Community Music Whickham and Swalwell
Community Music is a registered charity in the heart of Tyneside set up with the aim of bringing music to the whole community. We provide access to music lessons and ensemble playing for young and old, offer instrument loan and organise various recitals and music events.
William Shield Festival 2023
William Shield and some literart connections.
Following the success of the four previous festivals, this year promises to offer a new and exciting perspective of Tyneside’s neglected musical genius, William Shield.
Born in Swalwell, near Gateshead, in 1748, Shield was apprenticed to a boat-builder following the untimely death of his father. A prodigiously gifted young violinist, he studied with the celebrated Charles Avison, the Newcastle organist and composer, before moving first to Scarborough and then to London. Here he became the leading composer of operas at Covent Garden, and a good friend of King George IV. His operas were extraordinarily popular – he truly was the Andrew Lloyd Webber of his age- and his songs were on everybody’s lips. He was appointed Master of the King’s Music in 1817 and was buried in Westminster Abbey following his death in 1829.
This year the Festival continues its work of bringing William Shield’s genius to a wider recognition. The Festival’s Artistic Director, John Treherne and Community Music Whickham and Swalwell present a varied programme exploring Shield's life, era and contemporaries with specific focus on some fascinating literary connections.