New music, old music, reeds, marshes, vast skies and the waves of the North Sea… Aldeburgh in June offers much more than you’d expect from a classical music festival.
Three Artists in Residence each curate a part of Aldeburgh Festival 2019. The excitingly individual voice of Austrian composer Thomas Larcher is featured across the festival, with his opera The Hunting Gun receiving its UK premiere. Festival favourite, outstanding tenor Mark Padmore performs in seven concerts and leads our Poetry and Music series. One of the world’s most charismatic performers, Barbara Hannigan appears as soloist, conductor, narrator, recitalist and mentor to the singers from her own young artist programme.
Further residents include pianist Stephen Hough, baritone Roderick Williams, composer-conductor Ryan Wigglesworth and cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and a three-concert return by popular demand from Belgian early music ensemble Vox Luminis.
We present performances by an array of outstanding artists and ensembles, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Tenebrae, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Elizabeth Kenny and Paul Lewis.
This year our two hugely popular week-long series of masterclasses are led respectively by Mark Padmore and Antonio Pappano, one of the world’s leading conductors.
We present a tribute to Oliver Knussen, who died soon after our last festival – one of the UK’s most brilliant musicians and a key figure in shaping the Aldeburgh Festival as it is today. Knussen’s pieces are performed in many events and we also present the debut performances of a new ensemble – the Knussen Chamber Orchestra.
There are premieres by composers including Charlotte Bray, Caterina di Cecca, Edmund Finnis, Joanna Lee, Nico Muhly, Frederik Neyrinck and Freya Waley-Cohen, while we also invite you to try radical performance art from Bastard Assignments, outdoor graffiti-style animated opera in Drive-by Shooting, and new Listening Walks which explore the sounds of our natural environment.
Our Visual Art programme includes exhibitions by renowned war artist John Keane and BP Portrait Award winner Stuart Pearson Wright. All this plus walks, talks, films, exhibitions, non-classical events at The Pumphouse fringe, and free music every lunchtime at the Bandstand on the Beach.
We look forward to welcoming you in June.
Priority booking for Annual Donors from Tuesday 15 until Monday 28 January, Friends from Tuesday 29 January, and Advanced Booking list (including e-ABL) from Tuesday 12 February. General booking opens on Tuesday 19 February. Find out more about joining us and priority booking.
Original artwork by our 2019/20 illustrator Brian Grimwood.