Classical guitarist Zoe Barnett returns to the Festival of Chichester

Zoe, who was Sussex Young Musician of the Year in 2022, is promising an engaging programme including J S Bach and Castelnuovo-Tedesco in the serenity of St John’s Chapel, Chichester. Tickets £15, students and children £5 from the Festival of Chichester box office.

“It's a solo recital that I'm very much looking forward to,” Zoe says. “I have done the Festival of Chichester quite a few times. It must be coming up to four and I really enjoy coming back because it's such a great festival showcasing a range of different performers and it's lovely to be part of that community.”

And it's lovely to make it a family festival with both her mother (classical guitarist Linda Kelsall-Barnett, July 19) and her sister (soprano Tamzin, July 3) also performing as part of the Festival of Chichester 2024: “It gives us something that we can do together and a way to share what we love doing.”

Zoe has just finished her masters at the Royal College of Music: “It has been amazing. It has really given me time to focus on myself as an artist and I feel ready to go out there and start doing what I do in the real world. I'm definitely ready.”

Contacts will be key in building a career: “It's mostly through contacts and getting to know different people in different places. It's about talking to people. It's a multifaceted life and I'm really looking forward to it.”

Zoe was Sussex Young Musician of the year a couple years ago “It meant a hell of a lot. It was amazing to be involved with people coming from all over the county, all coming together with all their different instruments. I'm very passionate about pushing the classical guitar forward and it was amazing to win with the guitar. It's not something you see very often.”

Zoe remains ‘the guitarist who plays standing up.’ It is now part of her performing life:

“I had a rotated spine and they had to get it back into place. It was all out of whack and it was really affecting my nerves. I had many osteopath visits and sports massages. It was not a quick fix but it was quite straightforward once I understood the problem. The reason it took so long was that we just didn't understand what it was but now it's about maintenance and understanding how my body works and the limitations that that puts on my body but those limitations have given me a lot of individuality as a performer.

"I have to stand. It is not coming from a place because I wanted to do something different. It is coming from a place where that's how I have to play and that's what my technique has had to be. And I think it makes me much more communicative than I was before.

"It gives me a freedom to move around and to introduce other things when I'm playing. It's that freedom that I missed when I had to sit down to play. I can't believe that it has gone the way it has. I'm very grateful that things have worked out the way they have.”