Festing, who was only four and a half years older, also broadened the young Arne's knowledge by taking him to numerous concerts, operas, and other performances.
The teenagers were both present on 12 November 1725 to hear Thomas Roseingrave win the competition for the post of organist of St George's, Hanover Square.
That same year he helped found the Academy of Ancient Music, along with such composers as William Croft and Giovanni Bononcini, and participated in that group until he left over the Bononcini–Lotti affair in 1731.
Festing remained active in concerts throughout London, notably replacing James Moore as a member of the King's Musick on 4 November 1726.
[1] Festing was a moderately prolific composer producing a number of sonatas, minuets, concertos, chamber music, works for solo instrument, cantatas, vocal songs, catches, and odes.
His earliest works were entirely instrumental pieces and employed typical baroque elements such as ground basses, canons at the octave and fugal treatments.
At Ranelagh he became particularly known for his odes and cantatas which were unique in that they used extended aria forms, inventive orchestration, and dramatic gestures that were more English in character than in the Italian tradition.
As noted by the English-German violinist Rachel J. Harris, music by Festing can be seen in the background of the painting of Joseph Gibbs by Thomas Gainsborough.
Apart from missing accidentals, the music on the stand is identical in layout and page number to the first sonata from Festing's Op 7, published in 1744 where Gibbs is listed as a subscriber.