Festival Recap
Inaugural festival / 22–25 September 2026 / Frome & Mells
A look back at our first festival
From Devotion
to Delight
In September 2026, Cavatina’s inaugural festival brought musicians and audiences together in Frome and Mells for three concerts spanning centuries of music.
Conducted by Artistic Director Max Todes, the journey moved from the choral music of Bach and Purcell to the orchestral worlds of Mozart, Alma Mahler and Beethoven, with contemporary perspectives from Caroline Shaw and Edmund Finnis.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this beginning.
The festival programme
Three concerts. A shared journey.
Love and
the Divine
St Andrew’s Church, Mells
Cavatina Consort opened the festival with music by Bach, Gombert, Purcell and Pearsall, exploring love, grief and consolation through the human voice.
Shakespeare’s sonnets, read by Mandana Jones, sat alongside the music, with a pre-concert talk by Clare Asquith.
Homage and
Inspiration
The Rye Bakery, Frome
Cavatina Orchestra explored the connections between composers across the centuries in the setting of a former church.
Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte and Edmund Finnis’s Hymn (after Byrd) shared the programme with Schubert’s Fifth and Mozart’s Fortieth Symphonies.
Devotion
to Delight
St John’s Church, Frome
The final concert brought together Rameau’s Entrée pour les Muses and Alma Mahler’s Seven Songs, with mezzo-soprano Klara Solén.
Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony brought the festival’s journey to its close in music full of rhythm, movement and orchestral colour.
Behind the music
In rehearsal
A glimpse of the concentration, collaboration and shared enjoyment behind Cavatina’s music-making.
Music brings us together
Thank you for
being part of it.
Our warmest thanks to the musicians, guest artists, volunteers, venue teams, supporters and audiences who made this first festival possible—and to everyone who welcomed our musicians into their homes.
Cavatina was founded to give exceptional young musicians the freedom to be ambitious. Stay in touch for news of future concerts, or help us create more opportunities for emerging artists.