About the London Handel Festival
The London Handel Festival is the UK’s only full-time organisation dedicated to the performance and celebration of music by George Frideric Handel.
The London Handel Society was formed in 1975 by Denys Darlow and the first London Handel Festival took place in the summer of 1978. It is without doubt that the Festival has continued to play a pivotal role in the performance of Handel’s music and is now regarded as the home of Handel’s music in London.
Originally based from St George’s Church, Hanover Square – Handel’s own parish church, the London Handel Festival now presents an annual programme of Handel-inspired performances and events from internationally acclaimed artists and ensembles in venues across London throughout the year.
In addition to its performances at St George’s Church, the Festival regularly presents performances in a range of exciting venues, including the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Ballet and Opera, Wigmore Hall, Sinfonia Smith Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Stone Nest, Village Underground, Middle Temple Hall, Trinity Buoy Wharf, Shoreditch Town Hall, The Charterhouse and more.
Handel has never had it so good in his adopted city.The Sunday Times
The London Handel Festival has long had a reputation for presenting staged productions of Handel’s works. For many years the Festival had a longstanding partnership with the Royal College of Music and presented over 30 different productions in collaboration with them. In 2023, the Festival launched the Handel Opera Studio. The Handel Opera Studio is gaining an international reputation for bold stagings of Handel’s lesser-known dramatic works in non-traditional spaces. Recent productions include Aci by the River (2024), directed by Jack Furness, and In the Realms of Sorrow (2023), directed by Adele Thomas. And in 2025 it staged Tales of Apollo and Hercules, a brand-new Handelian double bill in collaboration with New English Ballet Theatre.
As well as its performance programme the London Handel Festival launched a year-round Creative Learning and Participation programme which ensures that everyone has access to the power of Handel’s music. Highlights of the programme have included a partnership with Coram, regular youth “Come and Sing” events, relaxed performances, and the Festival has also begun presenting a number of small events as part of an expanding Autumn Series.
In 2024 the Festival appointed Arcangelo as its Principal Ensemble in Residence and named Jonathan Cohen as its Artistic Advisor. Before this, world-renowned Handelian Laurence Cummings held the position of Musical Director of the Festival and conductor of the London Handel Orchestra from 1999–2024, overseeing a transformational period in the Festival’s history. Gregory Batsleer was appointed Festival Director in 2021 and replaced Samir Savant, who had been in the role from 2017.
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