Curator

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In 2006 Jeremy co-founded the South Downs Summer Music Festival (formerly Alfriston Summer Music) in Sussex with his friend the violinist Daniel Bhattacharya. During his 10 year tenure he developed a loyal audience, gained charitable status for the festival and created a network of private and public sponsorship. 

He promoted a variety of different events that helped give the festival a reputation for innovation and freshness of vision.  The festival became known for discovering new talents such as Alexander Dariscu, Heath Quartet and Richard Uttley, and for introducing evenings that combined drama and music with actors such as Michael Pennington and former poet laureate Andrew Motion. The festival also attracted a variety of compelling artists from outside of the classical genre such as singer songwriter Tom Hickox, Kora virtuoso Tunde Jegede and folk ensemble Leveret.

The festival continues to flourish under the artistic directorship of Zahra Benyounes and Emily Holland and Jeremy remains the Chairman of the charitable trust.

 

https://www.southdownssummermusic.co.uk

 

Jeremy was also the Artistic Director of the RNCM Chamber Music Festivals from 2016 until they were cut short by the global pandemic.

The festivals have received praise in the UK press for their innovative programming and outreach work.

 

Artists appearing at the festival include Gabor Takacs- Nagy, Kathryn Stott, Quatour Mosaiques, Talich Quartet, Trio Wanderer, Keller Quartet, Elias Quartet to name a few. These artists complimented the vast array of performances from RNCM students and sat alongside lectures from the likes of John Suchet and masterclasses from Andras Keller. 

 

You can browse PDF’s of some past festivals below.