A day of online concerts as part of the festival celebrating Oscar-winning composer Malcolm Arnold continues his legacy of being “accessible”, the organizer said.

Arnold, Died in 2006 at the age of 84He won an Academy Award for his score for the 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai, a film about British prisoners of war captured by the Japanese.

The festival named after him in his hometown of Northampton is now in its 19th year.

Promoter and Arnold biographer Paul Hill said his music was “very accessible” to the public and live concerts were being held online. Released for free on Sunday.

Arnold wrote more than 100 film scores, as well as nine symphonies, several concertos and other compositions, and conducted Deep Purple’s live album Concerto for Group and Orchestra.

He was born and lived most of his life in Northampton, later moving to Norfolk and dying in Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

As part of the annual festival, concerts and events were held at venues around Northampton on October 19.

The online day includes free chamber, solo and orchestral music concerts, as well as talks, lectures and interviews.

Mr. Hill said the composer “wanted (his music) to be accessible.”

“Communication was important to him, he wanted to communicate with people, so he wrote songs,” he said.

He said that Arnold’s music in the 1940s and 1950s was not always well received by critics, but “people loved it and he stuck with it.”

When asked what Arnold thought of the festival, Hill said: “He was a great person on his best days and got along so well with people, he would have loved it.”