A couple of memorable concerts in this year’s Norfolk & Norwich Festival were delivered by the Britten Sinfonia and Norwich Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.

Britten: Les Illuminations - Elizabeth Watts & Britten Sinfonia at Kings Place, London (Photo: Shoël Stadlen)

Britten: Young Apollo, Bowles: Six Piano Preludes, Copland: Clarinet Concerto, Britten: Les Illuminations, Copland: Appalachian Spring; Oleg Shebeta-Dragan (clarinet), Elizabeth Watts (soprano); Britten Sinfonia, led from the violin by Zoë Beyers; St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich.
Walton: Henry V: A Shakespeare’s Scenario, Belshazzar’s Feast; Norwich Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, cond: Matthew Andrews, Ashley Grote; Roderick Williams (baritone), Alex Jennings (voice); St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich
Kaija Saariaho: Terra Memoria, Vaughan Williams, Barber, Webern, Mahler; Kleio String Quartet, Berniya Hamie, Andrew Hamilton; Octagon Chapel
Reviewed by Tony Cooper (11, 12, 20 & 23 May 2026)

At this year's Norfolk & Norwich Festival, the Britten Sinfonia concert focused on Britten in America while the Norwich Philharmonic saluted William Walton in all his glory, whilst the young Kleio String Quartet made a big impression in their concerts

Feeling disillusioned with Europe, Benjamin Britten spent a formative and productive period in North America from 1939 to 1942 with Peter Pears where he composed such major works as the song-cycle Les Illuminations, his first opera Paul Bunyan and Sinfonia da Requiem.

Thankfully, Britten’s time in America proved personally and professionally worthwhile paving the way for such grand and exciting works as his Suffolk-based opera, Peter Grimes. And when Britten made the dangerous sea journey back to England in the spring of 1942, he was officially registered as a ‘conscientious objector’.

One of the first works he wrote on arriving in America was Young Apollo based on the final lines of John Keats’ poem Hyperion showing the image of Apollo as a ‘new, dazzling Sun-god, quivering with radiant vitality’. A delightful ten-minute piece and one of the few works Britten wrote for piano and orchestra, the commission came from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Receiving its first performance in August 1939 on CBC Radio with Britten as the solo pianist, the work’s characterized by a scintillating opening fanfare followed by a host of rapid and cascading glissando passages cutting through the sweeping, heroic textures of the strings comfortably played with flourish, flair and everything else by the renowned pianist, Huw Watkins, who often collaborates with the Britten Sinfonia.

Ashley Grote rehearsing the Norwich Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra in Walton's Belshazzar's Feast at St Andrew's Hall, Norwich for Norfolk & Norwich Festival

I felt it appropriate, too, that Copland shared the stage with Britten in this remarkable and well-curated programme as both men enjoyed a close personal and professional relationship. Copland acted as a mentor and friend to Britten assisting him in navigating the American musical scene while introducing him to influential people.

From the Caribbean to Brazil with a bit of New Orleans on the way... Brixton Chamber Orchestra's Streetband Parade 2026

Brixton Chamber Orchestra took to the streets yesterday (Sunday 24 May 2026) for their Streetband Parade. The band consisted of brass (including, of course, a Sousaphone) and woodwind, along with electric guitar and drums. We all met on Rush Common at the foot of Brixton Hill then made our way by a circuitous route uphill to Holmewood Gardens where there was an impromptu picnic and concert.

Preparing to set off from Rush Common

The music was described as "From the Caribbean to Brazil with a bit of New Orleans on the way...". And of course, being Brixton there was rap too (a young man had the unenviable task of pedalling a cargo bike uphill bearing amp, power source and such). 

And a steel band. They formed a separate 'parade' and spelled the streetband, with the two playing together at the end.

Holmewood Gardens

The weather was kind, the music fun. People watched from their houses, joined the parade and had a great time. 

The whole thing was free, but Brixton Chamber Orchestra can only function with our support, so please be generous. And you can keep an eye on what's coming next via the website.

Leeds is alive with the Sound of Music

Opera North is at it again, serenading unsuspecting Leeds shoppers with music from their shows. Last year it was Anna Dennis singing the Queen of the Night in Trinity Leeds shopping centre, and this year it is Katie Bird as Maria in The Sound of Music having her Julie Andrews moment not on a hill but on the balcony of the Queens Hotel. The clip above fades out before the end, so it looks as if you'll have to go along to Leeds Grand Theatre for the complete thing.

The performance also marked a special week too, celebrating the 65th anniversary of The Sound of Music first arriving on London's West End. On 18 May 1961, the musical premiered at the Palace Theatre and subsequently ran for 2,385 performances. 

The original Broadway production had featured Mary Martin, but in the West End, Maria was played by British actress Jean Bayless (who would later feature in Crossroads on TV) with Constance Shacklock as the Mother Abbess. Shacklock had shared the title role in Britten's Gloriana with Joan Cross in 1953, and in 1949 when Joan Hammond travelled to Russia, singing Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Shacklock played Olga.

Opera North presents Rogers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music at Leeds Grand Theatre from 9 July to 1 August 2026. Oliver Rundell conducts, Nikolai Foster directs with a cast including Katie Bird, Edward Bennett and Katherine Broderick.

Full details from Opera North's website. 

Capella Edina: how Luis Schmidt, a young conductor from Munich, came to found Edinburgh's first professional philharmonic orchestra in almost ninety years

Luis Schmidt & Capella Edina (Photo: Euan Robertson)

Luis Schmidt, a conductor from Munich who has just turned 22, founded Capella Edina in Edinburgh in 2024, the city's first professional philharmonic orchestra in almost ninety years. For its second season in 2026, Capella Edina is presenting four concerts at venues from the Caird Hall in Dundee to the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. The second concert of their season, Spring is at the Usher Hall on 3 June when Luis Schmidt conducts Capella Edina in music by Vaughan Williams, Britten and Copland.

The orchestra and its location came about through a series of circumstances. Luis moved to Newcastle to study for his degree and was introduced to Edinburgh by a friend who was working there. On his first visit to the city, Luis fell in love with it. He also took on board his friend's comment that Edinburgh did not have its own professional orchestra. Also whilst studying in Newcastle Luis met the conductor Robert Ames through the Royal Northern Sinfonia. Amongst Ames's advice to a young conductor was the suggestion that he form his own orchestra, that way you learn who to do things. And Luis would also get the same advice from his teacher in Germany, Bruno Weil.

Luis felt that if he was going to found an orchestra he was going to do it properly and Edinburgh seemed the obvious choice. Not only did it not have a resident professional orchestra but Luis enjoyed the city a lot. There were discussions with the Musicians Union about pay and conditions, something that Luis thought important if the orchestra was to contribute to the local area. Also these conversations helped with the process of finding players.

The orchestra now has a core of players who do most of the concerts. And Luis enjoys the fact that he is meeing different people yet has something in common with them. All the players, he feels, take pleasure in sharing their joy with the audience. The orchestra is reliant on philanthropy and ticket sales for its income, with private support plus support from trusts and foundations. They do not receive anything from the council. Currently the orchestra is run by a small team, there are just three of them (with two of those part-time).

Luis comments that it would be nice to get to the stage where the orchestra was self-sufficient and that donations would elevate them. He would like to be able to afford to do semi-staged operas, and to do outreach work. But he feels that there is an advantage to being lean, and he points out that there is a lot of machinery behind many established orchestras. Orchestras are cost intensive and it is a challenge reducing costs without limiting the artists or artistic quality.

One of the focuses of the orchestra from Luis's point of view is the wish to make music more accessible.

Luis Schmidt & Capella Edina at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Each song a story to be told: James Newby & Malcolm Martineau's Shipping Forecast at SongEasel in Elephant & Castle

SongEasel at St Matthew's Church, Elephant & Castle
Jocelyn Freeman

The Shipping Forecast - Elgar: Sea Pictures, Chabrier, Duparc, Medtner, Rachmaninov, Bantock, Ireland, Tippett, Eric Coates, Ives, Kurt Weill, Charles Trenet; James Newby, Malcolm Martineau; SongEasel at St Matthew's Church, Elephant and Castle
Reviewed 21 May 2026

A sea theme gives us a feast of story-telling in music from James Newby and Malcolm Martineau with Elgar's Sea Pictures alongside Loewe ballads and a wide-ranging selection of songs

The Shipping Forecast continues to provide a remarkable source of musical inspiration for recitalists. In 2024, Nigel Foster's London Song Festival celebrated the centenary of the first Shipping Forecast to be broadcast on British radio [see my review], and now baritone James Newby and pianist Malcolm Martineau are celebrating with their own take on the subject.

They brought their Shipping Forecast programme to Jocelyn Freeman's Song Easel on Thursday 21 May at St Matthew's Church, Elephant and Castle. The programme featured three of Carl Loewe's ballads (this year is his 230th birthday) along with songs from Elgar's Sea Pictures, and songs by Chabrier, Duparc, Medtner, Rachmaninov, Bantock, Ireland, Eric Coates, Tippett, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Ives, Kurt Weill and Charles Trenet.

The programme was divided into four parts, each one beginning with one of Elgar's Sea Pictures - Mysteries of the Deep, Invitation to Voyage, Exotic Isles and Desert Island Discs.

Every detail mattered: Basel Chamber Orchestra & Vilde Frang in Bach, Mendelssohn & Grieg at Wigmore Hall

Kammerorchester Basel (Photo: Matthias Mueller)

Mendelssohn: String Symphonies Nos. 4 & 10, Bach; Violin concerto in A minor, Violin concerto in E major, Grieg: Holberg Suite; Basel Chamber Orchestra, Vilde Frang; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 20 May 2026

In a varied programme the Basel players brought real vitality the music, making Mendelssohn's early symphonies invigorating and Grieg's Holberg Suite anything but hackneyed. But the centrepiece was a pair of Bach concertos with Vilde Frang in elegant, expressive and plangent form

The name Basel Chamber Orchestra has resonance, it is associated with the patron and conductor Paul Sacher, who founded the Basler Kammerorchester in 1926 and commissioned works from Stravinsky, Bartók, Martinů, Frank Martin, Hindemith, Henze, Lutosławski, Birtwistle and more. The orchestra disbanded in 1987 and Sacher died in 1999 though The Paul Sacher Foundation continues.

The present Basel Chamber Orchestra (Kammerorchester Basel) began life in 1984 as Serenata Basel founded by graduates of Swiss music academies. Since 1999 it has operated without a chief conductor and also that year the name changed to the present one. And listening to the orchestra today, one can safely forget any Sacher resonances, the orchestra is simply one of the best chamber orchestras around.

On Wednesday 20 May 2026 they paid a visit to Wigmore Hall. Directed from the violin by Baptiste Lopez their programme centred on Bach's two violin concertos (in A minor and E major) with violinist Vilde Frang, alongside Mendelssohn's ;String Symphonies Nos. 4 & 10 and Grieg's Holberg Suite.

At just 17, pianist Jacky Zhang becomes the youngest ever winner of the Sheepdrove Piano Competition at Newbury Spring Festival

Jacky Zhang at BBC Young Musician in 2024

In 2024 at just 16 years old, pianist Jacky Zhang reached the final stages of BBC Young Musician with a performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 described by judges as an "incredibly powerful, volcanic interpretation". 

Now 17, Zhang has been named winner of the 2026 Sheepdrove Piano Competition at Newbury Spring Festival, becoming the youngest winner in the competition’s 17-year history.

Zhang was awarded the First Prize of £3,000, donated by the Sheepdrove Trust, following the final of the competition held as part of this year’s Festival programme. As part of the prize, Zhang also gave a recital at Newbury Corn Exchange on Monday 18 May as part of the Festival’s Young Artist Lunchtime Series. 

The Second Prize was awarded to Nicole Wu from Canada, a student at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, while Third Prize went to Mayuko Narutani from Japan, a student at the Royal Academy of Music. Fourth Prize was awarded to Tomos Boyles from Wales, who also received the Audience Prize. 

Established in 2009 by the Sheepdrove Trust, the Sheepdrove Piano Competition is open to pianists aged 26 and under from the UK’s leading conservatoires and forms part of Newbury Spring Festival’s longstanding commitment to supporting emerging artists and young performers. 

Born in the UK in 2008, Zhang studied in the Royal College of Music Junior Department from the age of seven and now studies with renowned pianist Dmitri Alexeev. Alongside his piano work, he is also active as a composer, songwriter and producer, with interests spanning conducting, historical performance and music for screen. 

Newbury Spring Festival continues until 2 May, full details from the festival website. 

Richness & imagination: the all-male ensemble De Profundis continues its exploration of Morales with two masses based on L’homme armé

Cristóbal de Morales: Missa L’homme armé a4, Magnificat secundi toni, Missa L’homme armé a5; De Profundis, Robert Hollingworth; CORO
Reviewed 20 May 2026

The Morales Project moves to CORO and demonstrates the richness to be found in the composer's less-known masses when performing at the original pitch. 

In many ways, Cristóbal de Morales had a somewhat remarkable career, becoming the most influential Spanish composer before Victoria and probably the most famous composer in Europe between the death of Josquin in 1521 and the rise of Palestrina and Lassus in the 1550s. Yet we know so little about him and what we do know from surviving documents suggests a life that was restless, with its share of frustration and disappointment. He seems to have had a recurrent illness, which led to gaps in his employment, and whilst admired musically was a difficult character. He left some 22 masses (many from a pair of books published in Rome in 1544), along with magnificats and motets.

Mark Dourish founded the all male ensemble De Profundis in 2011 to perform Renaissance polyphony at the original lower pitch. One of the reasons why this is pertinent to Morales was that he came from the Spanish tradition of using high countertenors on the top line and in fact one of the reasons why Morales was able to travel to Italy was that Spanish singers were popular in the Papal choir with the falsettists reinforcing or supplementing the castratos.

De Profundis, conducted by Eamonn Dougan and Robert Hollingworth recorded two discs of Morales for Hyperion and now the Morales Project is on Coro with the aim to record the complete Masses and Magnificats of Morales. The third disc in the project (the first on Coro) sees Robert Hollingworth conducting De Profundis in Morales two masses based on L’homme armé, the four part and the five part. 

Curated By… Ben Nobuto: an intimate programme exploring the music, composers and sonic ideas that have influenced his artistic development.

Ben Nobuto (Photo: Jennifer Hawthorn )

Kings Place’s new Curated By… series places audiences at the centre of a composer’s creative world. For the opening event on 23 May, Curated By… Ben Nobuto the British-Japanese composer presents an intimate programme exploring the music, composers and sonic ideas that have influenced his artistic development.

The event features Festival Voices with violinist Rakhi Singh in 21st-century hockets, Notre Dame polyphony, Renaissance madrigals, and voices with violin & electronics including music by Pérotin, Carlo Gesualdo, Caroline Shaw, Catherine Lamb, Wally Gunn, Tom Coult, Meara O’Reilly and Paul Clark, alongside two works by Ben Nobuto, Sol which was written for the National Youth Choir and featured on their 2023 disc Young Composers 4 [see my review] and Face Anthem.

Describing the programme, Nobuto writes: "I always felt I came to vocal music through a side door, discovering composers and styles by accident and making surprising connections across time periods, like listening to music on shuffle. This is a selection of that playlist."

Full details from the Kings Place website.

From Beethoven & Britten to Caroline Shaw & Gavin Higgins: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic's 2026/27 season will be chief conductor Domingo Hindoyan's sixth

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Domingo Hindoyan (Photo: Gareth Jones)

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic's 2026/27 will be Domingo Hindoyan's sixth as chief conductor and his concerts with the orchestra feature a wide range of repertoire including a complete Beethoven symphony cycle over two weeks.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is the UK’s oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra. The origins of the Orchestra’s concert series date back to the formation of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society by a group of Liverpool music lovers in 1840.

Hindoyan opens the season with Mahler's Symphony No. 2, with soloists Lucy Crowe and Natalie Lewis. Other highlights of his concerts include the premiere of a work by Dani Howard celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Orchestra’s partnership with Classic FM; Hindemith's Mathis der Mahler Symphony, Roussel’s Symphony No. 3 and Aleppo Songs by Syrian-American composer Kareem Roustom.

Hindoyan's Beethoven cycle features all nine symphonies across five concerts during January 2027, whilst Beethoven's chamber music is spread across the season and Liverpool Philharmonic’s 10:10 present Reinventing Beethoven celebrating composers who have been inspired by him including John Adams, Jay Capperauld, Samantha Fernando, Caroline Shaw, and George Stevenson.

Another anniversary is 50 years since Britten's death and the season includes the Violin Concerto with Simone Lamsma, the Cello Symphony with Guy Johnston, Suite on English Folk Tunes, Sinfonia da Requiem, Four Sea Interludes, A Charm of Lullabies and more.

The Orchestra's composer-in-focus is Caroline Shaw and works include the full orchestra in Observatory and a range of works with Liverpool Philharmonic’s 10:10, the Orchestra's contemporary music ensemble. The Orchestra has premiered and commissioned more than 300 new works over the past twenty years, and its Rushworth Composition Prize, which provides a range of opportunities for early-career composers. The winner of the Rushworth Composition Prize in 2018, Carmel Smickersgill has A Brick Thrown With Love premiered by the Orchestra at the BBC Proms. Gavin Higgins’ new clarinet concerto, written specially for artist in residence Mark Simpson receives its world premiere, marking the conclusion of Simpson’s residency.

Liverpool Philharmonic’s 10:10 showcase for new music from North West-based composers includes a world premiere from the 10th Rushworth Composition Prize winner Andrew Barney, alongside works by Mark Simpson, Grace-Evangeline Mason and Nneka Cummins, and a new work by 11th Rushworth Composition Prize winner Rob Hughes. The youngest ever finalist of the Leeds International Piano Competition, Kai-Min Chang, received the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society Award and gives the world premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s Acid Drop, commissioned especially for him as part of the prize.

Through its Made in Merseyside series, the Orchestra provides a platform for artists at every stage of their careers, from emerging voices to internationally recognised names, while supporting pathways from regional training to national and global stages, including through In Harmony and Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, which together reach over 2,280 young people in the city each week.

This season includes collaborations with Liverpool-born vocalist MT Jones, rising singer- songwriter Lucca Mae, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and Bill Ryder-Jones, who reunites with the orchestra to mark the 15th anniversary of his debut solo album, plus contributions from North West artists such as Nneka Cummins and Timothy Jackson, and performances featuring Cumbrian mezzo-soprano Jess Dandy.

Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Manze opens the season and Conductor Laureate Vasily Petrenko returns. Guest conductors include Karel Deseure, Adam Hickox, Andris Poga, Kristiina Poska, Dinis Sousa and Joshua Weilerstein, alongside conducting debuts from Alena Hron, Kellen Grey and Bar Avni.

Full details from the Orchestra's website.

Unashamedly romantic with an expressive use of dissonance & sophisticated atmosphere: the music of the remarkably youthful Christopher Churcher on Resonus Classics

Moonrise: music by Christopher Churcher; Somerville College Choir, Oxford, Will Dawes; Resonus Classics
Reviewed 12 May 2026

Music by the 22-year-old Christopher Churcher revealing a sophisticated handling of his choral forces allied to a distinctive romantic impulse that gives the music a particular quality with his Pride Motets at the centre of the recital

Moonrise on Resonus Classics features the music of 22-year-old composer Christopher Churcher recorded by the choir of Somerville College conducted by Will Dawes. The music brings together his earliest composition at age 17 to recent works written for the choir during his undergraduate studies at Oxford with his Pride Motets, commissioned for Somerville College’s LGBTQ+ Pride services at the centre of the disc. He is the recipient of the NCEM Young Composers Award (2023) and the winner of the Bach Choir Carol Competition (2022).

Wonder, setting Emily Dickinson, is one of his earliest pieces on the disc and was originally written for the Sir David Willcocks Carol Competition. Gentle at first, what is most notable is Churcher's expressive use of lush harmonies.

Brass to the fore: this year's Cumnock Tryst is a tribute to the late Scottish trumpeter John Wallace & a celebration of the tradition of brass band music in the Ayrshire coalfields

The cooperation band

Sir James MacMillan's Cumnock Tryst returns with its twelfth festival, running from 1 to 4 October 2026, the festival brings together world-class international artists, leading Scottish ensembles, and young musicians from The Tryst’s growing community of local talent. 

A strong brass thread runs through the weekend, reflecting a tribute to the late Scottish trumpeter John Wallace, a longstanding friend of The Tryst who died earlier this year, and celebrating both Wallace’s legacy and the deep tradition of brass band music in the Ayrshire coalfields. The festival closes with a performance by The Wallace Collection (the brass ensemble Wallace founded forty years ago) joining with the cooperation band at Cumnock Old Church for Giovanni Gabrieli’s Canzoni et Sonate in Wallace’s own arrangement, a project he had been passionate about bringing to Cumnock. 

Other highlights include saxophonist Jess Gilham and euphonium player David Childs joining the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in James MacMillan’s Saxophone Concerto and the Scottish premiere of his Where the Lugar Meets the Glaisnock, a new euphonium work and the composer’s love-letter to the town where he grew up.

The Cumnock Tryst Festival Chorus joins the Wallace Collection for a programme of Vaughan Williams, Rutter, Ēriks Ešenvalds’ and premiere of a new commission by American composer AJ Harbison, with the chorus being joined by young singers from East, North and South Ayrshire. 

Other events include recitals by pianist Ethan Loch (the Scottish pianist who won the BBC Young Musician Keyboard Category in 2022) playing his own music alongside Gluck, Chopin and Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor, and there are recitals from euphonium player David Childs and from the Jess Gilham Trio. There are Promenade concerts at Dumfries House showcasing young talent, including Kilmarnock pianist Ethan Chan, the South Ayrshire Chamber Singers and a finalist from the 2026 Scottish Young Musician of the Year competition.  Late-night Festival Club performances at the Dumfries Arms Hotel feature the Hannah Rarity Trio, the Seonaid Aitken Quintet, and Cumnock favourites CAMPS (Cumnock Arts Makes People Smile). 

The Unbroken Thread is the annual free sharing of work created by service users at the Riverside Centre and pupils from Hillside School in collaboration with Drake Music Scotland and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  The Cumnock Hour with writer and broadcaster Stephen Johnson in partnership with the Boswell Book Festival, discussing his new book Music Lessons: Seven Composers and What They Taught Me. 

Speaking about the 2026 festival, James MacMillan said: "This year's festival is, in large part, a tribute to my dear friend John Wallace, who did so much for Scottish music. Through our brass and choral focus, we celebrate the tradition of the Ayrshire coalfields -- the world my grandfather knew as a miner and euphonium player. Honouring this heritage and John's memory by placing young Ayrshire musicians at the heart of the weekend, alongside his own Wallace Collection — who will perform the world premiere of a new commission from American composer AJ Harbison — feels exactly right for our twelfth year."

Full details from the Festival website. 

Meditations on life, death and Taoist wisdom: Phelim McDermott & Philip Glass's Tao of Glass, @sohoplace theatre

Phelim McDermott & Philip Glass: Tao of Glass - @sohoplace theatre

Director Phelim McDermott and composer Philip Glass have collaborated at ENO and the Met on Glass's operas Satygraha [see Tony's review of the 2018 revival at ENO] and Akhnaten, but now they are presenting something on a rather smaller scale. Tao of Glass opens at @sohoplace theatre on 30 July and runs until 12 September, presented by Factory International, Improbable and Nica Burns.

It is a smaller, more personal collaboration featuring ten pieces by Glass presented with McDermott’s expansively philosophical storytelling on the vulnerable, improvisatory processes behind these large-scale operas, with an ensemble of musicians and puppeteers to support these pieces. It’s a hybrid theatrical experience: part-concert and part-memoir, marrying ten meditations on life, death and Taoist wisdom. 

Philip Glass commented: "The show reminds us not to forget the wonder in the world, especially when the world makes us want to armour ourselves."

Tao of Glass was first presented in 2019 at Manchester International Festival. The show depends on silence, closeness and Glass’ delicate music, and so the acoustically sensitive space of @sohoplace will hold the audience more closely than ever before. 

Full details from @sohoplace website. 

A new interdisciplinary research programme for composers, performers, scholars and practitioners

FACT FICTION, a new interdisciplinary research programme has been launched led by composer Alastair White. Aimed at composers, performers, scholars and practitioners seeking to develop original research through artistic practice within an international context, the programme consists of weekly online sessions which will culminate in live events at the annual contemporary music festival in Bled, Slovenia.

The programme has been developed in collaboration with Tempo: The Quarterly Review of New Music and the .abeceda Institute, and organised across three pathways: Introduction to Research, Young Researchers and the Advanced Research Group. Running weekly online throughout the year, these pathways support successive stages of development, from foundational methodologies to advanced interdisciplinary research and dissemination.

The programme culminates at Bled Contemporary Music Week in Slovenia, where participants test their work in a professional festival context. This provides a platform for laboratory experimentation and lecture presentations, ensuring research is shaped through real-world engagement. Selected outputs may be published in the Journal of New Music Research and Development, produced by infra.norma.meta Amsterdam, with further opportunities to engage with the wider discourse offered by Tempo: The Quarterly Review Of New Music. 

Full details from the FACT FICTION website. 

 

Rising to the challenge: Britten's The Rape of Lucretia from Royal Academy Opera directed by Paul Carr & conducted by Lada Valesova

Britten: The Rape of Lucretia - Ellie Donald, Ella Orehek-Coddington, Pasel Basov, Viktoria Melkonian - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Britten: The Rape of Lucretia; Ella Orehek-Coddington, Oliver Heuzenreuder, Yihui Wang, MAdeleine Perring, Pavel Basov, director: Paul Carr, conductor: Lada Valesova, Royal Academy Opera; Susie Sainsbury Theatre, Royal Academy of Music

A stripped down production that focused on the singers with a performance in the title role from Ella Orehek-Coddington that transformed the drama in a production where everyone rose to the challenge.

Britten's The Rape of Lucretia seems to be cropping up rather a lot in theatres this anniversary year, which is something of a surprise given that the first thing any review says about the work is often a comment about Ronald Duncan's libretto. But then 2026 represents not only the 50th anniversary of Britten's death but the 80th anniversary of the opera being premiered at Glyndebourne. And as English Touring Opera showed last Autumn, in the right hands it is a powerful piece indeed [see my review], and more recently it was the turn of HGO [see Mark Berry's review for Seen and Heard].

Now the Royal Academy Opera presented two performances at the Royal Academy of Music's (RAM) Susie Sainsbury Theatre directed by Paul Carr and conducted by Lada Valesova, with costumes by Michelle Bradbury and lighting by Jake Wiltshire. We caught the second performance on Friday 15 May 2026. Ella Orehek-Coddington was Lucretia and Oliver Heuzenroeder was Tarquinius with Yihui Wang as Male Chorus, Madeleine Perring as Female Chorus, Pavel Basov as Collatinus, Harrison Robb as Junius, Viktoria Melkonian as Bianca and Ellie Donald as Lucia.

Britten: The Rape of Lucretia - Oliver Heuzenroeder, Harrison Robb (with Pavel Basov in the background) - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

A mix of everything: The Celtic Tenors' eclectic repertoire with harmony-driven music sung by classically trained voices

The Celtic Tenors
(George Hutton, Daryl Simpson, Matthew Gilsenan)

The Celtic Tenors is an Irish trio comprising singers Matthew Gilsenan, George Hutton, and Daryl Simpson. Known for their signature harmony-rich style, they blend opera, classical, Irish traditional, and pop influences. The group was founded in 1999 and Matthew Gilsenan is the sole surviving founder member. Their live album The Celtic Tenors: Live at The Empire Theatre is out now on all major streaming platforms. I recently chatted Daryl Simpson to find out more.

Daryl describes their repertoire as 'a mix of everything', though he adds that over the years this has evolved and that in the early days they were more strictly classical crossover with an Irish/Celtic slant. He feels that they are more about harmony-driven music sung by classically trained voices, though they lighten things off for the more pop-influenced numbers. They sing music that inspires and moves them; if it doesn't inspire them then the chances are it won't inspire their audience either.

Their audience largely consists of those aged forty and above, but there are also families with three generations. Daryl points out that this is sometimes off the back of the trio having been in the business 25 years so that they attracted the grandparents first! They were founded in 1999 and Daryl celebrates 20 years with the group in June.

Sheer joy & plenty of welly: the marimbas of The Wave Quartet join the Academy of Ancient Music for Bach concertos & more

Rhythm Across Time  - Bach: Concerto in A minor for four harpsichords, BWV1065, Concerto in C major for two harpsichords, BWV1061, Bertali, Geminiani, Handel, Festa, Piazzolla; The Wave Quartet, Academy of Ancient Music; Milton Court Concert Hall, Barbican
Reviewed 14 May 2026

Marimba quartet and period strings join together for a sympathetic exploration of Baroque music with a focus on Bach's multi-harpsichord concertos, creating a magical sound world that remained sympathetic to the original yet transported us elsewhere 

The word marimba is of Bantu origin and instruments like the marimba are present throughout the entirety of sub-Saharan Africa. The instrument became popular in Mexico, Central and South America from the 16th century, and it was here that it developed into the modern chromatic instrument. The first chromatic marimba was produced in Mexico in the 1890s. 

The idea of a marimba playing with a period instrument ensemble seems counter-intuitive but marimba player Bogdan Bácanu formed the Wave Quartet in 2008 specifically to explore marimba adaptations of Bach's concertos for two harpsichords and the Quartet has gone on to collaborate with ensembles such as the Mozarteum orchestra in Salzburg and L'Orfeo Barockorchester. In 2019 as part of Sound Unbound: The Barbican Classical Weekender, The Wave Quartet played with the Academy of Ancient Music. Since then, they have performed together in Vienna and Cologne, but the partnership only returned to London last night.

The Wave Quartet (Bogdan Bácanu, Nico Gerstmayer, Christoph Sietzen, Emiko Uchiyama) joined the strings of the Academy of Ancient Music (directed from the violin by Bojan Čičić) for a pair of concerts at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge (13 May) and Milton Court Concert Hall, Barbican (14 May). We caught the Barbican concert where the ensemble played music by Antonio Bertali, Francesco Geminiani, Handel, and Costanzo Festa plus Bach's Concerto for Four Harpsichords in A minor and Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C major, along with movements from Piazzolla's Concerto 'Aconcagua'. 

New opera, electronic music, celebrating John Barry, cross-genre works: Guildhall School's Making It Festival returns

Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s Making It Festival returns from 8 to 26 June 2026: a three-week celebration of new, original work made by Guildhall School’s vibrant and multi-skilled community. The festival asks what it means to “make it” as an artist in the 21st century. 

Three new works written by composers and librettists on Guildhall’s MA in Opera Making & Writing in association with the Royal Ballet and Opera will be performed by singers and repetiteurs from the Opera Studies department. The works are:

• A Bone to Pick, composed by Eluned Davies with libretto by Bess Still 
• Elara Catching Sky, composed by Yotham Ben Yami with libretto by Ariella Stoian
• The Vanishing Act, composed by Diego Jimenez with libretto by Stuart Lee 

And there will be a post-show panel discussion with the student composers and librettists of Opera Makers and the director, to explore the development of new operatic work and the transition from conservatoire study to professional practice in the industry. 

Other events include In Real Time, a distinctive immersive performance event integrating lighting, live sound and live video as equal, interdependent elements, developed through collaborative, cross-disciplinary practice; three evenings of new music by Guildhall School’s postgraduate Electronic & Produced Music artists, showcasing work across a wide range of specialist disciplines — from experimental sonic art to mainstream film scoring; A Celebration of New Cinematic Song, featuring original songs by Electronic & Produced Music students inspired by the legacy of John Barry. 

There are also self-led performance works for stage and screen by final-year actors – The Making of Us – created and performed entirely on their own terms and the return of GradEx – the annual exhibition of works by final-year artists on Guildhall School’s BA course.

Full details from the Guildhall School's website. 

Mendelssohn’s heroic work Elijah stands upright and proud as a great choral masterpiece equating to that of Handel’s Messiah and soon to be heard in Suffolk

Leslie Olive rehearsing the Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra in St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds (Photo: Bill Hiskett)

Mendelssohn's Old Testament oratorio, Elijah - the culmination of the composer's life's work and an 'epic' on a grand and imposing scale - depicts events in the life of the Jewish biblical prophet and miracle worker, Elijah, who according to the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible lived in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab in the 9th century BC.

A 'favourite' of choirs the length and breadth of the country, there's a grand performance coming up at St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds, on Saturday 22nd August (7.00pm) by the Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra (a collective of professional musicians) and the Grand Chorus under the direction of choral supremo, Leslie Olive.

When first performed on 26 August 1846 in the newly built Birmingham Town Hall as part of the Birmingham Triennial Festival (the commissioning body) Elijah was conducted by the composer but for the work's première of the German-language version (Elias) on 3 February 1848 at the Gewandhaus Leipzig, Mendelssohn was unwell therefore the baton passed to the Danish composer and his close friend, Niels Gade, who succeeded him at the Gewandhaus. The performance took place on what would have been Mendelssohn's 39th birthday.

Those who attended the first performance in Birmingham, however, loved the performance and gave it an enthusiastic reception with one critic describing it as 'one of the greatest works in musical history'. The composer thought it a resounding success, too, while the packed house demanded encores for eight of the numbers - a common occurrence in Mendelssohn's day.

Alas, the well-known critic and Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, thought differently. He famously disliked the work coining the memorable phrase 'despicable oratorio-mongering' to describe what he felt was the prostitution of Mendelssohn's genius. He felt that Elijah contained 'exquisite prettiness' but lacked true religious or emotional depth when compared to the works of Bach or Handel. However, he was scathing about so many musical works not least Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelungen.

Birmingham Triennial Music Festival at the Town Hall, 1845

Richness & austerity: music by Morales & Vivanco alongside Kerensa Briggs & James MacMillan's settings of John Henry Newman in The Sixteen's 2026 Choral Pilgrimage

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.

The UK premiere of Du Yun's Angel's Bone: photo essay

Angel's Bone by Du Yun and Royce Vavrek

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)

Further information from ENO's website.

Nigel Kennedy's Beethoven, epic Birtwistle, Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth: Joanna MacGregor & Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra announce their 2026/27 season

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra & Joanna MacGregor (Photo: Frances Marshall)

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.

Full details from the orchestra's website.

Sphinx in the UK: music by American & British composers plus Cassie Kinoshi premiere at Snape, Oxford & Wigmore Hall

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.