You Are Loved: Music for Change

On 10 October 2025, World Mental Health Day, some of London’s brightest queer artists will perform at St Giles Cripplegate to shine a spotlight on suicide and drug-related death crisis in the LGBTQ+ community in a charity concert You Are Loved - Music for Change.

Mr Gay Great Britain and mental health ambassador Andy Gardiner will present the show. There will be performances by London Gay Men’s Chorus, London Gay Symphony Orchestra, countertenor Andrew Watts, pianist Gavin Roberts (co-founder of Song in the City), baritone Kang Yang, countertenor Eliran Kadussi, mezzo-soprano Isobel Hughes, baritone Owain Gwynfryn (founder of Big Gay Out) and many more, along with live testimonials about mental health from members of the UK’s queer community.

Music for Change creators Big Gay Out and Song in The City will join the founder of You Are Loved on stage. You Are Loved exists to reduce deaths from suicide and drugs in the LGBT+ community. 

For the first time, rates of suicide and self-harm for people who identify as gay or lesbian, bisexual or another sexual orientation has been examined and revealed to be more than twice as high as for their heterosexual peers. Funds raised through Music for Change will enable You Are Loved to carry out their life-saving work across the queer community in the UK.

Full details and tickets from TicketTailor website.

The Great English Anthem: Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea at the Chelsea History Festival

From 24 to 28 September 2025 it is the Chelsea History Festival with a wide range of activities at the National Army Museum, the Chelsea Physic Garden and the Royal Hospital Chelsea. On the opening evening, 24 September 2025, William Vann and the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea will be giving a concert, The Great English Anthem. The evening is a chance to hear some favourite English anthems in two historic venues as the event begins in the Great Hall and moves on to the Wren Chapel.

The programme consists of music by Elgar, Gibbons, Handel, Holst, Parry, Purcell, Stanford and Vaughan Williams, along with Imogen Holst, Charles Wood, Samuel Sebastian Wesley and Janet Wheeler. It will include include Handel's Zadok the Priest and Parry's I was glad accompanied on the Wren Chapel’s organ (organist Mark Zang).

The Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea is a professional choir that sings Choral Matins in the Wren Chapel at the Royal Hospital Chelsea every Sunday at 11am and provides the music at carol services, weddings and other events at the Royal Hospital. The regular choir of 12 singers is enlarged for major concerts, such as this occasion.

The image on the flyer displayed here is part of Sebastiano Ricci's fine painting of the Resurrection in the half dome of the apse of the Chapel.

Further details from the Chelsea Pensioners website.

A focus on women composers and poets: London Song Festival returns

Nadia and Lili Boulenger, photographed in 1913.

Nigel Foster's London Song Festival returns next month for a season of 10 concerts exploring the work of women composers. As ever, the concerts are at Hinde Street Methodist Church and things kick off on 17 October with Nigel Foster being joined by mezzo-soprano Katie Bray and tenor Guy Cutting for songs and song cycles by Nadia and Lili Boulanger.

Then soprano Francesca Chiejina and mezzo-soprano Lea Shaw explore African American women composers and the struggle for Civil Rights with music by Florence Price, Brittney Elizabeth Boykin, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Margaret Bonds, Jacqueline Hairston, Betty Jackson King and Nkeiru Okoye, and by the Native American composer Martha Redbone. Music and words from Ethel Smyth and the Suffragettes are the subject of soprano Ella Taylor and mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts Dean's recital, 

Subsequent recitals examine the contribution made by women immigrants and refugees to the UK, celebrate of the life and loves of the American poet Sara Teasdale, and give us a taste of the vibrancy and joy of Latin America. Then there are songs from films and shows written by women, including Marguerite Monnot, Mary Rodgers, Amanda McBroom, Kristen Anderson, Dorothy Fields, Betty Comden, Carolyn Leigh, Marilyn Bergmann, Diane Warren, Barbra Streisand and Dolly Parton.

The poet Christina Rosetti is the focus for soprano Susan Bullock's recital with Janine Roebuck as speaker.  A performance of all 27 songs Debussy wrote for Marie-Blanche Vasnier, with whom he enjoyed a 7-year-long affair from the age of 18, will be presented by the winners of the 2024 London Song Festival Schubert Song Prize. Kitty Whately then joins Nigel Foster for Cross-Channel Currents, an overview of songs written in England and in France with words or music by women.    

Full details from the London Song Festival website. 

Music connects all of us, and people can create on all levels: RNS Moves to make its London debut

RNS Moves

RNS Moves, the ensemble made up of professional disabled musicians and non-disabled members of Royal Northern Sinfonia, will make its London debut on 21 September at Kings Place, performing a programme that brings together renaissance choral music, contemporary minimalism and modern experimental.

Improvisation and experimentation lie at the heart of the ensemble, and their performance at Kings Place will see them pair works by Caroline Shaw, Philip Glass, James MacMillan, Julius Eastman and Terry Riley with Tallis and Purcell.

Clarence Adoo MBE co-founded the ensemble after a life-altering car accident left him paralysed from the neck down, meaning he could no longer hold his position as trumpeter in Royal Northern Sinfonia.  Following the accident, German composer-come-inventor Rolf Gehlhaar was asked to create a bespoke instrument for Adoo so that he could continue to play music. The result was the Headspace - an innovative MIDI wind instrument controlled by breath and head movements. Alongside the Headspace, accessible instruments within the ensemble also include the LinnStrument  - a touch based expressive MIDI controller - played by Charlotte Bott. 

The ensemble works hard to promote that it doesn’t matter if someone has a disability – music connects all of us, and people can create on all levels. It meets at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead several times a year to collaborate and create. They invite inspiring and pioneering artists to join them, to bring new perspectives,

The 25/26 season will also see RNS Moves' collaboration with Candoco Dance Company and a new partnership at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. 

Further information from the Glasshouse website.

Up close & personal: Sir Willard White in folksongs, cabaret songs, Gerswhin & Sinatra in aid of Music in Action

If you enjoyed Sir Willard White's performance in Monday night's Prom [see my review] or perhaps you are regretting not seeing him, then later this month there is a chance to hear him up close and personal. On Saturday 27 September 2025, Sir Willard White is joining the Celoniatus Ensemble, artistic director Harriet Mackenzie, for a concert in aid of Music in Action at Magdalen College Chapel, Oxford.

The performance will mix popular folksongs, showtunes, Frank Sinatra and cabaret songs alongside a celebrated string orchestra and a sprinkling of surprises! Alongside a couple of English folksongs there will be Aaron Copland arrangements and Spirituals, plus music from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, along with Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and other Frank Sinatra standards!

The concert is in aid of the charity Music in Action which is at the forefront of outreach projects in Jersey. In 2024 over 5000 children and care home residents have taken part in the Music in Action outreach programme.

Full details from the Music in Action website.

Shifting Patterns: Scottish Ensemble opens 2025/26 fusing music by Anna Meredith and Henryk Górecki with animations by Ewan Jones Morris

Scottish Ensemble at Celtic Connections in January 2025 with Donald Grant and Friends (Photo: Tom Lovatt)

The Scottish Ensemble opens its 2025/2026 season with Shifting Patterns, a programme of music by Anna Meredith and Henryk Górecki which promises to be a striking fusion of sound and visuals. Touring to Eden Court in Inverness, Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh and Perth Concert Hall during October, the programme will explore the emotive power of sonic patterns being transformed through kaleidoscopic repetitions using bespoke projections by animator Ewan Jones Morris as a stunning visual backdrop to Anna Meredith’s works.

The programme features Henryk Górecki's Quasi una Fantasia. This work is the second of Górecki's three quartets, all of which were premiered by the Kronos Quartet. Quasi una Fantasia was written in 1991 and the work invokes Beethovenian parallels not just from the title but the composer acknowledged that Beethoven’s piano sonatas and string quartets had provided the impetus for his first two quartets.

The programme will also feature eight works by Anna Meredith including works for string quartet which have been newly arranged for the thirteen musicians of Scottish Ensemble, offering a chance to hear these surprising and enlightening works for expanded forces.

Taking a multidisciplinary approach to filmmaking, Ewan Jones Morris combines live action, collage, stop motion and CG to transform the ordinary and explore imagined inner worlds, you can explore his work on Vimeo (including a sample below)

Full details from the Scottish Ensemble's website.

Refuge: An Evening of Opera Exploring Women’s Experiences and Resilience

On 23 September 2025, soprano Lizzie Ryder is curating and performing in Refuge: An Evening of Opera Exploring Women’s Experiences and Resilience at the Brunel Museum's Thames Tunnel Shaft. 

The evening will feature sopranos Lizzie Ryder, Roberta Philip and Georgie Malcolm, mezzos Hannah Morley and Naomi Lidiard, tenor Matthew Curtis, actor Rachel Fletcher and pianist Panaretos Kyriatzidis in a concert in aid of Refuge, the UK charity supporting women and children experiencing domestic abuse.

The evening will features music from Puccini's Suor Angelica, Britten's Peter Grimes, Donizetti's Anna Bolena, Verdi's Otello, Mascagni's Cavallerie Rusticana, Bizet's Carmen, Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking and Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves.

Set in this extraordinary underground space, the programme brings together scenes and arias that centre women’s voices-care, crisis and defiance, alongside brief spoken interludes. All profits will be donated to Refuge.

Further information and tickets from EventBrite.

East meets West: music for strings and tabla from Dionysius Ensemble as part of Slough Cultural Revival

Slough Cultural Revival is a project led by Slough Arts Forum, a collective of over 50 arts organisations, and supported by Arts Council England, intended to ‘revive’ the town as a centre for creativity and innovation, and act as a powerful catalyst for a vibrant cultural future for the town.

As part of this, the Dionysius Ensemble is presenting a cross cultural music event in Slough. East meets West at St Mary's Church, Slough, SL1 1PJ on 28 September 2025 will feature music for strings and tabla, with music by Mozart and Schubert alongside Bollywood and new works for string quartet and tabla.

The Dionysius Ensemble is the ensemble in residence at St Mary's Church, and they have been exploring the music of former Slough resident William Herschel, music and astronomer, issuing a disc of his trio sonatas as part of the 2022 bicentenary celebrations.

Further details of the ensemble's East meets West concert from TryBooking website.

Time to get blowing: Brassworks, Woolwich Works' celebration of all things brass

Brassworks at Woolwich Works

Brassworks, Woolwich Works' celebrations of all things brass returns to the multi-disciplinary cultural hub on the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich on Saturday 6 September 2025 with a parade through Woolwich, and a full day of free outdoor concerts in the courtyard.

The day kicks off with a parade through Woolwich towards Dial Arch and through the Royal Arsenal, winding its way to Woolwich Works. There, the Courtyard Stage will feature a whole variety of brass in free performances until 9.30pm. There is Crystal Palace Band, founded in 1901 and one of the few traditional Brass Bands remaining in London. In complete contrast is Bollywood Brass, the UK’s pioneering Indian-style wedding band, playing the great tunes and compulsively danceable rhythms of Bollywood.

Brassworks is hoping to reconnect people with forgotten brass instruments. They want to connect a community of players, who are looking to gain some brass skills, as well as have a hoot. So for Blow and Blast, during the afternoon there is a rehearsal workshop, and then the group will then have the opportunity to perform on the Brassworks stage led by Byron Wallen with members of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Then Brassic Parp, whose members describe themselves as "Blurting out DJ style pop mashups with horns and a drum kit… all just so we can dress up as characters from Jurassic Park", and finally brass of a different style again with London Afrobeat Collective.

It is a a dog friendly venue and courtyard music is free of charge, with family games, a bar selling alcohol and soft drinks, an ice cream bike, a giant deckchair and a stretch tent to shade you from the sun.

Full details from Woolwich Works' website.

Rooted in Liverpool’s music ecosystem: Mark Simpson returns home as Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's 25/26 Artist in Residence

Mark Simpson (Photo: Matthew Johnson)

Composer and clarinettist Mark Simpson has been announced as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s (RLPO) new Artist in Residence for the 25/26 season. Simpson’s residency is launched with the UK premiere of his viola concerto, Hold Your Heart in Your Teeth, with the RLPO conducted by principal guest conductor Andrew Manze and featuring viola player Timothy Ridout. The 30-minute work is a musical response to a Romanian proverb encouraging you to ‘face your fears head on and move forward with courage’. (Soloist Timothy Ridout gave the world premiere last December at the Philharmonie). The concert will also feature a rarely heard version of Pictures at an Exhibition by Sir Henry Wood, featuring every one of the RLPO's famous church bells collection.

Further ahead, in January 2026 Simpson leads RLPO musicians as clarinettist in a programme pairing his own Geysir with Mozart’s Gran Partita. Then in March 2026, the RLPO, vocal ensemble EXAUDI and baritone Mark Stone perform Simpson’s oratorio The Immortal, conducted by Daniela Candillara. In this large-scale score for baritone, small chorus and orchestra, Melanie Challenger’s text explores paranormal events in the late Victorian era when mediums in different countries began writing down the same messages from a deceased psychical researcher who was harbouring a dark secret.

In April 2026, Simpson appears as soloist in John Adams’s clarinet concerto Gnarly Buttons with the RLPO’s contemporary music group Ensemble 10:10, conducted by George Jackson in a concert that also includes the UK premiere of Josephine Stephenson’s In Time Like Air. Finally, Simpson's season with RLPO concludes with a recital with pianist Ian Buckle in which they play Simpson's Lov(escape) and Echoes and Embers. Simpson describes how, “at this relaxed evening with me in the Music Room, I’ll be talking about growing up in Liverpool and how vital it was for my musical development and performing the music by my former composition teachers that brought me along the way”.

Simpson’s story is rooted in Liverpool’s music ecosystem and reflects both the city’s rich classical music infrastructure and the importance of access for young people. Born in Liverpool, Simpson began his musical journey in the Merseyside (now Liverpool Philharmonic) Youth Orchestra, which led him to the National Youth Orchestra. In 2006, at just 17, he became the first-ever winner of both BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year. 

His own formative experiences, from council-funded music tuition to Saturday morning ensembles, mirror the ambitions of the Orchestra’s In Harmony programme, which continues to transform the lives of children across Liverpool through music. This season also marks the 75th anniversary of the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, the very ensemble where Mark Simpson began his journey, and highlights Liverpool Philharmonic’s leading role as a champion of new music. The RLPO is one of the UK’s most active commissioners and performers of contemporary work, having premiered more than 300 new pieces in the last 20 years, and continues that commitment in the 2025/26 season.

Full details of the RLPO's new season from their website, and further details of Simpson's residency from his publisher's website.

25 years of the special natural setting of Exmoor & Dartmoor: the Two Moors Festival celebrates

South Molton Church

This October the Two Moors Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary with events encompassing Exmoor (1-5 October 2025) and Dartmoor (8-12 October 2025). Since 2001, the Two Moors Festival has evolved into one of the most distinctive classical music festivals in the UK. It usually welcomes over 4,000 people to its rural venues. The Festival also nurtures young artists through its Young Musicians’ Competition and assists performers through its residency programmes. This year’s line-up represents the best of chamber music and song, spanning six centuries of musical tradition, as well as talks, discussion and workshops. 

Last year, I chatted to artist director, violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen about the festival, see our interview. This year she opens things with solo and duo works by Bach performed with cellist Guy Johnston, and then Waley-Cohen and friends perform Schubert's Trout Quintet.  Waley-Cohen also joins Colin Currie and the United Strings of Europe for a concert including music by Tchaikovsky, Jessie Montgomery, Caroline Shaw and a new piece by Erkii-Sven Tuur for violin, percussion and string orchestra. Colin Currie and his quartet will also be giving a relaxed concert including music by Steve Reich and Anna Meredith

Tamsin Waley-Cohen performing at the Two Moors Festival in 2022

Vocal ensemble Apollo5 give an eclectic recital as well as presenting an all-ages singing workshop. Other events include a recital of English song by soprano Elizabeth Watts and pianist Julius Drake, the duo Intesa (Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgietti) in music for viol and voice, singers from the National Opera Studio in recital, tenor Nick Pritchard joins pianists James Baillieu and Cordelia Williams for a Schubertiade,  pianist Tianxu An makes a rare UK appearance with a recital of Liszt, Chopin and Rachmaninoff and the festival draws to a close with the Chiaroscuro Quartet in late Beethoven.

Full details from the festival website.

Offenbach's Rhine fairies get to tread the boards at Battersea Arts Centre as Gothic Opera gives the UK stage premiere of Die Rheinnixen

Offenbach wrote his four-act romantic opera, Les fées du Rhin in 1864, for the Hofoper in Vienna where it was performed in a German translation as Die Rheinnixen. The tenor Alois Ander was ill and unable to learn his part (though it should be pointed out that Ander was the tenor selected for the intended Vienna premiere of Tristan und Isolde who proved incapable of mastering the role of Tristan during rehearsals between 1862 and 1864). The end result was that Die Rheinnixen premiered in an incoherently truncated version and the result was misunderstood, also the critic Eduard Hanslick was not inclined to see Offenbach as a composer of romantic grand opera, but rather as a satirist. There were further performances in Cologne in 1865 but then Offenbach seemed to put thought of romantic opera aside.

By the 1860s, Offenbach was writing less for the Bouffes-Parisiens, and many of his new works premiered at larger theatres. He was writing works such as La Périchole (1868) which had less exuberant satire and more human romantic interest, and Les brigands (1869) that leaned towards more romantic comic opera. After the Franco-Prussian war, Offenbach relied quite heavily on revivals of his earlier hits, and none of his works from the 1870s had such success. His opera comique Fantasio, which premiered at the Opéra Comique veered far closer to romantic opera and Offenbach was heartbroken when it was taken off. All this would lead towards Les contes d'Hoffmann, whose Barcarolle is in fact a re-use of a chorus from Die Rheinnixen.

It was only in the 21st century that Offenbach editor Jean-Christophe Keck was able to create a coherent edition of the work and it premiered in Montpelier in 2002. The first fully staged performance was given in Ljubljana by the Slovenian National Opera in 2005 and there have been further performances of the work. New Sussex Opera under Neil Jenkins gave the British premiere of the piece in concert in 2009, but it has never been staged in the UK until now.

Gothic Opera continue to go where few companies fear to tread and this year the company returns to Battersea Arts Centre for a staging of Die Rheinnixen (The Nixies of the Rhine) in a production by Max Hoehn. Hoehn explains that "This production updates the opera’s setting from the Rheinland of the sixteenth-century to the postwar chaos of the short-lived Weimar Republic, with visuals inspired by the dream factory of German expressionist cinema and the political poster art of the period."

Leon Haxby has created a new chamber orchestration of the opera for seven instruments, conducted by Hannah von Wiehler and the team also includes set and costume designer Isabella Van Braeckel, animator Amber Cooper-Davies, and lighting designer Luca Panetta, whose most recent project with Gothic Opera won Outstanding Achievement at the 2025 Profile Awards. The team will also be working with a group of costume design undergraduates from Guildhall School of Music and Drama. 

Full details from Gothic Opera's website

Colombian soprano Julieth Lozano gets into the spirit of the carnival for circus opera – Le Carnaval de Venise by Campra

Julieth Lozano in rehearsal getting ready for her aerial moves….

Vache Baroque is celebrating its fifth anniversary by returning to its home, The Vache, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, to perform André Campra's little-known opera, Le Carnaval de Venise. 

Written in 1699, the opera was premiered by the Académie royale de musique in Paris and the work was dedicated to Louis, Grand Dauphin, eldest son of King Louis XIV, who enjoyed it and had it staged again in February 1711. 

Vache Baroque is performing it in a production directed by James Hurley and conducted by Jonathan Darbourne.

Here, Colombian soprano Julieth Lozano (winner of the Cardiff Singer of the World Kiri Te Kanawa Audience Prize) writes about preparing for the production which opens on 30 August 2025.

Colombia has many wonderful carnivals, two recognised by UNESCO, Barranquilla's carnival and Pasto's carnival of black and white people. A truly exuberant, colourful showcase with wonderful artisan workmanship throughout the parades, it is this charisma and energy that is the insignia of us Colombians. The spirit is beautifully portrayed in the movie Encanto with the dances, landscapes, food, even types of hair! My country is a beautiful mix of flavours and cultures. 

When Vache Baroque approached me about this little known opera by Campra - Le Carnaval de Venise, I was thrilled especially when they revealed they would set it as a circus opera.  The production would be replete with a big top tent, aerial acrobatics, foot archery, kabuki silk wizardry and more, all masterminded by circus artist Rebecca Solomon in conjunction with director James Hurley.   

Award-winning Michael Morpurgo-based animated film, Kensuke’s Kingdom with score by Stuart Hancock now on BBC iPlayer

The animated feature film Kensuke’s Kingdom had its British network TV premiere earlier this month on Sunday, 3 August on BBC One, which means that it is now available on BBC iPlayer until next year!

Adapted from the Michael Morpurgo novel of the same name the film was part of the BBC’s programming to mark the 80th anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the latter featuring in the backstory of the old Japanese soldier Kensuke (voiced by Ken Watanabe).  

It is a stunning hand-drawn animated adventure from Lupus Films, directed by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry, also starring the voice talents of Sally Hawkins, Cillian Murphy, Raffey Cassidy and Aaron Macgregor.

Most notably, the film features a terrific symphonic score by Stuart Hancock, and the score picked up 15 awards , including at last year’s British Animation Awards and International Music+Sound Awards.  And the IMFCA (International Film Music Critics Association) voted it one of the Top 5 Scores of the Year across all new film and television productions in 2024. 

Looking ahead, Hancock is composing the music scores for two contrasting new feature films: the sci-fi adventure Stargazers for director Jonathan Brooks, and the action film Bad Day at the Office, starring John Hannah and Radha Mitchell, for director Chee Keong Cheung.  The short films Largo and A Friend of Dorothy, featuring his scores, are now playing festivals so keep your eye out for them.

Kensuke's Kingdom is available on BBC iPlayer.

Pianist Cyrill Ibrahim joins World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens as artist in residence

Cyrill Ibrahim

From September 2025, pianist Cyrill Ibrahim will be the new artist in residence at World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens. A firm believer in bringing classical music into the mainstream, Ibrahim will support World Heart Beat’s mission to make music accessible to all, enriching lives. He will be taking part in series of immersive performances in both the auditorium and communal café at World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens. He will also be taking part in masterclasses, mentoring and other engagement opportunities over the course of the year. Ibrahim will be joining existing artist in residence and patron, Julian Joseph, virtuoso pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, broadcaster. 

On 26 September 2025, Ibrahim will be joining soprano Simona Mihai for Harmonie du Soir a recital in World Heart Beat’s Season of the Song concert series. The concert is inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s poem, Harmonie du Soir, published in his 1857 collection Les Fleurs du mal. The recital interweaves solo piano works by Liszt, Debussy, Philip Glass and two new commissions alongside Simona Mihai performing Liszt’s Tre sonetti di Petrarca.

World Heart Beat's Season of the Song runs from September until the end of December, and will be an inspiring and immersive concert season celebrating the human voice in all its expressive beauty—across opera, jazz, folk, world, and contemporary music.

Wandsworth-based World Heart Beat Music Academy was founded in 2009 to meet the need for affordable music education, from grassroots to professional level, for South Londoners, no matter what their age, background or skills, and known for its inclusive global music programmes, youth-led approach, and contribution to a more diverse and representative  music sector. In 2023, World Heart Beat opened World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens, a state-of-the-art digital music education and concert venue in Nine Elms, featuring a 200-capacity auditorium and industry-standard recording studio. 

Full details from World Heart Beat's website.

Celebrating Barbara Hepworth: a new violin concerto by Nick Martin with Tamsin Waley-Cohen & Manchester Camerata

Barbara Hepworth: Sphere with Inner Form, 1963, at the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands

50 years after her death, a new violin concerto will be celebrating the life and legacy of sculptor Barbara Hepworth. Commissioned by Manchester Camerata, Nick Martin's Violin Concerto will be premiered at Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester with violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen as soloist on 4 September, with  further performances at The Hepworth, Wakefield on 5 September and at Kings Place, London on 18 September. The programme also features music by Mozart, Britten and the South African-British composer, Priaulx Rainier which celebrate themes of youth or have a connection to Hepworth herself.

Nick Martin is a composer based in Copenhagen. The concerto was inspired by Hepworth’s sculptures and addresses themes of tenderness, birth, heartache, family and friendship. Composed whilst staying in St Ives, Martin says, "A particular point of inspiration has been Barbara Hepworth’s Landscape Sculpture—a carved torso-sized, cradle-like form in elm with nine strings of fishing line. I found the number nine resonant, suggestive of the nine months of pregnancy".

Martin has a lifelong love of Hepworth’s work, having visited The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St Ives as a child. The orchestra has a strong relationship with Nick Martin’s music. In 2023, it performed a version for strings of his Kolysanka written for Camerata and violinist Daniel Pioro. And last year, it performed an expanded version of Falling with another of its artistic partners, Kantos Chamber Choir.

Full details from the Manchester Camerata's website.

Glasgow Cathedral Festival: celebrating the city's 850th anniversary with a poetic imagining of the story of St. Enoch, mother of the city's founder

Evening concert at Glasgow Cathedral Festival 

Glasgow Cathedral Festival returns from 18–21 September 2025, for its ninth edition bringing life to Glasgow’s medieval cathedral with site-specific live music, film, theatre, art, talks and tours, and this year also celebrating the city's 850th anniversary.

This year’s festival draws together cultural and scientific influences across a range of art forms: from established classical music favourites to cutting-edge contemporary sounds, and intimate theatre to immersive, cult cinema.

Maiden Mother Mage brings a poetic reimagining of the legend of St Enoch to the imposing surroundings of the quire. St. Enoch is in fact a corruption of St. Teneu, a legendary Christian saint who was venerated in medieval Glasgow. Traditionally she was a sixth-century Brittonic princess the mother of Saint Mungo, apostle to the Britons of Strathclyde and founder of the city of Glas Ghu (Glasgow). She and her son are regarded as the city's co-patrons, and Glasgow's St Enoch Square allegedly marks the site of a medieval chapel dedicated to her, built on or near her grave. 

Created and directed by Rebecca Sharp, Maiden Mother Mage is the tale the exiled Brittonic princess which weaves dramatic verse performed by three Scottish actors with a live score by composer Alex South. The performance is supported with new iconography by artist Frances Law—presented as part of a multi-sensory exhibition crafted by Scottish community groups that will be displayed throughout the festival.

The festival's silent film series continues with Fritz Lang’s genre-defining Metropolis (1927) paired with the UK premiere of a live score for percussion by sisters Linda and Irene Buckley—presented in association with Cork International Film Festival. There will be opportunities to catch the film at both early evening and late-night screenings.  

Another film link sees organist Roger Sayer performing his arrangement of Hans Zimmer's score for the film Interstellar 10 on the cathedral's 140-year-old pipe organ. And the festival will feature the first complete performance of Roxanna Panufnik’s Cum Jubilo Organ Mass, performed as part of a vibrant and eclectic programme by organist Katelyn Emerson.

The Twilight in the Crypt programme offers moments of quiet listening and personal contemplation, as violinist Emma Lloyd presents a programme of new music exploring the expressive depths of her instrument, and artistic duo Ollie Hawker and Zoe Markle create atmospheric soundscapes with double bass and electronics.

There are free, daytime events. Joining forces once again with partners across the precinct, a free Thursday lunchtime performance by the acclaimed Resol Quartet is given in collaboration with the Friends of Glasgow Royal Infirmary Museum—featuring new works inspired by the hospital’s cultural and historic context. Free talks and tours also return in 2025, continuing the Glasgow 850 celebrations in collaboration with Glasgow Life, Historic Environment Scotland and St Mungo Museum.

Full details from the festival website.

Hearing Colour: classical music at the Royal Pavilion with a piano made for King George IV

A detail of A C Pugin’s drawing of the Entrance Hall, Brighton Pavilion c1821

English piano maker Thomas Tomkison (c1764-1853) made a succession of instruments for the Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent and then King George IV) from 1807. In 1821 he made a piano for the Brighton Pavilion. When the Pavilion was sold to Brighton in 1850, Queen Victoria stripped it of its contents which were taken to other royal palaces. Tomkison's piano seems to have been taken to Windsor, but was evidently sold. In 2017, Royal Pavilion & Museums bought the instrument back so that it could be displayed again in the Brighton Pavilion.

It is a handsome instrument, but not just something to look at. It has been restored and is played. On 26 September and 3 October there is a chance to hear the instrument in concert. In Hearing Colour – An Evening of Classical Music at the Royal Pavilion, the instrument will be played by Maggie Cole and she will be joined by cellist Sebastian Comberti performing on a fine 19th-century instrument. Together they will transport you to the elegance of the Regency era with works by Beethoven, Hummel, Schubert, Rossini, Diabelli and Eley. The evening will begin with Dr Alexandra Loske, who will explore the Pavilion’s remarkable connections between colour and music, revealing the creative spirit and tastes of the early nineteenth century.

Tomkison's 1821 piano in Royal Pavilion Music Room (Photo: Royal Pavilion & Museums)

Whilst the piano is normally displayed in the Entrance Hall, for the concert there is a chance to hear it in the gorgeous splendour of the Music Room. 

Full details from the Brighton Pavilion's website.

Lammermuir Festival 2025: Laura van der Heijden in residence, complete Ravel piano music, Walton/Ravel opera double bill

This year's Lammermuir Festival runs from 4 to 15 September 2025, your chance to hear some of the world’s finest musicians in the historic venues and stunning landscape of East Lothian The festival's artist in residence this year is cellist Laura van der Heijden, with six appearances as both soloist and ensemble musician across the 12 days. Among her appearances are a recital with Jâms Coleman, a chamber programme with the Maxwell Quartet ranging from Schubert’s C major quintet to Gaelic psalms of the western isles of Scotland; a programme of dances and duos with friends which includes the Hungarian cimbalom in a journey through folk, jazz, baroque and contemporary music; and as soloist alongside Maria Włoszczowska in Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Royal Northern Sinfonia.

I Fagiolini will also be in residence with performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610. A regular visitor to the festival is Scottish Opera and this year they bring an intriguing double bill of two contrasting comedies, Ravel's L'heure espagnole and Walton's The Bear, the one featuring a married woman keen to explore pastures new and the other featuring a widow who is anything but keen.

Continuing the themes of Ravel and Monteverdi, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano will be performing music from Monteverdi 7th Book of Madrigals alongside Barbara Strozzi and others, whilst French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet performs Ravel's complete piano works and tenor Joshua Ellicott explores Ravel’s influence on song. In addition to Ravel's 150th, this year is the centenary of both Berio and Boulez, and Scotland’s Hebrides Ensemble will be celebrating both.

Other complete cycles at the festival include the Van Baerle Trio, who return after last year’s successful debut, to play all of Brahms’s piano trios, and the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam bring all of Tchaikovsky’s quartets. The Kaleidoscope chamber ensemble perform two concerts ranging from Brahms and Bartok, to Duruflé and Poulenc.

Scottish composer Stuart MacRae’s atmospheric, folk-influenced song cycle Earth Thy Cold is Keen will be performed by mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean. And there is a chance to experience three events at Robert Adam's Gosford house, with The Lammermuir Basset Horn Ensemble, a lecture recital on the house's incredibly rare instrument the Claviorganum which combines the harpsichord and organ in one; and finishing with a recorder recital from Tabea Debus in the Saloon.

This year’s festival includes two children’s concerts. Flock from Red Note Ensemble in Musselburgh opens with a sonically and visually captivating musical performance, gently encouraging children to become more involved until, through their collective effort, a chirping flock comes into being. Saint-Saens' is Carnival of the Animals features Roger McGough and NYCOS National Girls Choir in Dunbar. 

After a successful pilot in 2024, Lammermuir Festival builds on Front Row to offer even more 12 – 18 year olds opportunities to attend rehearsals, meet artists and enjoy the best free front row seats. Free tickets are also available for school students attending certain concerts with an adult. 

There is a lot more besides. A trip to the festival offers the possibility of an action packed few days with nearl 40 events on offer. Full details from the festival's website.

Puccini's final version of La Rondine, a recital from Simon Boccanegra and Donizetti Songs: Opera Rara's 2025/26 season

Ermonela Jaho & Carlo Rizzi recording Donizetti for Opera Rara (Photo: Russell Duncan)

By and large, Puccini's operas do not have complex musicological issues surrounding them. He made substantial revisions to Madama Butterfly, but the final version has largely been adopted as the most satisfactory. However, the composer never quite seemed to settle on La Rondine, his attempt at creating a lighter opera. The opera premiered in 1917 with a second version in 1920, before Puccini had another go in 1921. This third version involved a new scene in Act Three. This was the version Puccini was most satisfied with, unfortunately parts and score were damaged in the war.

In 1994, the final act from this version was performed in Turin with the orchestration restored by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero, alongside the original versions of the first two acts but the 1921 has never been performed complete since the 1920s. Now Opera Rara plans to perform the 1921 version of La Rondine as part of its 2025/26 season.

Carlo Rizzi will conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Ermonela Jaho, Iván Ayón-Rivas, Nicola Alaimo, Ellie Neate and Juan Francisco Gatell with a concert performance on 5 December 2025 at the Barbican Centre, and the opera will be recorded in the studio a week before, for release in autumn 2026.

Also as part of Opera Rara's 2025/26 season, they will be releasing the fifth and sixth volumes in its Donizetti Song Project, featuring 18 songs in Italian and 19 songs in French performed by Ermonela Jaho and Carlo Rizzi. Jaho and Rizzi performed a selection of the Italian songs at the Wigmore Hall in May 2024 as part of Opera Rara’s Donizetti & Friends London concert series, which launched in September 2023. 

On 10 October, Opera Rara launches its 55th season Salon Series at Temple Music Foundation with Germán Enrique Alcántara who sang the title role in its most recent revival of the 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra.

Full details from Opera Rara's website.