10.30am Lichfield Garrick Studio 60mins
Michael Symmons Roberts

The poet and librettist for composer James MacMillan, whose 50th birthday is celebrated this evening, reads from his work and discusses the interaction of words and music. His poetry has won the Whitbread Poetry Award and his continuing collaboration with MacMillan has led to two BBC Proms choral commissions.

“A religious poet in a secular age” Jeanette Winterson

£5 unreserved Book tickets Booking Code: 16A

12noon Lichfield Cathedral 65mins
Robert Quinney organ

The young virtuoso Sub-Organist of Westminster Abbey makes a rare visit to the West Midlands for an exciting programme comprising music by Pott, Bach, Franck, Vierne, Mendelssohn and Wagner. Robert’s The Grand Organ of Westminster Cathedral was Instrumental Disc of the Month in BBC Music Magazine, earned a 5-star review in the French journal Diapason, and was an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone.

£12 unreserved Book tickets  Booking code:  16B

3pm St Chad's Church, Lichfield 120mins
Badke Quartet 
Haydn String Quartet in D major Op.76 No.5
Mozart String Quartet in D major K499 Hoffmeister
Schumann String Quartet in A minor Op.41 No.3

A hit at last year’s Festival, the Badke Quartet pair the last of Schumann’s quartets with  Mozart’s ‘Hoffmeister’, composed to repay a debt to his publisher. The fifth of Haydn’s final quartets, composed in the closing years of the 18th century, commences proceedings.

Supported by Peter & Mary Parsons

See the Badke Quartet perform again on Friday 17 July

£16 unreserved (under 18s half price) Book tickets Booking Code: 16C

7.30pm Lichfield Cathedral 120mins
The Choral Pilgrimage 2009
Great Orb of Harmony
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers conductor

Purcell Jehovah, quam multi sunt
Purcell Miserere mei
Purcell Remember not, Lord, our offences
Purcell Beati omnes qui timent Dominum
MacMillan O Bone Jesu
Purcell Let mine eyes run down with tears
MacMillan Mitte manum tuam
MacMillan A Child’s prayer
MacMillan Sedebit Dominus Rex
Purcell O Dive Custos Auriacae domus
Purcell Funeral Sentences – Set 1

In a year of anniversaries, The Sixteen return to Lichfield to celebrate 30 years of music making with a Choral Pilgrimage revelling in two of the country’s most influential composers. Purcell may have been born 350 years ago but his music sounds as modern today as it must have done then. This year – this day in fact – James MacMillan celebrates his 50th birthday; his setting of O Bone Jesu was commissioned by The Sixteen, and it is an inspired work for a unique choir.

“Glorious vocal euphony just takes your breath away” The Daily Telegraph

Sponsored by
Supported by the Gold LFA Members

the-sixteen.org.uk

£26.50, £21.50, £18.50, £14.50, £9.50 Book tickets Booking Code: 16D

See Seating information for sight restrictions

After its recent sell-out success with The Masque of the Red Death, The Happiness Patrol continues its mission to reinvent classic texts with this selection of English and Japanese ghost stories. Watch as rickety scarecrows and abandoned wives spring terrifying surprises, and savour the spine-tingling horrors lurking at the bottom of a cup of tea.

Recommended for age 12+

happiness-patrol.com

Also on Wednesday 15, Friday 17 and Saturday 18 July. 

£10, £8 students Book Tickets   Booking Code: 16E

One of the country's sharpest comedians, Jeremy Hardy, returns to Lichfield with his new stand-up show. Jeremy is perhaps best remembered as a much younger man, but there is nothing he can do about that now. Still alive and able to speak unaided for lengthy periods, this show will be not so much a one-man show as an under-staffed cavalcade.
A former winner of both the Best Live Performer at the British Comedy Awards and the prestigious Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, Jeremy is now a member of Radio 4's News Quiz team as well as regularly appearing on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, and Just A Minute.

Hilarious, detailed, gently self-depreciating act from a stand-up comic in complete control
The Independent

One minute lewd, the next acerbic, he is always one step wide of insult and one ahead of expectation
The Financial Times