Cheltenham Music Festival has announced a “vibrant, energising programme of real breadth, depth and quality” to celebrate 80 years of championing, cultivating and inspiring classical music in the UK and worldwide – and look towards an exciting, expanding future.
Some of the biggest names in classical music will appear for Cheltenham’s special year, which features large-scale orchestral performances of music from Mozart and Mahler to Bach and Berlioz. Dame Sarah Connolly DBE, Braimah and Isata Kanneh-Mason, Gerald Finley and Dame Imogen Cooper DBE will perform across the Festival’s multiple venues, joining exciting and fresh voices such as the “refined” trumpeter Aaron Akugbo, the “incredibly vital” string ensemble Vision String Quartet, and “virtuoso” guitarist Alexandra Whittingham.
The Festival’s parent charity, Cheltenham Festivals – responsible for the world-renowned Literature, Music, Science and Jazz Festivals and their associated learning and outreach programmes – is celebrating its 80th birthday by pledging to give 80,000 children access to the arts throughout the year. 2025’s Cheltenham Music Festival will focus more than ever on transformative musical experiences, reaching new and bigger audiences, and enthusing and engaging the next generation of children.
In a reaffirmation of the longstanding relationship with BBC Radio 3, the Festival will go live to the whole nation, hosting for the first time a broadcast of the banner programme Friday Night Is Music Night. The season will close with a concert by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales that will include a performance of the piece that opened the first Festival in 1945, Elgar’s Enigma Variations. The programme also includes recitals from three BBC New Generation Artists – pianist Giorgi Gigashvili, tenor Santiago Sanchez and accordionist Ryan Corbett.
Cheltenham will continue to push at the boundaries of classical performance, too, with a concert from Senegalese master kora player Seckou Keita, a recital from renowned purveyors of the “Medieval Mediterranean” repertoire the Idrîsî Ensemble, and the return of now-annual highlight, the engaging, collaborative and informal Mixtape.
Renewing a Legacy
Established in 1945 in the months following the Second World War, Cheltenham Music Festival was part of a postwar arts festival movement that also saw the launch of the Festival of Britain and Edinburgh International Festival. Ever since, it has aimed to bring together musicians and audiences to honour classical music’s heritage – and in its 80th year the Festival will focus more than ever on its future, too.
The 2025 programme features performances of pieces by Edward Elgar and Benjamin Britten that also featured in those first concerts. At the same time, it consciously celebrates the diversity and vibrancy of the contemporary scene while forging exciting links between professionals and audiences, veterans and new voices, and performance and participation. With two Concerts for Schools – including one specifically designed for pupils with special and educational development needs (SEND) pupils – and a Relaxed Concert for Families with additional needs, all audiences of every age will be made welcome.
The season is the first to be programmed by the Festival’s new Artistic Director, Jack Bazalgette. “It has been a huge honour to put together this celebration of 80 years of classical music at Cheltenham,” he says.
“The guiding light has been to return to what has always made Cheltenham great – its focus on new work, on celebrating musicians, and on the highest quality of recitals – while also centring outreach and participation. The result is a vibrant, energising programme of real breadth, depth and quality.”
Bazalgette continues: “Our goal is to create a real buzz at Cheltenham and renew its legacy as a centre for classical music in the UK.”
A new ensemble formed from existing local groups for the 80th year is a case in point: the Cheltenham Festival Orchestra will perform alongside tenor James Gilchrist and the Cheltenham Bach Choir, with David Crown conducting a performance of Mozart’s Requiem. This focus on creating a space for music and musicians of all kinds to collaborate in Cheltenham is echoed in the inclusion of the local South Cotswold Big Sing Group in a performance at Gloucester Cathedral of Berlioz’s Te Deum, which will also feature the highly respected British Sinfonietta and mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly.
New Work and Fresh Voices
New commissions for the Festival include a string octet by Deborah Pritchard to be performed on the season’s first day by the Britten Sinfonia ahead of work by Mozart and Mendelssohn, and a piece by Anna Semple with which the BBC National Orchestra of Wales will close the Festival. Songs for the Earth will also perform specially written pieces at Cheltenham, expanding their repertoire of folk, jazz and classical fusion to treat audiences to a meditation on music and nature.
The Festival has always held a special place for rising stars, too. Violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason, cellist Hadewych van Gent and Classic FM Rising Star guitarist Plínio Fernandes will collaborate as a trio to perform music by Bloch and Bach. Alexandra Whittingham, named by The Guardian as “a young 21st-century virtuoso”, will showcase her affinity for Romantic guitar. Aaron Akugbo and Zeynep Özsuca will together demonstrate why they have developed a reputation for groundbreaking treatments of Mahler, Boulanger, Honegger and more.
In 2025, Cheltenham also welcomes classical traditions from further afield, with the Senegalese kora master Seckou Keita making a special visit. This virtuoso of the West African tradition will demonstrate how the music intersects with neighbouring African and European forms. Elsewhere on the programme, the Idrîsî Ensemble will bring to life UNESCO-protected and endangered traditions from across the Mediterranean.
Big Names and Beloved Repertoire
As always at Cheltenham, important performances of canonical works feature heavily. Dame Imogen Cooper DBE will perform the final three of Beethoven’s piano sonatas at the Festival’s celebrated Pittville Pump Room, drawing on a lifetime of reflection on the great Romantic composer to produce a performance of rare depth and sensitivity.
Elsewhere, returning favourite Pavel Kolesnikov will perform his unique interpretation of Bach’s beloved Goldberg Variations, which has seen five-star reviews in The Guardian,The Arts Desk and The Telegraph. The Gesualdo Six will perform their acclaimed settings of the work of Glenn Gould’s favourite composer, the Jacobean virginalist Orlando Gibbons.
A unique concert for Cheltenham will be the Vision Quartet’s characteristically vibrant performance of pieces from Weber, Ravel and Dvořákfrom memory. Described by Der Tagesspiegel as “vivid and electrifying”, this special recital has been prepared and committed to memory by the Quartet especially for the Festival’s 80th year.
With a lecture on Berlioz from Professor John Pickard of the University of Bristol ahead of the Te Deum at Gloucester Cathedral, the Mozart’s Requiem at Cheltenham Town Hall, and the climactic tributes to Britten and Elgar by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, lovers of the canon will be spoiled for choice at this year’s Festival.
A Focus on Community
The quality of the offering at Cheltenham proceeds hand-in-hand with a commitment to learning and participation as well as outreach. This year sees the return of the Festival’s acclaimed Concert for Schools and Relaxed Concert for Schools – for mainstream primaries and pupils with special educational needs and disabilities respectively. The fourth year of these concerts at Cheltenham will see around 800 young people attend in many cases their first classical concert.
A Relaxed Concert for Families is new for 2025,marking the first time that Cheltenham Festivals will deliver an event intended specifically for families with at least one member who has a special and educational needs or disability. Over 200 children, families and carers will be able to access music in this relaxed and inclusive environment, in an event made possible by a partnership with the financial planning firm Attivo, whose support is enabling the charity to expand its SEND programming across its Festivals in 2025.
“We’ve learned over the last four years how to host truly accessible classical performances,” says Philippa Claridge, the Festival’s Learning & Participation Manager. “We’re so excited to bring our Relaxed series to the public programme – our goal is to bring the joy of music to everyone.”
With a free …around town programme strand packing out venues across the town, emerging ensembles welcomed onto the largest Festival stages, and a continued commitment to the critical role of learning and participation, Cheltenham is in its 80th year re-asserting itself as one of the critical national centres for the form.
“Our 80th year showcases every aspect of what still makes Cheltenham Music Festival special today,” concludes Bazalgette.
“This is the first of a three-year project to put Cheltenham on a forward-facing footing that will ensure it remains at the leading edge of British classical music. Across that period, our Composer Academy strand will return; our education efforts will expand; and our commitment to classical music will never waver.
“We’ve always been home to concerts of the highest quality, interpretations of foundational works in the music, brand new commissions and unique performances, collaborations between established figures and the newest names, along with a commitment to inspiring new audiences and the next generation.
“We’re renewing that legacy in 2025 with a birthday party to be proud of, where everyone is welcome!”
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