Oxford International Song Festival – Stories in Song
Oxford International Song Festival announces a thrilling and ambitious fortnight of song, with storytelling at its heart. Across 67 events, audiences can explore stories in many different forms, from fairytales and ballads to the human and artistic relationships behind the songs, to the developing stories of national song traditions. Alongside headline recitals given by world-leading artists, there are lunchtime, rush-hour and late-night concerts and study events, and the cornucopia of songs is complemented by choral music, dance, chamber works, and talks.
Benjamin Appl gives the opening-night recital on 10 October and is Artist in Residence on the opening weekend. Other singers appearing include Helen Charlston, Stéphane Degout, Marie-Laure Garnier, Dietrich Henschel, Christian Immler, Konstantin Krimmel, Stephan Loges, Henk Neven, Camilla Tilling, Olivia Vermeulen, and Roderick Williams. They are joined by pianists James Baillieu, Célia Oneto Bensaid, Anne Le Bozec, Cédric Tiberghien and many others, including Oxford Song’s Artistic Director Sholto Kynoch.
Sir John Tomlinson appears at the Festival for the first time, giving a performance of John Casken’s award-winning The Shackled King. Soraya Mafi gives the world premiere of Book of Queens by Oxford Song’s Associate Composer, Emily Hazrati. A new production based on the Slavic legend of Baba Yaga, devised and performed by mezzo-soprano Rowan Hellier, includes the world premiere of Nice Weather for Witches by Elena Langer, and features two dancers choreographed by Andreas Heise. Baba Yaga will also appear in a partnership event with the Crick Crack Club, the UK’s busiest and boldest performance storytelling ensemble. As part of a day exploring Irish songs, Lotte Betts-Dean and Deirdre Brenner perform The Magdalene Songs, a bold new cycle of songs exploring the appalling injustices of the Magdalene Laundries.
The central weekend of the Festival (17 to 20 October) is devoted to the songs of Franz Schubert. Graham Johnson continues his seminal survey of the composer’s final years, 200 years on. Roderick Williams will perform his own arrangement of Die schöne Müllerin with the Carducci String Quartet, and Thomas Oliemans will perform Schwanengesang with pianist Paolo Giacometti. Rising star soprano Nikola Hillebrand gives her debut at the Festival with pianist Julius Drake, and the effervescent Erlkings celebrate their tenth anniversary with a new arrangement of Winterreise in their uniquely brilliant style.
A day of Spanish and Latin American songs features the Uruguayan-Spanish tenor Santiago Sanchéz, a BBC New Generation Artist, as well as two study events, a recital of Catalan song, ‘Cubaroque’ with tenor Nicholas Mulroy and lutenists Elizabeth Kenny and Toby Carr, and a late-night Tango performance with Bandoneon virtuoso Victor Villena. Natasha Loges explores the rich legacy of composers from around the globe who studied in Europe and were drawn to the combination of voice and piano, and integrated Western idioms into vernacular languages, harmonies and rhythms. Philip Ross Bullock marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Dmitri Shostakovich.
Kitty Whately and Simon Lepper perform a programme of fairytales with live illustration by artist James Mayhew. An atmospheric late-night Halloween concert at New College Chapel is devised by Aphrodite Patoulidou and Keval Shah. The Choir of Merton College sings Duruflé’s Requiem. Other instrumentalists include the Castalian and Consone string quartets, guitarist Dimitris Soukaras, lutenist Kristiina Watt and Irish fiddle player Zoë Conway. Eight showcase recitals are given by Oxford Song’s Young Artists: exceptional early-career duos completing an 18-month programme of training and performance.
Thousands of tickets are available for £18 or less, with discounts for anyone coming to five or more events, and there are £10 tickets for under-35s to all events, as well as an evening concert with ‘pay what you can’ tickets.
Audiences from across the globe come to Oxford every autumn for the world-class quality of the Festival and for the city’s unique atmosphere. Much of the Festival takes place in the Holywell Music Room – Europe’s oldest purpose-built concert hall – with other stunning venues including the historic chapels of New College and Merton College, the Levine Building in Trinity College and the Olivier Hall at St Edward’s School.
Public booking for the Oxford International Song Festival opens Friday 16 May.
Book tickets online here or call the Box Office on 01865 591276 (Mon-Fri 9am-1pm).