longmire Piano Prize for Liszt Transcriptions; and as a consequence played for the Liszt Society.”

The concert programme also includes Humperdinck's Overture to his opera Hansel and Gretel, and Tchaikovsky's final symphony, the Sixth or “Pathetique” (meaning “passionate”), which was premiered nine days before his death in 1893.

The concert is being given by the Neston Fetival Orchestra, formed from amateur musicians in the North West under the baton of conductor Eric Jennings.

The following evening, August 31, “Wire Brass” will be on stage for a concert of virtuoso brass playing.

The venue for both concerts is Neston Parish Church, Neston High Street, with performances commencing at 7.30pm.

Tickets are priced at £8 and £5 and are available at the door or from Wine Rack and Allister’s Opticians in Neston, Parkgate Stores, Thornton Hough Post Office and Linghams Bookshop in Heswall.

Proceeds from the concerts will go to Claire House Children’s Hospice and Wirral Churches’ Ark Project.

For more information see the festival website at www.nestonfestival.org.uk