Prescot
Festival of Music & the Arts
In 2005,
Robert was asked to present a short series of concerts - just two or
three, back to back - and it was from this that the Prescot Festival was
born. By 2006 it had grown from three to four days, with a small fringe
programme, and by 2007 it ran for 10 days.
A key
factor in the founding of the Festival was the success of Liverpool's
bid to be the 2008 European Capital 0f Culture. A town with an
impressive historical and artistic heritage going back centuries,
Prescot was well-placed to contribute to the momentous occasion. Thus it
was that in 2008, the Prescot Festival held an unprecedented programme
of concerts and art events, bringing together an astounding assortment
of local, regional, national and international artists, including Korean
pianist Young-Choon Park, singer-songwriter John Smith and local
orchestra the St. Helens Sinfonietta.
A regular
feature of the Festival is a celebrity guest appearance. In 2007,
actress Honor Blackman brought her one-woman show to Prescot, and in
2009 fans queued up around the block to see Peter Sallis, star of
long-running BBC sitcom The Last of the Summer Wine.
As
Artistic Director, Robert not only composes works especially for
performance at the Festival, but commissions work from other composers.
In 2010, he commissioned two new string quartets from local composers
David Forshaw and Kevin George Brown, commemorating the 400th
anniversary of Prescot Parish Church.
Central to
the vision of the Festival is the desire to bring arts to everyone in
the community. Its steady expansion has seen an increasingly diverse
audience, both young and old, turn out to hear orchestras, bands,
choirs, singers, instrumentalists and performers from both near and far.
Official website here
