About Spring Sounds
“You won’t hear much better than this anywhere”
Classic Fm Magazine
The inaugural Spring Sounds took place in May 2008 with Tasmin Little at the helm as Artistic Director. The ethos behind the festival is to feature the work of established and developing composers alongside the great classics of the classical canon and to showcase and broaden Stratford-upon-Avon’s musical offering.
Taking place every May composers and artists featured thus far include Roxanna Panufnik, Joe Cutler, Phil Dukes, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Paul Watkins, Martin Roscoe, the Smetana Piano Trio, Param Vir and Viv McLean.
The festival has also made full use of a variety of venues Stratford offers from the orchestra’s home base of the Civic Hall through to the elegant Georgian Town Hall and the beautiful Peter Adams designed Compton Verney art gallery just outside of Stratford. Compton Verney has also hosted the festival’s family events with young participants and gallery visitors creating graphic scores and being treated to impromptu performances around the grounds from Orchestra of the Swan’s musicians.
Performances in the festival have received critical acclaim and the 2008 festival was featured in ITV’s flagship arts programme the South Bank Show.
“An excellent orchestra and conductor”
BBC Music Magazine
“You won’t hear much better than this anywhere”
Classic FM Magazine
“Curtis’s conducting, if close to Boult’s, is more intimate, and slightly more perceptive”
American Record Guide
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