Manuel de Falla, Bell’s telephone, rockets & Winnie the Pooh: The London Song Festival is ‘Reaching Out…’

E. H. Shepard – Illustration to page 3 of Winnie-the-Pooh (1926)

Nigel Foster’s London Song Festival is back this autumn with nine concerts from 5 November to 11 December under the banner of “Reaching Out to….” or “Reaching Back to…” a place or time in which imagination and longing flourish.

Anniversaries celebrated include the 150th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for the telephone, the centenary of the publication of A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, the centenary of the launch of the first liquid propelled rocket and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Manuel de Falla. Other themes include Ancient Greece, Fantasy & Magic, The Seven Ages of Man, and the Mystic East

Performers at the festival include Ellen Pearson (mezzo-soprano), Laurence Kilsby (tenor), Rachel Munro (soprano), Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano), Harriet Burns (soprano), George Robarts (baritone), Katie Bray (mezzo-soprano), Archie Inns (tenor), Lorena Paz Nieto (soprano), Michel de Souza (baritone), Erika Baikoff (soprano), Jonathan Eyers (baritone), Natalka Pasicznyk (soprano), Sian Sulke (mezzo-soprano), along with winners of the 2025 London Song Festival Schubert Song Prize, Siri Bengtsson Marklund (soprano) and Bohdana Ravliuk (piano), and the winners of the inaugural SWAP’ra Rebecca Clarke Pianist Prize, Jasmin Alpress and Alfred Fardell who curate a programme with the singers with whom they won the prize, Gabriella Noble (mezzo-soprano), Archie Inns (tenor).

Music included moves between the known and the unknown, including Erich Wolff, Arthur Somervell, Florence Price, Harold Fraser-Simpson, Nadia Boulanger, Albert Roussel, Marguerite Canal, Armande de Polignac, Rebecca Clarke, Constant Lambert, Granville Bantock and Charles Griffes, along with contemporary composer Edward Picton-Turberville. 

A particular highlight is the focus on Manuel de Falla on 26 November, when his songs will be paired with songs inspired by Spain, but written by non-Spanish composers including Wolf, Schumann, Adolf Jensen, Ravel, Jacques Ibert, Honegger, Louis Albert, Delibes, William Walton, Frederick Keel, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.