Welcome to the West Wight Arts Association
West Wight Arts Association October Concert
The next concert of West Wight Arts Association's 2025/26 season will be held on Saturday October 11th in Freshwater Memorial Hall, starting at 7.00pm.
It will be given by the leading baroque quartet Red Priest, recently described in the New York Times as ‘the wildly virtuosic little band’. Named after the original ‘red priest’ Antonio Vivaldi, the quartet has developed a unique style, combining high-energy performance, boundary crossing arrangements and theatrical presentation.
Founded in 1997, Red Priest has delighted audiences across the globe, performing throughout Europe and America, and as far afield as Australia and New Zealand. They have given numerous radio and TV broadcasts, and their discography includes an iconic take on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, praised by Gramophone Magazine. Their most recent release, The Baroque Bohemians, reached No.1 in the UK classical charts.
“For sheer technical wizardry, charismatic showmanship and expressive devilment, Red Priest is in an exhilarating class of its own.” — BBC Music Magazine
As well as Vivaldi, the programme for the Memorial Hall concert includes works by Bach, Handel, Telemann and Corelli.
Tickets at £17.00 (£3.00 for students and children) which includes the £1.00 booking fee, are available from our ticket page or Totland Parish Office on 756028.
Please note the concert starts at 7.00pm.
End of Season concert May 10th 2025
The End of Season concert in May was given by six recipients of West Wight Arts Association’s winners of the 2024 Bursary.
The next Bursary will be held in the spring of 2026 and details will be posted on to this website.
Steinway Grand Piano
The Steinway ‘B’ grand piano in the Memorial Hall, Freshwater, which belongs to West Wight Arts Association, is available for hire by arrangement with WWAA.
Please check the availability of the Memorial Hall with the administrator Debbie McAteer on memohall1960@gmail.com or 01983 752956 in the first instance and then email Richard Wilkins on wilkins.r@btinternet.com for further details.
West Wight Arts Association Bursary
West Wight Arts Association has a long tradition of promoting promising young musicians through our bursary scheme, which we run every two years. The next one will be held on February 28th 2026 .
To encourage talented and aspiring local music students who would welcome financial support to further their studies, a sum is set aside every two years to provide bursaries for young Islanders aged between 11 and 21 years at the time of auditioning.
“The concert was one of the best I have been to anywhere, the gut stringing added to their brilliant interpretation of the Mozart which was thrilling.”
“Absolutely wonderful that music of this quality is available in (dare I say it) sleepy old Freshwater. I wish WWAA every success in the future.”
“I thought it absolutely fabulous and their interpretation masterful and magical – I thought Amadeus himself would have been smiling.”
Previous Concerts
