2026 Festival – Music by Jack’s Lake

The 2026 Music by Jack’s Lake festival opened in wonderful style with a brilliant hour of operatic arias and duets performed by international soprano and local resident Ilona Domnich alongside acclaimed tenor Sam Furness. Charles Mutter sprinkled more magic with his virtuoso piano performance of Georges Bizet’s Carmen, incredibly compacted into just 8 minutes by the composer, Ferruccio Busoni.

Set against the idyllic backdrop of Jack’s Lake on Monken Hadley Common, the evening delighted audiences and launched another inspiring season of music in the heart of our community.

The next concerts in our summer festival are on Sunday June 14th (6.30pm), Sunday July 12th (6.30pm), Saturday August 8th (6pm).

Please make a note in your diary for the second concert of the series on Sunday June 14th at 6.30pm – “Irises” – featuring clarinet, violin and voice in a programme inspired by shepherd songs, folk dances and romantic poetry.

As Ilona  explains:

“Taking our cue from Schubert’s magical Shepherd on the Rock, Jack’s Lake takes a tour of other shepherds, folk dances and gorgeous German romantic poetry. Featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra’s fabulous principal new clarinettist – James Gilbert.”

The founding principle of the lakeside concerts is to bring our communities together around world class music performed in the beautiful natural setting beside the Lake, while also raising funds to improve and maintain this treasured open space for everyone to enjoy and support a music education bursary.

Please join us on June 14th, 12th July and 8th August.

Here is more detailed information about our next concert on Sunday June 14th at 6.30pm

We are enormously thankful to our various sponsors (details here), without whom the series would not be possible.

For more information please click here.  or check out Ilona’s Facebook