About Mill Hill Music Festival 2011

The Mill Hill Music Festival takes place every two years. It is one of the largest music festivals in the North London and Barnet area. It offers a wide choice of musical events designed to appeal to music lovers of all kinds. The fundamental objective of the Festival is to give new talent a showcase and enable people to enjoy performances by top professional musicians in their own area at lower than commercial prices.

Over the years, the Festival has played host to some great names of the musical world; Humphrey Lyttelton, Warren Vache, Scott Hamilton, Campbell Burnap, The Foundations, Paul Young, Stacey Kent, Acker Bilk, Alan Gresty & Brian White, Gwyneth Herbert, and many more.


In 2005, in a "Festival first" we had the pleasure of playing host to the British Youth Opera, whose ethos lies in a similar vein to the Festival's own objectives. The opera company helps young singers to develop their skills and go on to become professional opera singers.

In 2007, our opening evening concert began with the first public performance of a newly-commissioned setting of a John Keble poem. The Festival continued to be a great success with truely splendid performance by British Youth Opera, a fantastic evening of jazz from the Scott Hamilton Quartet Plus Two, and a fascinating evening of klezmer from Gregori Schechter and the Wandering Few. The Festival with the first London performance of Jonathan Willcock's choral composition, A Great and Glorious Victory. This worked charts the moving aftermath of Trafalgar, an appropriate counterpoint the choir's triumphant performance of the Nelson Mass at the 2005 Festival.

In 2009, the Festival played host to a magical evening of music from the seventeen-piece all-star big-band, Allan Ganley Jazz Legacy directed by Andy Panayi with insternational star vocalist, Elaine Delmar, celebrating the musical arrangement and compositions of the late Allan Ganley. We also had a wonderful evening of opera from Katherine Marriott and other glourious voices. Stewart Curtis brought us an evening of Klezmer and The Humphrey Lyttelton Band brought us an evening of music celebrating 'Humph' who was a patron of the Music Festival, the evening included many of Humph's favourites and some amusing anecdotes about him read by broadcaster Brian Perkins.

The Festival has been going for 16 years now. Way back in 1995, the first festival was organised by Ms. Jane Ellison and Ms. Marion Dewing with great success. Since then every other year the Festival has sprung back in to life and expanded over many genres of music.

In the lead up to each Festival, we as always find ourselves in something of a dilemma – which artists do we book? The astonishing problem we have, is that are so many wonderfully talented musicians to choose from. Whether amateur or professional, just starting out or long established, local or international, the Mill Hill Music Festival simply bursts with gifted musicians.

From its early beginnings the Festival has had the much-appreciated patronage of Lady Hobson MBE, Sir Alan Thomas and the late Humphrey Lyttelton.

Mill Hill Music Festival is organised by music lovers for music lovers, on a not-for-profit basis, and we hope you'll take time this summer to enjoy some wonderful music with us.