This year, Oxford International Song Festival marks its 25th anniversary with to weeks of concerts (from 9 to 24 October 2026) under the title of Love Songs, featuring 59 events. The Festival opens with a recital by Dame Sarah Connolly, also marking the Festival’s first event at the newly opened Schwarzman Centre, and the following day baritone Matthias Goerne makes his Festival debut with Schubert’s Winterreise.
The festival finale features a celebratory pair of events at St Edward’s School. In the chapel, Owen Rees and the Choir of the Queen’s College give a programme focusing on the Song of Songs with music by Palestrina, Walton, Duruflé, Victoria, Holst and Lauridsen. Then in the evening, in the Olivier Hall, a celebratory concert opens with the premiere of Marriage of…?, a new work by the festival’s associate composer Emily Hazrati and librettist Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambahksh performed by soprano Nardus Williams. The choir returns to join soloists for Debussy’s La Damoiselle élue, and there are songs and ensembles by Schubert, Chaminade, Bolcom and Brahms performed by Nardus Williams, mezzo-soprano Katie Bray, tenor Stuart Jackson, baritone Rafael Fingerlos, and pianists Jocelyn Freeman and Sholto Kynoch.
Premieres at the festival include soprano Nardus Williams in . Soprano Katy Thomson and pianist Rustam Khanmurzin premiere a new work by John Webb exploring the corrupting nature of power. Soprano Anna Dennis and pianist John Reid present The Silent Songs of Josefine, a new Kafka-inspired work by Can Bilir. Soprano Louise Alder and Joseph Middleton explore the passing of the year in a programme featuring Helen Grime’s Seasons, written for them in 2025.
The Festival’s central weekend is devoted to the music of Franz Schubert, with Graham Johnson continuing his exploration of the composer’s final years, 200 years on. Other performances include soprano Camilla Tilling in Schubert’s Rückert settings and mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston in Die Schöne Müllerin, both with Sholto Kynoch; and soprano Sarah Maria Sun in Der Hirt auf dem Felsen with pianist Jan Philip Schulze and clarinettist Julian Bliss.
The New Generation Day showcases three concerts in partnership with the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, all recorded for future broadcast. Performers include baritone Andrew Hamilton and pianist Michael Pandya; soprano Erika Baikoff with Sholto Kynoch; and Konstantin Krimmel with Ammiel Bushakevitz, presenting a programme that includes Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel. Eight Oxford Song Young Artist duos each give short showcase slots at the start of headline evening recitals in the first week of the Festival. In the second week, they immerse themselves in the residential Mastercourse, led by Jan Philip Schulze, with daily public masterclasses.
Pianist Dame Imogen Cooper performs Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with soprano Katharina Ruckgaber and baritone Johannes Kammler as part of her final concert season before retirement. Juliane Banse returns with pianist Alexander Krichel, dancer István Simon and choreographer Andreas Heise for Bliss Beside Us, a danced performance of Mozart songs and piano music. The Carducci String Quartet performs Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with Julian Bliss and Alec Roth’s Seven Elements with tenor James Gilchrist. Other instrumentalists at the festival include guitarists Bryan Brenner and Václav Fuksa, and accordionist Murray Grainger.
Full details from the festival’s website.
