The annual Fanny Davies Music Festival is always a huge joy in the FHS Calendar, and 2026 has been no exception. The festival has been running for almost 100 years, named after Fanny Davies, a renowned pianist and former music teacher at Francis Holland, Sloane Square during the early 20th century.
The run up to the two-day event is a particular highlight as the preparation and rehearsal of the performances are entirely arranged, organised and practiced by the students themselves. Lots of instrumentalists and singers have taken to the Senior Hall stage and performed superbly to a warm and supportive audience of their peers. We have fortunate to have around 150 entries from Piano to Voice, Santoor to Harp, Trumpet to Drum Kit and more – across a huge variety of musical styles and genres. The Senior Hall has been buzzing with enthusiasm and it has been wonderful to have so many girls in the audience, support.
It is a huge privileged to host Louise Ellinson as our adjudicator for this year’s festival. Louise is an experienced and accomplished conductor, as well as a professional singer and instrumentalist. She has given excellent feedback to each performer, celebrating their musical successes and providing support and advice for each musician. Louise has spoken to the students about ‘owning the stage’, confidence and finding the emotional pull of a performance. She has been so impressed by the standard of the FHS girls, commenting “…I am blown away by the standard of these musicians. It has been such a joy to meet them and to hear their hugely successful performances, which they have worked so hard. What an amazing array of musical ability, from the youngest Year 7s to the oldest Year 13s. A huge congratulations to each and every musician for having the courage and dedication to put on such stylish performances.”
It has been a terrific two days and each performer has brought a great and unique performance to the stage. At the final adjudication, Louise Ellinson spoke of her delight of the musical standard and celebrated everyone, while awarding particular prizes to select girls for outstanding music-making. A huge congratulations to our festival winners below:
Mr Mercer, Director of Co-Curricular Music
