A STRING quartet from Russia is set to be the highlight of a month-long arts festival in Malvern.

Autumn in Malvern begins at the end of September and runs throughout October with visitors able to enjoy performances from a host of musicians, poets, writers and film makers.

The festival is now in its 24th year and boasts exhibitions in the town and over the Herefordshire border into Colwall and Ledbury.

St Petersburg String Quartet takes to the stage on October 13 at Stanbrook Abbey. This will be their third visit to the festival having previously performed to sell-out audiences.

Their programme this time includes work by composers Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten, performed in the abbey’s restored Thompson Hall. 2013 is the centenary of Britten’s birth with plenty of his work being celebrated.

Gabriel Woolf presents an afternoon discussing poet WH Auden at the Downs Memorial Hall in Colwall, where Auden taught during the 1930s and was introduced to Britten for the first time. They then collaborated over the Royal Mail film, Night Mail, and went on to work together over many years. Other highlights include literary walks following in the footsteps of Sir Edward Elgar and John Masefield, plus a talk by Professor Claire Cochrane on the history of the Birmingham Rep.

The principal concert is given by the Royal College of Music Orchestra in the Great Hall, Malvern College, and includes works by Britten, Elgar and Arvo Part.

Malvern’s distinguished chamber choir, Aldwyn Voices, perform in the Callow Great Hall at Stanbrook Abbey.

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

September 22: Royal Mail Film, Coach House Theatre
September 29: Aldwyn Voices, Stanbrook Abbey
October 2: CS Lewis talk, Malvern College Theatre
October 5: Claire Cochrane, Colwall Village Hall
October 5: Wyn Hobson, Colwall Village Hall
October 5: Humphrey Burton, Malvern College Theatre
October 6: Masefield Walk, Ledbury Market House
October 6: Portrait of Masefield, Malvern Theatres Cinema
October 12: Auden Walk, Downs School, Colwall
October 13: St Petersburg Quartet, Stanbrook Abbey
October 19: Laura Knight Forum, Colwall Village
Hall
October 20: Audenary Afternoon, Downs School, Colwall
October 26: RCM Orchestra, Great Hall Malvern College
October 27: Andrew Neill/Elgar, Elgar Birthplace Museum, Broadheath

Full details are available at malvernfestival.co.uk and tickets are available by calling 01684 892277.