Dartington Hall is a Grade1 listed country estate located in Totnes, Devon. The estate was built in the 14th century but founded as a centre for culture and creativity by Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst in 1925. The International Summer School moved to Dartington in 1953, following its founding by William Glock in 1948 at Bryanston School in Dorset.

The Summer School & Festival is well known for its extraordinary courses, providing a unique and immersive experience for musicians of all levels of learning, talent and skill. It is renowned for offering amateurs, students and young professionals a unique opportunity to play with the world’s leading musicians - and offers the space to established artists to experiment, and explore new collaborations.

Professor Joanna MacGregor OBE is Artistic Director of the Summer School & Festival and is a British concert pianist, conductor and composer. As well as directing the artistic programme for the festival, she is Head of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music, Professor of the University of London and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge. She was previously artistic director of the Bath International Music Festival from 2006 to 2012 and in 2015 was appointed Artistic Director of the Dartington International Summer School & Festival.

MacGregor has invited prominent names from the classical music world, and luminaries from other genres, from jazz to folk, and the wider arts, in an outstanding four-week programme of masterclasses, workshops and performance. Highlights include Alfred Brendel, Ex Cathedra, Imogen Cooper, Jane Glover, Tom Randle, Freya Waley-Cohen, Adrian Brendel and Oliver Knussen, who will teach courses and perform alongside coaching, premieres, new collaborations and a carefully curated selection of non-musical events including, poetry readings, films, art installations and yoga. Choral projects include Bolivian Masses, Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Haydn’s Creation and Verdi’s Requiem. Byron Wallen will present an exclusive jazz project, that honours Martin Luther King and the Harlem Renaissance. Latin American music will be celebrated Adriano Adewale and Luiz Morais and a special flamenco performance will take place.

Opera highlights include Felicity Lott and Mark Austin teaching an Advanced Opera Course, a performance of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and vocal masterclasses from Clare Wilkinson, Nicholas Clapton and Sarah Gabriel.

Dartington offers a bursary scheme to help students, graduates and young musicians attend advanced courses. Bursary applications will be accepted from December 2017 and applied for via www.dartington.org/summer-school.