By turns ravishing & spine-tingling: period instrument orchestra Les Siècles is the star of the show in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust at the BBC Proms conducted by Jakob Lehmann

Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust - Les Siècles - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust; John Osborn, Véronique Gens, Gerard Finley, Chœur de Radio France and Maîtrise de Radio France, Les Siècles, Jakob Lehmann; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 30 August 2026

A welcome visit from Les Siècles allows us the luxury of a period instrument performance of Berlioz's quirky masterpiece, with Jakob Lehmann and his players holding us spellbound with the orchestral detail

The French period instrument orchestra Les Siècles has gone through some significant changes in the last couple of years. Founded by François-Xavier Roth in 2003, the orchestra found itself in a similar position to the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras when their relations with their founder soured. Allegations of inappropriate behaviour on Roth's part led to his stepping down from Les Siècles last year and the orchestra introducing a new management structure. In June this year (2026), Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda was announced as their new artistic director and conductor. Manacorda won't be working with the orchestra again until December 2026, but in the intervening period a range of conductors have been stepping up to the podium, including Jakob Lehman who directed Beethoven and Dvorak with them last month.

Last autumn, Les Siècles and Jakob Lehmann [see my 2025 interview with him] presented Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris in a staging by Silvia Costa. Rather luxuriously, the orchestra brought the whole performance to the BBC Proms on 30 August 2026. At the Royal Albert Hall there was no staging and a new group of soloists: John Osborn as Faust, Véronique Gens as Marguerite and Gerald Finley as Méphistophélès, but we still had the Chœur de Radio France and Maîtrise de Radio France along with a very large orchestra (though 'only' four harps rather than the eight to ten that Berlioz asks for!)

Berlioz never did get the great Parisian theatrical success that his talent and temperament seemed to deserve, probably because Berlioz's distinctive genius led him to run on different lines. None of his theatrical works quite fits the norm and La damnation de Faust is a case in point. Originally written as Eight Scenes from Faust in 1829, Berlioz decided to rework the material and in 1845 created his légende dramatique as he called it. Berlioz did not envisage the work being staged, it was a concert piece which of course meant that his imagination could run free. The first performance at the Opéra-Comique was not a success, and it was only following the first successful complete performance in concert in Paris, in 1877 that the work took off.

Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust - John Osborn, Jakob Lehmann, Les Siècles - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

The complete work was only heard at the Proms in 1962, when Colin Davis conducted the London Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, the work had been reduced to orchestral excerpts - the Hungarian March, the Dance of the Sylphs etc. The performance this year brings the total to eight full Proms performances (including one conducted by Mark Elder in 1985 which featured me in the chorus, and that one did have a ridiculous number of harps!).

Drawn to stories that intersect the political & cultural worlds: Anthony Davis's opera The Central Park Five released on disc by Long Beach Opera

Anthony Davis: The Central Park Five - Long Beach Opera 2022 (Photo: JJ Geiger)

I first came across the case of the Central Park Five when I read Joan Didion's essay Sentimental Journeys first published in the New York Review of Books in 1991 and collected in her book After Henry. In the essay she considers the case of the Central Park jogger from 1989 to examine the way the city's sentimentality for the narratives it tells about itself, whether they are true or not. No-one reading the essay could have doubted that those indicted for the crime, the Central Park Five, were innocent. Though it took time for justice to truly be served.

It might seem a strange subject for an opera, but then operas have been long fascinated with the excesses of human emotion and frailty. The Central Park Five by composer Anthony Davis and librettist Richard Wesley premiered at Long Beach Opera (LBO) in 2019 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2020. And the work was released by LBO this week on Platoon. 

LBO is Southern California's oldest opera company, founded in 1979. Under artistic director James Darrah Black and music director Christopher Rountree, LBO creates immersive work that blends film, dance, new music and more. 

The assault and rape of a woman who was jogging in Central Park took place in 1989 and five teenagers were sentenced. It would only be in 2002 that another perpetrator entirely, a serial rapist, confessed to the assault and said he was the only actor, with DNA evidence confirming his confession.

Composer Anthony Davis explains what drew him to the drama:

"1989. A group of predominantly Black and Hispanic teenagers enter Central Park in New York City. They turnover garbage cans, throw rocks, harass people on bicycles. A young woman is sexually assaulted in the Park and six teenagers are detained and questioned about the assault. Five of the teenagers, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam and Antron McCray become the center of a criminal case that would polarize New York City. The Exonerated Five were falsely accused and convicted of the crime with no physical evidence. Condemned publicly by the press, the Exonerated Five were victims in a culture war waged against  Black and Hispanic communities.  A politically ambitious real estate mogul condemns the teenagers with a full page add, proclaiming “Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!” The persecution of the Central Park Five marks the beginning of Donald Trump’s political career, built on racial animus and the exploitation of the deep rooted racial divide in America."

As a composer, Davis seems to be drawn to stories that intersect the political and cultural worlds. His operas explore political moments and movements that are reflected in the dynamic of music. X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, premiered by New York City Opera in 1986, is based on the life of the civil rights leader Malcolm X. A new production starring  Davóne Tines premiered at Detroit Opera in 2022 and was performed at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 2023 and Seattle Opera in 2024. Amistad, premiered by Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1997, is about a case of an 1839 slave mutiny on a Spanish ship that reached the US Supreme Court, which ruled in favour of freeing them. The Chicago performance was released on disc by New World Records. Davis revised the work in 2008 creating a leaner version which was premiered at the Spoleto Festival USA. Wakonda’s Dream premiered by Opera Omaha in 2007. The opera is about a contemporary Native American family, affected by the historical events and court case of 1879 in Nebraska, in which American Indians were recognized as “human beings under the law” for the first time in U.S. history.  

The Central Park Five traces the five protagonists' arrests, coerced confessions and unjust trials against a backdrop of racial prejudice – weaving an intimate, nuanced and deeply human portrait of justice and perseverance. Musically, Davis draws on jazz, contemporary classical, R&B, and hip-hop to underscore the drama and create a portrait of Black American music that stretches across time and genre. 

Davis was born in New Jersey and studied at Yale. He has received acclaim as a free-jazz pianist, a co-leader with various ensembles. His music incorporates several styles including jazz, rhythm 'n' blues, gospel, non-Western, and African, as well as European classical and Indonesian gamelan. He is professor of music at the University of California, San Diego.

Davis's interest in The Central Park Five began with his and Wesley's opera Five, premiered by Trilogy: An Opera Company in New Jersey in 2016 [see YouTube]. In 2019, Long Beach Opera commissions The Central Park Five which develops out of Five and the opera is premiered by LBO, with Davis winning the Pulitzer Prize the following year. In March 2022 Portland Opera presents The Central Park Five, then LBO returned to the work in June 2022 with a new production. Following this, cast and conductor are brought into the studio to create the recording which is issued by Platoon. In March 2025, Detroit Opera presented Davis's expanded orchestration of The Central Park Five.

LBO's recording of The Central Park Five features Cedric Berry (Yusef Salaam), William Powell III (Antron McCray), Bernard Holcomb (Kevin Richardson), Orson Van Gay II (Raymond Santana), Ashley Faatoalia (Korey Wise), Justin Ryan (The Masque), Lacey Jo Benter (District Attorney), Todd Strange (Donald Trump), Joelle Lamarre (Ensemble / “Antron's Mother” / “Kevin's Mother” / Others), Lindsay Patterson Abdou (Sharonne Salaam / Others), Corey Estelle (Ensemble), José Luis Maldonado (Ensemble / Raymond's Father / Matias Reyes), conducted by Anthony Parnther.

Further information about The Central Park Five recording from LBO's website. [streaming links]

The power of music: Christopher Glynn, Rowan Pierce & Julia White in concert in aid of Music in Hospitals & Care

St James Garlickhythe Church

On Thursday 24 September at St James Garlickhythe Church in central London, pianist Christopher Glynn will perform and host an evening of live music in support of the charity Music in Hospitals & Care, being joined by soprano Rowan Pierce and oboist Julia White.

Music in Hospitals & Care is a charity that improves the health and wellbeing of children and adults through the healing power of live music, and funds raised from the event will help the charity continue reaching people in hospitals, care homes and community spaces across the UK, where live music can make a meaningful difference.

The programme brings together classical works and film music, with Purcell's Music for a while alongside Schubert’s An die Musik, Howells’ King David, Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe from The Mission, and music from The Sound of Music and Amélie.

Christopher Glynn explains: “The programme is a celebration of music in its many different roles, moving between songs and melodies in which it is praised, imagined, remembered and shared. We begin and end with ‘Music, for a while, shall all your cares beguile’. The opening line of one of Purcell’s most famous songs gives this programme its starting point: the idea that music can console, delight, stir memories, lift spirits and bring people together.”

Music in Hospitals & Care believes live music needs to be part of everyone’s health and social care. Why? Because research shows that live music heals. It helps people feel relaxed and confident, and can relieve frustration, stress and isolation. Music can also reduce the perception of pain. It brings back memories and helps create new ones. When you move your body to music – even just tapping a finger – it’s natural physiotherapy.

Further details and tickets from their website.

The first ever turbaned Sikh conductor? Jashandeep Reehal & Holland Park Sinfonia in Rachmaninoff

The Adagio from Rachmaninoff's Symphony no. 2 performed by the Holland Park Sinfonia and conductor Jashandeep Reehal.

Jashandeep Reehal, Holland Park Sinfonia
19 June 2026 (Photo: Marc Tunguz)

Jashandeep Reehal is a self-taught musician from Punjab, India who moved to London three to four years ago. He never studied music and taught himself how to play guitar, piano, compose and arrange. Growing up in a small town in India, classical music was never something that existed and as a culture, Sikh people never ever ventured into that world, and he speculates that he is most probably the first ever turbaned Sikh conductor.

After moving to London, Jashandeep went to see an orchestra performing for the first time, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko in February 2024. He decided he wanted to be a conductor. With absolutely no knowledge, skill, or network, he managed to convince an amateur orchestra last year to let him do a concert, performing Nielsen's Helios Overture, and he went on to conduct two more concerts with them.

Needing to find a way to stay in the UK to study conducting (his visa runs out next year, and he needs to apply for the Global Talent visa), Jashandeep decided to take risks and started his own orchestra—the Holland Park Sinfonia. 

Their first concert was in February 2026, performing Korngold's suite from Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Warsaw Concerto, Casablanca suite, and more. They returned for their second concert on 19 June 2026 with a programme including Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 and Barber's Violin Concerto with soloist Charlie Lovell-Jones.

Read more about Jashandeep and the orchestra on their website. 

 

I don’t think though that I have ever let go of words & thoughts: mezzo-soprano Camilla Seale on her role in Vache Baroque's modern recreation of the 17th century semi-opera The Tempest

As part of Vache Baroque's 2026 summer opera festival they are performing a version of Shakespeare's The Tempest based on the 1674 show produced by Thomas Betterton, what has become known as a semi-opera but which in the 17th century was referred to as a dramatick opera. Singers Stephanie Hershaw, Isabelle Peters, Camilla Seale, Conor Prendiville and Ross Cumming will be joining forces with actors from Out of Chaos, directed by Paul O'Mahoney with Jonathan Darbourne directing the Vache Baroque Band.

Dorset Garden Theatre depicted in 1673
where The Tempest was presented in 1674

Much of the music included in Vache Baroque's production was originally composed by Henry Purcell, Matthew Locke, Pelham Humfrey, and others for the 1674 version of The Tempest. To this has been added works by other European composers of the period as well as shanties, improvisations, and a full masque by Purcell. 

In this article we chat to mezzo-soprano Camilla Seale who will be playing Stephano in the production.

You are currently rehearsing for Vache Baroque’s new production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest as a semi-opera which opens at the Vache on Saturday 29 August and runs to 6 September.  This hybrid version of Shakespeare’s play has seen you collaborate with Paul O’Mahony’s theatre company.   How have you found working with Paul and the actors from Out of Chaos? What are the synergies and tensions in the difference of approach between the actors and the singers, and what effect do you feel this has had on the rehearsal process?

It’s such a pleasure to be in a room with open, curious performers from different creative backgrounds - from the actors, to the band, to the singers. I can’t really say that any one person is only really of one discipline, and that’s how it should be. The actors bring so much intelligence and authenticity, and I think the music brings them a different kind of emotional input that has definitely provided some surprises in rehearsal. 

In your role as Stephano in this semi-opera, do music and words have equal prominence? How are they melded together so that music and words intermingle seamlessly?

Yes, the role definitely feels like it’s 50:50. Even within the (musical) masque, Purcell as a composer has a very text-led musical imagination, so even for the instrumentalists, they are speaking and dancing rather than just playing beautiful musical lines. I don’t think though, even when singing pure opera, that I have ever let go of words and thoughts. Specifically in The Tempest, music has a clear role as magic on the island, so it fits like a glove here.

What do you want audiences to take away from this production and the experience of watching The Tempest by the lake on a summer night?

Shakespeare loves a metatheatrical reference; Prospero tells Ferdinand ‘Be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air […] And -  like the baseless fabric of this vision […] shall dissolve’. Everything that we conjure together, players and audience, on Prospero’s island is created inside a bed of nature in the Vache grounds. The way the stage is constructed allows the audience to see across the lake and the surrounding trees through the back of the stage, as characters stumble through the island trying to find their way, with the second half gorgeously lit in the tent as the sun sets. It’s Shakespeare’s last play - he was thinking a lot about legacy and what we leave behind. And I think he was concerned with what it means to be mortal, and where joy can be found, and I hope that the audience catch something of that when they come to see the play. 

Last year you performed with Barokksolistene singing the role of Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Longborough Opera Festival. This was a production complete with audience participation in true Barokksolistene form. How does baroque repertoire allow more flexibility to experiment and create more innovative productions?

Something that Barokksolistene do so well is traverse between baroque and folk music, and both forms by their nature are meant to be shared within communities - whether through communal singing or dancing. Baroque music at its core comes from dance, which is a shared activity, expressively and socially. Personally when I go to see baroque concerts, I enjoy the grooviness in a way I don’t quite experience with later periods of classical music. And maybe other people are experiencing the same thing. 

As part of the New Renaissance Collective, you co-created and performed in productions including an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Venus & Adonis. How did that prepare you for this production at The Vache?

I think the time I spent with friends in research and development with New Renaissance Collective and putting on the shows allowed all of us to fearlessly and idiotically explore and create theatre in a way that I’ve surely held on to in every creative environment I’ve been in since. I can remember laughing so hard in some workshops that it hurt. I’ll be forever grateful for those experiences and friendships and perhaps both the empowerment and fearlessness it - and those people - inspired in me. 

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas - Camilla Seale as Dido with Barokksolistene at Longborough Festival Opera, 2025

Vache Baroque's production of The Tempest opens at The Vache, Chalfont St Giles, on 29 August with further performances on 30 August, 5 and 6 September 2026. Full details from Vache Baroque's website. 

Beautiful music, beautiful places - Lammermuir Festival 2026

The Lammermuir Festival returns for 13 days of intimate and ambitious music-making in East Lothian from 8 to 20 September. It continues to be a festival shaped by place and by long-standing relationships, and builds its reputation through thoughtful programming, deep artistic relationships and a setting in which music feels inseparable from place. 

Royal Northern Sinfonia return to the festival, providing a significant thread. Dinis Sousa and the Royal Northern Sinfonia are bringing their first concert performance of a Mozart opera, Così fan tutte to Lammermuir with soloists Christina Gansch, Alexandra Oomens, Jonas Hacker and Cody Quattlebaum as the lovers, plus Rebecca Evans and Neal Davies. Pianist Jeremy Denk also joins Royal Northern Sinfonia, directed by Maria Włoszczowska for a three concert series of Mozart piano concertos exploring the full range of the composer's output with concertos nos. 9, 14, 17, 20, 24, and 25 alongside music by Janacek, Stravinsky and Britten. The concert series also highlights Denk's strong relationship with the festival.

Scottish Opera also have an ongoing relationship with the festival and this year, Douglas Boyd and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera are joined by sopranos Charlotte Kennedy and Charlotte Clapperton, and mezzo-soprano Avery Lafrentz for three of Britten's works for solo voice, Les Illuminations, Our Hunting Fathers and Phaedra. 

On a smaller scale but no less dramatic, tenor Nicky Spence and mezzo-soprano Victoria Simmonds are joined by Jeremy Denk for Janacek's Diary of One who Disappeared. Denk also joins forces with tenor Nicholas Mulroy for Schubert's Winterreise.

Another exciting thread in the festival is the residency from Concerto Copenhagen with sequence of programmes exploring Haydn’s symphonic world, including the vivid triptych of the ‘Morning, Noon and Night’ symphonies.   

Pianist Javier Perianes makes his festival debut with a Chopin recital and then directs the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Ravel, Haydn and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3. Violist Timothy Ridout makes a welcome return to the festival for a programme centred on Brahms's Viola Sonata No. 2 and Bloch's Suite for Viola.  Other visitors include Scottish-Indian guitarist Samrat Majumder and the Fibonacci Quartet. 

Lucy Crowe sings Strauss's Four Last Songs, soprano Ailish Tynan joins the Hebrides Ensemble for music by Judith Weir, Thea Musgrave, Helen Grime, and Stuart MacRae, soprano Claire Booth and violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen perform Kurtág’s intense Kafka Fragments, Matthew Brook joins Dunedin Consort for solo cantatas by Buxtehude and Bach.

Choral contributions include Tenebrae, The Marian Consort, and The Binchois Consort, whilst the female voices of National Youth Choir of Scotland’s Chamber Choir join Scottish Ensemble in a programme which includes David Fennessy’s Blood, based on a vocal melody by Hildegard of Bingen.

Full details from the Lammermuir Festival website. 

 

Charpentier's tragédie en musique David et Jonathas, staged in London & the South for the first time by New Sussex Opera

New Sussex Opera's (NSO) 2026 autumn touring production will be Charpentier's tragédie en musique David et Jonathas. In five acts and a prologue, the work was written in 1688 for the Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, Paris. This dark jewel of the French Baroque opera with its achingly beautiful score will be staged in London and the South for the first time, performed in a new English translation by Christopher Cowell. 

NSO will collaborate for the second time with the period-instrument Bellot Ensemble, the New Generation Baroque Ensemble for 2025-27, a scheme run jointly by BBC Radio 3, the RCM and the National Centre for Early Music. This follows their celebrated production of Lampe's The Dragon of Wantley in 2024 [see my review]. The production reunites the creative team responsible for NSO’s acclaimed staging of The Dragon of Wantley and The Silver Bell in 2025, director Paul Higgins, designer Mollie Cheek, choreographer Namiko Gahier-Ogawa, and dramaturg Benjamin Poore.  

A cast of promising singers with burgeoning careers stars includes tenor Harun Ellis Tekin and countertenor Tom Lilburn in the title roles, with baritone Massimo Modoni as Saul, bass Daniel Chomiak as Achis and Samuel and Ukrainian mezzo Nadiia Chaichenko as the Witch. The principals will be supported by the New Sussex Opera Chorus, who remain at the heart of the company's work.

Dance and movement, which play an essential role in French Baroque opera of this kind, are choreographed by Namiko Gahier-Ogawa, who will also appear onstage. As a celebration of the ingenuity and spectacle of Baroque stagecraft, the opera will be punctuated by dramatic use of stage percussion.

The tour sees the launch of the Chalk Cliff Trust NSO Emerging Artists programme, and is supported by funding from the Laidlaw Opera Trust. NSO's Emerging Artists will play the many smaller named roles in David and Jonathan, and support the singing of the chorus elsewhere in the opera; this professional development programme will also include one-to-one coaching with NSO's Music Director and Director. This programme is an exciting further step for NSO in its longstanding aim of supporting artists at the start of their careers and of acting as a bridge between the world of community-run opera and the professional one. 

The production opens at the Windmill Theatre Hove on October 11 and tours to Holy Trinity, Cuckfield, The Devonshire Park Theatre Eastbourne, and The Theatre Royal Winchester. The performance at Cadogan Hall on 20 October is preceded by a pre-concert talk from the creative team with broadcaster Donald Macleod.

Full details from the New Sussex Opera website. 

Drawing you into the drama: David McVicar's production of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail returns to Glyndebourne

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail - Franck Saurel, Liv Redpath - Glyndebourne (Photo: Bill Knight)

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Liv Redpath, Anthony León, Michael Mofidian, Julie Roset, Thomas Cilluffo, Franck Saurel, director: David McVicar, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conductor: Evan Rogister; Glyndebourne Opera
Reviewed 25 August 2026

This was one of those performance which drew you into the drama whether it be orchestral music, singing or spoken word. The joy of this production was that it welded all three into a whole in a way that does not happen too frequently

The surprising thing about Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail is the way productions of the work seem to adhere more or less to original period setting. This applies to Stephen Medcalf's 2019 production of English Touring Opera [see my review], John Copley's 2018 account for the Grange Festival [see my review] or Elijah Moshinsky's production with its Sidney Nolan designs at Covent Garden which was last seen in 2001, right back to David Pountney's 1978 production for Scottish Opera which introduced me to the work.

The work's politics are complex and whilst aspects of the story chime with the modern world, producers seem to find the period setting allows the best exposition of the issues, which is fascinating considering the fondness for putting other Mozart operas into modern dress.

So, it is no surprise to find that David McVicar's 2015 production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Glyndebourne to be gloriously picturesque. We caught the 25 August performance of this summer's revival of the production (assistant director Greg Eldridge). Evan Rogister conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Anthony León as Belmonte, Michael Mofidian as Osmin, Thomas Cilluffo as Pedrillo, Franck Saurel as Pasha Selim, Liv Redpath as Konstanze and Julie Roset as Blonde.

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail - Michael Mofidian, Julie Roset - Glyndebourne (Photo: Bill Knight)

What distinguishes the production, perhaps, is the sheer picturesque beauty of Vicki Mortimer's sets and costumes. Though, as a 2015 interview with her in the programme explains, these do have a purpose as the production presents Pasha Selim's household, with its harem, as a genuine alternative. Konstanze's dilemma is real. We see Selim's wives and his children, including his own warm relationship to the children. Mortimer's set, made up of myriad screens and walls, successfully allows the setting to move swiftly and provides lots of opportunities for eavesdropping and overlooking.

The Breaking Point: worlds connected by questions of pressure, identity & the forces that shape human behaviour. Contemporary opera from Royal Academy of Music composers at Tête à Tête

Four worlds connected by questions of pressure, identity and the forces that shape human behaviour: The Breaking Point brings together four distinct works in a single evening of contemporary music theatre. Created by Royal Academy of Music composers working with emerging librettists, the four operas are being presented as two double bills at The Cockpit Theatre on 19 September 2026 as part of Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2026.

The cycle grew out of a shared sense among the artists that many of the pressures shaping contemporary life — ecological anxiety, cultural erasure, media saturation, ambition and isolation — are often discussed in political or intellectual terms, but less often experienced directly through performance. The Breaking Point asks what happens when these forces cease to be distant ideas and enter personal relationships, private spaces and individual lives. Drawing on international perspectives and distinct musical languages, the four works bring contrasting operatic styles and different theatrical approaches together under a shared theme.

• Broken Ivy: music by Florence Lloyd, libretto by Viv Bayliss. Florence Lloyd is a British composer whose work centres on vocal writing, electronics and cross-disciplinary performance, drawing on their interests in theatre, dance, poetry and fashion. Recent commissions include works for CHROMA Ensemble, ADW Trio and Leeds Song.
• Fence Off! music by Ruben Doda, libretto by Rebekah Ann King. Ruben Doda is an Italian composer and multi-instrumentalist based in London. His music has been performed internationally, including Antigone by PHACE Ensemble at the Vienna Contemporary Composers Festival and The Forge, inspired by Goya’s painting, at The Frick Collection, New York, in 2026.
• Sing4 Nok6, and Other Broken Things: music by Kwun Ho (Jerry Fryderyk) Ng, libretto by Courtney Cousins. Kwun Ho (Jerry Fryderyk) Ng is a Hong Kong composer and new-music conductor whose work explores cultural and cross-cultural identity through contemporary approaches to Classical traditions. His particular interest in Cantonese vocal music culminates in the chamber opera SING4 NOK6, and Other Broken Things, which interweaves Cantonese and English within a spatial musical setting.
• Meet the Philips:  music by Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti, libretto by Wilkie Robson.  Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti is a British composer, conductor and keyboard player whose work spans concert music, opera and theatre. In 2024, he won the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Composers’ Competition, leading to the premiere of Voice-leading for solo beatboxer and orchestra. The orchestra subsequently commissioned King of Kings, a companion piece to Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon, in 2025.

Further information from the Tête à Tête
 website. 

CBSO in the City: removing all barriers, bringing people together & reminding us music should be about having fun, CBSO presents 20 free performances across the city

CBSO in the City 2025 - New Street Station (Photo: Jonathan Ferro)

This weekend (27-31 August) the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) goes beyond its home at Symphony Hall for five days to deliver 20 free performances in public spaces in and around the city. CBSO in the City sees members of the orchestra presenting music in unexpected places.

There are family friendly performances of The Wind in the Willows at Birmingham Library, solo harp at Birmingham Children's Hospital, harp and flute duo at Birmingham Library, a string quartet plays in The Exchange’s Banking Hall café alongside the University of Birmingham’s breathtaking Helios installation by British artist Luke Jerram, and there will be string trio and string quartet performances at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery alongside Joe Lycett's exhibition, Everything Must Go. CBSO Music Director, Kazuki Yamada, will also be performing piano on a CBSO- branded tram

CBSO Brass perform at Touchwood’s Summer Sessions at the Beach in Theatre Square in Solihull playing a selection of popular works arranged for brass ensemble, including Disco Inferno, Sweet Home Alabama, Total Eclipse of the Heart. CBSO Woodwind Ensemble will be in Birmingham Botanical Gardens and saxophonist Jess Gillam (CBSO Collaborative Artist) will lead Saxophones in the City, a mass ‘come and play’ clarinet and saxophone event at Brindleyplace with over 60 participants ranging from age 12 to 89.

Infinite Opera, Grand Union and the CBSO present Open for Business, an ambitious community operatic performance unfolding across nine venues in Digbeth. Open for Business is a walking opera that features four fictional characters built from real conversations with local workers and residents. The opera follows these characters through snapshots from a year in their lives, whilst their connection to Digbeth shifts and develops through past, present and future simulations.

The CBSO and CBSO Chorus will take over the concourse at New Street Station under conductor Jack Lovell-Huckle performing everything from Gershwin and Copland to Rossini and Beethoven to The Phantom Menace and Pirates of the Caribbean, and the weekend ends with further performances of this programme in the Bullring.

CBSO in the City 2025 - Birmingham Library (Photo: Jonathan Ferro)

Emma Stenning, CBSO Chief Executive, commented: “CBSO in the City is about us doing something special to celebrate our home city and sharing the gift of free music to people of all ages and from all walks of life. Thousands of people will experience live orchestral music for the first time, and the range of music programming and exciting locations will both play a part in making the performances exciting, fun and accessible. We also appreciate that the cost-of-living crisis has been a worry for so many people, and our £1 golden tickets will give many people that see us this coming weekend the bonus of a great night out to look forward to in the autumn. Music is for everyone and there should never be barriers to this. CBSO in the City fully opens up the world of orchestral music – removing all barriers, bringing people together and reminding us that music should ultimately be about having fun.”

All public performances are free (except for admission fees for some host venues) and residents that
experience a CBSO performance will have to chance to pick up a golden ticket – which means that for
just £1, they will be able to book a CBSO concert of their choice in the 2026-27 Season at Symphony Hall which starts in September.

Full details from the CBSO website.

Despite his double anniversary this year, we seem to be missing out on the music of Albert Lortzing, so hurrah for Deutsche Grammophon's historic reissues

Lortzing with his friend Philipp Reger, 1844. Daguerreotypie.

The year 2026 marks a double anniversary for the composer Albert Lortzing. The creator Spieloper, German comic opera, was born in Berlin 225 years ago and died there 175 years ago, although he spent much of his life travelling. Best known for Zar und Zimmermann (1837), Der Wildschütz (1842) and Undine (1845). Yet if you check Operabase, there are no performances of his works planned for the UK.

Fifteen years younger than Weber, Lortzing developed the Spieloper out of the Singspiel tradition, with spoken dialogue in the lineage of Dittersdorf and Mozart and became the German counterpart to French opéra comique. As recently as the 1980s, Lortzing remained one of the most frequently performed composers on German opera stages. Lortzing comes at a dividing point in the German operatic stage: in one direction Weber then Mozart, in the other either Wagner (who would base a comic opera on the same subject as Lortzing's Hans Sachs) or Johann Strauss II.

Like Weber, Lortzing was brought up in a theatrical family. He made his first stage appearance aged 12, and would become an audience favourite. He and his wife (also an actress) would be members of the Hoftheater in Detmold and then Leipziger Stadttheater. It was here that he wrote Zar und Zimmerman (Tsar and Carpenter) based on a story about Peter the Great (in disguise of course). It had trouble with the Leipzig censors. Lortzing sang the carpenter role but the opera did not make an impact till it was performed in Berlin in 1839. 

He was kapellmeister in Leipzig and then at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, and finally in Berlin at the newly opened Friedrich-Wilhelmstädtisches Theater. But there were gaps when he had to return to being a touring actor, and you get the impression he was not the easiest of people! Yet luminaries from the musical world, including Meyerbeer, attended his funeral in 1851.

Der Wildschütz oder Die Stimme der Natur (The Poacher, or The Voice of Nature) was another comic opera premiered in Leipzig (in 1842) and this is the other work that went on to give him currency in the operatic world. It is a comedy adapted from a play by August von Kotzebue. Undine, premiered in Magdeburg in 1845, is a more serious piece, described as a romantische Zauberoper ('romantic magic opera'). Based on Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's novella, other composers would explore the subject including Tchaikovsky, ETA Hoffmann (in 1816) and Henze (in his ballet for Frederick Ashton). Lortzing drew on Fouqué’s original tale, adding the comic characters Veit and Hans and concluding the story with an ambivalent happy ending. Romantic orchestral writing is combined with folk-inspired songs, dramatic scenes, masterful ensembles and effective ballet music.

There was a surprisingly political side to him too. At the behest of the Freedom Movement he wrote his opera Regina in 1848. It is named for his wife and he wrote the libretto. Written in Berlin in 1848, the year of revolutions in the German states, the plot concerns a factory with workers who strike and chant freedom songs! Not surprisingly, it did not premiere till 1899 (in heavily edited form) and the original did not see the light of day until 1998 in Gelsenkirchen directed by  Peter Konwitschny. There is now a critical edition of the opera from Ricordi, and 2011 recording on CPO conducted by Ulf Schirmer (which received a rather temperate review on Musicweb International - 'Not the unknown masterpiece we always hope for but pleasant enough'). Goodness knows whether we might get to see it in the theatre!

To mark the double anniversary the good news is the Deutsche Grammophon is making four historic opera highlights recordings of major works by the composer – Der Wildschütz, Der Waffenschmied and Undine – available digitally for the first time, or for the first time in complete form. Featuring artists such as Rita Streich, Irmgard Seefried, Wolfgang Windgassen, Gundula Janowitz and Josef Greindl, these releases document a significant era of German-language operatic performance. The recordings were conceived and produced specifically as opera highlights recordings for LP release – a publication format that was widespread at the time and brought together key scenes and musical highlights from a work.

Undine has just been released, see the Deutsche Grammophon website, and Der Waffenschmidt came out last month [link] with Der Wildschütz to come [link]

Intriguing connections in Anja Bihlmaier & BBC Philharmonic's Prom including Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with Jamie Barton & Clay Hilley, yet perhaps better heard on BBC Sounds

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde - Jamie Barton, Anja Bihlmaier, BBC Philharmonic
BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC/Chris Cristodoulou)

Bushra El-Turk: Mosaic, Haydn: Symphony No. 45 in F sharp minor, 'Farewell', Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde; Jamie Barton, Clay Hilley, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Anja Bihlmaier
Reviewed 21 August 2026

A rare performance of one of Haydn's best-known early symphonies alongside Mahler's glorious final symphonic utterance in a concert full of links and references in performances that did not always quite overcome the challenges of the Royal Albert Hall

The BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday 21 August might, at first, have seemed a typical Proms programme presenting a diverse trio of works. The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and their principal guest conductor, Anja Bihlmaier presented us with Bushra El-Turk's Mosaic, Haydn's Farewell Symphony, and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with Jamie Barton and Clay Hilley.

Diverse works, to be sure, but scratch under the surface and we saw the connective tissues. The subject of a farewell linked Haydn and Mahler in a way that was sufficiently contrasting as to be intriguing. And then Bushra El-Turk's work addresses issues of cross-pollination between cultures, finding elements of the rootlessness and otherness that Mahler found in the Chinese poetry he set in Das Lied von der Erde. It was a lavish programme too, the huge orchestra for the Mahler not used in the first half. I did wonder whether Bihlmaier should have had the courage of her convictions and performed Haydn with Mahleresque forces (large body of strings, four oboes, five horns). Go on, it sounds intriguing and after all what are festival for?

Bushra El-Turk's Mosaic was written for the Manchester Camerata for the 2009/10 season. It began with a scurrying shimmer on the strings that was so quiet as to be almost inaudible in the Royal Albert Hall. Dramatic fragments and motifs emerged over, creating an anxious, almost unnerving feel. A gradual build-up led to denser textures but the fragments never quite coalesced, until at the end in ravishing quiet we heard a romantic, rather hymn-like figure emerge. I would have liked to hear the piece in more sympathetic circumstances to bring out the detail.

Because of the circumstances of its first performance, and the rather intriguing meta-theatre woven in to the music in a very contemporary manner, Haydn's Farewell Symphony is amongst the best known of his earlier ones. Yet it has not been performed at the Proms since 1938, and this was only its fourth performance! It was brave of Bihlmaier to decide to do it with a modern instrument orchestra and all credit to her. We should her more Haydn like this.

Haydn: Farewell Symphony - Anja Bihlmaier, BBC Philharmonic - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC/Chris Cristodoulou)

Stripped back drama & strong musical values: Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos from Glyndebourne Opera at the BBC Proms

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos - Samantha Hankey, Alina Wunderlin, Robin Ticciati, LPO
Glyndebourne Opera at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos; Rachel Willis-Sørensen, David Butt Philip, Alina Wunderlin, Samantha Hankey, director: Paul Higgins, London Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: Robin Ticciati, Glyndebourne Opera; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 19 August 2026

A stripped back production, but the singers drew us in thanks to high musical values and attention to dramatic detail, creating a satisfying operatic evening.

The Royal Albert Hall is not the most sympathetic of opera venues, but sometimes the need to simplify an existing production can reap all sorts of rewards. In 2024, Glyndebourne Opera brought Bizet's Carmen to the BBC Proms in a production based on that Diane Paulus created for the festival. The result, I felt was 'Intelligent, vivid & satisfying' [see my review].

Having seen a deeply disappointing reinvention of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos in Salzburg [see my review], I was intrigued to see how the opera stood up to the rigours of the Royal Albert Hall for this year's Glyndebourne Prom. The verdict is 'very well indeed'.

On 19 August 2026, Glyndebourne presented Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms. Robin Ticciati conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the production by Paul Higgins was based on Laurent Pelly's new production at Glyndebourne. Rachel Willis-Sørensen was Ariadne, David Butt Philip was Bacchus, Alina Wunderlin was Zerbinetta and Samantha Hankey was the Composer.

There was little or no set, just a pair of doorways in the Prologue to which were added platforms for the opera proper. Laurent Pelly's costumes were largely contemporary and these, combined with the clarity of the production meant that in the Prologue it was clear from the word go who was whom is the mad-cap mayhem of the backstage.

The Prologue was rightly dominated by Samantha Hankey's anxious and intense composer, his attitude emphasised by Hankey's contorted body language and rather fierce makeup. Wearing a rather uninspiring suit, this composer was very much the obsessive, redeemed by Hankey's glorious way with Strauss's music. Each time she/he contemplated music beauties, things soared. Michael Kraus was an older, rather severe Music Master.

On the other side of the divide, so to speak, was Ru Charlesworth's wonderfully glittering dancing master. Charlesworth made the role seem more than it is, combining fine musicality with deft footwork and great personality. This was helped by the Zerbinetta of Alina Wunderlin who had trouble bringing charm and devilishment to the Royal Albert Hall. And she was aided by her mischievous foursome, Mikhail Timoshenko, Caspar Singh, Liam James Karai and Liam Bonthrone. Both Rachel Willis-Sørensen and David Butt Philip made the most of their comic personas in the part.

Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos - Liam Bonthrone, Caspar Singh, Ru Charlesworth, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Alina Wunderlin, Robin Ticciati, LPO - Glyndebourne Opera at BBC

One advantage of the production was the not only was it clear what was going on, but Prologue's thread of contemplating exactly what a work of art is and how it is created was well demonstrated. All this emphasised by William Relton's wonderfully acerbic Majordomo.

As music GCSE results roll in, what does the next generation of musicians need? New research from the RPO

Young musicians from Brent Music Academy of which the RPO is a founding partner (Photo: Ben Wright)

As teenagers across the country eagerly – or perhaps apprehensively – await their GCSE results, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s (RPO) latest research finds that more than four in five (86%) parents feel more could be done to engage their children in classical and orchestral music.

The bigger picture for music education at GCSE level remains cautiously optimistic. Last year, music GCSE results published by the Joint Council for Qualifications showed a 6.1% increase in music entries across the UK. Coupled with an 8.7% rise in 2024, this is positive change, but it takes place against a worrying backdrop: music GCSE entries in England have fallen by 25.6% since 2010. The recent removal of the English Baccalaureate, which encouraged schools to focus on non-arts subjects for their students, has gone some way in improving the situation, but the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) wanted to explore solutions from the people who know these students best – their parents.

RPO research carried out in June among a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults asked parents what they feel could be done to encourage more young people to get involved in classical and orchestral music.

Music lessons topped the list, with 31% of those surveyed calling for more music lessons where young people could listen to music at school , while one in three (30%) of respondents felt that getting more young people to play in orchestras at school would be an effective way to build enthusiasm and 29% of parents called for more school trips to classical or orchestral concerts. Beyond the classroom, 23% of those surveyed felt their children would get involved with the classical sector if classical music was in mainstream music charts like the UK Top 40. 

Sarah Bardwell, managing director of the RPO, commented on the new data: "While it is of course heartening to see a rise in music GCSE uptake – something we hope to see continue in the 2026 results – it is clear that more needs to be done to safeguard the musicians and audiences of tomorrow. The RPO’s engagement work with young people is a vital way of filling the gaps left by underfunding in formal music education, and our players find it hugely fulfilling – but this latest data shows that we need more action at a government level to build more opportunities for young people to enjoy orchestral music."

The RPO research also explored which musical instruments are popular among school children – whether they are already learning to play a specific instrument or would like to take one up. Painting a picture of what tomorrow’s orchestra might look like, the piano remains at the top of the list (35%), followed by the guitar (28%) and drums (22%). Across the country, the violin, trumpet and recorder are on the rise, chosen by 18%, 11% and 14% of respondents respectively. French horns and trombones, however, remain ‘endangered’, chosen by only 3% and 5% of children respectively. 

The RPO's new season begins on 23 September 2026 at the Royal Albert Hall, celebrating the orchestra's 80th birthday with Errollyn Wallen, Beethoven and Richard Strauss conducted by Vasily Petrenko. Full details from RPO website.

A libretto by Beaumarchais, admired by Berlioz: Salieri's final French opera Tarare is an important milestone & it returns to Versailles in October

Adolphe Nourrit in the title role of Salieri's Tarare in 1823

Antonio Salieri is still, alas, best remembered for his non-role in Mozart's death and his operas remain tantalisingly at the fringes of the repertoire. Back in 2015, Bampton Classical Opera performed Salieri's 1785 opera, La grotta di Trofonio with its important pre-echoes of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte [see my review] and in 2017 they returned to Salieri for his 1778 comedy La scuola de' gelosi [see my review].

The important thing to remember about Salieri was that from the age of 16 or so he received informal instruction from Metastasio with Gluck becoming an informal advisor, friend, and confidante. So much so, that Salieri regarded himself as Gluck's heir. His 1771 opera Armida (based on Tasso) drew heavily on the Reform opera created by Gluck and Calzabigi. 

Up to 1777, Salieri had been working with the Italian opera company in Vienna, but this company collapsed (due to financial management) and then the Emperor announced he wanted more German operas and Salieri was given a year's leave of absence. In 1778, Gluck turned down the offer of writing a new opera for La Scala Milan and Salieri took up the offer (with Gluck's agreement). This led to Europa riconosciuta (Europa Recognized) for opening of the new theatre at La Scala (revived in 2004 for the same opera house's re-opening following extensive renovations). And in fact, La scuola de' gelosi was written for this Italian tour.

Then after a brief return to Vienna, including writing his one German singspiel, Salieri agreed to help Gluck with a commission for Paris in 1783-84. Les Danaïdes (The Danaids) is a five-act tragédie lyrique, and unfortunately Gluck had failed to actually write any of it and Salieri took over. There was initially some finessing over who actually wrote it, but Salieri's responsibility was finally acknowledged after the work's premiere. The opera remained on stage in Paris for over forty years. A young Hector Berlioz recorded the deep impression this work made on him in his Mémoires.

This was to be the first of three French operas produced by Salieri. Next came Les Horaces (The Horatii), which proved a failure, then in 1787 Tarare with a libretto actually by Beaumarchais, his only opera libretto. All these have been recorded by Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques, and he is something of a champion for them [see my 2019 interview with him.]

But we still don't hear them in the theatre anything like enough, so it is good news that from 10 to 18 October, L’Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles will be presenting a new production of Tarare directed by Jean‑Romain Vesperini and conducted by Théotime Langlois de Swarte.

The plot successfully mixes comedy, tragedy and the exotic with a strong political message:  a world of vice is revealed as the valiant solider Tarare, seeking to rescue his wife, overthrows the tyrannous Sultan Atar and is proclaimed king by will of the people.  Beaumarchais would later claim after the French Revolution that his opera had been a first draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. And just keep the fascinating links, Salieri also reworked the material into an Italian version retitled Axur, re d'Ormus with libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, which opened in Vienna in January 1788.

Christophe Rousset saw the subject matter as revolutionary, the main theme being death to tyrants. We see the figure of nature creating society, and the way royalty and tyrants impose themselves. And there is an epilogue, something unusual in operas of the period, where two characters return and say, see how foolish humans are.  

Whilst Tarare was premiered in Paris, the opera house at Versailles was inaugurated in 1770 and is a very apt place for it to be performed. Further details from the opera house's website.

Fiordiligi to the fore: Korean soprano Soyeon Shin shines in a fine young ensemble for Scherzo Ensemble's trimmed yet still full-fat performance of Cosi fan tutte

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Soyeon Shin, Max Robbins, Anna Gregg, Michal Karski, Aina Magnell, Samuel Pantcheff - Scherzo Ensemble at Smith Square Hall

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte (the essential cut);  Soyeon Shin, Aina Magnell, Max Robbins, Samuel Pantcheff, Anna Greg, Michal Karski, Scherzo Ensemble, director: Bobbie-Jean Henning, conductor: Matthew O'Keeffe; Smith Square Hall
Reviewed 17 August 2026

A shining performance from Korean soprano Soyeon Shin anchors a trimmed account of the opera giving a somewhat comic spin yet featuring strong, stylish performances from a promising young cast.

At the beginning of July, Matthew O'Keeffe and Scherzo Ensemble presented their annual opera performances at Longhope Opera in Hampshire. This year it was Mozart's Cosi fan tutte with a fine young cast including the Korean soprano Soyeon Shin as Fiordiligi. The plan was to bring the production back, in somewhat trimmed form as 'the essential cut' for performances at Sinfonia Smith Square and in Hampshire (in aid of Hammersley Homes). As ever with opera production, things did not quite go according to plan.

We caught Scherzo Ensemble's performance of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at Sinfonia Smith Square on Monday 17 August 2026 with Matthew O'Keeffe conducting an ensemble of nine instrumentalists. The cast and production were based on the Longhope performances but with a new Dorabella, Ferrando and Guglielmo!  Soyeon Shin was Fiordiligi, Aina Magnell was Dorabella, Max Robbins was Ferrando, Samuel Pantcheff was Guglielmo (we last saw him in one of the title roles of The Gondoliers with ETO last year, see my review), Michal Karski was Don Alfonso and Anna Gregg as Despina. The production was directed by Bobbie-Jean Henning with designs by Anna Dell Bradford.

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte - Anna Gregg, Michal Karski at Longhope Opera (Photo: Ches Gunner)

The Marriage of Figaro: Oxford Opera Company returns to Oxford Playhouse with a young cast including Hugo Herman-Wilson in title role & role debuts from Jack Holton & Rachel Speirs

Following their successful production of Puccini's Tosca last year (with Marlena Devoe, Sam Furness and Philip Rhodes), director Katie Blackwell and conductor John Warner return to Oxford Opera Company for a new production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at Oxford Playhouse on 9 and 10 October 2026. Founded by Stuart Pendred in 2017, the company has performed almost annually in the city since its debut (with Tosca) in 2018 and is the city's first ever fully professional opera company.

The company's aim is to feature the best UK-based professionals alongside providing opportunities to local young people to work in a professional production. Alongside their main-stage work, their continuing provision of education and outreach workshops is available to any and all in the county. The company's new Youth Company provides opportunities for young people (in two age ranges, 8 to 12, and 13 to 16) every Saturday during term time, and this summer they ran a five-day summer camp, Mozart's Magical Music for ages 8 to 14.

The Marriage of Figaro will be sung in English, in a new translation by George Robarts. The production features a fine young cast with Hugo Herman-Wilson (who recently made his Glyndebourne debut in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo) and Rachel Speirs (in her role debut) as Figaro and Susanna, with Jack Holton (in his role debut) and Nikolett Mraz as the Count and Countess. 

Performances will feature Oxford Opera’s new Youth Company, and John Warner will be conducting the Oxford Opera Orchestra. During the run of The Marriage of Figaro, Oxford Opera Company will present a Family Matinee performance. This reduced version of the opera is the perfect introduction to the joys of the artform for young children and their families.

Further details from Oxford Opera's website. 

North Yorkshire and beyond: Jervaulx Singers new season including Parry's Songs of Farewell, Vierne's Messe Solennelle and more

Jervaulx Abbey (Photo: Jervaulx Abbey)

Named for Jervaulx Abbey, the ruins of the once great Cistercian abbey in North Yorkshire, Jervaulx Singers is an eight-voiced ensemble of professional singers founded in 2021 by conductor Charlie Gower-Smith and Jenny Bianco. Their 2026/27 encompasses concerts in York, Leeds, Bristol, Ripon, and at the Haslemere Festival.

They open the season at the Unitarian Chapel in York with a programme centred around Parry's Songs of Farewell, his haunting tribute for friends and students killed in the First War. Alongside this the group perform Judith Weir's Love bade me welcome and Jonathan Dove's Five Am'rous Sighs.

Charlie Gower-Smith, commented, “There are so many gems in our 2026-7 season. I've adored the musical language of Parry's Songs of Farewell ever since singing them as a student. We have paired these with Jonathan Dove's Five Am'rous Sighs, which I found so charming in their intimacy and honesty."

The group's debut disc, on Convivium Records, was Les Chansons des Roses which features Morten Lauridsen's Les chansons des roses, Jonathan Dove's The Passing of the Year and music by Ola Gjeilo, Francis Poulenc, Leonard Bernstein and more. There will be a chance to hear music from the disc at the ensemble's concert at The Cryer, a new performing venue at The Grammar School at Leeds named for the late Barry Cryer (who was an alumnus of the school). And there will be music from their second disc, In the stillness (which was on Gramophone Magazine's 2025 Christmas List) at two candlelit carol concerts in Leeds and Ripon.

Jervaulx Singers (Photo: Rhian Hughes)

Further afield, in geographic and repertoire terms, the group joins forces with Lucis Choir (led by conductor Francis Faux) for an evening of French liturgical music centred on Louis Vierne's Messe Solennelle at St Mary's Redcliffe, Bristol. Vierne's mass is written for choir and two organs and was premiered at St Sulpice in Paris where his teacher, Charles-Marie Widor was organist. Vierne later recast the work for choir and one organ to make it more accessible.

Full details from the Jervaulx Singers' website.