3MBS Melbourne has announced a first-time international collaboration with the UK-based English Music Festival to present the English Music Festival in Australia (EMFA).

Taking place 26–27 August in Melbourne, the four-concert festival will explore chamber music, art song, and solo instrumental works by late 19th to mid-20th century English composers and Australian composers of English descent.

Founded in 2006, the English Music Festival’s aim is to draw attention to the large amount of neglected, unperformed, and sometimes unpublished works by British composers. Since its inaugural Festival, the EMF has been based in Dorchester in Oxfordshire, with concerts also held in Sutton Courtenay, Radley, and Oxford.

The Festival’s Australian foray will feature some of Melbourne’s leading artists and ensembles, including Trio Anima Mundi, pianist Elyane Laussade, mezzo-soprano Sally-Anne Russell, The Parlour vocal ensemble, pianist Kenji Fujimura and international guest violinist, Rupert Marshall-Luck. The festival includes the Australian premiere of the new Henle Urtext edition of Sir Edward Elgar’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 82, edited by Marshall-Luck.

Rupert Marshall-Luck. Photo supplied

Concert I (26 August, 2pm) features Trio Anima Mundi playing music by Rosalind Ellicott, Malcolm Arnold and...