We have been performing the Wilding Concert for over 16 years at Knepp and there’s a strong sense of kinship between the Shipley Arts Festival and the rewilding efforts of the Knepp Estate.

The Wilding is reflected throughout our music and we are delighted to share an exclusive performance which brings together the beauty of our surroundings and the wildlife successes of the Knepp Castle estate, largely thanks to wilding pioneers Charlie and Issy Burrell.

This evening we are very excited to be performing – for the first time in front of a live audience –  our 2020 Shipley Arts Festival commission, our lockdown commission, “White Storks”, from composer Helen Ottaway.

Helen Ottaway: White Storks (Shipley Arts Festival Commission)
Felix Mendelssohn: String Octet in E flat major, Op. 20
John Ireland:’Toccata’ from the Concertino Pastorale

The Knepp Estate is a leading light in the conservation movement, what started as an experiment has produced astonishing wildlife successes in a relatively short space of time and offers solutions for some of our most pressing problems – like soil restoration, flood mitigation, water and air purification, pollinating insects and carbon sequestration. Visited by numerous conservation organisations, including the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust, as well as policy makers, farmers and landowners, Knepp is shaping the future of nature conservation.

Helen Ottaway is a composer, pianist, installation artist and curator. While a student at Goldsmiths’, University of London in the 1980s, she studied briefly with John Cage and up to 1998 worked as a performer, musician and composer with experimental music and theatre groups, touring nationally and internationally.