Past Events > 2021

08 Oct 2021 13:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

We are delighted to welcome one of the most exciting singers to emerge in recent years, German tenor Simon Bode, for our first full recital of 2021. He and Simon Lepper perform Schubert's great song cycle Die schöne Müllerin. 1820s Vienna might have been a metropolis of the time but it was a small city by today’s standards and Franz Schubert could walk easily into the hil...

3:30 PM

03. Gurney's Gloucestershire

Last Few Tickets!

08 Oct 2021 15:30 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Ahead of the 5.45pm performance of To His Love, Kate Kennedy, author of the newly-published Dweller in Shadows: A Life of Ivor Gurney, delves into the profound influence of the Gloucestershire landscape on the poetry and music of Ivor Gurney, with live performances illustrating her talk given by soprano Anna Cavaliero and pianist Natalie Burch. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY [youtube url=...

5:45 PM

05. Robert Murray & Robin Tritschler: To His Love

08 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This dramatised recital brings the fascinating but troubled personality of poet and composer Ivor Gurney to life. Created by writer, broadcaster and Gurney biographer Kate Kennedy (see Event 3), To His Love poignantly illustrates the terrible effects of war and Gurney’s subsequent incarceration in an asylum and enforced separation from his beloved Gloucestershire. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY...

8:15 PM

06. Sarah Connolly & Julius Drake: Summer Nights

Some seating areas sold out

08 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 04. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. Star of The Last Night of the Proms and the world’s great stages, Dame Sarah Connolly’s Festival appearances are always eagerly anticipated. With the celebrated pianist Julius Drake, s...

Saturday 9th October 2021

11:00 AM

07. Victor Sicard & Anna Cardona: Natural Histories

09 Oct 2021 11:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

This outstanding duo were Oxford Lieder’s first ever Young Artist Platform winners back in 2011. They have both enjoyed tremendous success since then and their recent CD of Ravel songs has been widely praised. Today, they include songs by Saint-Saëns, his student Gabriel Fauré, and Fauré’s student Maurice Ravel. The latter’s Histoires Naturelles (&...

1:30 PM

08. Celebrating Saint-Saëns

09 Oct 2021 13:30 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

1.30pm - 2.30pm - Part 1: Camille Saint-Saëns: A Life in Song 3pm - 4pm - Part 2: Saint-Saëns and the Musical World of the Salon Today we celebrate and explore the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, who died 100 years ago this year (and whose 186th birthday would have fallen today). Although best known these days for his orchestral works, Saint-Saëns wrote ...

5:45 PM

10. Fenella Humphreys & Martin Roscoe: Master & Pupil

09 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

The Festival has a strong strand of chamber music that complements the themes and songs of particular days. In this first chamber recital, we hear two dazzling violin sonatas by Saint-Saëns and his distinguished student Gabriel Fauré, performed by this exceptional duo. Both sonatas are passionate, profound and virtuosic, and although the master-pupil influence is audible, each inhab...

8:15 PM

11. Elizabeth Watts: Carnival of the Animals

Chamber Music Evening

09 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 09. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. Saint-Saëns was mortified that Carnival of the Animals became his best-known work, but there is no denying its perennial appeal. In tonight’s performance of this upliftin...

10:00 PM

12. Adèle Charvet & Anne Le Bozec: Mélodies on Tour

Late Night

09 Oct 2021 22:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Concluding an astonishing day of French repertoire, we welcome the wonderful rising-star mezzo Adèle Charvet – who has already appeared as an acclaimed Mercédès in Carmen at the Royal Opera House – and well-known pianist Anne le Bozec for a programme that explores Saint-Saëns and his contemporaries, unusually setting texts in English, German and R...

Sunday 10th October 2021

11:00 AM

13. Ten Years of the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform

10 Oct 2021 11:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

The Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform has identified and supported exceptional young singer-pianist duos since 2011. Four previous winners of the scheme join forces today to present a programme of Scandinavian song, curated by pianist Keval Shah who is now Lecturer of Lieder at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Evoking the dramatic natural world of the Nordic countries, this concert starts a ...

1:30 PM

14. Celebrating Stenhammar

10 Oct 2021 13:30 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

1.30pm-2.30pm - Swedish Song: Broadening Horizons 3pm-4pm - Stenhammar: A Swedish Voice The Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar, born 150 years ago, was one of the finest song composers of his generation and would surely be mentioned in the same breath as his more famous contemporaries if Swedish-language song was better known. To introduce this two-part event, Leah Broad, Daniel Grimley ...

5:45 PM

16. A Swedish Sensation

10 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

The Stenhammar Quartet is one of Sweden’s leading ensembles, with a particularly strong reputation for performing Scandinavian chamber music. There are no better exponents of the string quartets of Wilhelm Stenhammar, which are counted among the composer’s finest works. Today they perform his magnificent fourth quartet. It was completed in 1907 and dedicated to Jean Sibelius, and it...

8:15 PM

17. Songs and Moods

10 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 15. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. PLEASE NOTE: Roderick Williams has regretfully had to withdraw from this concert. We are delighted that the acclaimed Swedish baritone Jakob Högström will take his place. The programme r...

10:00 PM

18. Maria Forsström & Matti Hirvonen: Stenhammar's Contemporaries

Late Night

10 Oct 2021 22:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Concluding our day focussed on Wilhelm Stenhammar, we welcome back these two exceptional Swedish artists, who gave one of the most memorably dramatic recitals the Festival has ever seen in 2019. They perform Stenhammar alongside another great Swedish song composer, Ture Rangström, and their compatriot Wilhelm Peterson-Berger with whom Stenhammar often found himself at loggerheads! TRY...

Monday 11th October 2021

1:00 PM

20. Poèmes pour Mi

11 Oct 2021 13:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

This French duo gave a sensational recital at the 2019 Lieder Festival, under the banner of the prestigious Académie Orsay-Royaumont. We welcome them back for a special programme that centres on Messiaen’s Poèmes pour Mi, an extraordinary cycle of nine songs, paraphrasing texts from the New Testament and dedicated to his wife Claire Delbos. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY [youtub...

3:15 PM

21. Nature's Musicians

11 Oct 2021 15:15 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Eminent ornithologist John Krebs explains how birdsong is primarily a tool of communication, asking why something so apparently functional should also be so beautiful. He is joined by Laura Tunbridge, Fellow in Music at St Catherine’s College, for a discussion about the appearances of birdsong in poetry and music. Two exciting young musicians illustrate this with music by Messiaen, Debuss...

5:45 PM

23. French Connections

11 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This concert is presented in association with the Académie Orsay-Royaumont, a leading training programme in France for exceptional young duos. The multi prize-winning French tenor Kaëlig Boché and Italian-American pianist Elenora Pertz are already making great waves, and today they bring a colourful programme of songs by Saint-Saëns, Poulenc and Zemlinsky. TRY ...

8:15 PM

24. Ian Bostridge & Imogen Cooper: Over Silent Lands

11 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 22. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. Ian Bostridge and Dame Imogen Cooper perform a glorious programme of Beethoven and Schumann. They perform An die ferne Geliebte (‘To the Distant Beloved’), often cited a...

Tuesday 12th October 2021

11:00 AM

25a. Wandering Winter Poets: Heine & Müller

12 Oct 2021 11:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This event is in two parts. One ticket give you access to both parts. 25a: 11am - 12pm, Wandering Winter Poets: Heine & Müller 25b: 3.15pm - 4.15pm, The Wanderer Click here for details about part 2 (event 25b). “I am vain enough to think that one day, when we are both gone, my name will be mentioned alongside yours.” Thus wrote Heinrich Hei...

1:00 PM

26. Konstantin Krimmel: Heine, Schumann & Brahms

12 Oct 2021 13:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

Konstantin Krimmel is one of today’s most exciting young baritones and was recently appointed a BBC New Generation Artist. With pianist Marcelo Amaral, he performs Schumann’s Liederkreis Op.24, an exquisite collection of settings of Heinrich Heine that follows on from this morning’s Song Connections event. A wonderful group of Brahms songs include further Heine ...

3:15 PM

25b. The Wanderer

12 Oct 2021 15:15 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This event is in two parts. One ticket gives you access to both parts. 25a: 11am - 12pm, Wandering Winter Poets: Heine & Müller 25b: 3.15pm - 4.15pm, The Wanderer Please see 25a: Wandering Winter Poets: Heine & Müller for ticket information Joanna Neilly continues to explore some of the key features of German romanticism: in t...

5:45 PM

28. Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy: Schubert Fantasie

Last Few Tickets!

12 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Both renowned in their own rights as soloists, Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy are also an exceptional duo whose early lockdown recital at Wigmore Hall was described in The Guardian as having a ‘quietly electrifying intimacy’ in a 5-star review. Today, they play an all-Schubert programme, including the most famous of all his piano duets, the Fantasie in F minor. ...

8:15 PM

29. Katherine Broderick & Kathryn Stott: Schubert: Winterreise

12 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. Schubert: Winterreise and Schubert: Songs of the Sea follow a slightly different pattern to the other repeated performances during the festival. This 8.15pm performance will be in-person and livestreamed . Please see Event 33 for information on the in-person only performance THE FOLLOWING DA...

10:00 PM

30. Isolation Songbook

12 Oct 2021 22:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Song Futures is Oxford Lieder’s programme to perform and commission new music. This year we have a dedicated series of eight late-night Song Futures concerts, Tuesdays to Fridays in both weeks of the Festival. They are by no means the only performances of music by living composers in the Festival, nor are they exclusively contemporary music in all cases, but new music is their strong focu...

Wednesday 13th October 2021

11:00 AM

31a. The Brilliant Abyss (part 1)

13 Oct 2021 11:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This event is in two parts. One ticket gives you acccess to both parts. 31a: 11am - 12pm, The Brilliant Abyss part 1 31b: 3.15pm - 4.15pm, The Brilliant Abyss part 2 Click here for details about part 2 (event 25b). In this fascinating two-part Song Connections event, Katy Hamilton explores perceptions of the ocean depths in poetry and song alongside the reality of...

1:00 PM

32. Catriona Morison & Malcolm Martineau: Brahms, Grieg, Schumann & Lang

Study Event Song Futures Song Connections - study events

13 Oct 2021 13:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

Catriona Morison shot to fame as winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2017. We welcome her to the Festival with internationally-renowned pianist Malcolm Martineau. They include Grieg’s wonderful six setting of German texts, Op.48, which retain a strong Nordic influence and conclude with the ecstatic ‘Ein Traum’ (‘A Dream’). Alongside this ar...

3:15 PM

31b. The Brilliant Abyss (part 2)

13 Oct 2021 15:15 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This event is in two parts; one ticket covers both sessions. 31a: 11am - 12pm, The Brilliant Abyss part 1 31b: 3.15pm - 4.15pm, The Brilliant Abyss part 2 Please see 31a: The Beautiful Abyss part 1 for ticket information For the second part of today’s Song Connections event, Katy Hamilton and Helen Scales are joined by composer Laurence Crane...

5:45 PM

34. Lotte Betts-Dean & Armida Quartet: Madame ma bonne soeur

Chamber Music Song Futures Rush Hour

13 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

We are thrilled to present the world premiere of a co-commissioned new work for quartet and voice by Brett Dean, one of the most sought-after composers today. Brett Dean’s opera Hamlet, premiered at Glyndebourne in 2017, was a sensation, described by The Sunday Times as ‘the operatic event of the year’. This new piece, Madame ma bonne soeur, draws on texts ...

8:15 PM

35. Dietrich Henschel: Schubert: Songs of the Sea

13 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. Schubert: Songs of the Sea and Schubert: Winterreise follow a slightly different pattern to the other repeated performances during the festival. This 8.15pm performance will be in-person and live streamed. Please see Event 27 for information on the in-person only performance T...

10:00 PM

36. Juliet Fraser & Mark Knoop: Natural World

13 Oct 2021 22:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Eighty years ago, in 1941, American marine biologist Rachel Carson published the first book in what grew to become her Sea Trilogy. Struck by Carson's distinctive voice, which endures as a beautifully poetic yet urgent clarion call in defence of the natural world, soprano Juliet Fraser launched 'The Carson Commissions'. This programme presents two brand-new works, receiving their UK...

Thursday 14th October 2021

11:00 AM

37a. Kerner, Keats and the Physician Poet

14 Oct 2021 11:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This event is in two parts; one ticket covers both parts. 37a: 11am - 12pm, Kerner, Keats and the Physician Poet 37b: 3.15pm - 4.15pm, The Original (anti-) Vaxxers Click here for details about part 2 (event 37b). Today’s two-part Song Connections event is led by Natasha Loges and presented in association with the Royal College of Music. Natasha explores where m...

1:00 PM

38. The Physician Poet - Schumann's Kerner Lieder

14 Oct 2021 13:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

Schumann’s Kerner Lieder sets a remarkable cycle of nature-infused poems that are among Schumann’s most personal and affecting songs, written towards the end of his 1840 outpouring of song. The doctor-poet Kerner (see Event 40) writes of his pleasure in the rain and wind of a stormy night, his ‘Wanderlust’, his longing for forests and woods, and he surely ...

3:15 PM

37b. The Original (Anti-) Vaxxers

14 Oct 2021 15:15 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This event is in two parts; one ticket covers both parts. 37a: 11am - 12pm, Kerner, Keats and the Physician Poet 37b: 3.15pm - 4.15pm, The Original (anti-) Vaxxers See 37a: Kerner, Keats and the Physician Poet for ticket information. The use of words and music to persuade people of the safety and efficacy of vaccines is not a solely modern phenomenon. Edward Jenner &...

5:45 PM

40. Dutch Connections

14 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This concert is presented in association with the Internationaal Lied Festival Zeist in the Netherlands, one of our international partners with whom we exchange Young Artists. Their Festival will include a recital given by winners of our Young Artist Platform, and today we welcome a young baritone and pianist from them. Raoul Steffani already has a burgeoning reputation as an exc...

8:15 PM

41. Dorothea Röschmann & Malcolm Martineau: Frauenliebe und -leben

14 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 39. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. PLEASE NOTE: This evening's Emerging Artist, Ted Black, has regretfully had to withdraw from this concert due to illness. We are grateful to mezzo-soprano Annabel Kennedy for stepping in ...

10:00 PM

42. Brief Encounter

14 Oct 2021 22:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Tonight’s Song Futures recital features the first of a number of works heard this year by our Associate Composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad. Her One Life Stand, performed tonight by mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, was written in 2011 as a companion piece to Schumann’s Frauenliebe (see Event 39). It sets texts by Sophie Hannah that ‘portray a modern woman’s loves and life’ and...

Friday 15th October 2021

1:00 PM

44. Thomas Oliemans & Malcolm Martineau: Dichterliebe

15 Oct 2021 13:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

Schumann’s Dichterliebe (‘Poet’s love’) is one of the towering glories of the song repertoire. Heinrich Heine’s bittersweet poetry inspired sixteen extraordinary songs, individually perfect and further elevated in Schumann’s pioneering advancement of the song cycle. It is sung today by the Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans, with Malcolm Martineau, and they also ...

3:15 PM

45. Flower Songs

15 Oct 2021 15:15 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

PLEASE NOTE: Magnus Walker has regretfully had to withdraw from this event. We are grateful to soprano Rachel Ridout for stepping in at short notice. The programme remains unchanged. Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder, examines Heinrich Heine’s poem ‘Du bist wie eine Blume’ (‘You are like a flower’) and four texts by Goethe, digging below the surf...

5:45 PM

47. Spanish Connections

15 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This is the last of our international partnership concerts, presented in association with the LIFE Victoria Festival in Barcelona. Portuguese mezzo-soprano Helena Ressurreição and Catalan pianist Ester Lecha include Manuel de Falla’s famous ‘Seven Spanish Folksongs’ alongside music by the notable Catalan composer Eduard Toldrà and the Spanish-French compos...

8:15 PM

48. Carolyn Sampson: Fleurs

15 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 46. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton bring a floral sparkle to the Festival with highlights from their hugely well-received CD ‘Fleurs’. This glorious collection of flower-related songs includ...

10:00 PM

49. Rowan Hellier: wom3n

15 Oct 2021 22:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Our first week of Song Futures recitals concludes with the work of three women composers: Judith Weir, the first female Master of the Queen’s Music; trailblazing Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth; and the exciting young composer and founder of Multi-Story Orchestra, Kate Whitley. Tonight we premiere a newly-commissioned work by Kate Whitley, setting a text by Hollie McNish, winner of t...

Saturday 16th October 2021

11:00 AM

50. Songs of Love and Justice

16 Oct 2021 11:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

A wonderful programme of songs by African-American composers begins our weekend celebrating the multi-faceted riches of American song. The distinguished American tenor Joshua Stewart, who recently toured the UK and Europe with the CBSO and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla as tenor soloist in Tippett’s A Child of our Time, and compatriot pianist Deirdre Brenner – making a welcome return to the F...

1:30 PM

51. Harry T Burleigh

16 Oct 2021 13:30 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Harry T Burleigh was one of the most influential figures in the history of American song: an African American composer and singer whose works were performed far and wide and helped shape the sound of American music. Burleigh was hugely well-known as a singer (he travelled extensively in Europe and the UK, singing for King Edward VII and visiting Oxford) and he wrote songs that were widely ...

5:45 PM

53. Dover Beach

Sold Out - Livestream Only

16 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Dover Beach is one of the great works for voice and string quartet. It is an early work of the American composer Samuel Barber, setting the English poet Matthew Arnold. Barber looked back on Dover Beach throughout his life with affection, considering it one of his few early works that displayed real maturity. It is played this evening by the dazzling Albion Quartet with eminent bass Matthew Ros...

8:15 PM

54. Benjamin Appl: Crosscurrents

Evening Song Futures

16 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 52. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. Benjamin Appl explores repertoire inspired by or written in the USA, but by composers who were not themselves American: Korngold, Dvorák, Weill, Schoenberg, and the Anglo-American Rebecca C...

10:00 PM

55. In search of Youkali

Late Night

16 Oct 2021 22:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

As a Jewish composer in Germany, Kurt Weill was forced to flee his home in the 1930s, relocate to Paris, and then move to America. With their programme ‘In Search of Youkali’, Katie Bray and William Vann chart his life through his enduringly popular songs, as he travelled the world in the hope of discovering a place of artistic and personal freedom. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY [youtu...

Sunday 17th October 2021

11:00 AM

56. Ferrier Winners Recital: An American Pilgrimage

Pre-concert Talks Study Event Song Connections - study events

17 Oct 2021 11:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Samuel Barber’s Hermit Songs sit at the centre of this programme. Arguably his best-known cycle of songs, they are, in Barber’s own words, ‘settings of anonymous Irish texts of the eighth to thirteenth centuries written by monks and scholars, often on the margins of manuscripts they were copying or illuminating.’ Around that, Theodore Platt – a prize winner at the ...

1:30 PM

57. Talk: A Route of Evanescence

17 Oct 2021 13:30 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This event is a pre-concert talk which will be streamed online for free. Watch this conversation live at 13:30, or afterwards on demand. The livestream will be available to view on this page (no ticket required). Please refresh this page at 13:30 to view the livestream. For in-person audiences, this event is only available if you have purchased a ticket for Event 58: Settings of Em...

2:45 PM

58. Emily Dickinson's Nature Songbook

Last Few Tickets!

Song Futures

17 Oct 2021 14:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Ahead of this event there is a free pre-concert talk for ticket holders. Click here for more details. Nadine Benjamin and Nicole Panizza released their CD of Emily Dickinson settings, ‘Emergence’, in 2019 to great acclaim. The focal point of today’s programme, as on that recording, is Aaron Copland’s Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, written in 1949/50. These rich...

5:45 PM

60. Contrasts

17 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

This stellar trio of musicians perform Béla Bártok’s effervescent Contrasts, written in 1938 and commissioned by the legendary jazz clarinettist Benny Goodman. They also include music by the toweringly influential American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, and Antonín Dvořák, who spent nearly four years in New York, where he wrote some of his best-...

8:15 PM

61. Kitty Whately: Into the Woods

17 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 59. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. We regret to announce that Nicky Spence has withdrawn from this concert. Kitty Whately has expanded her programme, and we'll also hear more from Neil Balfour, our 'Emerging Artist&...

Monday 18th October 2021

10:00 AM

62. Mastercourse: Day One, Session One - Jacqueline du Pré Music Building & Holywell Music Room

Pre-concert Talks Song Futures Song Connections - study events

18 Oct 2021 10:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

[vimeo id=622532058] Sixteen exceptional musicians at the outset of their careers are in residence for the second week of the Festival, working intensively to hone their skills as song performers. They study each day with the renowned soprano Joan Rodgers and a different guest tutor, building up to their showcase concert on the closing day (see Event 102). Sessions are op...

12:00 PM

63. Composer Conversation

18 Oct 2021 12:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

This event is a pre-concert talk which will be streamed online for free. Watch this conversation live at 12:00, or afterwards on demand. The livestream will be available to view on this page (no ticket required). Please refresh this page at 12:00 to view the livestream. For in-person audiences, this event is only available if you have pu...

1:00 PM

64. Clippings and Fragments

Lunchtime Song Futures

18 Oct 2021 13:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

Ahead of this event there is a free pre-concert talk for ticket holders. Click here for more details. Presented in partnership with the Bodleian Libraries, Anna Dennis and John Reid give the world premiere of a new work by Tom Coult. Written during Tom’s Albi Rosenthal Visiting Fellowship, the work is inspired by the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera in the Bodliean. As a c...

2:30 PM

65. Mastercourse: Day One, Session Two - Jacqueline du Pré Music Building & Holywell Music Room

Chamber Music Song Futures Rush Hour

18 Oct 2021 14:30 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

[vimeo id=622534890] Sixteen exceptional musicians at the outset of their careers are in residence for the second week of the Festival, working intensively to hone their skills as song performers. They study each day with the renowned soprano Joan Rodgers and a different guest tutor, building up to their showcase concert on the closing day (see Event 102). Sessions are open to the ...

5:45 PM

67. Inventions

18 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Adam Swayne is a pianist and composer, acclaimed in particular for his interpretations of contemporary works, both as a soloist and a member of Riot Ensemble. He gives today’s second world premiere of a work by composer Tom Coult, his Gymnopédies, written during the 2020 lockdown. Adam also plays Tom Coult’s dazzling Inventions. To complete the programme he per...

8:15 PM

68. Christoph Prégardien: Studies and Improvisations

18 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 66. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder were written in 1857/8 while the composer was working on Tristan und Isolde, and two of the songs are directly labelled ‘studies’ for th...

Tuesday 19th October 2021

10:00 AM

69. Mastercourse: Day Two, Session One - Jacqueline du Pré Music Building & Holywell Music Room

Pre-concert Talks Study Event Song Connections - study events

19 Oct 2021 10:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Our mastercourse sessions are available to attend in person and online. This morning Julius Drake leads the session at the Holywell Music Room. Joan Rodgers will lead the session at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building. Joan Rodger's session will be available to stream online from this page for free and NOT accessed through our Digital Concert Hall. SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE T...

12:00 PM

70. Birdsong

19 Oct 2021 12:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

This event is a pre-concert talk which will be streamed online for free. Watch this conversation live at 12:00, or afterwards on demand. The livestream will be will be available to stream online from this page for free and NOT accessed through our Digital Concert Hall. SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE TO VIEW THE LIVESTREAM. Please refresh this page at 12:00 to view the livestream...

1:00 PM

71. Ailish Tynan: Hark, Hark! The Lark

19 Oct 2021 13:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

Ahead of this event there is a free pre-concert talk for ticket holders. Click here for more details. This uplifting programme based on birdsong is full of surprises! The wonderful soprano Ailish Tynan sings songs by Schubert, Grieg, Handel, Judith Weir and others, with pianist Libby Burgess. Between groups of songs, recorder player Ian Wilson, a renowned soloist and chamber musician, punc...

2:30 PM

72. Mastercourse: Day Two, Session Two - Jacqueline du Pré Music Building & Holywell Music Room

Chamber Music Song Futures Rush Hour

19 Oct 2021 14:30 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Our mastercourse sessions are available to attend in person and online. This afternoon Joan Rodgers leads the session at the Holywell Music Room. Julius Drake will lead the session at the Jacqueline du Pré Building. Julius Drake's session will be available to stream online from this page for free and NOT accessed through our Digital Concert Hall.&nb...

5:45 PM

74. VENUE AND ARTIST CHANGE On the River

19 Oct 2021 17:45 | Saint John the Evangelist

Please note: This event has changed venue and will now be held at St John the Evangelist, Iffley Road. Stuart Jackson has regretfully had to withdraw from this recital. We are very grateful to the renowned tenor James Gilchrist for stepping in at short notice. Schubert’s ‘Auf dem Strom’ (‘On the River’) is written for the unusual combination ...

8:15 PM

75. Ilker Arcayürek: The Path of Life

Chamber Music Late Night Song Futures

19 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

The Turkish-Austrian tenor Ilker Arcayürek has recently released his second disc of Schubert songs with the pianist Simon Lepper, both of which have been widely acclaimed. Tonight’s programme includes a wonderful selection from the second of these recordings, The Path of Life. A wide range of songs invoke the composer’s philosophical approach to life, where happiness is often t...

10:00 PM

76. The Hermes Experiment: I Find Planets

19 Oct 2021 22:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

The Hermes Experiment make a welcome return after their sensational performance in last year’s Festival. With their unique, rich sound-world of voice, clarinet, harp and double bass, the ensemble performs works by Nicola LeFanu, Errollyn Wallen, Eleanor Alberga and others. They include a new work by Tom Coult (see Event 64), I Find Planets, with an unusual text based on the Twitterbot &ls...

Wednesday 20th October 2021

10:00 AM

77. Mastercourse: Day Three, Session One - Jacqueline du Pré Music Building & Holywell Music Room

Study Event Song Futures Song Connections - study events

20 Oct 2021 10:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Our mastercourse sessions are available to attend in person and online. This morning Jan Philip Schulze leads the session at the Holywell Music Room. Joan Rodgers will lead the session at the Jacqueline du Pré Building. Joan Rodger's session will be available to stream online from this page for free and NOT accessed through our Digital Concert ...

12:00 PM

78. Composer Conversation

20 Oct 2021 12:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

This event is a pre-concert talk which will be streamed online for free. Watch this conversation live at 12:00, or afterwards on demand. The livestream will be will be available to stream online from this page for free and NOT accessed through our Digital Concert Hall. SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE TO VIEW THE LIVESTREAM. For in-person audiences, this event is only available if you have ...

1:00 PM

79. Everything Grows Extravagantly

Lunchtime Song Futures

20 Oct 2021 13:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

Ahead of this event there is a free pre-concert talk for ticket holders. Click here for more details. We are thrilled to present Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s new song cycle, Everything Grows Extravagantly. The cycle is a co-commission between Oxford Lieder and the Oxford Botanic Garden in celebration of our 20th anniversary and the Garden’s 400th, and sets specially-written texts by p...

2:30 PM

80. Mastercourse: Day Three, Session Two - Jacqueline du Pré Music Building & Holywell Music Room

20 Oct 2021 14:30 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Our mastercourse sessions are available to attend in person and online. This afternoon Joan Rodgers leads the session at the Holywell Music Room. Jan Philip Schulze will lead the session at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building. Jan Philip Schulze's session will be available to stream online from this page for free and NOT accessed through ...

5:45 PM

82. Barcarolle

20 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Pianist Charles Owen has been described by Gramophone Magazine as ‘one of the finest pianists of his generation’, and this year he celebrates his 50th birthday with a series of concerts and recordings. His programme today includes Chopin’s Barcarolle, inspired by the songs of Venetian gondoliers, Schumann's Arabesque, and selections from Liszt’s&n...

8:15 PM

83. Gweneth Ann Rand: Four Last Songs

20 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 81. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. We welcome back Gweneth Ann Rand and Simon Lepper, whose 2019 Festival performance of Messiaen’s Harawi was described in The Observer as ‘technically brilliant, verbally agile and express...

10:00 PM

84. dream.risk.sing

20 Oct 2021 22:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

dream.risk.sing is a brilliantly conceived programme that elevates the voices of modern women, telling stories that are not traditionally related in song. It includes the world premiere of a new song cycle by composer Charlotte Bray and poet Nicki Jackowska, Crossing Faultlines, exploring women’s professional experiences of mentorship, discrimination and ambition. The concert also fe...

Thursday 21st October 2021

10:00 AM

85. Mastercourse: Day Four, Session One

Pre-concert Talks Study Event Song Connections - study events

21 Oct 2021 10:00 | Holywell Music Room

Today's mastercourse sessions are only available in person and not online. Both sessions are led by Joan Rodgers. Sixteen exceptional musicians at the outset of their careers are in residence for the second week of the Festival, working intensively to hone their skills as song performers. They study each day with the renowned soprano Joan Rodgers and a different guest ...

12:00 PM

86. Mahler's Huts

21 Oct 2021 12:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

This event is a pre-concert talk which will be streamed online for free. Watch this conversation live at 12:00, or afterwards on demand. The livestream will be available to view on this page for free (no ticket required) and NOT accessed through our Digital Concert Hall. SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE TO VIEW THE LIVESTREAM. For in-person audiences, this event is only available if yo...

1:00 PM

87. Nature's Songbook

21 Oct 2021 13:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

Ahead of this event there is a free pre-concert talk for ticket holders. Click here for more details. Regretfully, Anna Stéphany has withdrawn from this recital. We are grateful to the wonderful mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons for stepping in at short notice. Together with Sholto Kynoch, Marta peforms Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, his glorious settings of...

2:30 PM

88. Mastercourse: Day Four, Session Two

21 Oct 2021 14:30 | Holywell Music Room

6:15 PM

90. Choral Evensong at Merton College

Sacred music

21 Oct 2021 18:15 | Merton College Chapel

[youtube url=https://youtu.be/LF1oIK1SpRA] As part of their regular contributions to worship, the Choir of Merton College sing Choral Evensong, including a new set of Preces and Responses by Oxford Lieder’s Associate Composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad. Cheryl is also a Visiting Research Fellow at Merton College. Please note that this is a religious service, not a concert. Subj...

8:15 PM

91. Karthäuser/Loges/Asti: A Schumanniade

21 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 89. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. A top trio of artists perform songs and duets by Robert and Clara Schumann. The centrepiece of the programme is Robert Schumann’s Kerner Lieder, shared between both singers. ...

10:00 PM

92. Dirty Minds

21 Oct 2021 22:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

The ‘wonderfully luminous and captivating’ mezzo Olivia Vermeulen and distinguished pianist Jan Philip Schulze write of their Dirty Minds programme: ‘The topic: eroticism, lust, sex, power and violence, prostitution and murder, and all areas in the high-voltage field in between, set to music, complex and extremely topical… The fact that erotic abysses, desires...

Friday 22nd October 2021

10:00 AM

93. Mastercourse: Day Five, Session One - Jacqueline du Pré Music Building & Holywell Music Room

Pre-concert Talks Study Event Song Connections - study events

22 Oct 2021 10:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Our mastercourse sessions are available to attend in person and online. Today Sholto Kynoch leads both sessions at the Holywell Music Room. Joan Rodgers will lead both sessions at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building. Joan Rodger's morning session will be available to stream online from this page for free and NOT accessed through our ...

12:00 PM

94. Talk: Baudelaire at 200

22 Oct 2021 12:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

This event is a pre-concert talk which will be streamed online for free. Watch this conversation live at 12:00, or afterwards on demand. The livestream will be available to stream online from this page for free and NOT accessed through our Digital Concert Hall. SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE TO VIEW THE LIVESTREAM. Please refresh this page at 12:00 to view the livestream. For in...

1:00 PM

95. Baudelaire in Song

Lunchtime Song Futures

22 Oct 2021 13:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

Regretfully Mary Bevan has had to withdraw from this recital. We are delighted that Sophie Bevan will take her place for a programme that remains largely as previously advertised. Charles Baudelaire, born 200 years ago this year, was one of the most influential French poets, though perhaps not as prevalent in the song repertoire as might be expected. Today, we add to the canon of Baudel...

2:30 PM

96. Mastercourse: Day Five, Session Two - Jacqueline du Pré Music Building & Holywell Music Room

22 Oct 2021 14:30 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Our mastercourse sessions are available to attend in person and online. Today Sholto Kynoch leads both sessions at the Holywell Music Room. Joan Rodgers will lead both sessions at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building. Joan Rodger's afternoon session will be available to stream online from this page for free and NOT accessed through our Digital ...

5:45 PM

98. Songs of Innocence and Experience

Song Futures Rush Hour

22 Oct 2021 17:45 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Regretfully, James Gilchrist has had to withdraw from this recital. Since the advertised programme included the world premiere of a new commission by Eric McElroy, we have decided to postpone this performance. In its place, we are delighted to welcome back New Zealand baritone Julien Van Mellaerts, Winner of the 2017 Wigmore Hall / Kohn Foundation International Song Competition and t...

8:15 PM

99. Robin Tritschler: To the Distant Beloved

22 Oct 2021 20:15 | Saint John the Evangelist

All evening concerts this year are performed twice, at 5.30pm and 8.15pm. This 8.15pm performance is a repeat performance of Event 97. This performance will be in-person and livestreamed. Gramophone Magazine wrote last year of Robin Tritschler’s performance of Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte (‘To the distant beloved’) that ‘he com...

10:00 PM

100. Roderick Williams & Tom Randle: Singing Composers

Lunchtime Sacred music Song Futures

22 Oct 2021 22:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

Is this a world first? Two exceptional singers who are also widely admired composers perform a programme entirely of their own and each other’s music. This concert includes several world premiere performances and a number of duets. A thrilling way to draw our Late-Night Song Futures series to a close. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY Roderick perfoming Ireland at the Leeds Lieder Festival ...

Saturday 23rd October 2021

11:00 AM

101. Jonathan Dove: The Passing of the Year

23 Oct 2021 11:00 | Saint John the Evangelist

Regretfully, Nicky Spence has withdrawn from this performance. We are grateful to Ted Black for stepping in at short notice. The programme is unchanged. Jonathan Dove is one of today’s most celebrated composers and we are delighted not only to present a concert entirely of his music, but also to welcome him as the pianist for this concert. He will be joined by the tenor Ted Black for a...

2:00 PM

102. Mastercourse Recital

Lunchtime Mastercourse

23 Oct 2021 14:00 | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

The sixteen students who have been studying intensively across this week present their final concert, with a programme that is selected and introduced by course leader Joan Rodgers. This concert is always a highlight of the Festival. Those who have followed the students across the week will enjoy seeing their progress and in-depth learning. Equally, those who hear them for the first time will b...

8:15 PM

104. Christopher Maltman: Songs of Travel