About us

Founded in 1978, the London Handel Festival plays a crucial role in the revival of interest in Handel’s music through live and digital performances, supporting emerging young talent, education and learning and our renowned and long-running London Handel Festival (LHF), an annual celebration of the life and work of George Frederic Handel.

We are the only organisation that focuses on Handel’s music and his life in eighteenth-century London, his adopted home. Handel was a man of great inspiration beyond being a great composer – he was an immigrant in London, he suffered from depression, he went blind, spoke English as a second language and worked to support vulnerable children as a Governor of Coram (formerly The Foundling Hospital). Our work is about using this incredible legacy to keep Handel’s spirit alive and continuing to bring joy, learning and inspiration to everyone.

The London Handel Orchestra is directed by Laurence Cummings one of the world’s pre-eminent Handelian conductors and led by Adrian Butterfield. The orchestra collaborates with leading soloists in numerous performances throughout the Festival often reviving lesser-known works. The Festival has worked with a range of established venues and artistic partners including the Linbury Theatre at ROH, Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smiths Square and Early Music Opera Company. The London Handel Festival also works with groups such as La Nuova Musica, the English Concert and Opera Settecento.

This coming year marks a further period of development for LHF which will see a fabulous Festival in the Spring with internationally acclaimed soloists, rarely performed works, a major new opera production, new collaborations and commissions as well as the hugely popular International Handel Singing Competition. Many performances will be based at our ‘home’ venue of St George’s Church, Hanover Square and we will continue to seek out new venues to create different concert experiences. Our aim is always to produce artistic excellence and performances of the highest quality whilst keeping ticket prices affordable. We are grateful to the growing number of donors and funders who are endorsing our ambitions but with no regular public subsidy we are heavily reliant on our loyal group of supporters.

By supporting us you will be part of the success of the annual Festival and in turn sustain superb artists, freelance musicians and venues as well as helping us offer opportunities for emerging groups, schools and young people in our growing learning and participation programmes. We offer a plethora of benefits at all levels of our membership tiers ranging from exclusive invitations to behind-the scenes events, previews, concert talks, to priority booking, discount on programmes, complimentary drinks, regular updates from the Festival Director and more. Find out about our membership tiers and how to support us below.We warmly welcome support from private individuals, companies, trusts and foundations. Your generosity makes a huge difference to the work of LHF