A Handel Celebration

WellChild and the HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival are delighted to announce a new partnership. The relationship was celebrated in a unique and exciting concert at the festival in July.

In A Handel Celebration the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment came to Cheltenham with a blazing, surround-sound corps of sixteen trumpets, stunning soloists and a programme of favourite choruses. They were joined by the formidable acting talents of Harry Enfield in the narrative role of Handel. The full breadth of Handel’s genius was explored in this stunning concert held in association with WellChild.

The concert on July 4 took place at Cheltenham Town Hall. There was a WellChild fundraising champagne reception held by the HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival at the Queen’s Hotel before the performance which was a great success raising hundreds of pounds in funding for WellChild.

The WellChild link with Handel is apt because the composer had a close relationship with Thomas Coram and his children’s home, the Foundling Hospital and so this concert is a poignant choice for a collaboration between the Music Festival and WellChild.

Appearing in the concert were Ruby Hughes, Soprano, Iestyn Davies, Counter-tenor, Neal Davies, Bass, David Blackadder, Trumpet, the Oriel Singers and St Cecilia Singers, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Ben Hoffnung, Conductor and Harry Enfield as Handel.

On the programme was a range of Handel’s music including: Zadok the Priest, The Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks, Dettingen Te Deum, Arias and choruses from Messiah, Rinaldo, Joshua, Judas Maccabeus and Acis and Galatea.

WellChild Director of Communications Colin Dyer said: “We are delighted to be associated with the Cheltenham Music Festival which is a great event and a key part of Gloucestershire’s cultural and social life. We hope that people attending the Handel evening will have a wonderful night’s entertainment and give generously to help us in our work with seriously ill children and their families. Our work goes on throughout the UK but we are based in the heart of Cheltenham and so have a special affinity with the people of Gloucestershire who do so much to help and support us.”

Director of HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival Meurig Bowen said: “The collaboration between the Music Festival and WellChild is a perfect fit. Not only are we both Cheltenham-based charities making a bit impact - in our very different ways - on a national level. The fact that Handel's own philanthropic activities in 18th century London were uniquely associated with a groundbreaking children's charity, The Foundling Hospital, means that our Handel celebration in the 250th anniversary year of his death ties up perfectly with WellChild, and all they are doing for sick children in the 21st century.

As part of the new partnership the Festival will supply musicians to perform at WellChild events throughout the summer. It is hoped 2009 will mark the start of an on-going relationship between the two Cheltenham based charities.

Special thanks to: