Overview
The Trustees of Creative Oundle have recently undertaken a strategic review of the charity, and have concluded that significant consolidation is required, changing both the scope and number of activities, and essentially returning the organisation to its roots. Just why we are doing this is set out below, but for those who are not aware of our history, it’s worth pausing to look back at the charity’s origins.
Our Story
These origins go back over 40 years to 1985 when the first Oundle International Organ Week was held following the installation of a new organ by the renowned Danish organ builder Frobenius in Oundle School Chapel.
In conjunction with this, it was decided to set up a Summer School for young organists – the first course of its kind in the UK – and to place it alongside a music festival, in which internationally acclaimed organists could perform.
Over time the music festival expanded, exposing students attending the course to an extraordinary range of music and performing: a truly unique opportunity. We now run two courses annually, and in 2026 began to add day courses into our calendar. Over our 41-year history, we have helped more than 2000 young organists, with over 40% of those going on to careers in professional music.
In order to both augment and support the educational aspects of the charity, in 1995 we expanded the original festival into a much broader cultural programme and renamed it the Oundle International Festival, then in 2009 we became the Oundle Music Trust. After taking on the organisation and running of a diverse range of community-based activities, including Open Gardens, Oundle Food Festival and Oundle Cinema, the charity was rebranded as Creative Oundle in 2021.
Challenges
However, since the Covid-19 pandemic, the world of cultural events has changed and continues to evolve. In the face of an increasingly challenging economic climate, many cultural organisations are struggling both administratively and financially. Creative Oundle is unfortunately no different.
Over the past 18 months, despite the amazing support provided by a network of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers, the Creative Oundle Board has been unsuccessful in attracting new Trustees and moreover, in maintaining an administrative structure that can continue to support its varied and diverse programme of cultural events.
A New Focus
Consequently, with a collective heavy heart, in order to sustain the charity longer-term and continue to deliver its founding charitable aims and objectives, the Board has taken the difficult decision that from September 2026 onwards it will focus exclusively on providing its internationally renowned organ courses and musical activities emanating from these. There will be more news about this in the autumn. Thus, it will be scaling back its activity and will no longer undertake many of the events it currently organises.
The past 40 years has been a fascinating, exciting and eventful journey, and we are tremendously grateful to all those who have supported and taken part in this evolution; but times change and in order to plan for the future while staying true to our roots, we must change too.
A young student at one of our Oundle for Organists courses