Connections Across Time - Oxford Lieder Festival will be entirely live-streamed for 2020

With the status of live events this Autumn still uncertain, companies are left with something of a dilemma. The Oxford Lieder Festival has bravely decided to bite the bullet and announced that the 2020 festival, 10-17 October 2020, will be entirely live-streamed. Each on-line event will be fully ticketed, thus providing the festival with a financially sustainable model, and events will take place at venues around Oxford. The festival's artistic director Sholto Kyoch has said that 'Should the current situation regarding Covid-19 improve significantly, we will be delighted to throw the doors wide open, as well as streaming the festival. Online music-making can never replace in-person attendance at concerts and the unique buzz that brings, but in the meantime, we are planning with confidence and focussed on the strengths of being online.'

The festival plans to take full advantage of the on-line nature of the events, so that there will be concerts from venues which are not usually accessible, they will be enhancing the story-telling element in some concerts by using film, and there will be additional creative content around each event as well as live Q&A's with artists.

The theme of this year's festival is Connections Across Time: A Brief History of Song, ranging from Guillaume de Machaut to new works, and we are promised an exploration of connections between Bach and Schubert, Dowland and Britten, and many more. The performances will feature Benjamin Appl, Ian Bostridge (who will be artist in residence), Sarah Connolly, Lucy Crowe, James Gilchrist, Stephan Loges, Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, and many others.

Festival Passes for all events are available now at £90. Individual concert tickets, available in July, will be priced between £3 and £12 and will give access to additional resources approximately two weeks before the Festival begins. All concerts will be streamed completely live on the Oxford Lieder website, in the digital concert hall for each event, and will be available to ticket holders for two weeks after the Festival ends.

Full details from the Oxford Lieder Festival website.