Haberdashers’ Character: Music Festival

Music brings people together. Good music cannot happen without empathy and understanding. The nine schools represented here belong to a wider Haberdasher family, a community who’s ties we want to strengthen.

Our purpose through the Haberdashers’ Company Music Festival is to foster a musical community between our schools, encouraging students to share their love of music and form new friendships.

The idea for this event came after an edition of our Haberdashers’ Company Young Musician of the Year competition. As well as being an exceptional display of virtuosic young musicianship this event showed us the power of bringing these students together – of them having the chance to hear and get to know each other. It was clear this opportunity needed to be extended to more students and so plans were made to begin a similar event but for ensembles.

In 2023 we held our first event – a joyous occasion that will live long in the memory. This was followed up by an equally brilliant event the year after, each school bringing a short set from one of their flagship ensembles. Building on the success of these first two years, this year we have taken a rather large leap forward – today’s event is quite special for a number of reasons. We are hosted at the beautiful Milton Court Concert Hall, a stunning contemporary space that is principally designed for and used by the Guildhall School of Music – a fitting home for our talented young musicians. We have also taken quite a radical approach, deciding to collaborate on every element in the concert.

Where previously each school has performed within its usual groups, today we have brand new ensembles formed specially for this event. We celebrate tonight the inaugural performance of the Haberdashers’ Company Symphony Orchestra, Jazz Orchestra, Choir, and Wind Orchestra. From zero company-wide ensembles to four, all in the space of one day.