Kerensa Briggs & Harry Christophers at the Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich (Photo: The Sixteen)
Lead Kindly Light: Christobal de Morales, Sebastian de Vivanco, James MacMillan, Kerensa Briggs; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers; 2026 Choral Pilgrimage at Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich Reviewed 12 May 2026
Luxuriant richness and lush textures of music from the Spanish Golden Age alongside two contemporary responses to the writings of theologian John Henry Newman as The Sixteen stop off in Greenwich as part of their Choral Pilgrimage
I have no idea what the theologian John Henry Newman might have thought about the luxuriance of Spanish religious music of the Golden Age. Newman was certainly musical, yet he also thought that music ought to be subservient to religion.
For their 2026 Choral Pilgrimage, Lead Kindly Light, Harry Christophers and The Sixteen have had the intriguing idea of combining two contemporary settings of John Henry Newman by Kerensa Briggs and James MacMillan with music from the Spanish Golden Age by Christobal de Morales and Sebastian de Vivanco. The focal point was Kerensa Brigg's Lead Kindly Light which was commissioned for this tour and paired with James MacMillan's Nothing in Vain which was commissioned in 2021 by the Genesis Foundation.
The Choral Pilgrimage began at Southwell Minster on 16 April and continues until 17 October with the final performance at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh. We caught the performance on 12 May at the Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich.
English National Opera at Aviva Studios, Manchester
Du Yun: Angel's Bone - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)
English National Opera presented the UK premiere of Angel's Bone by Chinese-American composer, performance artist and activist Du Yun at Aviva Studios in Manchester on 12 May 2026 in a run that lasts until 16 May. Marking a bold expression of ENO’s dual-centre model the production is presented in collaboration with Factory International (whose home Aviva Studios is) and BBC Philharmonic (whose musicians provide the instrumental accompaniment).
Du Yun: Angel's Bone - Rodney Earl Clarke, Allison Cooke - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)
Angel’s Bone tells the story of Mr and Mrs X.E., a desperate couple longing for a better life who discover two wounded angels in their garden. They set out to nurse them back to health, but what begins as an act of apparent compassion quickly spirals into a disturbing portrait of greed and exploitation, and an unflinching take on human trafficking and modern-day slavery.
Du Yun: Angel's Bone - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)
Directed by Kip Williams, making his UK opera debut, and conducted by Baldur Brönniman, who trained at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, with a cast including mezzo-soprano Allison Cooke and baritone Rodney Earl Clarke as Mr & Mrs X.E., Swedish cross-genre musician and voice actress Mariam Wallentin as Girl Angel, tenor Matthew McKinney (winner of the 2024 Kathleen Ferrier Awards) as Boy Angel and countertenor Keith Pun as Male Soprano, with Kantos Chamber Choir providing the chorus.
Du Yun: Angel's Bone - Keith Pun, Camilla Seale, Allison Cooke - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)
BBC Radio 3 will record Angel’s Bone at Aviva Studios for broadcast on Opera on 3, airing on Saturday 6 June 2026. The production travels to the London Coliseum in October when Du Yun's full orchestral version will be played with the ENO orchestra in the pit.
Du Yun: Angel's Bone - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)
Angel's Bone is Du Yun's second opera. The original 35-minute chamber version of Angel’s Bone was commissioned by the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia in 2011, and the full-length version premiered in New York in 2016 as part of the Prototype Festival. In 2017, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for Angel's Bone. The citation for the prize describes the work as "a bold operatic work that integrates vocal and instrumental elements and a wide range of styles into a harrowing allegory for human trafficking in the modern world."
Du Yun: Angel's Bone - Mariam Wallentin - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)
Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra and its music director, pianist Joanna MacGregor are joined by a host of talent for the orchestra's 2026/27 season. Violinist Nigel Kennedy, who celebrates his 70th birthday this year (!) joins them for Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Kennedy's own arrangements of Jimi Hendrix.
Mezzo-soprano Jacqui Dankworth joins conductor Geoffrey Patterson and the orchestra for songs by Kurt Weill in a programme called Bad Girls and Heartbreakers which also features James Conlon's suite from Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and music by Tchaikovsky and Bizet. Actor Alastair MacGowan joins MacGregor and musicians from the orchestra for the return of their Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol programme. The season opens with a concert where they are joined by the 20-year-old Ukrainian pianist Khrystyna Mykhailichenko for Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini plus Gerswhin in Cuba, Piazzolla in Buenos Aires and Janáček's astonishing Sinfonietta.
Musical highlights include Harrison Birtwistle's The Triumph of Time in a programme alongside Debussy's orchestrations of Satie and Stravinsky's Firebird. Avril Coleridge-Taylor's composing talent is finally coming out from under her father's shadow and Alice Farnham conducts her brooding tone-poem Sussex Landscape in a programme that also includes John Adam's mighty Harmonium and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with MacGregor as soloist. In a terrific programme MacGregor conducts Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antartica alongside Jonny Greenwood's Water which was inspired by the Philip Larkin poem of that name and features strings, flutes and Indian tanpura, Sibelius' The Swan of Tuonela and Arvo Part's La Sindone which was written for the Winter Olympics in Turin in 2006.
An intriguing and rather clever pairing is Stravinsky's Symphonies for Wind Instruments and Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments with soloist Milda Daunoraite (both works from the 1920s) with Mozart's great wind serenade, the Gran Partita which dates from 1784.
Something of an oddity is a jazz-infused programme centred on Dutch trumpeter and composer Eric Vloeimans where the music includes Vloeimans take on Purcell with Dido and Aeneazz alongside his versions of other Baroque classics and a new work for the orchestra Innermission.
Joanna MacGregor's own commitment to the orchestra is striking, of the nine main concerts in the season she is participating in eight (as conductor and/or pianist). And Thursdays before the Sunday concerts she is presenting Listening Club, hour-long illustrated informal lectures designed to illuminated and entertain.
Sphinx Organization in the UK - Amiri Harewood, Nathan Amaral, Sterling Elliott, Celia Hatton, Elena Urioste
The Sphinx Organization is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of young Black and Latino classical musicians. Based in Detroit, Michigan USA, it was founded by the American violinist Aaron Dworkin.
The Sphinx Organization is bringing a group of artists to the UK this June for tour featuring concerts at Snape Maltings, at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in Oxford and at Wigmore Hall. The concerts feature Elena Urioste and Nathan Amaral, violin, Celia Hatton, viola, Sterling Elliott, cello and Amiri Harewood, piano, in a mix of American and British music from the 20th century alongside a premiere.
The programmes include the premiere performances of stillness: two meditations for piano quintet by the British composer, saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi, along with Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's String Quartet No.1 Calvary (from 1956) where the title refers to a Negro spiritual of that name, William Grant Still's Suite for Cello and Piano (from 1943), Florence Price's Piano Quintet No. 1 in A minor (from 1936, revised 1952) which was amongst the cache of manuscripts found in 2009, and works by Frank Bridge and Vaughan Williams.
Full details from the Sphinx Organization's website.
The Richard Shephard Music Foundation's 2026 Music Day takes places on 24 June 2026 at York St John University. During the course of the day, over 400 schoolchildren from across the region will take part in a variety of musical activities, with a programme of diverse workshops from world-class musicians and performers. These include Opera North’s Mini Magic Flute, an interactive workshop from students at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, theatre with Next Door But One and Japanese drumming with Tengu Taiko.
The Foundation was established in 2021 following the death of composer Dr Richard Shephard with the mission of ‘bringing the experience and enjoyment of music to children and young people in Yorkshire and beyond’. The Foundation focuses on schools in disadvantaged or isolated communities, reaching children at a critical stage in their development, and through its schools programme, they now support weekly music-making for over 10,000 children in 40 schools across Yorkshire.
The Foundation has been providing weekly music lessons in schools across York for the last 5 years. To celebrate their 5-year anniversary, they recently launched their Celebration Choir giving children from across York a chance to come together and sing! The choir is led by Emilie Bels, a qualified teacher and experienced choir leader, who has worked in primary schools for several years delivering fun and inspiring music lessons. The results will be on show this weekend when the choir performs at St Chad's Church (16 May) and York Mela in Museum Gardens (17 May)
Neue Bahnen - Schumann's final article for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1853
Schumann's magazine, Neue Zeitschrift für;Musik, is best known for the composer's own, often important, pronouncements about contemporary music. It was where he would hail Johannes Brahms as the saviour of German music. But the magazine would later become known for its anti-Semitic articles from Wagner (anonymously) and others, sentiments which worryingly chime in with Schumann's own milder and less public pronouncements.
The New Journal of Music (Neue Zeitschrift für Musik) was a music magazine founded in Leipzig in 1834 by Robert Schumann (then aged 24), his teacher and future father-in-law Friedrich Wieck, Julius Knorr and his close friend Ludwig Schuncke. The first issue was on 3 April 1834 and the editor was Julius Knorr though in fact most of the work on early issues was done by Schumann. Schuncke wrote some articles but died in 1834 (age 23).
The magazine's subtitle was "Herausgegeben durch einen Verein von Künstlern und Kunstfreunden" (published by a society of artists and arts lovers). This phrase was important as it underlined how Schumann envisioned the journal’s audience as being a circle of like-minded musical friends. He wrote that contemporary music critics too often uplifted the "arch-enemies of our art and every other: the untalented, the dime-a-dozen talent…and the talented, facile scribblers." Schumann's reviews for the magazine praised members of the new generation of musicians including Chopin and Berlioz, whilst pushing back against performers who he felt were second-rate imitators.
Schumann's contributors were people whose writing he liked and with whom he shared musical ideals. For musical life outside Leipzig, Schumann relied on these correspondents, many of whom were not professional writers but simply passionate about the arts. The journal was published on a demanding schedule: twice a week, without fail.
A typical issue contained the following features:
An epigraph from one of Schumann’s favourite authors
A long essay on a subject such as biography, aesthetics, the state of regional musical performance, or even assessments of the output of other rival music journals
Personal articles, including satirical ones and ones from alter egos like Schumann’s characters 'Eusebius' and 'Florestan'.
Reviews of printed works and works still in manuscript
Correspondence which included a lively description of musical life in Germany and abroad
Miscellany, where Schumann would include items like brief news updates, upcoming concert dates, and riddles
Final section of advertisements, offers of employment
Indeed, you do wonder about the economic viability of the publication and the labour-intensive nature of Schumann's contributions.
As well as being having a year-long residency at Kings Place as part of Memory Unwrapped [see my article] composer, songwriter and producer Renell Shaw is extending his practice in other ways as part of a commission from Music Theatre Wales for his first opera. Renell Shaw's Yasuke is a work in development and its premiere is planned for 2027.
The opera is based on the remarkable, yet true, story of Yasuke, the first known African to appear in Japanese historical records. His story begins in the 16th century, when he was taken from Africa and transported across continents before arriving in Japan. It was not uncommon for individual Africans to be brought to Japan as attendants of Jesuit missionaries. There, Yasuke entered the orbit of the powerful daimyō Oda Nobunaga, rising to become a trusted samurai warrior and one of the most singular figures in Japanese history.
Yasuke has reemerged into contemporary cultural history, appearing as a central figure in the game Assassin’s Creed Shadows, while works such as Afro Samurai have reimagined his legacy in very different ways. The British Museum's Samurai Exhibition (which closed recently) also featured Yasuke, and as part of developing the opera, Renell Shaw and Music Theatre Wales were invited to visit the British Museum for an event linked to the Samurai exhibition and Assassin’s Creed Shadows. While there, Renell Shaw spoke with exhibition co-curator Joe Nickolls about Yasuke and the world he lived in, from the Sengoku period in Japan to the wider movement of people, ideas and power across continents at the time. [see YouTube]
As regards Renell Shaw's music, rather than simply combining musical traditions, the work is focused on building a sound world that reflects the tension and duality within Yasuke’s experience, between cultures, identities and internal states. In December 2025, Renell Shaw worked with musicians from Sinfonia Cymru alongside African and Asian percussion, traditional Japanese flutes and electric guitar in Aberystwyth, in an orchestral workshop and public sharing exploring material for the opera.
Further information from the Music Theatre Wales website
Britten: Serenade - Ben Goldscheider, Laurence Kilsby, Jonathan Bloxham, London Mozart Players (Photo: Charles Lewis)
Anna Clyne: Sirens, Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings, Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1 in C minor; Ben Goldscheider, Laurence Kilsby, London Mozart Players, Jonathan Bloxham; Church of St Martin in the Fields Reviewed 8 May 2026
Anna Clyne's new piece for Ben Goldscheider successfully seduce with its siren-like lyrical horn writing, whilst Goldscheider and Kilsby proved superb partnership in Britten's serenade. The programme completed with Bloxham bringing out the youthful exuberance in Mendelssohn's symphony
Whilst Anna Clyne's music has never been unknown in the UK (she based in the USA), she does seem to be having something of a moment here. Announced as the CBSO's first composer-in-residence for the 2026/27 season with a new Viola Concerto and other works planned including a recording with saxophonist Jess Gilham, the National Youth Orchestra launched their 2026 season with Clyne's Shimmer, she received an Ivor for Best Choral Composition last year, the Sixteen's 2025 Choral Pilgrimage featured the premiere of Clyne's Orbits, and her The Years was at the BBC Proms.
LMP's concert was part of a short tour. The previous evening, Goldscheider, Kilsby and LMP had performed Britten's Serenada in Farnham, then Goldscheider and LMP return to Clyne's Sirens tonight (9 May 2026) at Newbury Spring Festival.
From this year, pianist James Baillieu and conductor/composer Ryan Wigglesworth begin a three-year tenure as Associate Directors of the Britten Pears Arts Young Artist Programme, with both men being significantly involved in this year's Aldeburgh Festival which runs from 12 to 26 June 2026.
For James the appointment is a big honour. He comments that Britten Pears Arts is a wonderful organisation, very collaborative and very collegial. As he sees it, he has been brought on board to take the legacy of Britten and Pears forward, to keep their ideals at the heart of the training but have the teaching and training for the Young Artists responding to what the music world is like today. They are moving away from a 'one size fits all' approach to seeing what each Young Artist needs.
There will continue to be a Festival Academy, a week of masterclasses during the festival. But they will be adding performance psychology, career building, health and wellness and movement, the additional skills that are generally not taught in conservatoires. Typically, the masterclasses have been voice and piano and James wants to add instrumental duos as James feels that there is not a lot of focus on these. For young song pianists opportunities are not as widely available as when James was a young pianist, and they need to develop versatility by having instrumental repertoire too. James wants to look at the versatility of the young musicians and consider what skills they need to help them get working.
Complementary to this, Ryan Wigglesworth's focus will be orchestral and composition. James is also working on strategic partnerships with organisations with similar ideals so that Britten Pears Arts can amplify the exposure that the Young Artists get, helping them get the opportunities they need.
James Baillieu & Benjamin Appl at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2025 (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)
The Parnassus Ensemble is a young Early Music collective founded in 2022 by Oscar Holch, Xeniga Gogu and Victor García García as result of participating in several young artist programmes throughout the UK and Europe including: the Monteverdi Apprenticeship Scheme with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and at the Collegium Vocale Gent Academy with Philippe Herreweghe. They take their name from Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum (1725), a seminal book on counterpoint that was revered by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn.
On 22 May 2026, Oscar Holch conducts them in a concert at St Stephen's Church, Gloucester Road, where they reflect on Martin Luther's hymn, Christ lag in Todes Banden.
Entitled 3 in 1, the event features cantatas by Pachelbel, Kuhnau and J.S Bach all based on Luther's hymn. Kuhnau was, of course, Bach's predecessor as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, whilst Bach's cantata is one of his earliest surviving and probably dates from 1707, well before he was in Leipzig.
But more than this, the concert is giving the music visual expression as the painter Jérémie Queyras will respond in real time on three large canvasses, acting as an evolving visual backdrop behind the ensemble for the drama of the music to unfold. In addition to the artistic responses, selected contemporary texts will be woven throughout the performance that reflect on the themes found in the texts of the cantatas.
Following the London performance the ensemble is presenting 3 in 1 at Purbeck Art Weeks on the 24 May, making their UK festival debut.
The Presteigne Festival returns with five eventful days from 27 to 31 August 2026 in the Radnorshire town. This year, composer Michael Zev Gordon is in residence, but the festival is also celebrating milestone birthdays for Cecilia McDowall, Sally Beamish and Adrian Williams.
The first evening features Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale with George Vass conducting the Presteigne Festival Ensemble, with Jonathan Gunthorpe (narrator), Alexander Knox (the soldier), Francesca Isherwood (the devil) directed by Ruth Evans. The evening also features Cecilia McDowall's The Night Trumpeter and the premiere of a work by Lili Harris, with Rowan Pierce (soprano) and Imogen Whitehead (trumpet).
Horn player Ben Goldscheider is joined by Fenella Humphreys (violin) and Clare Hammond (piano) for an evening of trios by Michael Zev Gordon, Huw Watkins, and Lennox Berkeley plus music by Ravel and the young Dutch composer Mathilde Wantenaar. And Fenella Humphreys returns with pianist Jâms Coleman for music by Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Amy Beach, Prokofiev, Sally Beamish, Lili Boulanger and the premiere of an intriguing joint work by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Electra Perivolaris, Lynne Plowman, Claire Victoria Roberts and Mathilde Wantenaar.
Saturday evening sees Goldscheider, Pierce, the Festival Orchestra and George Vass joined by James Gilchrist (tenor), and the Choir of King's College, London for music by Adrian Williams, Grace Williams, Michael Zev Gordon, Cecilia McDowall and the premiere of a new work by Cameron Biles-Liddell.
James Gilchrist and Jâms Coleman join forces for a song recital focusing on Britten's Winter Words alongside music by Adrian Williams and Michael Zev Gordon. At Leominster Priory, Joseph Fort conducts the Choir of King's College, London in a programme that mixes Imogen and Gustav Holst with Elizabeth Poston and Judith Weir plus works by Daniel Soley, and Olivia Sparkhall. The festival concludes with music for violin and harp (Fenella Humphreys and Sally Price) by Arvo Pärt, Saint-Saens, Lennox Berkeley and more, then a festal finale featuring music by Elgar, Dorothy Howell, Mathilde Wantenaar, Gabriel Jackson and Bartok.
Composers in the festival also include Natalie Roe, Thea Musgrave, Henriëtte Bosmans, Grażyna Bacewicz, and Robert Peate, whilst daytime recitals also feature solo cello, solo guitar, piano and string quartet.
Away from the music there are talks and walks along with open studios and exhibitions.
Anton Reicha was a Bohemia-born, Bavarian-educated, later naturalized French composer, who was a friend and contemporary of Beethoven. Whilst he wrote in a wide variety of genres he is mainly remembered for his substantial early contributions to the wind quintet literature and his role as teacher of pupils including Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz and César Franck.
Now the Trio Bohémo presents the first complete
modern recording of Anton Reicha’s Six Piano
Trios, Op. 101 on Supraphon. After more than two centuries,
these works have finally been captured with
distinction by Trio Bohémo in Vienna with
the recording team of Andrew Keener and Oscar
Torres. Just before the recording’s release,
we talked with the trio’s cellist Kristina Vocetková.
Kristina, what led Trio Bohémo to the music
of Anton Reicha and to his lesser-known
but exceptionally inventive piano trios?
It was Supraphon’s chief executive producer
Matouš Vlčinský who came up with the idea of
recording Anton Reicha’s works for piano trio.
Because we have long felt a great affinity for
Classicism, and because our studies at
the European Chamber Music Academy
involved intensive training in the field of informed interpretation for that period, the idea appealed to
us instantly.
Reicha’s trios are notorious for their technical
and expressive complexity. What were the most
challenging moments when learning
the recording them?
We had some surprising moments with Reicha’s
trios from the start – when learning them, we were
shocked at first by their technical demands and
then by their expressive complexity. Gradually,
however, we began to discover Reicha’s
inventiveness, a certain visionary quality,
and above all his sense of humour. The last
but perhaps nicest surprise has been the entirely
positive reaction of audiences around the world.
You made the recording in Vienna with
the proven team of Andrew Keener and Oscar
Torres. How was the atmosphere in the studio,
and how did their approach contribute to
the resulting sound?
We also worked with Andrew Keener and Oscar
Torres on our first album, and we knew what
to expect from each other, so we were greatly
looking forward to making another recording
together. And that definitely was reflected in
the atmosphere in the studio and in the overall
result. Reicha’s music is very joyful, and our
recording sessions were like that too. We can
absolutely rely on Andrew and Oscar. We like
the way they go about their work, so collaborating with them again on this project was a great
pleasure.
This is the first complete reference recording of
all six of Reicha’s trios. How does it feel to be
the first performers to give this music its voice
back after over two centuries?
The fact the Reicha’s trios are not burdened by
a strong interpretive tradition gave us plenty of
room to find our own individual path. We tried to
apply the approach of informed interpretation of
music of the Classical period, but at the same
time, what we enjoyed doing was discovering
the elements of humour that are concealed to
a greater or lesser degree. It was a challenge for us
to avoid making certain comparisons between
Reicha and his contemporaries and successors.
We tried to bring our own unique interpretive
approach to his music, reflected in our handling
of tone, use of the pedal, vibrato, phrasing,
and evenly balanced articulation.
Reicha is often called a visionary who foresaw
elements 19th- and even 20th- century music.
How would you characterise his musical language
to listeners perhaps hearing his music for the very
first time?
Having spent months working intensively on
Reicha’s music, we would describe his musical
style as a peculiar combination of Late Classicism
with Early Romanticism, enhanced by a great deal
of joy and energy. He stands out for his daring
handling of harmonic progressions and for his
surprising shifts of expressive mood.
Trio Bohémo – Matouš Pěruška (violin), Kristina
Vocetková (cello), and Jan Vojtek (piano) – have
emerged as one of Europe’s leading chamber
ensembles in the span of just a few years. They
have won first prize at prestigious international
competitions (Haydn Competition in Vienna,
Parkhouse Award in London, Johannes Brahms
Competition in Austria), and they appear at major
venues worldwide like Vienna’s Musikverein,
London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Prague Spring
Festival.
Their debut album on Supraphon (2024)
received enthusiastic reviews in media including
Classical Album of the Week in The Guardian
and five stars from the BBC Music Magazine and I spoke to them about the album in 2024, see my interview 'Waiting till they feel they have something to say'
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Kazuki Yamada (Photo: Andrew Fox)
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), music director Kazuki Yamada has announce their 2026/2027 season. One highlight must be Remembrance Day, when Kazuki Yamada conducts Britten's War Requiem at Coventry Cathedral where the work premiered in 1952. The soloists are tenor Andrew Staples, soprano Irina Lungu and baritone Christian Gerhaher with the CBSO Chorus, CBSO Youth Chorus and Trinity Boys Choir in a performance that also marks 50 years since Britten's death.
Yamada and the CBSO their Mahler cycle and the season opens with Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with soprano Eleanor Lyons and contralto Jess Dandy in a concert which also celebrates the 1000th performance of the CBSO Chorus. The season will close in June 2027 with Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. Marking another anniversary, Yamada conducts the CBSO in all of Beethoven's symphonies during 2027, alongside the Violin Concerto and a wide ranging selection of chamber music and to set things of the CBSO's leader Eugene Tzikindelean directs the Violin Concerto from the violin in November 2026.
Three artists are collaborating with the CBSO during the season. Pianist Alice Sarah Ott's appearances include the Grieg and the Ravel concertos; saxophonist Jess Gillam joins Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello) and Ben Goldscheider (horn) for Gwilym Simcock's Triple Concerto and her other appearances include Anna Clyne's Glasslands as well as at Christmas events; composer/arranger/pianist Rushil Ranjan directs The Orchestral Qawwali Project, blending Sufi poetry, Indian classical dance and orchestra.
The CBSO's first composer in residence, Anna Clyne premieres her new Viola Concerto for soloist Laurence Power as well as Jess Gillam's performance of Glasslands which will be recorded. And Clyne's PALETTE will be performed by the CBSO Orchestral Residency Scheme, a scheme which offers exceptional young musicians aged 21 to 25 the opportunity to rehearse and perform alongside the CBSO. As well as Clyne's PALETTE, Yamada will be conducting the young musicians in Strauss' Alpine Symphony.
Ilan Volkov makes his debut as the CBSO's Principal Guest Conductor with programmes including Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Ilya Gringolts) and Bruckner's 7th Symphony, Messiaen's Turangalila and a Shakespeare inspired programme of Thomas Ades, Richard Strauss and Mendelssohn.
On a lighter note, Yamada's concerts include pairing Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker with Duke Ellington's reworking, as well as A Night at the Opera! Family friendly concerts include celebrations of Quincy Jones, as well as ABBA and the film Home Alone, not to mention Star Wars: A New Hope, Casino Royale, and The Lord of the Rings.
Created especially for under‑6s, Notelets are joyful, interactive performances where children can sing, dance and discover orchestral instruments for the very first time, supported by free creative activities and opportunities to meet the musicians. Across the season, BSL‑interpreted family concerts further widen access, ensuring orchestral music is welcoming and inclusive for audiences of all ages.
Elena Langer: Four Sisters - Jingwen Cai, Ellen Pearson, Hannah Edmunds, Madeline Robinson, Sam Hird - Royal Opera (Photo: Mark Senior)
Tales of Love and Loss: Elizabeth Maconchy: The Departure, Charlotte Bray: Making Arrangements, Elena Langer: Four Sisters; Ellen Pearson, Sam Hird, Hannah Edmunds, Jingwen Cai, Giorgi Guliashvili, Madeline Robinson, director Talia Stern, Britten Sinfonia, conductor Peggy Wu; Royal Opera at Linbury Theatre
The Jette Parker Young Artists in a satisfying triple bill that provides a valuable opportunity to hear Maconchy's neglected opera alongside Charlotte Bray in sharp form and Elena Langer's vividly fast-paced New York farce.
Ana Ines Jabares-Pita's set successfully used the same basic form for the first two operas, The Departure firmly in the 1960s, and Making Arrangements suggesting the 1970s but for 1980s New York in Four Sisters we had an entirely newer, edgier look.
The Musicians' Company Concerts: Dani Howard, Francis Poulenc, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann; Danushka Edirisinghe, George Herbert, Jay Broadhurst, Zany Denyer; Wigmore Hall Reviewed 5 May 2026
Recipients of the Concordia Foundation awards in a concert full of strong performances, and vivid character culminating in a finely poetic account of Schumann's Dichterliebe by a young tenor who has impressed before.
We first came across Broadhurst last December in Chelsea Opera Group's 75th anniversary performance of Verdi's Macbeth when Broadhurst (singing Malcolm) stepped in for an ailing José de Eça (singing Macduff) to give a thrilling performance of Macduff's Act Four aria [see my review].
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Newbury Spring Festival Chorus at St Nicolas Church, Newbury 2025 (Photo: Milly March)
The Newbury Spring Festival features two weeks of music and the arts with diverse genres including jazz, music theatre, cabaret, world music, folk, choral, ballet, chamber music and more. The festival is in its 47th year, and brings together internationally recognised artists and emerging talent across more than 45 events in over 20 venues, from major concerts at St Nicolas Church and the Corn Exchange to performances in rural churches and historic houses.
London Mozart Players are joined by horn player Ben Goldscheider and conductor Jonathan Bloxham for Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 alongside music by Anna Clyne, Elgar and Mendelssohn. Berkshire Youth Orchestra, conductor Jonathan Burnett is joined by cellist Jonathan Swenson (who won the Windsor International String Competition in 2019) for Elgar's Cello Concerto along with music by Amit Manna and Sibelius. The Sixteen and Harry Christophers stop off on their Choral Pilgrimage at Douai Abbey with music from the Spanish golden age alongside James MacMillan, and Kerensa Briggs. Adam Hickox and the Philharmonia Orchestra are joined by Leeds International Piano Competition winner Alim Beisembayev for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 alongside music by Mendelssohn and Brahms. Voces8 return to the Festival with a programme that moves from Victoria to Eric Whitacre and Ola Gjeilo.
The Newbury Spring Festival Chorus is joined by soprano Hilary Cronin, baritone James Atkinson, pianists Libby Burgess and Sebastian Wybrow under conductor Tom Primrose for the chamber version of Brahms' A German Requiem. The festival concludes with Tom Feathersonthaugh conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra in Britten's Four Sea Interludes, Strauss' Four Last Songs with soprano Elizabeth Watts, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6.
Charles Court Opera's performances are always a delight, and they bring to the festival their Around the World (of Gilbert & Sullivan) in 80 minutes. Brass ensemble Septura have a Franco-American programme with music by Debussy, Ravel, Gershwin, and Joplin. Joe Stilgoe joins Liza Pulman for Hurray for Hollywood, an evening of songs from the movies. Saxophonist Jess Gillam brings her trio performing music from jazz to the Baroque. The Budapest Cafe Orchestra is a British ensemble that focuses on gypsy and folk-flavoured music from the Balkans and Russia.
Pianist Barry Douglas's recital is an especial highlight with Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy, Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, and music by John Field and Prokofiev. Organist Simon Johnson plays the organ at Douai Abbey in a programme of Bach, Byrd, Howells and Messiaen.Violinist Michael Foyle and pianist Maksim Stsura give a recital in Englefield House's Long Gallery featuring music by Beethoven, Brahms and Franck.
At Highclere Castle, saxophonist Huw Wiggin is joined by harpist Oliver
Wass for an unconventional pairing featuring music from Bach and Purcell
to Debussy, Einaudi and Bernstein. Soprano Ruby Hughes joins violinist
Tamsin Waley-Cohen and pianist/composer Huw Watkins for Homecoming, a wide-ranging recital that includes Schubert's Shepherd on the Rock. Ensemble Augelleti bring their Jewels that Brightly Burn programme that features music by Bach's students. The Pavel Haas Quartet feature music by Schubert and Beethoven, whilst the Fidelio Trio perform Beethoven, Anna Clyne and Ravel.
In a family friendly concert, Stravinsky's The Firebird is presented in a version for two pianos (Mikhail Kazakevich and Elena Zozina) and narrator (Richard Morris)
Young artists recitals include baritone Florian Stortz and pianist Mark Rogers in Wagner, Liszt, Strauss and more; the Paddington Trio in Ravel and Shostakovich; Ensemble Renard in Perotin arranged by Oliver Knussen, Ravel, Bartok and Nielsen; the Fibonacci Quartet in Beethoven, Janacek and Moravian love songs in their own arrangements. The Sheepdrove Piano Competition is open to pianists aged 26 and under; the final is open to the public and the winner will give one of the Festival's young artist recitals featuring music by Prokofiev.
The Good Vibes Academy Showcase brings together local musicians of all ages and backgrounds in a reflection of a diverse and interconnected community.
This year, Oxford International Song Festival marks its 25th anniversary with to weeks of concerts (from 9 to 24 October 2026) under the title of Love Songs, featuring 59 events. The Festival opens with a recital by Dame Sarah Connolly, also marking the Festival’s first event at the newly opened Schwarzman Centre, and the following day baritone Matthias Goerne makes his Festival debut with Schubert's Winterreise.
The festival finale features a celebratory pair of events at St Edward's School. In the chapel, Owen Rees and the Choir of the Queen's College give a programme focusing on the Song of Songs with music by Palestrina, Walton, Duruflé, Victoria, Holst and Lauridsen. Then in the evening, in the Olivier Hall, a celebratory concert opens with the premiere of Marriage of…?, a new work by the festival's associate composer Emily Hazrati and librettist Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambahksh performed by soprano Nardus Williams. The choir returns to join soloists for Debussy's La Damoiselle élue, and there are songs and ensembles by Schubert, Chaminade, Bolcom and Brahms performed by Nardus Williams, mezzo-soprano Katie Bray, tenor Stuart Jackson, baritone Rafael Fingerlos, and pianists Jocelyn Freeman and Sholto Kynoch.
Premieres at the festival include soprano Nardus Williams in . Soprano Katy Thomson and pianist Rustam Khanmurzin premiere a new work by John Webb exploring the corrupting nature of power. Soprano Anna Dennis and pianist John Reid present The Silent Songs of Josefine, a new Kafka-inspired work by Can Bilir. Soprano Louise Alder and Joseph Middleton explore the passing of the year in a programme featuring Helen Grime’s Seasons, written for them in 2025.
The Festival’s central weekend is devoted to the music of Franz Schubert, with Graham Johnson continuing his exploration of the composer’s final years, 200 years on. Other performances include soprano Camilla Tilling in Schubert’s Rückert settings and mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston in Die Schöne Müllerin, both with Sholto Kynoch; and soprano Sarah Maria Sun in Der Hirt auf dem Felsen with pianist Jan Philip Schulze and clarinettist Julian Bliss.
The New Generation Day showcases three concerts in partnership with the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, all recorded for future broadcast. Performers include baritone Andrew Hamilton and pianist Michael Pandya; soprano Erika Baikoff with Sholto Kynoch; and Konstantin Krimmel with Ammiel Bushakevitz, presenting a programme that includes Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel. Eight Oxford Song Young Artist duos each give short showcase slots at the start of headline evening recitals in the first week of the Festival. In the second week, they immerse themselves in the residential Mastercourse, led by Jan Philip Schulze, with daily public masterclasses.
Pianist Dame Imogen Cooper performs Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with soprano Katharina Ruckgaber and baritone Johannes Kammler as part of her final concert season before retirement. Juliane Banse returns with pianist Alexander Krichel, dancer István Simon and choreographer Andreas Heise for Bliss Beside Us, a danced performance of Mozart songs and piano music. The Carducci String Quartet performs Mozart's Clarinet Quintet with Julian Bliss and Alec Roth’s Seven Elements with tenor James Gilchrist. Other instrumentalists at the festival include guitarists Bryan Brenner and Václav Fuksa, and accordionist Murray Grainger.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at Aviva Studios in 2025 (Photo: Gaelle Beri)
Factory International, the organisation behind Manchester International Festival, presents a year-round cultural programme at Manchester's Aviva Studios including a classical season. Last weekend (2 May) the Hallé made its debut at Aviva Studios with Anna Meredith’s ANNO, a recontextualisation of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, with animated visuals by the composer’s sister, Eleanor Meredith.
In what is the first of a planned series of collaborations, Factory International and English National Opera are presenting the UK premiere of Angel's Bone by Chinese-American composer, performance artist and activist Du Yun. The opera is a powerful allegory exploring themes of exploitation, power, and the human cost of survival. The work will be directed by Kip Williams and features the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Baldur Brönniman with a cast including Allison Cook and Rodney Earl Clarke.
The BBC Philharmonic returns to Aviva Studios with conductor Ludovic Morlot for a programme featuring Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring alongside the UK premieres of works by Jessie Montgomery and Samuel Adams. The sound is powered by the immersive d&b Soundscape audio system, along with captivating lighting design and audience members can choose to stand in the arena or sit in the upper tier of the hall.
Manchester Collective's Patterns in Repeat features a new piece by saxophonist and composer Cassie Kinoshi for piano and string quartet alongside music by Meredith Monk, and Cassandra Miller.
Going beyond classical, three concerts blend live music and cinema. NARUTO Symphonic Experience is a cinematic anime concert features a montage of iconic scenes synchronized with a live orchestra performing Toshio Masuda's original score. For Space Station Earth, Ilan Eshkeri's album is performed live on synthesisers with an orchestra and choir, presented alongside a film created from footage captured by astronauts aboard the International Space Station and imagery filmed at European Space Agency locations. And a live concert with the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Adrian Ronda Sampayo, celebrates two decades of BAFTA-nominated and award-winning games music with synchronised live with dynamic visuals, gameplay and imagery on screen.
Going beyond Aviva Studios, Factory International, Improbable and Nica Burns present the West End premiere of Tao of Glass, composed by Philip Glass and written by Phelim McDermott at sohoplace theatre. A production that was originally part of Factory International’s Manchester International Festival. And ENO will be bringing Du Yun's Angel's Bone to the London Coliseum in October 2026.
Full details from the Factory International website.
Adrian Partington conducting Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at Gloucester Cathedral as part of the 2022 Cheltenham Music Festival with South Cotswold Big Sing Group, British Sinfonietta
Das Klagende Lied is the earliest of Mahler's large-scale symphonic scores. Mahler wrote his own text based on Der singende Knochen(The singing bone) from the tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. Mahler's first version of Das Klagende Lied was finished in 1880, whilst he was still a student. He submitted it for a competition where Brahms and colleagues on the jury dismissed the work. Mahler then revised it in 1893, but it was not performed, and he revised it further in 1898 with the first performance finally taking place in Vienna in 1901.
Gustav Mahler in 1898
When I asked Adrian why he had chosen Das Klagende Lied he explained that the work offers some of the best examples of Mahler but on a compact canvas. Despite being an early work the music is instantly recognisable as Mahler. Adrian explains that for him, though Mahler's style developed his tools did not, so the work uses the off-stage bands, marches and fanfares that reoccur in his later music, albeit with more sophistication.
The South Cotswold Big Sing Group likes to explore music that choral societies cannot do, and the group was set up in order to explore possibilities for co-operation between choral societies on events which would otherwise be beyond individual societies. In previous years, Adrian has conducted them in works such as Berlioz's Te Deum and Grande Messe des Morts, and Holst's Hymn of Jesus.
Adrian had been involved in two previous performances of Das Klagende Lied, rehearsing with the CBSO for performances by Simon Rattle and back in the 1980s with Worcester Festival Choral Society who performed it with conductor Bernard Keeffe. It is a work that stayed in his mind, a most attractive piece with fresh, interesting music. Also whilst you need a lot of voices, it is not too demanding a piece.
Adrian did a lot of research on the piece and its various versions, consulting Professor Jeremy Barham and the New Critical Edition of Gustav Mahler’s works in order to have a performing version that the festival could afford. The 1880 original is an astonishing work for a teenager, but it includes a prominent role for 18-part off-stage band and in fact this version has never been performed. In 1893 Mahler reduced the work from three to two movements and dispensed with the off-stage band. Nothing happened, and this version does not seem to have been performed. Then Mahler revised it again, keeping the two-movement format but restoring the off-stage band; this revision was wholesale enough to need a new manuscript and has become the standard version.
Composer Gabriel Prokofiev is opening a space dedicated to the art of his father Oleg Prokofiev (1928-1998), son of composer Sergei Prokofiev. Oleg wrote that his father's music inspired in him 'a wave of some wonderful energy...a poetic or artistic impulse'.
Oleg became known for his abstract works created in the 1950s in defiance of the Soviet Union’s strict cultural controls where the doctrine of socialist realism was rigidly imposed. Come the 1960s, Oleg developed a relationship with British art historian Camilla Gray and for a decade Oleg hid his abstract work, so the couple could get married. Granted permission in 1969, the two married but Camilla Gray died two years later. Oleg moved to the UK after her death, but his abstract works were left behind, Oleg believing them lost. Returning to his former home in Moscow in 1994, he discovered that the art works had been kept safe by the house's owner alongside the artist's sketches.
Camilla Gray's book The Great Experiment: Russian Art 1863–1922, published in 1962, broke new ground in explaining Russian avant-garde art outside Russia. Gray was the daughter of Basil Gray, keeper of Oriental art at the British Museum, and the scholar of art and lettering Nicolete Gray, and granddaughter of the poet Laurence Binyon.
Gabriel Prokofiev has now opened Prokofiev Studio in Hackney which will house his father's archive, featuring abstract artworks from the 1950s alongside letters, postcards, sketchbooks, sculptures and other lost paintings. The opening exhibition, Bending Time will feature a reconstruction of Oleg's 1990s studio in Hackney Wick.
Further information from Prokofiev Studio on Instagram.
Jasdeep Singh Degun, Gurdain Rayatt, Fantasia Orchestra, Tom Fetherstonhaugh - Smith Square Hall (Photo: Pablo Strong)
Fantasia Orchestra, conductor Tom Fetherstonhaugh, celebrates its 10th anniversary this summer with a very busy programme of concerts including a return to the BBC Proms, festival appearances at Cheltenham, Snape and more, and a premiere with Dame Evelyn Glennie.
Having recently joined forces with sitar player and composer Jasdeep Singh Degun at Smith Square Hall [see my review], the orchestra returns to Smith Square later this month for a jazz-infused concert featuring pianist Steven Osborne in Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1 alongside a typically eclectic programme featuring more DSCH, plus Gershwin, Rogers & Hart and Bartok. And their final Smith Square concert of the season features mezzo-soprano Niamh O’Sullivan in a surprising mix of contemporaries including Richard Strauss, Alma Mahler, Ellington, Kern, Gershwin and more
The orchestra's first Prom (at St Jude's) is more sedate with Junyan Chen the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 alongside Symphony No. 1. A Relaxed Prom at the Royal Albert Hall includes music by Dvořák, Vaughan Williams and Caroline Shaw, alongside arrangements of Radiohead and Duke Ellington, performed with the BBC Singers. Then a Late Night Prom sees them join with Evelyn Glennie for the premiere of Heloise Werner's Wood Pigeon alongside music by Meredith Monk, Morton Feldman and John Coltrane, marking both Feldman and Coltrane's 100th anniversaries.
Festival going sees the Orchestra in Cheltenham with Jasdeep Singh Degun for a repeat of their programme, they are joined by mezzo-soprano Anita Monserrat for a remix of the Strauss, Alma Mahler, Ellington, Kern, Gershwin programme at Guiting Music Festival, and they will also be popping up in Snape Maltings.
Pegasus Opera Company is joining forces with another dynamic Brixton musical institution, Brixton Chamber Orchestra for a pair of events marking Windrush Day 2026. They are presenting Windrush & Migrations: an Evening of Opera in Concert at Broadway Theatre, Rushey Green (25 June) and Lambeth Town Hall (26 June).
The evening includes excerpts from Will Todd's Migrations which was first commissioned by Welsh National Opera [see my review] and Des Oliver's Windrush Opera commissioned by Pegasus Opera Company, alongside other evocative works that reflect themes of journey, identity and hope. The evening also includes music from Philip Hagemann's opera Ruth based on the Bible story, which Pegasus Opera first performed in 2018.
An evening of music and storytelling exploring themes of migration, identity and belonging, these are stories that resonate strongly across London’s communities, offering an accessible and inspiring entry point into the art form while honouring the significance of Windrush Day.
Full details from Pegasus Opera Company's website.
.jpg "Du Yun: Angel's Bone - Matthew McKinney, Mariam Wallentin - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Ellie Kurttz)")
.jpg "Du Yun: Angel's Bone - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)")
.jpg "Du Yun: Angel's Bone - Rodney Earl Clarke, Allison Cooke - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)")
.jpg "Du Yun: Angel's Bone - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)")
.jpg "Du Yun: Angel's Bone - Keith Pun, Camilla Seale, Allison Cooke - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)")
.jpg "Du Yun: Angel's Bone English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)")
.jpg "Du Yun: Angel's Bone - Mariam Wallentin - English National Opera at Aviva Studios (Photo: Tristram Kenton)")
.jpg "the Richard Shephard Music Foundation's 2026 Music Day")
%20Britten%20Pears%20Arts%20%20(13).jpg "James Baillieu & Benjamin Appl at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2025 (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)")
.jpg "City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Kazuki Yamada (Photo: Andrew Fox)")
-14.jpg "Jasdeep Singh Degun, Gurdain Rayatt, Fantasia Orchestra, Tom Fetherstonhaugh - Smith Square Hall (Photo: Pablo Strong)")
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