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Malling Mail 5


West Malling is to have its very own international music festival


Professional conductor and violinist Thomas Kemp is coming home to West Malling to launch an international festival of music in September.


Thomas, who grew up in the town and went to West Malling Primary School, works worldwide as a leading musician. But he has long regarded West Malling, with its historic buildings dating back to Norman times, as the ideal setting for a major festival in Mid Kent.


Now his idea is coming true as a number of local enthusiasts have joined him to launch a three-day festival, called Music@Malling, on 30 September. It is sponsored by Malling Action Partnership, West Malling Parish Council, the Clout Memorial Trustees, Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council and other organisations.


The aim will be to bring together the local community to provide a fitting platform for a series of concerts performed by professional, international artists. If it is a success, the festival will be extended and become an annual event.


Thomas is musical director of the highly acclaimed Chamber Domaine, one of Britain’s leading ensembles which will be in


Thomas said: “West Malling is a terrific place to have a festival of music. It has great venues and there is a real, grass roots enthusiasm for this type of venture.


“It will be particularly exciting for me to go back to my old school to work with Key Stage 2 pupils, aged 7 to 11, in an education project based around Prokofiev’s iconic Peter and the Wolf.


“I first started to learn the violin in the kitchen of West Malling School - and it is fantastic to put something


back into the community where I started my musical journey.”


Each festival will promote the work of a living composer alongside standard classics. This year, the music of one of the world’s most eminent composers, Mark Anthony Turnage, is featured in each programme.


“Mr Turnage had great success with his opera, Anna Nicole, at the Royal Opera House this year,” said Thomas. “And his music is brilliant to listen to - and very exciting to perform.


“I should point out that he used to live in Kent, too.” residence for the festival.


The programme will feature a groundbreaking outreach project involving top musicians working alongside pupils in local primary schools. This will culminate in two performances at West Malling church of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, narrated by Matthew Sharp who was recently praised by the Daily Telegraph for his “astonishingly comprehensive versatility”.


Other highlights of the festival include:


• Mahler’s rapturous Fourth Symphony with the remarkable Korean Soprano Yeree Suh and Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nacht music in candle-lit concerts in St Mary’s Church in West Malling


• Intimate chamber music at the Pilsdon Community’s medieval barn chapel in West Malling


• A concert at Mereworth’s beautiful Palladian-style church with the international prize-winning Finzi Quartet


• Two evenings of jazz at the famous Swan restaurant with the Ronnie Scott’s All Stars.


For further information, see www.musicatmalling.com and watch out for the brochure, which will be available in July.


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