Welcome to Deal Festival of Music and Arts 2012 - 29th June to 8th July

The Deal Summer Music Festival was founded in 1982 by the Swedish pianist Lennard Rabes who inaugurated the first festival himself with an adventurous recital containing several premieres of Swedish works - and Evelyn Rothwell and Steven Isserlis gave oboe and cello masterclasses.
In 1984 Roger Raphael took over as Artistic Director, to be succeeded by Steven Isserlis from1985-1986, Peter Evans from 1987-1988, the composer David Matthews from 1989-1999 whose model for shaping the events in Deal was the Aldeburgh Festival and most recently another composer, Professor Paul Edlin who grasped the chance to be creative, to platform new music and new composers and to ensure educational opportunities should be integral to the Festival's vision.

Paul Edlin retired in 2010 and his successor is Matthew Sharp - international cellist and singer - whose eclectic approach to performance, promises to take the Festival to new heights.

Now renamed Deal Festival of Music and the Arts, during the high Summer period, the programme is tightly packed with as wide a range of music as possible, including opera, street music, cabaret, classical, world and jazz. There are also Festival club events, talks, art exhibitions, literary encounters and an extensive range of education projects and family-friendly performances. As well as illustrious visitors such as John Williams, Willard White, Alison Balsom, The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players, Russian Chamber Philharmonic of St Petersburg, Swingle Singers, the Festival hosts and presents performances by some of the best young performers from all over the world, emerging onto the arts scene.