Events at Dorchester Abbey
For generations people have brought their gifts and skills to enhance the life of Dorchester Abbey and this tradition continues as a huge variety of groups and organisations hire and use the Abbey each year as the venue for a wide and vibrant programme of concerts, theatre, visual arts and other events.
If you would like to hire the Abbey for your event then take a look at our information for hirers.
Moving Music Returns for the next installment of its inclusive concert series: please note there are two performance times and refreshments will be served 30 mins before each concert
Relaxed instrumental & song performances with sing-along songs led by Hannah Davey.
With Derek Paravicini (Piano)
All are welcome, particularly people living with dementia, their family, friends and carers. Reserve places in advance for your preferred concert time: movingmusicconcerts@gmail.com; 01865 251305. Pay what you can, guide £5.
More information: https://soundresource.org.uk/whats-on/
Come and enjoy Dorchester Abbey’s new Forest Church in our glorious cloister garden! Outdoor activities, singing, campfire & marshmallows. Dress for the weather and for messy!!
Please register that you’re coming here:Â https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/dorchesterabbey/t-yalorxj
Once a week a group of composers come together in Dorchester to discuss each other’s work. They met some years ago during a composition course at Oxford University’s Ewert House and now meet in a music room in Dorchester.
The members of the group have a diversity of styles, and there will be an opportunity in the afternoon of May 11th to hear the work of three of them.
The concert will open with some wind quartets, for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon, played by members of the Langtree Sinfonia, then two trios for Violin, Viola and Piano played by the PaDaTi trio.
The last item will be Henry and his Wives, a light-hearted cantata by Tim Cook, with illustrations by Adrian Brooks, about the much-married monarch and his unfortunate consorts.
The concert will last about 45 minutes, entrance is free and there will be an opportunity to make a donation for the upkeep of the Abbey.
BACH
Brandenburg concerto no 3
Violin concerto in e major
Violin concerto in a minor
Brandenburg concerto no 6
Jan Schmolck violin
Orchestra of St John’s
Free tickets available for NHS workers and for the disabled. Please email admin@osj.org.uk
Tickets Available on the Door or in Advance :
Conductor: Kevin Withell
Leader: Steve Nurse
Sibelius – Finlandia
Grieg – Piano concerto (soloist Hanna Csermely)
Brahms – Symphony No. 2
More About Soloist Hanna Csermely
21-year-old Hungarian pianist, Hanna Csermely, grew up in Southampton for the majority of her life where her passion for music was ignited. From the age of 7, she began having piano lessons and participated in many competitions and music festivals such as Fareham Music Festival, Gosport Music Festival, Southampton Music Festival and Portsmouth Music Festival with great success, winning many of her classes. Her successes resulted in receiving the award for ‘Most Promising Pianist’ by Mark Tanner and opportunities to perform at prestigious venues including Turner Sims Concert Hall, the King’s Theatre, Portsmouth in addition to being invited to play in the Emanuel Trophy Competition, London.
Aged 16, Hanna was offered a place on the Hampshire Specialist Music Course to study with Dr Samantha Carrasco. During her time on the course, she was selected to play in a master class at Steinway Hall with Professor Charles Owen, received a high distinction for her ARSM diploma and performed Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto. Additionally, she received regular coaching and performance opportunities with her chamber ensembles – including piano trios, piano duos and accompanying soloists. Hanna also played orchestral piano for the Southampton Youth Orchestras, accompanied instrumentalists for ABRSM exams, local choirs, played in pit orchestras and taught a handful of students.
Hanna is currently in her fourth year at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Helen Krizos. At the RNCM, she continues working with other musicians including singers, instrumentalists and in chamber ensembles. Her interest in collaborative piano has lead to being awarded the Pianist Prize in the James Martin Oncken Song Prize, the Williams-Howard Prize and ‘Highly Commended’ in the Underrepresented Competition and the Bessie Cronshaw Song Cycle prize. As a result of these awards, she has performed in the Leeds Lieder Lounge and the Buxton International Festival. Her recently formed piano trio, the Silja Trio, have also given a number of performances at venues including St John’s Church (Buxton), Manchester Cathedral and as part of the Go Beyond Music festival and receive regular coaching from specialists Jeremy Young, Donald Grant and Roger Hamilton. Hanna also gives frequent solo recitals in prestigious venues including Winchester Cathedral, Southwell Minster, Festetics Castle (Hungary), and has recently made her debut in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Hanna has received lessons and master classes from world-renowned tutors including Kathryn Stott, Andras Kemenes, Reto Reichenbach, Paul Janes, Istvan Dominko, Tamas Ungar and Kalman Drafi. Hanna is open to exploring other genres of classical music which has lead her to participate in the ‘Intensive Classical Improvisation Course’ at the Crescendo Summer Institute with Dr Pauliina Haustein and she continues to develop her pedagogical skills by teaching both privately and at music schools.
Aside from music, Hanna enjoys running and has recently taken part in the Manchester half marathon. She is also fluent in English and Hungarian and is currently learning German and Spanish.
Langtree Sinfonia can be found on
INSTAGRAM : langtreesinfonia & FACEBOOK: Langtree Sinfonia
We are delighted to announce the programme for the 2025 English Music Festival, which can be viewed in full on this page.
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The English Music Festival, now in its eighteenth year, celebrates the rich diversity of English music, bringing unjustly neglected and unheard works to life in the wonderfully atmospheric surroundings of Dorchester Abbey, alongside much-loved favourites.
The 2025 Festival, held over the second May Bank Holiday in Dorchester Abbey, will open with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Martin Yates in the World Premiere Performance of Stanley Bate’s Second Symphony, alongside Vaughan Williams’s Heroic Elegy and Triumphal Epilogue, Frederick Delius’s The Walk to Paradise Gardens, Williams Alwyn’s overture The Innumerable Dance and—commemorating the 50 years since his death—Bliss’s Cello Concerto with celebrated cellist Raphael Wallfisch.
The following morning, violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck and his pianist colleague Peter Cartwright—joining us from Johannesburg in South Africa—present premières of works by Norman O’Neill, Herbert Howells and Alan Rawsthorne: all these works have, until very recently, existed only in manuscript form and new editions have been made by specialist musicologists for this concert. The following song recital with Ben Alder and Dr Andrew Plant features songs of great beauty and charm by Howells, Maude Valérie White, Roger Quilter and Ivor Gurney.
For the Saturday main-evening concert, we are delighted to welcome the Royal Ballet Sinfonia to the EMF for the first time. The Royal Ballet Sinfonia is Britain’s busiest ballet orchestra, playing for Birmingham Royal Ballet’s wide-ranging programme in the UK and abroad as well as for the Royal Ballet; it also has a long tradition of playing for tours given by the world’s leading ballet companies, including Australian Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Queensland Ballet, Paris Opéra Ballet, and New York City Ballet. Their programme for the EMF will include arrangements by Peter Warlock of early music alongside his Capriol Suite and music by Robin Milford and Cecil Armstrong Gibbs.
Our late-evening recitals are always extremely popular, the warm glow inside the Abbey contrasting pleasantly with the gathering darkness outside and the intimate programmes providing the perfect end to an convivial day of concerts. On Saturday evening, the young and brilliant guitarist Jack Hancher will present the first of these recitals in the 2025 Festival, his programme ranging from John Dowland to Cyril Scott.
The traditional convivial EMF Lunch—now held in the Gilbert Scott-designed Village Hall—on Sunday will be followed by a wind band concert featuring music by Holst, Vaughan Williams, Ireland and Gordon Jacob, alongside the UK première of Martin Ellerby’s Wessex Dances; while EMF regulars, the Godwine Choir with conductor Hilary Davan Wetton, return for an evening choral concert of music by Delius, Dyson, Holst, Howells and John Gardner.
The late evening concert on Sunday is another first for the EMF, as we welcome singer-songwriter, early music specialist and lecturer Dr Steph Connor with an event that will combine folk, early music and jazz, showcasing the broad range of genres with which the EMF is associated.
More treats abound the following day, commencing with a recital from acclaimed pianist Hiroaki Takenouchi, followed by the Berkeley Ensemble—celebrating the release of their recording for EM Records—in a recital of music by Howells, Dorothy Howell and John Blackwood McEwen, alongside Elgar’s much-loved Piano Quintet. The final concert also ties in with an EM Records disc launch as we welcome back Excalibur Voices conducted by Duncan Aspden, who gave such an astoundingly superb programme last year that they are returning in 2025 by popular demand: music by Finzi, Rawsthorne and Armstrong Gibbs, among others, will conclude the Festival on an uplifting and energising note. |
| The English Music Festival, now in its eighteenth year, celebrates the rich diversity of English music, bringing unjustly neglected and unheard works to life in the wonderfully atmospheric surroundings of Dorchester Abbey. Highlights of this year’s Festival include the BBC Concert Orchestra with a World Premiere alongside works by Vaughan Williams  and Delius and – with the celebrated cellist Raphael Wallfisch – Bliss’s Cello Concerto to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Bliss’s death; a wealth of chamber music, including world premiere performances of works by Alan Rawsthorne – best known for his film music – and Herbert Howells; stunning choral works from the Godwine Choir and the superb Excalibur Voices; singer-song-writer and fantasy weaver Stef Connor; acclaimed pianists Simon Callaghan and Hiroaki Takenouchi; a performance of Elgar’s much-loved Piano Quintet; an intimate late-evening guitar recital from young and brilliant Jack Hancher; and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia – Britain’s busiest ballet orchestra – with an evening of energising and characterful gems for string orchestra. Join us for four days of events to lift the spirits and delight the senses! |
Come and enjoy Dorchester Abbey’s new Forest Church in our glorious cloister garden! Outdoor activities, singing, campfire & marshmallows. Dress for the weather and for messy!!
Please register that you’re coming here:Â https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/dorchesterabbey/t-yalorxj
Come and enjoy Dorchester Abbey’s new Forest Church in our glorious cloister garden! Outdoor activities, singing, campfire & marshmallows. Dress for the weather and for messy!!
Please register that you’re coming here:Â https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/dorchesterabbey/t-yalorxj
Dorchester-on-Thames Amateur Dramatics Society (DADS) are performing their summer production, Robin Hood and His Merry Men by Bob Hammond, in the Abbey Cloister Garden in July 2025.
Performance Dates & Times:
10 July – 7pm
11 July – 7pm
12 July – 6pm
The greedy Sheriff of Nottingham forces the noble Robin of Locksley to become an outlaw in Sherwood Forest and join a band of outlaws. Robin fights to regain his confiscated estate and win back his darling Maid Marion. With King Richard held for ransom in the Crusades, who will defeat the Sheriff?
Come along, bring a picnic, join in the fun and find out.
FOR MORE INFORMATION & TO BOOK TICKETS CONTACT DADS! https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/dads
Come and enjoy Dorchester Abbey’s new Forest Church in our glorious cloister garden! Outdoor activities, singing, campfire & marshmallows. Dress for the weather and for messy!!
Please register that you’re coming here:Â https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/dorchesterabbey/t-yalorxj