Inverness Music Festival Information

Inverness Festival Association runs the Inverness Music Festival, a competitive festival, which provides opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to develop their potential in a wide range of musical events. The Festival runs each year from mid-February to mid-March usually for three weeks. The syllabus, which is free of charge, is published towards the middle of September with the closing date for entries in November. The final programme is ready by the beginning of the year.

There are competitive classes throughout the Festival, which cover a large number of disciplines. These include:

•  Vocal : This comprises both solo singing and choirs for, amongst others, Opera, Operetta, Art song, Barbershop, Hymns, Psalms and Folk Songs.

•  Instrumental : All Brass, Woodwind, Keyboard, Piano, and Stringed Instruments, solo or ensemble. Also includes composition.

•  Speech : This comprises both solo and choral classes for Prose reading, Poetry, Debating and Composition.

•  Gaelic : All speech, solo singing and choir classes.

•  Scottish : This includes poetry, speech, singing, dance, and all Scottish instrumentals.

There are sixty nine trophies, shields and cups awarded at various classes, as well as three levels of certificate. The competitive element of the Festival culminates with the prestigious Curtis Craig Competition usually held in Inverness Town House. The winner receives the Curtis Craig Trophy; all other competitors receive a commemorative medal.

All the classes throughout the Festival are open to the public and are staged in a variety of venues in and about the city. Membership of the Association is open to anyone interested in promoting the aims of the Festival and there is a committee to coordinate the Festival. There is no paid staff. An executive group of six core members carry out the organisation of the Festival. The Committee can call on a further eighty volunteers to act as stewards, chairmen etc during the run of the Festival. Usually about eighteen adjudicators are employed throughout the three weeks of the festival. In order to meet the costs of running the Music Festival various grants are applied for, as well as class sponsorship, advertising revenue, competition entry fees, venue entrance fees, membership and a series of summer concerts has been run in the past. These concerts were held on Wednesdays throughout the summer in Inverness Town House at which a selection of performers from the previous Festivals were invited to perform. We hope to be able to resume running these concerts in the future.

There has been a Music Festival in Inverness since 1922. This started as a few classes in one venue on one day, but now at the turn of the 21 st Century, there are over 1,300 entries representing more than 4,000 participants. This increase has mainly been in the last decade where entries have trebled. Per head of population, this has to make it one of the biggest festivals of its kind in the U.K.