Join us this October as Oxford Lieder, the UK’s biggest festival of song, marks its 20th year with its most ambitious programme to date.
This year’s Festival features more than 100 events, both in-person with a socially distanced audience and livestreamed online, building on the success of two previous online festivals.
World-class singers and pianists, alongside emerging stars, take to the stage for song recitals, complemented by piano, chamber and choral works and several world premieres.
An extensive series of Song Connections events forges links between music, poetry, nature, art, language and science, ensuring multiple access points to the world of song
Streaming tickets start at just £3, with a full Festival streaming pass, providing online access to every event, offering exceptional value at £165.
'All song lovers should buy a pass for the Oxford Lieder Festival... varied, rewarding, engaging.' The Observer, 2021
Saturday 9th October
10:00 PM
12. Mélodies on Tour
- Anne Le Bozec
- Adèle Charvet
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
10:00 PM
18. Stenhammar's Contemporaries
- Maria Forsström
- Matti Hirvonen
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! PRA...Tuesday 12th October
10:00 PM
30. Isolation Songbook
- Helen Charlston
- Alexander Soares
- Michael Craddock
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
10:00 PM
36. Natural World
- Mark Knoop
- Juliet Fraser
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
10:00 PM
42. Brief Encounter
- Fleur Barron
- Natalie Burch
- Dominic Sedgwick
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
10:00 PM
49. wom3n
- Sholto Kynoch
- Rowan Hellier
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
10:00 PM
55. In search of Youkali
- William Vann
- Katie Bray
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. PRACTICAL INFORMAT...Tuesday 19th October
10:00 PM
76. I Find Planets
- Hermes Experiment
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
10:00 PM
84. dream.risk.sing
- Lana Bode
- Samantha Crawford
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
10:00 PM
92. Dirty Minds
- Olivia Vermeulen
- Jan Philip Schulze
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
10:00 PM
100. Singing Composers
- Sholto Kynoch
- Roderick Williams
- Tom Randle
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. PRACTICAL INFORMATION This event is an in-person and livestreamed even...