Wigmore Hall Unveils 125th Anniversary Season Featuring Nearly 600 Concerts

Wigmore Hall has revealed its 125th Anniversary Season (2025/26). With nearly 600 concerts and events from 9 September 2025 to 31 July 2026, it is the largest and most diverse classical music programme in the UK.

This season also marks a crucial financial milestone: The Director’s Fund, announced last year, has reached its £10-million target ahead of schedule. Providing long-term financial security the fund allows Wigmore Hall to remain ambitious and artistically bold whilst securing its independence.

Today, Wigmore Hall also announced a generous £500,000 grant from the AKO Foundation, securing the continuation of its pioneering ‘£5 Tickets for Under 35s’ scheme for the next five years. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, this initiative – delivered in partnership with Classic FM – has welcomed more than 200,000 young concertgoers since its launch in 2015, including over 55,000 in the past three and a half years alone. It provides affordable access to a wide array of concerts, including piano and song recitals, string quartets, late-night contemporary performances, jazz, and early music.

25th Anniversary Festival (25 May – 7 June)

The 2025/26 season culminates in a two-week 125th Anniversary Festival centred around the launch of a new Wigmore Hall biography by Sunday Times bestselling author, historian Julia Boyd. There Is Sweet Music Here: The World of Wigmore Hall (Elliot & Thompson, 2026) traces the Hall’s origins, its pivotal role in London’s cultural life through the seismic events of the 20th century, and its evolution over the past 25 years.

The Festival features performances by a glittering array of internationally-renowned musicians, including Lise Davidsen, Igor Levit, Christian Gerhaher, Asmik Grigorian, Rhiannon Giddens, Yunchan Lim, Abel Selaocoe, Alexandre Kantorow, Christian Tetzlaff and Elaine Mitchener, and ensembles including Les Arts Florissants with William Christie, Hespèrion XXI with Jordi Savall, and London Voices among others. Full festival details will be announced in early 2026.

2025–26 Season Highlights
 

The season opens on 9 September 2025 with a recital of Schubert Lieder and solo piano works performed by baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Maria João Pires. The opening weeks also see performances from mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre with lutenist Thomas Dunford’s Jupiter Ensemble; genre-defying musician Rhiannon Giddens; and handpan player Manu Delago, joined by the compelling singer-songwriter Douglas Dare. 

Renowned pianists Elisabeth Leonskaja and Igor Levit appear, and Leif Ove Andsnes performs alongside violinist Christian Tetzlaff. Additional highlights include recitals by soprano Véronique Gens, countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, and jazz piano legend Fred Hersch, celebrating his 70th birthday.

A Spotlight on Rebecca Clarke

A Rebecca Clarke Focus Day in November highlights the composer and violist’s remarkable legacy, with mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately and soprano Ailish Tynan presenting her songs, including several world premières. Scholars Leah Broad, Christopher Johnson, and Natasha Loges provide insight into Clarke’s pioneering achievements, including her role as one of the first women to join a professional British orchestra. The day culminates in a special concert marking 100 years since Clarke's own Wigmore Hall debut in 1925.

Bold New Music

Wigmore Hall is a renowned centre for contemporary music with premières across the season. In November, Pierre-Laurent Aimard performs a new work for piano four hands by Sir George Benjamin, joined at the piano by the composer. Violinist Fenella Humphreys introduces a new piece by Sally Beamish in October, while Composer in Residence Thomas Larcher unveils new works across the season.

Mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and Britten Sinfonia present a new piece by John Paul Jones in January 2026, and Academy Award-winning composer Rachel Portman premières a commission with soprano Lucy Crowe and Quatuor Agate in February 2026. American creative giants Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith perform several co-composed works in October, while music by emerging composers, commissioned to celebrate Wigmore Hall’s 125th anniversary, are heard throughout the season.

Great Pianists

A rare duo performance in October reunites Martha Argerich and Stephen Kovacevich, one of several notable piano duos this season, including Mariam Batsashvili & Martin James Bartlett and Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy.

Mitsuko Uchida performs Beethoven’s final three piano sonatas in September, while Paul Lewis presents special arrangements of Beethoven piano concertos with the Vertavo String Quartet in March 2026. In November, Sir Simon Russell Beale brings Claude Debussy’s life and loves to the stage in a theatrical collaboration with pianist Lucy Parham.

Other highlights include Bertrand Chamayou performing Ravel’s complete solo piano works in December, Danny Driver embarking on a two-season exploration of the theme and variation genre, beginning with Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and Boris Giltburg performing Bach’s complete Well-Tempered Clavier in February and July 2026. Throughout the season, recitals from Piotr Anderszewski, Richard Goode, Angela Hewitt, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Sir András Schiff, and many more showcase a wealth of great pianism.

A Stellar Line-Up of Vocalists

Soprano Barbara Hannigan makes her Wigmore Hall debut with pianist Bertrand Chamayou in December, returning in March 2026 with the Belcea Quartet for Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet. In September, the love triangle of Clara Wieck, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms is explored in song by baritone Samuel Hasselhorn, with narration from legendary soprano Waltraud Meier.

The autumn features recitals from baritones Benjamin Appl and Stéphane Degout, countertenor Hugh Cutting, and soprano Ruby Hughes, who joins forces with composer Errollyn Wallen. In January 2026, tenor Allan Clayton and pianist Paul Lewis present Schubert’s Winterreise, while Christopher Maltman makes a long-awaited return after a decade away from the Wigmore Hall stage.

Rising star soprano Anja Mittermüller, the youngest-ever winner of the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition, makes her recital debut in October. The season also features performances from sopranos Lise Davidsen and Sandrine Piau, mezzo-sopranos Jennifer Johnston and Magdalena Kožená, tenors Ian Bostridge and Karim Sulayman, baritone Christian Gerhaher, and many others.

Ensembles and Instrumentalists

The season features two complete Beethoven String Quartet cycles, with the Elias String Quartet spanning the season and Quatuor Ébène extending over two. The Takács Quartet, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, performs Mozart’s string quintets in October with violist Timothy Ridout. The exceptional Leonkoro Quartet, winners of the 2022 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, performs across the season in four concerts.

A day-long celebration of brass chamber music takes place in April 2026, while February features three concerts in a single day by the ARC Ensemble, which revives repertoire marginalised or suppressed by 20th-century regimes.

In June 2026, four of the celebrated Kanneh-Mason siblings – pianists Isata and Jeneba, violinist Braimah, and cellist Sheku – come together for a performance marking the culmination of their family residency, which comprises recitals in October, December and March.

Virtuoso violinists take centre stage, including Midori, Alina Ibragimova, Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Hilary Hahn, and Leonidas Kavakos. Cellist Alban Gerhardt presents Bach’s complete Cello Suites in May, and there are cello performances from Steven Isserlis, Pieter Wispelwey and others.

Baroque and Early Music

In September, marking the 275th anniversary of Bach’s death, Dunedin Consort presents the St Matthew Passion, Vox Luminis and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra perform the B Minor Mass, and Les Arts Florissants offer an engaging programme of Bach’s cantatas.

The Tallis Scholars presents a Renaissance journey through Palestrina, Byrd, and Josquin in November and Solomon’s Knot vividly brings Handel’s Israel in Egypt to life in December. Il Giardino Armonico appears throughout the season in a three-concert residency, while harpsichordist Jean Rondeau crafts a tribute to composer Louis Couperin.Countertenor Iestyn Davies welcomes the new year with The English Concert and leads a special weekend in March 2026 celebrating John Dowland’s Quincentenary.

Also in March, acclaimed soprano Nardus Williams and her regular lutenist collaborator Elizabeth Kenny are joined by classicist Dame Mary Beard, for a special International Women’s Day programme.

African Concert Series

The African Concert Series, overseen by pioneering pianist Rebeca Omordia, has doubled in size since it first appeared at Wigmore Hall in 2022. It continues to showcase the finest African classical music and performers, and remains the UK's only regular concert series dedicated to this repertoire. This season’s concerts take place in March and June 2026.

Wigmore Hall BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts

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