The Bromley and Beckenham International Music Festival will take place in September
A new chamber music festival is set to launch in Bromley this September.
Co-founded by pianist Benjamin Grosvenor and violinists Raja Halder and Hyeyoon Park, the Bromley and Beckenham International Music Festival will take place from 17-20 September at St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Bromley. It will observe all government social-distancing guidelines at the time of the performances, with concerts lasting no more than one hour, no intermission and an audience of no more than 120 (the church has a full capacity of 400).
The programme includes four socially-distanced chamber concerts with guest artists including Tomo Keller, Timothy Ridout, Leon Bosch, David Cohen, and festival Co-Founders Raja Halder, Benjamin Grosvenor and Hyeyoon Park. For full programme information, please visit: https://www.bbimf.com/
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There will be a one way system in place around the church, all public surfaces will be disinfected between performances, and there is ample space in the church grounds for socially distanced outdoor queuing. Audience members will be asked to wear masks when inside the church and use the hand sanitiser provided upon entering the building.
If regulations dictate that a live audience is no longer possible, the concerts will go ahead with no live audience and the festival will offer full refunds on all tickets. Alternatively, audience members can choose to donate the value of their tickets to receive exclusive access to video streams of each concert.
50% of profits from the 2020 festival will go to St Christopher’s Hospice, whose fundraising streams were devastated by the pandemic. The remaining 50% of profits will be invested in the 2021 festival.
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Benjamin Grosvenor comments: ‘The Covid-19 crisis has been a daunting time for everyone. Those working in the performing arts have been hit by widespread cancellations and months of seclusion and uncertainty. As three musicians based in Bromley, we were united in our desire to create something positive out of this difficult experience and build something long-lasting for the local community. Through this, the festival was born.
We hope that this will become an annual festival that will bring world-class music to Bromley and Beckenham, which in themselves are vibrant centres and not merely off-shoots of a larger city. We hope that you will join us on this journey, and celebrate the return of live-music making.’
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