fbpx

Cambridge Summer Music Festival
July 2023

Our 2023 Festival presented world-class music to packed audiences in beautiful venues around the city. Thank you to all those who supported it.

Sounds Green in the Botanic Garden

5, 12, 19, 26 July, 6.15pm

The best in open-air music on Wednesday evenings  in Cambridge Botanic Garden – with Prime Brass, Honey & the Bear, Arun Ghosh Quintet and Bones Apart
More details

Donizetti’s Elixir of Love

Friday 14 July, 6.30pm

Our very own mini Glyndebourne in the beautiful setting of Childerley Hall. Donizetti’s opera masterpiece is full of tunes, romance, and mischievous comedy!
More details

Ashley Wass: piano

Saturday 15 July, 1pm

Ashley Wass, Director of the Yehudi Menuhin School, opens our series of lunchtime concerts with a varied programme of Bach, César Franck and Alexey Shor’s arrangement of Mikhail Pletnev’s moving Piano Sonata.
More details

Ryann Corbett

Britten Oboe Quartet

Saturday 15 July, 7.30pm

Nicholas Daniel and colleagues from the award-winning Britten Sinfonia present a delightful programme of works by Elgar, Britten, Mozart and more.
More details

Tai Murray and Martin Roscoe

Clara Sherratt

Sunday 16 July, 3pm

We regret that Clara Sherratt can no longer present this concert. Her place will be taken by Patrick Hemmerlé.
More details

Jazz on Sunday

Sunday 16 July, 7.00pm

Virtuosic fusion guitarist John Etheridge and jazz singer Vimela Rowe present our first Jazz on Sunday event in the iconic setting of the Footlight Cellars of the Cambridge Union.
More details

Gesualdo Six

The Gesualdo Six

Tuesday 18 July, 7.30pm

Award-winning ensemble The Gesualdo Six perform a selection of William Byrd’s Latin works: triumphant statements of belief, power and tenderness.
More details

Imogen Cooper

Northern Chords Ensemble

Thursday 20 July, 1pm

Piano trio Northern Chords presents a thrilling lunchtime concert of works by Schubert, Mendelssohn and contemportary composer Matthew Caner.
More details  

Alec Frank-Gemmill

Britten Sinfonia & The Bach Choir in King’s Chapel

Thursday 20 July, 7.30pm

Duruflé’s powerful Requiem is the centrepiece of a poignant programme that also includes moving tributes to the Aberfan disaster and Covid.
More details

Crispian Steele-Perkins

Four Last Songs

Friday 21 July, 1.00pm

A lunchtime concert with Soprano Elinor Rolfe Johnson and pianist Ian Tindale performing Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs plus works by Gustav and Alma Mahler.
More details 

Artur Pizarro

Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha

Friday 21 July, 7.30pm

South African Soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, who has taken the operatic world by storm, performs Schubert, Berlioz and Gershwin with pianist Simon Lepper.
More details 

Singing Masterclass with Ben Johnson

Saturday 22 July, 1.00pm

Festival Director and acclaimed tenor Ben Johnson gives a masterclass to some of the most promising singers of the next generation.
More details 

Gesualdo Six

Martin James Bartlett

Saturday 22 July, 7.30pm

2014 BBC Young Musican of the Year Martin James Bartlett performs a thrillingly varied programme ranging from Rameau and Couperin to Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Debussy.
More details 

Gesualdo Six

Jazz on Sunday

Sunday 23 July, 4.30pm

Join us in the beautiful surroundings of Childerley Hall for an afternoon of classically-inspired jazz with the Art Deco Trio.
More details 

Gabrielli Roar

Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius

Wednesday 26 July, 7.30pm

Gabrieli returns to Ely Cathedral to perform Elgar’s mammoth masterpiece, The Dream of Gerontius.
More details

Gesualdo Six

Young Composers Workshop

Thursday 27 July, 11am-2.30pm 

A chance to hear the work of up and coming young composers – and to gain an insight into a range of composing techniques. 
More details 

The Consone Quartet

Thursday 27 July, 7.30pm

The Consone perform quartets by Sibelius and Schumann. They are joined by viola player Francesca Gilbert to play Mozart’s last major chamber composition the String Quintet in E-flat major.
More details 

Wigmore Soloists

Jack Hancher: Classical Guitar

Friday 28 July, 1.00pm

Award-winning clasical guitarist Jack Hancher presents a wide-ranging programme from the Renaissance  to the 20th century.
More details

Gesualdo Six

Handel’s Coronation Anthems

Friday 28 July, 7.30pm

Vocal and instrumental Baroque ensemble, La Nuova Musica, perform a Coronation-themed programme – a feast of pomp and lyricism to celebrate the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III.
More details 

Alena Baeva: solo violin

Saturday 29 July, 1.00pm

Violinist Alena Baeva – one of the most exciting, versatile, and alluring soloists active on the world stage today – performs works by Bach, Ysaÿe and Telemann.
More details 

Wigmore Soloists

Festival Finale: Schubertiade
Celebrating the music of Franz Schubert

Saturday 29 July, 7.30pm

Festival Director Ben Johnson introduces this special evening concert, celebrating the music of Franz Schubert and the end of the 2023 Festival.
More details