CERNE Abbas, with its (in)famous chalk giant, has for 35 years been the setting for one of the region’s most delightful boutique chamber music festivals. This July, founder, Dorset-born clarinettist Richard Hosford brings a group of internationally renowned musicians back to the village for three concerts in the historic St Mary’s Church.

Originally based around the Gaudier Ensemble, the Cerne Abbas Music Festival has continued to delight audiences with an unrivalled breadth of chamber music from the 18th century to the present day. Richard Hosford creates concert programmes ranging from intimate solo performances to mixed ensemble work, featuring not only established international colleagues but also outstanding young professionals at the start of their careers and students who comprise the next generation of professional musicians.

This year’s ensemble includes names that will be familiar from previous Cerne Abbas festivals, from Concerts in the West and from other chamber music concerts. They are: Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson, violinist Stephanie Gonley, the leader of the English Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and a soloist with many leading orchestras, Richard Hosford, clarinet, Dutch viola player Iris Juda, cellist Sally Pendlebury, a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Vellinger String Quartet, Stephen Stirling, horn, principal horn player with several chamber orchestras, including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and double bass player Stephen Williams, who has been a guest principal with the LPO and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, has recorded with the Tippett Quartet, and worked with Adele, Billie Eilish and Josh Groban. He plays an ltalian bass made in the 16th century.

The festival programme is:
Thursday 9th – St Mary’s Church, 6pm, Crusell, quartet in C minor for clarinet and strings, Brahms’ trio in E flat major for violin, horn and piano, and Schumann, quartet in E flat major for piano and strings;

Friday 10th – 6pm, Schubert, string trio in B flat, Mozart, quartet in G minor for piano and strings, Dohnanyi, sextet in C major for piano, clarinet, horn and string trio ;

Saturday 11th – 3pm, Schumann Fantasy Pieces for clarinet and piano, Bruch, Four Pieces for clarinet, viola and piano, Schubert, Trout Quintet.