GARSINGTON OPERA to MOVE to WORMSLEY ESTATE, HOME of the GETTY FAMILY, in 2011 Submitted By: Clare Adams Publicity Thursday, 29 April 2010

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GARSINGTON OPERA TO MOVE TO WORMSLEY ESTATE, HOME OF THE GETTY FAMILY, IN 2011 Submitted by: Clare Adams Publicity Thursday, 29 April 2010

The Directors of Garsington Opera (http://www.garsingtonopera.org) are pleased to announce that Wormsley Estate, the home of the Getty family, is the preferred site for Garsington Opera with effect from the 2011 season. Garsington Opera, founded by the late Leonard Ingrams and his wife Rosalind in 1989, has established an enviable reputation over the last twenty-one years for promoting opera of the highest professional quality in an outdoor setting for a short summer season. Wormsley Estate is set within a magnificent historic landscape in the Chiltern Hills, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. An elegant pavilion auditorium will be created, to be assembled annually, sited close to an attractive collection of flinted buildings, not far from Wormsley House, and nestling in the beautiful deer park. After twenty-one years at Garsington Manor, Garsington Opera has been seeking a new location over the last two years and has reached agreement with Mark Getty to hold the festival at the Wormsley Estate from the summer of 2011. Garsington Opera has now started consultations with the local community, relevant authorities and other interested parties and shall be applying for planning consent. As well as being the setting of the famous cricket ground established by Sir Paul Getty, Wormsley enjoys an impressive two acre 18th century walled garden, a short drive away from the opera pavilion. The estate straddles the Oxfordshire / Buckinghamshire border. It is located close to the M40, is less than fifteen miles from Garsington Manor, and under an hour from central London. Rosalind Ingrams, President of Garsington Opera said: “Garsington Opera was an all absorbing passion for my husband, and we both derived a huge amount of pleasure from staging it. My family and I are delighted that an appropriate new home has now been found where the Opera can continue and grow.” Commenting on the new location, Iain Mackinnon, Chairman of the Board of Garsington Opera said: “We are extremely fortunate to have found such a terrific new location. It has many merits, not least being near our former home. We feel very excited that a new era is opening for us. Garsington Opera will remain independent and autonomous within the context of activities at Wormsley.” Anthony Whitworth Jones, General Director of Garsington Opera said: “Over the years Garsington Opera has become known for introducing lesser known works of genuine interest and artistic merit, and for attracting young and talented singers on the threshold of their careers. Our new home at Wormsley will enable us to continue that tradition in a thrilling environment, not far from Garsington, and marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in our history.”

Page 1 Mark Getty added: “We are delighted to welcome Garsington Opera for a summer season each year. I see Garsington Opera forming a central part of a vibrant cultural future for Wormsley Estate. It is also important to us that Garsington Opera will bring its terrific outreach activities to benefit schools and others in the local area with an interest in the performing arts. We are very pleased to be associated with a successful arts organization which enjoys such a high reputation for excellence in its field both nationally and internationally.” PRESS ENQUIRIES: CLARE ADAMS Tel: 01295 690344 email: [email protected] www.garsingtonopera.org

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