Shelton  Festival
2005

11 - 26 June

Introduction to the Festival

Welcome to the fourth Shelton Festival.

In 1999 there were concerns that our beautiful church, St Mary’s, could be made redundant, so a concert was organised to celebrate the 500^th anniversary of its completion by Sir Ralph Shelton. This initiative was intended to have a twofold effect, to raise money when needed to maintain the church fabric and also to prove that there were other viable uses for the building apart from the few religious services that take place each year.

The success of this first concert encouraged us to hold a further concert in 2000, followed by three concerts in 2001 and, in 2002, the creation of a full-fledged Festival. This Festival is now organised by a registered Charity whose aims are not only to keep St Mary’s Church in good repair but also to help young artists pursue their careers with funding for the purchase of often expensive musical instruments and other materials.

With so many cultural events taking place these days it must seem odd that we have embarked on yet another small local Festival. However, after that first concert a sense of destiny seemed to intervene and has since taken a very positive hand in our growth. The right people have just appeared when needed, so we now have a wonderfully enthusiastic organisational team. Our aim, to present the very highest quality in international music performed by the best in their field, has been helped by the enthusiasm of our performers who have said ‘yes’ to coming to our lost corner of Norfolk when we had hardly dared even ask.

This year our accent is on innovation and we are fortunate to be able to welcome back old friends in  new guises - see the programme for details.

Thank you in advance for supporting us and, welcome to our idyllic corner of rural England where I am sure you will enjoy some wonderful music.

Simon Cresswell
Chairman of the Trustees

The Shelton Festival