Violinist Charles Mutter took over as the Festival's Artistic Director in 2006. At the time, he was Leader of the Edinburgh Quartet, but left Scotland soon after and settled in St. Albans with his family to take up a new appointment as Associate Leader of the BBC Concert Orchestra. Relying on a combination of modern technology and good old-fashioned leg work he has energetically continued his work as Artistic Director of the festival, never failing to impassion his team of locally based administrators.

Charles says: "The BBC Concert Orchestra is one of the most versatile ensembles in the world. Shared between Radios 2 and 3, their work ranges from collaborations with icons such as Annie Lennox and stars from the world of jazz to rare oratorios by Elgar and recordings of unfairly-neglected composers such as York Bowen. Our work for BBCTV also reaches a fantastically wide audience, whether by way of soundtracks for Blue Planet or ground-breaking TV shows such as Maestro. One of my dream jobs would have been to be a member of the Boston Pops or Hollywood Bowl orchestras of the 1940s, but the BBCCO gets pretty close! They're also very keen that I should continue to pursue my other interests, and leave me plenty of time to do so."

Charles was born in 1970, in Sussex. He began to learn the piano at the age of three and the violin three years later.

As a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal College of Music from 1983 to 1988, Charles studied violin with Kenneth Piper, piano with John Barstow and composition with Gary Carpenter and Timothy Bond. Other important influences at this time included Pro Corda (the National Association of Young Chamber Music Players), the East Sussex Youth Orchestra under Colin Metters and the East Sussex Preparatory Course in Music, where as a sixth-former he sang in two operas and performed Ravel's G major piano concerto. He gained the ARCM diploma with honours as a pianist in 1988.Rather than attend one of the London music colleges (where he would have been forced to drop one or other instrument) Charles chose to go up to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read Music and English Literature, continuing his instrumental studies with David Takeno and Leslie Howard. His BA thesis on Britten's transformation of short novels into operas won a college prize.

After graduating from Cambridge Charles moved to London, which was to be his work-base until 1999. He toured the world with ground-breaking groups such as the Kreisler String Orchestra, the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique and the Smith Quartet, appeared as soloist and chamber musician at festivals all over the UK & Europe and made numerous broadcasts for BBC Radio 3.

Charles was the leader of the Edinburgh Quartet from 2003 to 2006, and their work together attracted much critical acclaim. Charles' extensive overview of a wide variety of musical styles enables him to create programmes that are eclectic, logical, informed and entertaining. The countryside around Loch Shiel is of special interest & inspiration to him.