Francis Humphry: A modest champion of the arts

Francis Humphrys tells Nicki ffrench Davis about overseeing Bantry’s three summer festivals

DIRECTOR of West Cork Music Francis Humphrys personifies the passion and commitment that heading a major festival demands.

The book of programme notes he prepares for each West Cork Chamber Music Festival is for many the starting point of its magic. “Well, there are approximately 110 works in this year’s festival and all have to have a note in the programme,” Humphrys shrugs. “I write some of them myself and draw on ones I’ve written in the past and I find some other people to write them too. It’s quite an exercise and it takes most of the month of May.”