Wigmore Hall Reveals 2024/25 Concert Season & Launches the Director's Fund

Wigmore Hall Director John Gilhooly has announced the 2024/25 Season. With more than 550 concerts, featuring more than 2,600 musicians, spanning September 2024 to July 2025, Wigmore Hall presents the largest classical music programme in the UK.

The Director’s Fund, which is also launched today, is Wigmore Hall’s most ambitious investment in its future – with £7 million pledged. In the face of an uncertain public funding environment for classical music in the UK, the Director’s Fund has been set up to invest in future generations of artists at every stage of their careers, innovative independent programming and an uncompromising quality of experience.

Highlights of the 2024/25 Season include:

More than 30 world and UK premières by composers including Master of the King’s Music Judith Weir, Peter Eötvös, Helen Grime, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Caroline Shaw, whose new song cycle takes its inspiration from Jorge Luis Borges’s 1941 short story The Library of Babel

Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood plays the ondes Martenot, collaborating with violinist Daniel Pioro

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and pianists Isata Kanneh-Mason and Jeneba Kanneh-Mason perform together – and individually

Major centenary celebration of Gabriel Fauré featuring violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Steven Isserlis, soprano Véronique Gens, jazz pianist Brad Mehldau and Le Concert Spirituel

20-year-old Yunchan Lim, the world’s most sought-after young pianist, returns to Wigmore Hall as do Martha Argerich, Leif Ove Andsnes, Richard Goode, Benjamin Grosvenor, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Víkingur Ólafsson and Sir András Schiff

Residencies by violinist Vilde Frang, cellist Gary Hoffman, guitarist Sean Shibe, tenor Nicky Spence and oboist Olivier Stankiewicz

Cutting edge new music performed by Ensemble Klang, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, JACK Quartet, Manchester Collective and O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra

John Gilhooly, Artistic and Executive Director of Wigmore Hall said, ‘After a challenging post-pandemic period, I am pleased that ticket sales increased 28% over the past season. Audiences have now exceeded pre-pandemic levels, the highest in the 123-year history of the hall. It is against this backdrop that we are launching the Director’s Fund, Wigmore Hall’s statement of intent to secure the future of chamber music in the UK and for the Hall itself. With £7 million already pledged, we are aiming to reach at least £10 million by 2027, with ambitions to reach £20 million within a decade. We are currently 97% self-funded; this target will allow Wigmore Hall to become 100% self-sufficient, if necessary. We will continue to nurture and develop talented musicians and to present a diverse classical music programme of a calibre and scale that our audiences from around the world have come to love and expect.’

NEW MUSIC, PREMIÈRES AND COMMISSIONS

Wigmore Hall’s 2024/25 Composer in Residence is the 41-year-old American Caroline Shaw, four-time Grammy Award winner and the youngest ever recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, at age 30. Two Wigmore Hall-commissioned works receive their world premières: a choral work, performed and written for Dunedin Consort (23 Dec 2024) and a major new song cycle inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’s 1941 short story, The Library of Babel, on International Women’s Day (8 Mar 2025), written in collaboration between Shaw and American singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane.

More than 30 new works are premièred at Wigmore Hall during the 2024/25 Season, underscoring the Hall’s dedication to commissioning and programming new music. The second string quartet by Judith Weir, Master of the King’s Music, receives its UK première by the Leonkoro Quartet (21 Nov 2024), winners of the 2022 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition.

Contemporary music ensemble The Hermes Experiment premières a new work by the Indian-American vocalist and composer Shruthi Rajasekar (23 Nov 2024), as part of Wigmore Hall’s ‘Voices of Today’ commission series, launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. The other four premières from the series this season are by Alexander Campkin (28 Sep 2024), Alex Tay (22 Feb 2025), Katherine Balch (3 May 2025) and Alex Paxton (28 June 2025).

Vocalist Elaine Mitchener premières a major new composition by Jamaican composer Mikhail Johnson with The Hague-based Ensemble Klang (5 Feb 2025), making its Wigmore Hall debut, while Birmingham Contemporary Music Group performs the English language première of Peter Eötvös’s Secret Kiss and the London première of Harrison Birtwistle’s …when falling asleep (26 Nov 2024).

O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra performs arrangements of songs by Sting, Pink Floyd, Nirvana and Radiohead alongside music by Benjamin Britten and Philip Glass (25 Sep 2024). Violinist Daniel Pioro collaborates with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood on the ondes Martenot performing their own music alongside works by David Lang, Olivier Messiaen, Cassandra Miller, Arvo Pärt and Kaija Saariaho (17 Sep 2024).

GABRIEL FAURÉ CENTENARY

Marking the centenary of Gabriel Fauré’s death, a nine-concert series opens with a major song gala featuring soprano Véronique Gens, mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, tenor Laurence Kilsby, and baritone Stéphane Degout (13 Sep 2024). Tenor Cyrille Dubois begins a complete cycle of Fauré’s songs, spanning five seasons, the first time a single vocalist has tackled this entire oeuvre (28 Oct 2024), and cellist Steven Isserlis leads an immersive exploration of Fauré’s chamber music across five concerts featuring violinist Joshua Bell and others (1-5 Nov 2024). Le Concert Spirituel performs Fauré’s Requiem at St James’s, Spanish Place (22 Nov 2024), while jazz pianist Brad Mehldau delves into Fauré’s influence on his own creativity with 'Après Fauré' (9 Feb 2025).

PIANO AND HARPSICHORD

Throughout the 2024/25 Season, Wigmore Hall presents 95 solo and duo recitals by pianists ranging from the most sought-after young stars to established masters including Leif Ove Andsnes (12 Jan 2025), Richard Goode (7 May 2025), Benjamin Grosvenor (24 May 2025), Yunchan Lim (7 & 8 Apr 2025), Víkingur Ólafsson (12 & 13 April 2025) and Sir András Schiff (6 & 8 Nov 2024, 7 & 9 Jun 2025).

Autumn begins with a two-week celebration of the piano including Elisabeth Leonskaja performing Schubert’s last three piano sonatas (29 Sep 2024), Jeneba Kanneh-Mason with Skryabin and Chopin (26 Sep 2024), Chopin miniatures from Pavel Kolesnikov (22 Sep 2024), and a Polish-themed recital by the Swedish pianist Peter Jablonski (21 Sep 2024).

Boris Giltburg follows in the footsteps of Sir András Schiff and Igor Levit when he becomes the latest pianist to undertake a complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle at Wigmore Hall, across eight concerts (beginning 15 Sep 2024) and Tim Horton contrasts Chopin's works with those of his contemporaries across three concerts. (11 Dec 2024, 5 Mar & 17 Jun 2025).

The season also features recitals from harpsichordists Mahan Esfahani (27 Feb 2025), Jean Rondeau (4 Oct 2024) and Justin Taylor (7 Dec 2023).

CHAMBER AND INSTRUMENTAL

Highlights of Wigmore Hall’s starry line-up of instrumental concerts include cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason accompanied at the piano by his sister Isata Kanneh-Mason (26 Apr 2025); cellist Mischa Maisky performing with pianist Martha Argerich (6 Feb 2025); and violinist Hilary Hahn, cellist Gautier Capuçon and pianist Rudolf Buchbinder performing Schubert’s two piano trios (11 Nov 2024).

Violinist Leila Josefowicz returns with Charlotte Bray’s Mriya, a 2022 commission by Wigmore Hall (21 Sep 2024). Violinist Elena Urioste and pianist Tom Poster perform two works by Dora Pejačević, the Croatian Countess whose music, largely forgotten after her death, is being rediscovered (8 Dec 2024).

The Takács Quartet performs the London première of a new work by Nokuthula Ngwenyama, the American-born Ndebele-Japanese composer (14 Dec 2024). The Jerusalem Quartet performs all of Shostakovich’s string quartets across five concerts (23 & 24 Feb, 1-3 Jun 2025).

SONG

Throughout the 2024/25 Season, pianist Julius Drake explores the songs of Mendelssohn and Liszt over five concerts with singers including Julian Prégardien, Lucy Crowe, Miah Persson, Anna Lucia Richter, Nicky Spence and Roderick Williams.

Wigmore Hall continues to preserve and celebrate the rich Lieder tradition collaborating with the world’s great Lieder singers. Tenor Julian Prégardien performs Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin with Sir András Schiff on fortepiano (8 Nov 2024), whilst Hugo Wolf’s complete Italienisches Liederbuch is performed by baritone Huw Montague Rendall and soprano Erin Morley with pianist Malcolm Martineau (19 Nov 2024). Dame Sarah Connolly and Dame Imogen Cooper (16 Nov 2024) perform Carl Loewe’s settings of Adelbert von Chamisso’s 1830 poems, Frauen-Liebe und Leben, better known in the settings by Robert Schumann, which form the basis of a late-night concert by tenor Nicky Spence (20 Jun 2025). One of today’s most celebrated Lieder duos, baritone Christian Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber give four Schumann programmes (16 & 19 Dec 2024 and 24 & 27 Apr 2025).

This season also features recitals from sopranos Malin Byström (30 Sep 2024), Gweneth Ann Rand (22 Jul 2025) and Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (26 Jul 2025) as well as mezzo-sopranos Joyce DiDonato (28 Mar 2025), Elīna Garanča (23 & 25 May 2025), Ema Nikolovska (4 Jan & 1 Jul 2025) and Anne Sofie Von Otter (11 Oct 2024).

EARLY MUSIC AND BAROQUE

Solomon’s Knot, Wigmore Hall’s Baroque Ensemble in Residence, brings its immersive performance style to two giants of the choral repertoire, Monteverdi’s Vespers (12 Oct 2024) and Bach’s St John Passion (26 Feb 2025).

Jordi Savall gives two performances with the ensemble he founded 50 years ago, Hespèrion XXI (18 & 19 Dec 2024), and Ton Koopman celebrates his 80th birthday performing with Soloists of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (29 Nov 2024).

Following their outstandingly well-received New Years Eve concert last year, Les Arts Florissants and William Christie return for two concerts (11 Feb & 16 Apr 2025).

ARTIST RESIDENCIES

Guitarist Sean Shibe opens a three-concert Residency (19 Sep 2024, 14 Feb and 29 May 2025) with a programme running from Bach to Thomas Adès by way of Paraguayan guitar legend Barrios Mangoré’s tour de force La Catedral, Villa-Lobos and Mompou.

Tenor Nicky Spence presents a series of concerts and masterclasses opening with Shakespearean-themed repertoire (29 Dec 2024) and closing with a programme built around Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben and a woman’s relationship with her gay best friend (20 Jun 2025).

Violinist Vilde Frang explores rare 20th Century duos (20 Feb 2025) and performs Schumann’s three Piano Trios (24 Jun 2025) and Olivier Stankiewicz, the London Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Oboe, begins his Residency with chamber works by Martinů, Poulenc and Prokofiev (10 Nov 2024). Cellist Gary Hoffman performs a rare sonata by Léon Boëllmann in the first of three concerts (6 Dec 2024) and the Smetana Trio, founded by pianist Josef Páleníček 90 years ago, offers three predominantly Czech programmes (27 Oct 2024, 6 Jan & 16 Jun 2025).

JAZZ AND SPECIAL EVENTS

American pianist, composer, bandleader and educator Emmet Cohen began playing jazz as a teenager. His famous Live from Emmet’s Place streamed concerts won him the Jazz Journalist Association Award for Live-Stream Producer of the Year, as well as Pianist of the Year in 2023. The Emmet Cohen Trio makes its Wigmore Hall debut (10 Dec 2024) and Cuban-born pianist and composer Harold López-Nussa also makes his debut at the Hall (22 Oct 2024). There are welcome return visits from sarod master Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and his virtuosic sons, giving three concerts on 12 Jul 2025, and Nitin Sawhney who performs on 23 Jul 2025.

A.N. Wilson’s new biography Goethe: His Faustian Life (Bloomsbury, Continuum) is launched at Wigmore Hall with Faustian-themed music from pianist Sir Stephen Hough, and Graham Johnson with soprano Manon Ogwen Parry, mezzo-soprano Alice Coote, tenor Seb Hill and baritone Tomas Kildišius (20 Sep 2024). Award-winning writer and broadcaster Kate Kennedy launches her new book Cello: A Journey Through Silence to Sound (Bloomsbury, Apollo) with a blend of narrative and music by composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, performed by cellist Natalie Clein (29 Sep 2024).

WIGMORE HALL/BBC RADIO 3 MONDAY LUNCHTIME CONCERTS

Every Monday at 1pm Wigmore Hall/BBC Radio 3 Monday Lunchtime concerts are broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, with a broad range of performers, from BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists – some of the world’s finest young singers, instrumentalists and ensembles at the start of their international careers – to the biggest names in classical music. The 2024/25 Season will include mezzo-soprano Alice Coote, viola player Tabea Zimmerman, cellists Anastasia Kobekina and Sol Gabetta, pianists Alim Beisembayev and Elisabeth Leonskaja, violinist Viktoria Mullova, vocal ensemble The Cardinall's Musick, and many more.

60 YEARS OF THE NASH ENSEMBLE

Marking its 60th anniversary this season, the Nash Ensemble has performed regularly at Wigmore Hall since 1968, becoming Chamber Ensemble in Residence in 2010. Its flexible ensemble format has allowed composers to produce hugely creative and experimental scores for the Nash, which has commissioned nearly 250 new pieces of music over the past six decades and has given more than 300 premières. Celebrating this milestone, composers Julian Anderson (5 Oct 2024), Mark-Anthony Turnage (14 Dec 2024), David Matthews (11 Jan 2025), John Casken, Helen Grime, Simon Holt, Colin Matthews and Huw Watkins (all on 18 Mar 2025) have crafted new pieces for the Nash, which are performed alongside the group’s favourite repertoire from the chamber music canon throughout the season.

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