The
English Music Festival (also known as
EMF) is an annual four day event held over the second May bank holiday, dedicated to the performance of British composers from the mediaeval to the present day with a strong focus on the early to mid twentieth century. Founded and organised by Em Marshall in 2006, the Festival takes place in
Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire and the surrounding area. Now in its seventh year, the festival is rapidly expanding to become one of Britain’s major classical music festivals, performing many neglected and previously unperformed works by composers as diverse as
Britten and
Holst to
Joseph Holbrooke and
Edwin York Bowen. The festival also presents world premiers by contemporary composers such as Mathew Curtis,
Cecilia McDowall,
Paul Carr and
Tom Rose. EMF's concerts are regularly broadcast by
BBC Radio 3, and the festival has established relationships with such orchestras as the
BBC Concert Orchestra, the
Orchestra of St Paul's and
City of London Choir, and artists such as
David Owen Norris,
James Gilchrist and Janice Watson.