Season Previews

Season Previews from around the world

Edinburgh International Festival 2025 – 1 to 24 August

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Edinburgh International Festival 2025
Breaks Boundaries in a Year Exploring ‘The Truth We Seek’

[l-r] Laura Beth Salter (Kinnaris Quintet), Festival Director Nicola Benedetti and Mia Habis (Dance People) © Laurence Winram

eif.co.uk / @edintfest

Edinburgh International Festival’s 2025 programme offers opportunities to experience world-class artists in thought-provoking and unconventional ways – including an eight-hour choral extravaganza, a distinctive outdoor promenade dance piece and a circus infused opera. Audiences can also get involved in many Festival performances, from an outdoor mass-singalong to interactive concerts where the audience chooses the repertoire.

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Bampton Classical Opera in 2025

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BAMPTON CLASSICAL OPERA 2025
Antonio Salieri La locandiera (‘The Landlady’) (1773)

Performances:
The Deanery Garden, Bampton, Oxfordshire: Friday 18, Saturday 19 July
Westonbirt School, Gloucestershire: Monday 25 August
The Barn at Old Walland, Wadhurst, Sussex: Saturday 6 September
Smith Square Hall, London SW1: Tuesday 16 September

For more information CLICK HERE.

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Shostakovich Festival Leipzig 2025 – 15 May to 1 June

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Shostakovich Festival Leipzig 2025

A tradition established by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra has been two-yearly festivals devoted to a single composer; these have been dedicated to Gustav Mahler, Felix Mendelssohn and J S Bach in recent years, and marking the fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s passing in 1975 Dmitry Shostakovich is to be the subject in a two-week festival covering almost all of his works. Dmitry Shostakovich visited the city of Leipzig several times in his career – the first time was for the Bach Festival in 1950, and he composed his Eighth String Quartet in the town of Görlitz in Saxony. His score for the feature film about the bombing of Dresden Five Days and Nights was composed after visiting the bombed city of Dresden. The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra gave the German premiere of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony under the baton of Fritz Konwitschny in Leipzig.

This portrayal of Shostakovich’s works will be between 15 May and 1 June in a festival featuring all fifteen symphonies and string quartets in what will be one of the most comprehensive examinations of the works of the great composer.

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The Barbican’s classical music season for 2025-2026

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The Barbican has announced its forthcoming season of classical music from September 2025 – July 2026

The season will champion new and radical performances, spotlighting diverse and groundbreaking artists whose work is profoundly engaged with the issues of the day. Across 2025 and 2026, there will be premieres from Bushra El-Turk, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Catherine Lamb, Blasio Kavuma, Tansy Davies, and Tyshawn Sorey among others, with performances by Davóne Tines, Seth Parker Woods, Compagnie Amala Dianor, Theatre of Kiribati and many more. The season will also feature Fragile Earth – a series of events that focus on our relationship with the natural world, including UK premieres of work by Julia Wolfe and Lemi Ponifasio. Alongside these will sit international ensembles, artist residencies, and major anniversaries showcasing the widest possible spectrum of classical music – from beloved favourites to groundbreaking new music, from internationally-renowned artists to rising stars.

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Music at Paxton festival – 18 to 27 July 2025

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MUSIC AT PAXTON FESTIVAL 2025

Music at Paxton festival unveils a dazzling programme of world class music with a truly global flavour from Friday 18 – Sunday 27 July 2024, Music at Paxton presents 10 days of glorious international music at Paxton House on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders. The 2025 festival comprises 24 events and concerts from international, national and local artists in the famous Paxton House Picture Gallery, hung high with paintings from the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection. Following on from the success of last year, the festival ventures beyond the grounds of Paxton House for concerts in Norham, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Duns.

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The Royal Ballet and Opera in 2025-26

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The Royal Ballet and Opera announces 2025/26 Season

Royal Opera’s first Season with new Music Director Jakub Hrůša featuring eight new opera productions

RBO/Shift – a new festival exploring the ever-evolving intersection between opera and technology

Royal Ballet world premieres by Wayne McGregor, Cathy Marston, Akram Khan and choreographic duo Sol León and Paul Lightfoot

First Royal Ballet presentation of work by Justin Peck

Tickets from £5 on sale from 2 July 2025
For more information click here

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Jerusalem Quartet’s Cleveland Chamber Music Society Shostakovich string quartet cycle

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Jerusalem Quartet brings Shostakovich’s string quartet cycle to Cleveland

Jerusalem Quartet © Felix Broede

The mightiest string quartet cycle of the twentieth century is rarely encountered live. Indeed, it is probable that a complete cycle of the quartets of the formidable Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) has never before been presented in the American Midwest. That is changing this month when the Jerusalem Quartet brings these intense, epic works to the Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art for a five-concert series.

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Royal Scottish National Orchestra in 2025-26

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RSNO Launches 2025/26 Concert Season

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) launches its 2025:26 Concert Season, featuring Scottish talent, contemporary composers and new commissions.

The 2025/26 Season explores brand new music, celebrates living composers and brings old favourites to communities all across Scotland under the artistic leadership of Music Director Thomas Søndergård.

Music Director Thomas Søndergård continues his epic Mahler cycle
Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Hahn swaps podium for piano
Anthony Parnther joins as Featured Artist for 2025:26 Season
Celebrating the sounds and sights of home
Committed to new works and contemporary voices
Red carpet rolled out with RSNO at the Movies

For more information click here

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