Levon's Introduction
Levon Chilingirian introduces the 2011 Festival

2011 Music Programme 3rd - 9th July
Who is playing what and where - your definitive guide to the Festival

2011 - Our Venues
Make sure you check the changes to our Venues for 2011

Programme Notes
Full Programme Notes by Richard Jeffcoat

Our Mentors 2011

Young Professionals 2011
Biographies of our group of young professional players

Feedback 2010
Feedback from our Young Professionals 2010

Contact us

Friends of Mendelssohn on Mull
Details of the Friends and how you too can help

The Festival and its setting
Set in the outstanding natural beauty of the Inner Hebrides ....

About the Festival
How it began and also Who's Who in the Mendelssohn on Mull Trust

Funding

Useful Links
Links to ferry and accommdation, shopping, places of interest and things to do

Picture Gallery
Pictures of the Festival from 2000

So another Festival has come and gone. Players, young and old, festival staffers, Trustees, Friends, audience and all have dispersed to the four winds. But what a triumph of a festival this one was!

I know it is easy to say this at the end of each Festival when the adrenaline is still running high and one remains enveloped by the intensity of the emotion only the best music making can arouse. And we got heady stuff by the bucketfull delivered with such charm and constant cheerfulness.

These Chilingirians, ably supported by Stephen Orton (right) and our ever faithful Marcia Crayford, not only know their craft of music-making and of communicating that to their younger colleagues, but they are masters at engaging with their audience in a conversation mediated by the themes created by the composers. This may sound all very high-brow and serious not meant for mere mortals. So it might be but for the essential cheerful humanity projected by Levon and his colleagues that made these concerts around Mull, Iona and Oban so captivating and that drew us all in and kept us there enrapt.

That these are not mere empty words is demonstrated by the simple fact that all the venues, the castles, churches, community halls were consistently full to over-flowing. Of course we do have our growing number of Friends and consistent supporters, but people seem just to arrive -even straight off the yachts in Tobermory harbour still in their waterproofs. Clearly some came out of curiosity but then were hooked and followed the concerts round the island. At Iona it always amazes me how the Abbey fills to capacity and how for one hour many of these casual day trippers, who probably did not know of the concert until they entered the church, sit enrapt with the playing of the slow movements that are so finely tuned to the spirit of the place.

I can't finish this introductory review of the Festival without referring to something one of the young professionals said. At college they are always playing and performing to and in front of their tutors. Here the major difference is that they are playing with them. That is a whole new uplifting experience.

Roll on 2012!

A bonus of the having the Chilingirian Quartet mentoring this Festival has been the attention that it has received from both the BBC and the press.

The Arts Desk is an online Arts Magazine to which the renowned Natalie Wheen is a contributor. She is a long time presenter of music programmes on Classic FM and other programmes. She clearly was bowled over by the whole Festival - both by its ambience and its process! Aside from the travelogue describing the alure of the journey and the of the Island, she makes insightful comments on the process, quoting extensively from the conversations between Mentors and players. For those of us in the audience who only observe the "finished" product with perhaps but a limited knowledge and understanding of the musical process, this comes as a revelation, a flash of light! No doubt we shall see Natalie again on Mull.

Northings is website devoted to the arts and culture in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland in which our new Trustee, James Munro, has published a very full review of the Festival   James opens his article by saying that in these days of financial austerity with demands on the pocket increasing day by day, it is hard to believe that the event established in 1988 by Leonard Friedman to take a group of young professional musicians to a place of natural beauty, for inspiration and mentoring, could be going from strength to strength – and still managing to put on fourteen top quality chamber music concerts for free. He goes on the describe his impressions of the remarkable process that makes this Festival stand out from the rest. James took audio recordings at the previous festivall which he has published as a CD which was sold during the Festival week for the benefit of the Trust. Anyone interested in buying a copy of this CD should get in touch with the General Manager here

The Herald gave the event 4 star rating.

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