Our annual Highlights Concert to showcase festival excellence from the 2023 Festival takes place on Friday 2nd February. It takes place at Royal Wootton Bassett Memorial Hall and there is plenty of parking available.
You can get your free tickets here.
Doors open at 6pm and the concert runs from 6.30pm – 9.30pm.
We look forward to announcing further details about our upcoming Highlight’s Concert in 2024, and in the meantime, we would like to thank you for your continued support this year.
Merry Christmas to you and your family from the Royal Wotton Bassett Arts Festival volunteer team.
Our new Radio Play Writing competition was a hit this year. We had lots of entries and the winners were:
Joshua Mannacherry (u18) 82
Abel Tharakan (u18) 82
Gillian Brain (u18) 84
And the overall winner was:
Andrew Barber (adult) 86
Congratulations all!
This weekend we are wrapping up the Royal Wootton Bassett Arts Festival for 2023 with our final weekend, Music. We have Piano, Singing and all kinds of Instrumental Classes running all weekend. We look forward to welcoming you!
Please do enjoy our on-site cafe during your visit, with hot dogs, savouries, sandwiches, lots of cake and many more treats to choose from.
Don’t forget that all entrants need to bring a copy of the piece they are performing for the adjudicator, please.
And finally, we would like to wish everyone a wonderful weekend, and lots of success!
Introducing our new Instrumental adjudicator, Nicola-Jane Kemp, for the Music Festival this year….
We are delighted to announce that Nicola-Jane will be joining us this year in November to adjudicate our Instrumental classes, and some of our Piano classes too. Nicola-Jane is taking the place of Elizabeth Hayley, who unfortunately is no longer able to be with us this year. Do take a look at Nicola-Jane’s biography in the syllabus. We look forward to welcoming her to Royal Wootton Bassett in the Autumn!
Competitions
This year, alongside our annual Poetry Competition which is now open to Adults, we are running a Radio Script Writing Competition!
The winning play will be performed and broadcast on local radio and on the web! Find your entry form here. Deadline 14th October!
Entry can only be by the RWBAF Radio Entry Form and potential authors cannot enter on Run My Festival.
We are continuing to grow each year thanks to the wonderful support of all those who join us in sharing their creative talents!
The Festival will now run over THREE weekends in November. 11th & 12th November will be Dance and Classical Guitar, 18th & 19th November will be Speech & Drama, Musical Theatre and Dance and 25th & 26th November will be Music which will include Singing, Piano and Instrumental.
Guitar
Introducing a new Beginners Class in Graded Solos for those who have had up to twelve months tuition.
Introducing a Plucked Strings Family Ensemble where two or more members from the same family can present a piece together.
Novice Grades are now for anyone who would like a performance opportunity – not just adults!
The Composition Class has now introduced a class for age 16 years and over.
Also to remember the Ukulele, Mandolin and Acoustic instruments are part of the Classical Guitar Section.
Music
Following the popularity with the Disney Singing Classes in 2022 there are now three new classes for School Years 10 & 11, School Years 12 & 13 and Adults.
The Piano section have introduced three new classes for Primary, Secondary and Adults to perform any piece by any German composer
There are also three new Pupil and Teacher Duet Classes for Primary, Secondary and Adults. (Teachers won’t be adjudicated).
Very exciting! The Instrumental Section has introduced three new Recital Classes and Electronic Keyboard Classes for Primary, Secondary and adults.
There is also a new section where Traditional Music from any Country can be showcased, suitable for Solos, Duets and Ensembles.
Musical Theatre
Solo classes have been introduced for Year 4 & under and Year 5.
Duo classes now have a Year 5 & under class.
Dance
Dance have introduced NOVICE Classes for Solo Ballet, Solo Tap, Solo Song and Dance, Solo Modern / Lyrical, Solo Character and solo National.
Speech & Drama
There is a new Duo-Mime Class for Year 4 and under.
Sight Reading Class Year 6 & under have a new book by local author, Alex Evelyn – The Secret Wild. Alex will be joining the festival this Autumn to speak with entrants after the class to see how much they enjoyed the book and characters, and maybe with some tips on how to be an author!
Competitions
We have a new Radio Play Writing Competition. We invite potential authors to write a ten-minute play for radio. The winning play may be produced, performed, recorded and broadcast on local radio, the RWBAF website and digital media by members of The Western Players.
The Poetry Competition is now open to Adults!
Dance:
Jill Redford ARAD., FISTD., CertEd.,CDE.,PGCA.
Jill was an Arts Award Ballet Champion at the age of twelve and trained at Bird College of Performing Arts. gaining teaching qualifications including Advanced R.A.D. She has worked in the UK and abroad in the theatre with stars such as Peter Butterworth, Bernie Clifton and Lenny Henry – later running her own school in Sussex. She is now a freelance teacher / choreographer / adjudicator / performer.
Speech & Drama and Musical Theatre:
Ann Bauer EdD.,MEd.,BA(Hons).,LRAM., LGSM.,PGCE., DipDpLd.
Ann has taught in Primary and Secondary Schools, Theatres, Universities, and in therapy teams as well as examining drama and theatre studies. She loves the spoken word. Her first degree was English. Ann combines her drama work with specialist teaching, consultancy, advocacy and writing in Special Educational Needs.
Cally Foster LLAM., FSTSD.
Cally was Principal of her Buckinghamshire based Speech & Drama Studio for over 20 years. As a LAMDA Examiner she has travelled Internationally, around the UK and in Europe. In addition, she delivers workshops on all aspects of drama. She believes that performing in festivals encourages an appreciation of the Arts and also develops such skills, so important in today’s world.
Rebecca Vines MA., FVCM.,LALAM.,GSMD.,ATCL.,ANEA.
Rebecca read Journalism at Cardiff University where she wrote a weekly column for The Guardian. She trained as a specialist drama teacher, is also a professional actress and in 2014 she was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts in recognition of her work in the youth theatre sector. She is a LAMDA., GCSE and A level Examiner.
Music:
Nicola-Jane Kemp MA (Cantab)., MMus (Opera)., RSAMD. MUSIC – Instrumental
Nicola-Jane has been a professional soprano soloist and currently teaches choral scholars at Clare College, Cambridge University. In 2015 she was made Head of Singing at Eton College. As an opera soloist, she has worked for companies as diverse as Music Theatre Wales, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in France and BBC Radio 2. As well as being an adjudicator, she is a Grade and Diploma examiner, lectures at RNCM and teaches for the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and Rodolfus Choral Courses. She also sits on the council of the Association of Teachers of Singing.
Gail Mortley LRAM., ARCM., DipRAM., – Voice.
Gail is a professional singer, actress and teacher. She studied at The Royal Academy of Music where she was awarded numerous prizes and scholarships, one of which took her to Salzburg to study with the international singing coach, Rita Streich. She has also performed Opera. She has combined classical and commercial theatre with various roles including playing Cosetta in Les Miserables in London’s West End.
Anthony Williams MMus.,GRSM(Hons).,LRAM.,ARAM., – Piano.
Concert Pianist, writer, lecturer, examiner and adjudicator, Williams studied at The Royal Academy of Music. Following international competition success, he embarked on a career as a concert pianist. He is a passionate educator of pianistic musicianship. He teaches and gives masterclasses, public lecture recitals and seminars on performance and the art of teaching. He has also given talks on piano performance for Radio 3 and is author of many publications. He combines this freelance career with a position at Radley College, Oxfordshire as Head of Keyboard and Instrumental Music.
We are delighted to launch our new logo for 2023.
We have gone for a fresh design in a bright blue. You will start to see this on all our communications and across our digital comms. We hope you like it!
RWB Arts Festival 