How it began

Music, community & Harrow

Harrow Music Festival was founded by Izzy Mohan, Director of Music and organist at St Mary's, Harrow on the Hill, and a collaborative pianist, with a simple ambition: to fill this remarkable church with the finest music, and to share it with the whole community.

From celebrated soloists to Harrow's own choirs and ensembles, the festival brings together two weeks of recitals, choral services and community music-making, all set against the extraordinary acoustic and history of St Mary's.

“I grew up singing in a cathedral choir, and I know what it means for a building like St Mary's to be filled with music. This festival is my way of opening its doors wider: bringing extraordinary musicians to Harrow, giving our own performers a stage worthy of them, and making sure everyone here feels this music belongs to them too.”

Izzy Mohan, Founder & Artistic Director
Izzy Mohan
St Mary's spire

Our Home

St Mary's, Harrow on the Hill

Founded in 1087 by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, and consecrated by his successor St Anselm on 4 January 1094, St Mary's has crowned Harrow Hill for more than nine centuries. Its lead-covered spire, completed around 1450, rises above the trees as a landmark visible for miles across London.

The church has long drawn poets and scholars. The young Lord Byron, a pupil at nearby Harrow School, would sit for hours by his favourite tomb in the churchyard, while a brass in the nave remembers John Lyon, the school's Elizabethan founder. Sensitively restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1840s, St Mary's remains a working parish church and one of the most atmospheric concert spaces in the capital.

Music has long been part of life on the Hill. St Mary's three-manual organ was completed by T.C. Lewis in 1900 and enlarged by Henry Willis & Co in 1932, and it still accompanies the church's services today. Above it, a ring of ten bells, the oldest cast in 1654, rings out across Harrow.

Just down the hill, Harrow School has a celebrated musical tradition of its own. In the 1860s its music master John Farmer began writing the Harrow Songs, among them “Forty Years On” (1872), which are still sung today. Winston Churchill returned to hear them during the Second World War, and the school holds Churchill Songs each autumn in his honour. The festival continues this story, with St Mary's at its heart and music reaching out across the wider village and borough.

What we're about

At the heart of the festival

World-class recitals

Celebrated soloists and rising stars, performing in an intimate and historic setting.

A living choral tradition

Choral Evensong and the Festal Eucharist place the festival within centuries of sacred music at St Mary's.

Rooted in community

Community Night puts Harrow's own musicians centre stage. The festival is for everyone in Harrow.

The people behind it

Board of Trustees

Harrow Music Festival is governed by a volunteer board of trustees, working alongside founder and Artistic Director Izzy Mohan.

Amy Higgins

Trustee

Saphia Hussain

Trustee

Josh Clough

Trustee

Karol Joswik

Trustee

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