Oxford International Song Festival 2025

Sholto Kynoch's amazingly rich festival celebrating songs, lieder, stories and composers. Ideal for the novice or the expert, with loads to entertain all ages with beautiful music.
Various venues, Fri 10 - Sat 25 October 2025

Events

Liederkreis: Stéphane Degout & Cédric Tiberghien

Pre-eminent French baritone Stéphane Degout returns to the Festival with Cédric Tiberghien, one of today’s most sought-after pianists. At the heart of their programme is Schumann’s magnificent Liederkreis, op.39: a collection of songs set to the poetry of Joseph von Eichendorff, which encapsulate the Romantic obsessions with nature, longing and mortality. They also feature songs by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, marking Ravel’s 150th anniversary with his witty but touching cycle Don Quichotte à Dulcinée. The programme is completed with works by the enigmatic but brilliant composer Rita Strohl, who wrote some fifty songs in the space of just three years at the very end of the 19th-century, and Guy Ropartz, an important French song composer of the early 20th-century.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Try Me, Good King Zoë Jackson & Emelia Noack-Wilkinson

At the heart of this programme is the American composer Libby Larsen’s powerful Try Me, Good King, a cycle of five songs drawn from the final letters and gallows speeches of the first five wives of King Henry VIII. Women who have been either exalted or seen to have fallen from grace appear throughout this recital, which also features music by composers including Wolf, Brahms and Tchaikovsky.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Intimate Letters: Castalian String Quartet

The Castalian String Quartet, Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence at the University of Oxford, are one of today’s most exciting quartets, hailed for performances that are ‘full of poetry, joy and sorrow, realised to such perfection’ (The Observer). Here they perform Janá?ek’s second string quartet, ‘Intimate Letters’, a musical realisation of the hundreds of passionate letters the composer exchanged with his friend and muse Kamila Stösslová. Also included are short works by Kurtág, Dvo?ák and Schumann.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Die Schöne Magelone: Dietrich Henschel, Angharad Rowlands, Victoria Newlyn & Sholto Kynoch

Johannes Brahms is perhaps not a composer often associated with realms of fairytales and fantasy, but throughout the 1860s he set fifteen of the poems from Ludwig Tieck’s 1797 novel The Love Story of the Beautiful Magelone and Count Peter of Provence. The story dates back to at least the 13th century and follows the adventures and trials of a young knight, Peter, and his beloved Magelone. Today, we hear this complete cycle of songs, with their richly varied musical portrayals, interspersed with an abridged version of the novel, read by Victoria Newlyn. Esteemed German baritone Dietrich Henschel is a master storyteller, and the ideal singer to bring this musical adventure to life.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Composition Workshop: Professor Martyn Harry

This annual collaboration with Oxford University's Faculty of Music offers a fascinating insight into the craft of composition, as five talented student composers hear their work performed by former Oxford Song Young Artists and receive feedback from Professor Martyn Harry.
Clore Music Studio, New College
Mansfield Road Oxford

Cubaroque: De Pasión Mortal: Nicholas Mulroy, Elizabeth Kenny & Toby Carr

This programme juxtaposes two golden ages of songs. Music from 17th-century Europe by Purcell, Monteverdi, Hidalgo and others sits alongside songs from modern Latin America, with works by songwriters from Cuba (Silvio Rodríguez), Chile (Víctor Jara) and Argentina (Mercedes Sosa). Nicholas Mulroy, Elizabeth Kenny and Toby Carr offer performances of songs that are separated by time and space, but united by the beauty and unflinching truth of their music and poetry. This pairing of old and new conveys a sense that while the world turns and changes, people do not. De Pasión Mortal invites listeners into this wonderful, evocative music to reflect on eternal human themes: love, loss, fear and ecstasy.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Catalan Song: Portrait of a language Belén García Burgos & Esther Vilar-Portillo

Two outstanding young artists come to us from our partner Festival in Barcelona, LIFE Victoria, to showcase some wonderful Catalan repertoire. They include songs by Eduardo Toldrà, who was the leading Catalan composer of the 20th-century and wrote some of the most beautiful late-Romantic songs.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Untold Lives: Neil Balfour & Sid Ramchander

In 2015, the British Library’s Untold Lives collection featured extracts from letters held in the India Office Records, written a century earlier by Indian soldiers serving in France or recovering from their wounds in the Indian hospitals based in England. Around the same time, Scottish-Indian baritone Neil Balfour discovered a picture of his Scottish grandfather during World War One, in military uniform and standing alongside an Indian soldier. Exploring further, reading letters and discovering tales of both great bravery and great injustice, Neil was inspired to commission the composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad to write a new song cycle, setting some of these texts. Alongside the premiere of this work, Neil and Sid Ramchander include songs by Reena Esmail and Shruthi Rajasekar.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

In Conversation with Cheryl Frances-Hoad: Cheryl Frances-Hoad & Kate Kennedy

Ahead of the world premiere of Untold Lives, composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad discusses this new song cycle, its genesis, and her work more widely.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Such a big crush on you: Marie-Laure Garnier & Célia Oneto Bensaid

The outstanding and well-established duo of Marie-Laure Garnier and Célia Oneto Bensaid never fail to enchant and uplift with their thrilling music-making. They bring a typically multi-faceted programme, with its roots in France, visits to the UK and Austria, and a nod to the world of chanson and cabaret. They begin with four songs by Henri Duparc who stopped composing abruptly at the age of 37, and destroyed almost all of his works before he died at the age of 85. Fortunately he left 17 songs, each of which is a masterpiece, and these alone place him in the pantheon of great song composers. This programme also includes songs inspired by popular music by Britten, Zemlinsky and Poulenc. Three songs by the contemporary French composer Fabien Waksman were created with cosmologist Jean-Philippe Uzan in tribute to Stephen Hawking’s discoveries around black holes. The programme concludes with some of Edith Piaf’s most famous songs. Ticket price: This year we are trialling a 'Pay What You Can' ticket offer as we want the Festival to be truly open to all.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Schubert in 1825: Graham Johnson, Martha Guth, Zoë Jackson, Nancy Holt, Magnus Walker, Sebastian Hill, Benoît Déchelotte & George Robarts

Graham Johnson continues his survey of the final years of Schubert’s life, 200 years on. For today’s event he is joined by the renowned soprano Martha Guth, and a team of Oxford Song Young Artists. Graham writes of 1825: ?1825 started out as another bad year for Schubert, with a short period in hospital, another setback in the illness that had continued to plague him in 1824, and which he had contracted in 1823. It is fortunate that 1825 did not continue or prolong an unhappy sequence of setbacks which had gone on long enough – in fact, it ranks as one of the happiest and most productive twelve months in the composer’s life. Apart from three important Piano Sonatas, 1825 was primarily a year of song. There were no fewer than nine settings of Walter Scott, including seven from the epic poem The Lady of the Lake. He composed pairs of songs to texts by Lappe (including ‘Der Einsame’), Craigher, Pyrker and Wilhelm Schütz (the Lacrimas settings). Schubert’s discovery of the poetry of Ernst Schulze also produced five masterful songs with more to come in 1826. A year of great creativity for Schubert then, but its most uplifting feature was the epic journey he made through Upper Austria with the baritone Johann Michael Vogl. Between May and September, the composer enjoyed the only extended holiday in his lifetime, a working holiday that was also a Lieder recital tour (the first ever in history) which turned into a royal progress celebrating Schubert’s genius. Never before had this duo been lavished with such praise in so many places, and never before, and never again, was Schubert to experience such awe in the presence of the majestic landscapes of his native land.?
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

In Heaven: Olivia Vermeulen & Jan Philip Schulze

Olivia Vermeulen and Jan Philip Schulze bring us another of their extraordinarily ingenious programmes. Where next after their earthbound ‘Dirty Minds’ and the black humour of ‘Hello Darkness’? The only way is up, and ‘In Heaven’ transports us to the celestial realm with music from Schubert to Bowie. Few artists are able to move with such ease between genres, and the result is a programme that is both profound and effervescent.
The Levine Building, Trinity College
Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BH

An Erlkings Celebration: The Erlkings

The Erlkings are an inspired Schubert-based folk-rock band, in residence at the Festival this weekend. Tonight they give a concert for students and under-35s, introducing a range of their most popular songs and giving an insight into their amazing creative process. Expect to raise the roof of the Holywell Music Room.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

A Schubertiade: Schubert & Co., Harriet Burns, Katy Thomson, Katie Bray, Bethan Langford, Alessandro Fisher, Joshua Owen Mills, Gareth Brynmor John & Frederick Long

Schubert & Co. bring their trademark, celebratory Schubertiade back to this year’s Festival. As well as some of Schubert’s best-loved solo songs, they include ensembles that were written for sociable occasions that Schubert himself would have attended. These offer insights into the rich depth of Schubert, revealing both a lighter side that is less often heard, and some of the composer’s most deeply personal works. Schubert & Co. are a flexible ensemble of eight renowned singers who gather around the piano to recreate an atmosphere of informal music-making that was so close to the heart of Schubert and many other composers. Their Festival concerts are always sell-out occasions, and tonight they give two performances of the same programme. The bar in the Levine Building will be open before and after, and you may well find yourself joined there by the musicians.
The Levine Building, Trinity College
Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BH

Winterreise: The Erlkings

The Erlkings celebrate their tenth anniversary with a new version of Winterreise. This extraordinary group bring Schubert to life in a completely contemporary way, with exuberance and imagination, but originating from the deepest love of and respect for the composer. Their performance of Die schöne Müllerin in 2023 quickly converted any cynics and had the audience on its feet. It was inventive and brilliant, and deeply moving. We’re excited to hear what they do with Winterreise and have no doubt it will be an extraordinary and memorable evening.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Tales of the unexpected: Henk Neven & Hans Eijsackers

Dutch baritone Henk Neven is a former BBC New Generation Artist, and is now co-Artistic Director, alongside the exceptional pianist Hans Eijsackers, of the International Lied Festival Zeist, our partner festival in the Netherlands. They begin our extended Schubert weekend with a programme of ballads, by not only Schubert but also Schumann, Loewe and Liszt. The idea of extended storytelling in song is not just about high drama and thrills – though there are plenty of those! – but also a psychological richness that can unfold through a narrative. This promises to be an unmissable recital.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

A Week Two Welcome Sholto Kynoch

Our Artistic Director, Sholto Kynoch, gives a warm welcome to the second week of the Festival, pointing out the themes and highlights to look forward to. Tea/coffee will be available to purchase from the café in the Levine Building.
The Levine Building, Trinity College
Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BH

Folksongs: George Robarts & Thomas Eeckhout

Folksongs arguably represent the original storytelling in song, and they form the basis of this recital from baritone George Robarts and pianist Thomas Eeckhout. They include a mixture of songs and shanties from England, Scotland and Ireland, with arrangements by the ever-inventive Percy Grainger, as well as Britten, Purcell, Gurney, Ravel and Vaughan Williams.
The Levine Building, Trinity College
Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BH

Song Club: Richard Wigmore

Song Club is an informal gathering for lively discussion around song, led by the writer and broadcaster Richard Wigmore. Today’s Song Club focuses on Schubert, especially songs that can be heard over the weekend ahead. No prior knowledge is expected, and all are welcome either to contribute to the discussion or simply to listen and enjoy an in-depth conversation about some glorious music.
Doctorow Room, St Edmund Hall, Queen's Ln Oxford OX1 4AR

A World Winter Journey: Laura Tunbridge, Lorena Paz Nieto & JongSun Woo

Natasha Loges, whose talks always intrigue and inspire, explores the rich legacy of songs by composers from around the globe; figures from outside the West, who studied in European style conservatoires and were drawn to the combination of voice and piano. Ahead of tonight’s Winterreise-Weltreise concert, this event explores how composers integrated Western idioms with vernacular languages, harmonies and rhythms. Together with soprano Lorena Paz Nieto and pianist JongSun Woo, Natasha will tell some extraordinary stories and introduce us to a wealth of largely unfamiliar music and poetry – including songs from Africa, Latin America and East and Southeast Asia – where diverging traditions find an unexpected alignment.
Jacqueline Du Pré Music Building
St Hilda's College Cowley Place Oxford

Brushstrokes & Ballads (Family Concert): Kitty Whately, Simon Lepper & James Mayhew

n enchanting programme of fairytale songs, in an informal performance suitable for families with children age 4+, performed by the brilliant and captivating mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately, with pianist Simon Lepper and artist James Mayhew. James is a renowned illustrator of children’s books, most recently with the ‘Gaspard the Fox’ series with Zeb Soanes. He paints live on stage, with his work projected above the performers so that the audience can clearly see each song come magically to life as it unfolds. This lovely selection of songs will be introduced from the stage, offering the perfect combination of stories, music and pictures to enthral a young audience.
Jacqueline Du Pré Music Building
St Hilda's College Cowley Place Oxford

Lute Songs at Rycote Park: Kristiina Watt

This special event is a chance to visit the beautiful 15th-century Chapel at Rycote Park. Tea and coffee will be served in the Barn on arrival, before moving to the Chapel where Sarah Taylor will give an introduction to Rycote. We then enjoy a short recital of songs and solo instrumental pieces performed by lutenist and soprano Kristiina Watt, including works by Nicholas Lanier which the composer played and sang for King Charles I. Please note: tickets for this event must be purchased in advance - 'on the day' door tickets will not be available.
Rycote Park, Milton Common, near Thame OX9 2PE

Brushstrokes & Ballads: Kitty Whately, Simon Lepper & James Mayhew

Kitty Whately, always a Festival favourite, gives a performance of this magical concert for a grownup audience, following a family-friendly version this morning (Event 6). She curates and performs an enchanting programme of fairytale songs, illustrated live by renowned artist James Mayhew. James has created live-illustration events with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Doric String Quartet and many others. He paints live on stage, with his work projected above the performers so that the audience can clearly see each song come magically to life as it unfolds. A range of dramatic poems are heard in settings by composers from Purcell to Sondheim.
Jacqueline Du Pré Music Building
St Hilda's College Cowley Place Oxford

Song Sofa: Benjamin Appl, Sholto Kynoch & Katy Hamilton

Song Sofa, a new format at the Festival, brings you closer to both artists and music. During this informal event, baritone Benjamin Appl will perform and talk about a small selection of songs, as well as his life as a musician, in conversation with Katy Hamilton. There will be an opportunity for discussion and questions, to consider and hear certain songs more than once, and to unpick the many factors that make up a great song performance in the company of a leading artist.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Welcome to the Festival: Katy Hamilton & Sholto Kynoch

This short event offers a warm welcome to our passholders, visitors from further afield and anyone eager to explore the rich variety of this year’s Festival. Katy Hamilton draws out some of the highlights, themes and unexpected gems of the programme, in conversation with our Artistic Director Sholto Kynoch. Following our Scandinavian opening, it’s surely the only choice to enjoy a cinnamon bun and a coffee during this introduction to the week ahead.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Letters from Scandinavia: Joanna Harries & Sholto Kynoch

‘Letters from Scandinavia’ is a love letter to all things Nordic, devised by the Scandophile mezzo-soprano Joanna Harries. It is both song recital and historical audio travel guide, a weaving together of music and text that follows in the footsteps of intrepid women journeying in the 19th- century in the then little-known ‘wild north’. The songs are a treasure trove, drawn from the golden age of Scandinavian song, and are interspersed with readings which are underscored and brought to life by specially-commissioned new music by composer Peter Facer.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Franz Schubert: Master Storyteller: Benjamin Appl & Sholto Kynoch

Baritone Benjamin Appl is firmly established as one of today’s most exciting recitalists, in demand on the world’s great concert platforms. It is wonderful to have him return to the Festival for a residency across the opening weekend, and to begin he takes us on a journey through some of Schubert’s finest songs. Amongst the many languages, periods and styles of songs in the Festival, the transcendent music of Schubert is always a lodestar and at the heart of our programming. Whether delighting in nature, reflecting on death, grappling with the struggles of humanity or recounting the hair-raising story of the ‘Erlking’, Schubert’s boundless imagination never fails to inspire, move and delight. An ideal combination of artists and music for an exceptional opening night of the Festival.
The Olivier Hall
St Edward's School Woodstock Rd Oxford

A Life in Song: Sebastian Hill & Will Harmer

Tenor Sebastian Hill and pianist-composer Will Harmer take us on a journey through life. Music from Schubert to Gurney reflects youthful ardour, growing maturity, and finally wise reflection. Within this richly varied selection of songs, we also hear the first of this year’s world premieres: a new work by Will Harmer, commissioned by Oxford International Song Festival.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Spanish Language Lab: Lorena Paz Nieto

To begin this day devoted to Spanish and Latin- American song, soprano Lorena Paz Nieto gives an introduction to the Spanish language, its many variants across regions and continents, and its delights and challenges for singers. This short, informal event will set ears tingling with Spanish sounds ahead of our first concert.
The Levine Building, Trinity College
Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BH

Mörike Lieder Christian Immler & Anne Le Bozec

German baritone Christian Immler appeared for the first time at last year’s Festival with an astonishing recital of Mozart and Beethoven songs. Joined again by the inspirational French pianist Anne Le Bozec, he makes a welcome return for this programme that highlights one of the greatest of all poet-composer synergies, that of Eduard Mörike and Hugo Wolf. When Wolf encountered Mörike’s poetry, he was in the midst of a deep creative block. These immensely varied poems, which encapsulate experiences from the physical and earthbound to the spiritual and sublime, unlocked something in Wolf, who wrote that ‘I am working with a thousand horsepower, from early morning into the night without interruption… They are masterpieces.’ The 53 songs he wrote all stand as some of the finest works of the entire repertoire, with a musical style that owes much to Wagner but remains unique and responsive to the inflection of every word. Christian Immler and Anne Le Bozec are the perfect exponents of this repertoire and their selection from the Mörike Lieder reflects the boundless invention of these songs.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Golden Ages Julieth Lozano & Ricardo Gosalbo

Pianist and researcher Ricardo Gosalbo is a champion of Spanish and Hispano-American song and a director of the Hispanic Music Series. He introduces some of the principal poets of these divergent but connected art song traditions, from the ‘Golden Age’ of Spanish poets in the 16th and 17th centuries, through Romanticism and into the 20th- century. Joined by the Colombian soprano Julieth Lozano, Ricardo references the poetry of Cervantes, Bécquer, Neruda and others, and their settings by composers including Obradors, Turina and Revueltas.
The Levine Building, Trinity College
Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BH

Montevideo to Madrid: Santiago Sánchez & Sholto Kynoch

Uruguayan-Spanish tenor Santiago Sánchez is a current BBC New Generation Artist and a member of the ensemble at Theater Bonn. He has already appeared at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival, and he made an immense impression at last year’s Festival, stepping in at short notice. He brings a programme that demonstrates some of the glorious breadth of Latin-American song, including an enchanting cycle by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, Las horas de una estancia (‘The Hours on a Farm’), and songs from Uruguay. The concert concludes in Spain, with Manuel de Falla’s passionate and evocative Seven Popular Spanish Songs. Please note: This concert will be recorded live by BBC Radio 3 for future broadcast.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

The Orient Express: Benoît Déchelotte & Sarah Murer

From 1930 to 1962, the Arlberg Orient Express offered passengers a lavish, glamorous journey all the way from London to either Athens or Bucharest. French baritone Benoît Déchelotte and Swiss pianist Sarah Murer travel this route in song, with composers from the cities along the famed railway route and songs that encapsulate the thrill of travel and exploration.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

The Height of Romanticism: Juliane Banse & Daniel Heide

Esteemed German soprano Juliane Banse came to the 2023 Festival for a memorable choreographed version of Winterreise. That recital was given a 5-star review in The Guardian, which described her ‘familiar beauty of tone and punctilious focus on the text’ and wrote that the performance was ‘channelled through the texts and Schubert’s response to them, which Banse… projected with such faithfulness and vivid musical intelligence.’ For tonight’s concert, she is joined by the sought-after pianist Daniel Heide for a programme that revels in the rich late-Romantic voices of fin-desiècle Vienna. At the heart of the recital is Mahler’s powerful Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (‘Songs of a Wayfarer’) whose folk-like texts are by the composer himself. The programme also includes Alban Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder (‘Seven early songs’), an extraordinary set of songs that take the Romantic musical language to its limits, before concluding with a group of songs by Richard Strauss that includes ‘September’ from his Four Last Songs.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

To Dieter: An Homage to Fischer-Dieskau: Benjamin Appl, James Baillieu & Jamie Newall

Legendary baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau would have turned 100 this year. To Benjamin Appl, our Artist in Residence this weekend, ‘Dieter’ was not only an illustrious singer, but a mentor and close friend. Benjamin has had rare access to private documents, including diaries and letters, and has created this centenary tribute. He writes: ‘The recital is intended to unveil the many facets of Dieter’s personality. Alongside music, I share anecdotes, travel reports, and excerpts from letters along with my personal insights and memories. His singing reached so many people and he touched their hearts with the art of song. For me he was more than just a teacher. Thank you, Dieter.’
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

A Match Made in Heaven: Richard Stokes

Richard Stokes, Professor of Lieder at the Royal Academy of Music and author of many books including The Book of Lieder and Hugo Wolf: The Complete Songs, gives an introduction to the poet Eduard Mörike, in the 150th anniversary of the poet’s death. He explores the astonishing inspiration Mörike’s poems gave to the composer Hugo Wolf, and the 53 masterpieces that Wolf crafted in a feverish creative response. Copies of The Complete Songs of Hugo Wolf will be available to buy at the reduced price £25. Cash only.
Weston Library
Broad Street Oxford

Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome...: Claire Booth & Jâms Coleman

The brilliant and versatile soprano Claire Booth, winner of the 2025 RPS Singer Award, makes a welcome return to the Festival for a programme of cabaret and cabaret-inspired songs, ranging from Gershwin to Thomas Adès. She is joined by acclaimed pianist Jâms Coleman, a former Oxford Song Young Artist who now works with many leading singers and instrumentalists. Their programme received a rapturous welcome at Wigmore Hall last year, and promises a glittering start to this week’s lunchtime series.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford

Im Abendrot: Nikola Hillebrand & Julius Drake

Nikola Hillebrand won the prestigious ‘Das Lied’ competition in Heidelberg in 2019, and alongside her glittering operatic career she is already well established as one of the most exciting song singers today. She appears for the first time at the Festival with the pianist Julius Drake, long hailed as one of the pre-eminent song pianists, in a programme of favourite Schubert songs: the perfect way to pass a Sunday afternoon.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Sun 19th October, 3pm

Schwanengesang Thomas Oliemans & Paolo Giacometti

The multi-talented Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans is not only an exceptional singer: he is also a very fine pianist, and in 2022 he amazed audiences with his self-accompanied performance of Winterreise. Tonight, he has excellent company on stage, joined by the acclaimed Italian-Dutch pianist Paolo Giacometti. They perform Schubert’s final songs, which were put together and given their ‘swansong’ title by the publisher Tobias Haslinger shortly after the composer’s death. These seven settings of the poet Ludwig Rellstab and six of Heinrich Heine, as well as the very last song Schubert wrote (‘Die Taubenpost’, a setting of Johann Seidl) can only leave us wondering what miracles he might have achieved had he lived beyond the age of 31. Between these groups of songs, Thomas and Paolo sit together at the keyboard to perform two of Schubert’s finest works for piano duet: the life-affirming Rondo in A major and the elegiac but dramatic Fantasy in F minor.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Sun 19th October, 7pm

Viennese Coffee Morning: Ellen Pearson & Francesca Lauri

A Sunday morning concert with Haydn, Mozart and Schubert: three of the great Viennese composers who between them bridged the Classical and Romantic eras. This programme brings out the sparkle in each composer’s eye, exploring their ability to face the world’s troubles with humour and acceptance.
The Levine Building, Trinity College
Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BH
Sun 19th October, 11.30am

The Erlkings Family Concert

A joyful introduction to song, singing and Schubert with the inimitable Erlkings. This fun family concert is suitable for children aged 5+ and their grown ups. The Erlkings will perform some of their most popular Schubert arrangements, with plenty of introductions and opportunities to join in and ask questions.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Sun 19th October, 11am

Die schöne Müllerin: Roderick Williams & Carducci String Quartet

Baritone Roderick Williams is one of the UK’s best-known singers, not least having sung to vast audiences at the Last Night of the Proms and the Coronation of King Charles III. His recitals are always a highlight of the Festival, and this year he draws our extended Schubert Weekend to a close with the Carducci String Quartet, whose performances have been described as having ‘supreme clarity, focus and precision’ (Gramophone) and combining ‘control with devil-may-care spontaneity’ (The Guardian). Together, they present Roderick’s recent arrangement of Schubert’s great song cycle Die schöne Müllerin. With its Classical textures and crystal-clear lines, this is a work beautifully suited to a string ensemble, and the arrangement casts a fresh light on a familiar masterpiece.
The Olivier Hall
St Edward's School Woodstock Rd Oxford
Mon 20th October, 7.30pm

Schubert Party: The Erlkings

In fact, the weekend isn’t quite over... Join The Erlkings for the final event of their residency and an informal set of their favourite songs, enjoyed over a sociable drink, to round off a great long weekend of uplifting Schubert.
The Olivier Hall
St Edward's School Woodstock Rd Oxford
Mon 20th October, 8.45pm

Everything you've ever lived: Lotte Betts-Dean & Dimitris Soukaras

Lotte Betts-Dean, a former Oxford Song Young Artist, won the 2024 RPS Young Artist of the Year. For this programme she is joined by the outstanding Greek guitarist Dimitris Soukaras, for a special programme celebrating the launch of their eclectic first duo album, everything you’ve ever lived, released on Delphian Records in September. Falling within our extended Schubert Weekend, the programme includes some Schubert songs particularly suited to guitar, reminding us that the composer himself played the instrument and accompanied himself in impromptu arrangements of his own songs. Beyond that, a terrific array of songs exploring ideas of nostalgia, childhood memory and the state between waking and sleep takes us from Ravel and Britten to Burt Bacharach and Sinead O’Connor.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Mon 20th October, 5pm

Silent awakening: Martha Guth, Erika Switzer & Anna Menzies

The renowned duo of Martha Guth and Erika Switzer have given many recitals together around the US and Europe. Their programme sets a selection of Schubert songs alongside contemporary works including the recently commissioned Love, Loss, and Exile by Juhi Bansal. The overarching theme of the concert features stories of isolation and separation from Homer’s Penelope to Amaker’s poem commemorating the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Bansal draws texts for her powerful work for voice, cello and piano from the Pashtun Landay, an oral tradition from Afghanistan featuring short poetic couplets, passed down by women and often anonymous. The recital concludes with Schubert’s ‘Lob der Tränen’, in which Schlegel exhorts longing and tears as the mechanism of love’s transformation.
Holywell Cemetery
Behind St Cross Church St Cross Rd.
Mon 20th October, 1pm

Song Sofa: Roderick Williams, with Christopher Glynn & Katy Hamilton

The second ‘Song Sofa’ this year is with the baritone Roderick Williams. This event is intended to give a rich but informal insight into the art of song singing, with personal reflections and discussion with the audience, interspersed with performances of a select handful of songs, announced from the sofa!
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Tue 21st October, 5.15pm

Mahler & Swedish Song: Camilla Tilling & Paul Rivinius

Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling is a singer who unfailingly brings every word magically to life, together with her longstanding duo partner Paul Rivinius, and we are thrilled to have them return to the Festival. The centrepiece of tonight’s programme is Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, which sets the poetry of Friedrich Rückert. Rückert wrote these heart-wrenching poems after the death of two of his children. Mahler composed three of the four songs in the summer of 1901 after a near-death experience of his own, and the fourth in 1904. Following the death of his daughter three years later, Mahler wrote that, when composing the songs, ‘I placed myself in the situation that a child of mine had died. When I really lost my daughter, I could not have written these songs any more.’ In spite of their harrowing subject, these are some of Mahler’s most beautifully crafted songs. For the rest of the programme, Camilla turns to her compatriots, with works by Gunnar de Frumerie and Emil Sjögren, both prolific composers in the great Romantic tradition of Swedish song.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Tue 21st October, 7.30pm

In Conversation with Emily Hazrati: Emily Hazrati, Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh, Dominic Parviz Brookshaw & Philip Ross Bullock

On Thursday 23 October, Soraya Mafi and Ian Tindale will present a new song cycle by our Associate Composer, Emily Hazrati. Emily has been working with her regular collaborator, the writer Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh, on a cycle inspired by the Shahnameh (‘The Book of Kings’), the 10th century epic poem by the Persian poet Ferdowsi. Emily and Nazli will be joined for this event by Dominic Brookshaw, Senior Research Fellow in Persian at Wadham College, for a discussion led by Philip Bullock. They will explore the Shahnameh and how it has provided the inspiration for these songs. A beautiful early illustrated manuscript of the Shahnameh, held by the Bodleian Libraries, will be on display for this special event.
Weston Library
Broad Street Oxford
Tue 21st October, 3pm

Summer Nights: Nancy Holt & Weng Soon Tee

Nancy Holt and Weng Soon Tee transport us across the seasons with a performance of Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été (‘Summer Nights’). Berlioz began these six settings of Théophile Gautier in 1840, the same year as Schumann wrote Dichterliebe and many other of his most famous songs: Les Nuits d’été seem almost revolutionary in this context, and inhabit a thoroughly distinct soundworld. They have long been one of Berlioz’s most popular works. Alongside this, Nancy and Weng journey to Scandinavia for songs by Grieg and Sibelius, and they also include music by our Associate Composer, Emily Hazrati.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Tue 21st October, 1pm

Shostakovich: A life in song: Philip Ross Bullock, Katy Thomson & Rustam Khanmurzin

Philip Ross Bullock, Professor of Russian Literature and Music at the University of Oxford and always a brilliantly engaging speaker, explores the life and music of Dmitry Shostakovich in the 50th-anniversary year of the composer’s death. Throughout his life, Shostakovich faced censorship and criticism, developing a powerful yet enigmatic musical style that concealed his true sentiments. His extensive catalogue of songs is the most revealing of all his works for anyone wishing to understand the true depth of this fascinating composer.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Wed 22nd October, 3pm

Baba Yaga: Songs & Dances of Death

Baba Yaga: Songs & Dances of Death is a thrilling new production, created in partnership with Beethovenfest Bonn, and given its full premiere tonight. It combines music, dance, spoken word and a specially commissioned song cycle by Elena Langer, to explore Baba Yaga, the mysterious figure from Slavic folklore, and her related female archetype, the Death-Skeleton Woman in Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death. Devised by mezzo-soprano Rowan Hellier, who is sought after both as a singer and an innovative curator, the programme includes music ranging from Dvorák to Tori Amos. Rowan is joined by dancers Ana Dordevic and Carola Schwab and pianist Sholto Kynoch. The choreography is by Andreas Heise, who has directed work for Garsington Opera, the Salzburg Festival and Norwegian National Opera, amongst many others. His version of Winterreise with Juliane Banse was an unforgettable highlight of the 2023 Festival.
The Olivier Hall
St Edward's School Woodstock Rd Oxford
Wed 22nd October, 8pm

Shostakovich, Britten and Mahler: Oliver Johnston & Natalie Burch

The sensational tenor Oliver Johnston is joined by pianist Natalie Burch to perform Shostakovich’s Six Romances on Texts by Japanese Poets. For these highly personal songs, dedicated to his first wife, Nina Varzar, Shostakovich drew on Japanese poems originally translated into German by Hans Beghte in the same series Mahler had drawn on for Das Lied von der Erde. Oliver and Natalie also perform the seven exuberant love songs on texts by Michelangelo written by Shostakovich’s great friend Benjamin Britten and dedicated to Britten’s partner Peter Pears. We are delighted that they will also give the world premiere of two songs by Elena Langer setting the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Wed 22nd October, 1pm

The Magdalene Songs: Lotte Betts-Dean & Deirdre Brenner

The Magdalene Laundries From 1922 to 1996 more than 10,000 women and girls were incarcerated in Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries. Operated by four religious orders in ten locations around the country, these for-profit punitive institutions detained individuals against their will and forced them to work long hours, unpaid, under abusive and humiliating conditions. The institutions committed some of the most serious systematic violations against human rights in Ireland in the 20th century. The Magdalene Songs is an ongoing project initiated by Deirdre Brenner to honour the women who were so gravely mistreated by church and state in the Magdalene Laundries by giving voice to their experience. The project brings together prominent female Irish composers – today including Elaine Agnew, Rhona Clarke, Elaine Brennan, and Deirdre McKay – in a collaborative work for mezzo-soprano and piano. Each song in the collection sets the words of individual survivors, extracted from interviews conducted by Justice for Magdalenes Research, an advocacy organisation working on behalf of the women who spent time in the Laundries and their families. Each song is named after the woman whose testimony it presents.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Thu 23rd October, 5.15pm

Irish Folk Music: Zoë Conway & John McIntyre

Zoë Conway and John McIntyre have been described as ‘simply one of the best folk duos on the planet’ (BBC) and ‘musical magic’ (The Irish Times). They have performed around the world, as well as giving performances for Irish presidents Mary McAleese and Michael D. Higgins! This husband and wife duo draw the day to a close with a special hour of Irish folk music, exhibiting the range and knowledge of both musicians as well as the versatility of their instruments, and bringing to the stage sympathetic arrangements of traditional Irish music, compositions and songs old and new. The duo has recorded on major film soundtracks including Finding You (Red Sky Studio 2021), Riverdance The Animated Adventure (Universal 2021), and Zoë has recorded on award winning Float Like A Butterfly (Samson Films 2018) and Artemis Fowl (Disney 2020) as soloist with a hand-picked symphony orchestra in George Martin's world-renowned AIR studios in London. Zoë and John have collaborated over the past five years with award winning Scots Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis and bouzouki player of international renown, Éamon Doorley, both based in Inverness in Scotland. Releasing a groundbreaking recording of newly crafted songs and tunes, 'Allt' is the culmination of a composition project inspired by old and new Gaelic poetry from Scotland and Ireland. Emotive and powerful, their album was awarded five stars from Songlines UK, listed as "one of the albums of the year" from The Irish Times, and described as "a modern classic" by Folk Radio UK. The "awesome foursome" released a follow up album, Allt ll - Cuimhne, in 2024 and will perform new songs and music with The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Ulster Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in 2025 & 2026.
The Levine Building, Trinity College
Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BH
Thu 23rd October, 9.45pm

Moore's Melodies: Hugo Brady & Mark Rogers

Irish tenor Hugo Brady, joined by pianist Mark Rogers, curates a programme of songs from and about his homeland. The poetry of Thomas Moore is at the heart of this, including settings in French and German translation, alongside settings of James Joyce and W.B. Yeats, and popular songs in the tradition of John McCormack.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Thu 23rd October, 1pm

Pre-concert Discussion: Deirdre Brenner & Maeve O'Rourke

The Magdalene Laundries From 1922 to 1996 more than 10,000 women and girls were incarcerated in Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries. Operated by four religious orders in ten locations around the country, these for-profit punitive institutions detained individuals against their will and forced them to work long hours, unpaid, under abusive and humiliating conditions. The institutions committed some of the most serious systematic violations against human rights in Ireland in the 20th century. Deirdre Brenner, pianist and commissioner of The Magdalene Songs, is joined by Maeve O’Rourke, barrister and Lecturer in Human Rights at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway. Maeve O’Rourke has worked with the group Justice for Magdalenes Research since 2010, and leads this interactive discussion to provide a harrowing but vital backdrop to the concert that follows.
Weston Library
Broad Street Oxford
Thu 23rd October, 3pm

Totentanz: Konstantin Krimmel & Ammiel Bushakevitz

Konstantin Krimmel is a former BBC New Generation Artist, and was the 2024 Opus Klassik ‘Singer of the Year’. He performs and records with the acclaimed pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz, and their recitals around Europe and the USA have met with unanimous praise. Tonight, they bring a dramatic programme of ballads by Franz Schubert and Carl Loewe, showing both composers as master storytellers. In the songs by Loewe, the virtuosic thrill of ‘Der Totentanz’ (‘the Dance of Death’) is a wild ride, made even more astonishing by the idea that Loewe might have accompanied himself at the piano, while ‘Der du von dem Himmel bist’ is a reminder that Loewe was also a master of melody. Schubert’s ‘Erlkönig’ is well known as a gamechanger in the history of song, with its hair-raising tale of a father riding with his son at night while the Erlking steals the boy’s soul. By contrast, ‘Nachtstück’ is a calm acceptance in the face of death. Between these two groups of songs, Konstantin and Ammiel include Hugo Wolf’s three songs of the Harper from Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Fri 24th October, 7.30pm

Danse Macabre: Aphrodite Patoulidou & Keval Shah

As Halloween draws near, enter the magical candlelit space of New College Ante-Chapel for this thrillingly haunting programme performed by the captivating Greek soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou. Described by The LA Times as ‘a class above’, she is joined by the pianist Keval Shah for a wide-ranging selection of music that descends from the mortal plane into the mystical and other-worldly.
New College Chapel
New College Holywell Street Oxford
Fri 24th October, 9.45pm

On Wings of Song: Helen Charlston & Consone Quartet

Helen Charlston is joined by the Consone Quartet, the first period-instrument quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists, and winners of multiple prestigious awards. They perform Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben in an arrangement for quartet by Bill Thorp that highlights the beautiful clarity of lines in Schumann’s writing and gives us a fresh aural perspective on this familiar work.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Fri 24th October, 1pm

Did I Sing Too Loud?: Rosie Lavery & Anna Michels

Rosie Lavery and Anna Michels give the last of this year’s Young Artist showcase recitals. They bring a programme originally curated for the National Galleries of Scotland, celebrating LGBT+ History Month and showcasing the works of queer composers and poets. Songs from two major cycles of the 20th century by American composers Aaron Copland and Dominic Argento are heard alongside works by Ethel Smyth, Adela Maddison and Marie Dare.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Fri 24th October, 5.15pm

Love's Labyrinth: Helen Charlston & Sholto Kynoch

Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston closes the Festival with her latest ingenious programme with Oxford Song’s Artistic Director, Sholto Kynoch. The Guardian awarded their 2023 ‘Knight’s Dream’ five stars and wrote that Helen ‘mesmerised with the blackcurrant quality of her voice, her even tone, liquid phrasing and her wonderfully expressive face’. Tonight their programme is focused on two figures from Greek mythology. Ariadne and Phaedra were both married to Theseus: Ariadne was cruelly betrayed by him, while Phaedra attempted to seduce his son Hippolytus before being overwhelmed by guilt and taking her own life. Haydn portrayed Ariadne’s despair and fury in his 1790 dramatic cantata Arianna a Naxos, which quickly became a hit, not least during Haydn’s celebrity years in England. Nearly 200 years later, in 1975, Britten wrote his final vocal work, the cantata Phaedra, for Janet Baker. It is a thrilling and rigorously concise telling of the story of Phaedra, which deliberately nods to its Classical and Baroque forerunners. Around these monologues, Helen and Sholto follow the threads of timeless myths, in music by Schubert, Barbara Strozzi, Reynaldo Hahn and Héloïse Werner, as well as the world premiere of a specially commissioned work by Richard Barnard. The perfect end to a fortnight of Stories in Song.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Sat 25th October, 7pm

Duruflé Requiem: Bethan Langford, George Robarts, Choir of Merton College, Oxford & Benjamin Nicholas

It has become something of a tradition to hear a choral Requiem on the closing day of the Festival, as the Feast of All Souls approaches. We are delighted to partner once again with The Choir of Merton College, one of Oxford’s finest choirs, for a performance of the famous Requiem by Maurice Duruflé in its original version for choir, soloists and organ. The work, written between 1941 and 1947, owes much to its famous predecessor by Gabriel Fauré. Its wonderfully lyrical writing, incorporating elements of Gregorian chant, has long made it a popular choral favourite. The Choir of Merton College also performs the beautiful ‘Ave Maris Stella’ by our Associate Composer, Emily Hazrati. Please note the baritone soloist for this performance will now be George Robarts.
Merton College Chapel
Merton Street Oxford
Sat 25th October, 4.30pm

The Shackled King: Sir John Tomlinson, Rozanna Madylus, Fenella Humphreys, Sam Ewens, Kyle Horch, Ben-San Lau & John Casken

Sir John Tomlinson, who has for decades been acknowledged as one of the great basses of our time, has long been contemplating parallels between the role of Wotan in Wagner’s Ring Cycle (one of his signature roles), and that of Shakespeare’s King Lear. This drama by the composer John Casken, which was awarded the inaugural Tippett Medal in 2022, affords Sir John the opportunity to incarnate the aging, delusional king in a semi-staged performance that incorporates Shakespeare’s text in a range of declamation from speech to song. The Shackled King condenses King Lear, taking the very essence of it, namely Lear’s estrangement from his daughter Cordelia and their reconciliation. Sir John plays King Lear, in a part very much written for him; The Daily Telegraph described his performance as ‘titanic, heart-rending’. Other roles, primarily Lear’s daughter Cordelia, are sung by the British-Ukrainian mezzo-soprano Rozanna Madylus, who was an Oxford Song Young Artist in the early years of the scheme and is now well established as a thrilling performer. They are joined by an exceptional quartet of instrumentalists. This is certain to be an unforgettable occasion, with drama, exciting new music, and the chance to hear the voice and artistry of Sir John Tomlinson up close in the Holywell Music Room.
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street Oxford
Sat 25th October, 1.30pm

Sarah Connolly recital: Sarah Connolly & Joseph Middleton

Dame Sarah Connolly is one of the country's best-loved singers, whose profound artistry and uniquely beautiful voice have captivated audiences across the globe. She opens this year's Oxford International Song Festival with renowned pianist Joseph Middleton. Their programme includes songs by Mendelssohn and Brahms, setting up the Festival's theme of 'Love Songs' with these two masters of German song. They also include settings of French poetry by Franz Liszt and a group of songs by Claude Debussy, as well as a cycle written for them by Errollyn Wallen, the Master of the King's Music. An unmissable way to launch the 2026 Festival.
Sohmen Concert Hall,Stephen Schwarzman Centre for Humanities, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Oxford OX2 6AH
Fri 9th October, 7.45pm

Baba Yaga

The Crick Crack Club
Ben Haggarty and Sarah Liisa Wilkinson lure you into the enchanted realm of fairytales for grown-ups to encounter this dangerous deity of the dark wood More info
Wed 22nd Oct
Review this

Share this page

© Daily Information 2025. Printed from https://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/festival/21834/oxford-international-song-festival-2025

Top