Wigmore Hall 2018/19

The Wigmore Hall has announced its 2018/19 season, nearly 500 concerts of chamber music, song, piano, early music, contemporary music and jazz. Themes include a Schumann Song Series, with the complete string quartets from the Elias Quartet, a Russian Song Series and Ravel Song Series. An American Series will complement the performance of the complete Elliott Carter quartets by the JACK Quartet. There will be a focus on Sir George Benjamin, including a performance of his chamber opera Into the Little Hill, and Benjamin conducting Ensemble Modern in his Palimpsest. Also recently announced, Edward Hunt has been appointed Royal Philharmonic Society/Wigmore Hall Apprentice Composer for 2018.

Artist residencies include Dame Sarah Connolly, Pekka Kuusisto, Marlis Peterson and Alexander Melnikov, and other visitors include Vox Luminis and Ensemble Correspondences.

The Schumann Series, the first year of a two-year exploration of Schumann's songs, will feature performances by baritone Florian Boesch, sopranos Christiane Karg and Anne Schwanewilms, tenor Robin Tritschler, mezzo-soprano Paula Murrhiy, with pianist Malcolm Martineau, plus cellist Stephen Isserlis as well as the Elias Quartet. Pianist Joseph Middleton partners soprano Miah Persson, mezzo-sopranos Sarah Connolly and Clara Mouriz, baritones Henk Neven, James Newby and Roderick Williams in Ravels songs, juxtaposing Ravel's music with works by his contemporaries and influences.

The JACK Quartet will be performing the complete Elliott Carter quartets, alongside an American series with the Escher Quartet featuring music by Charles Ives, Andrew Norman, Philip Glass and Samuel Barber. Russian Song Series offers a showcase for the finest Russian and Russian-speaking singers in songs from Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky to Shostakovich and Shchedrin, with pianist Ian Burnside.

The Wigmore Hall's popular £5 tickets for the under-35s continues to be popular, whilst the LiveStream initiative will stream 10 concerts during the season. The Late Night series will this year include performances by Susan Bullock, Anne Sofie von Otter, Viktoria Mullova, Chineke! Orchestra and Sean Shibe.

Royal Philharmonic Society/Wigmore Hall Apprentice Composer Edward Hunt will be writing a new commission for the Diphonon Duo, to be premiered in June 2018, and Hunt will receive mentoring from Wigmore Hall’s Composer in Residence, Helen Grime. He will have the chance to take part in and observe Wigmore Hall Learning workshops and events, working alongside the Composer in Residence and other experienced composers and workshop leaders.

Further details from the Wigmore Hall website.