Cambridge Summer Music Festival
2-30 July 2025
The 2025 Festival will once again welcome world-renowned musicians to beautiful venues in and around Cambridge, presenting nearly thirty events throughout July, including opera, chamber music, orchestral and choral concerts, jazz, song recitals and more – not to forget the ever-popular Sounds Green in the Botanic Garden. Download Festival brochure.
Priority booking for Friends of CSM is now open
General booking opens on Monday 28 April
Sounds Green in the Botanic Garden
2, 9, 16, 23, 30 July, 6.15pm
Cambridge University Botanic Garden
The best in open-air music on Wednesday evenings in Cambridge Botanic Garden – with Prime Brass, Essex Jazz Collective, Beskydy, Honey and the Bear and Cores Do Samba.
Masterclass with Ben Johnson
Saturday 5 July, 12.00pm
The Old Divinity School, St John’s College
Festival Director and acclaimed tenor Ben Johnson gives a masterclass to some of the most promising singers of the next generation.
Benjamin Britten Peter Grimes
Saturday 5 July, 4.00pm
Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden
Benjamin Britten’s haunting opera Peter Grimes weaves music of beauty, intricacy, humour and humanity. For this semi-staged performance established names are joined by the next generation of opera professionals from British Youth Opera.
Ignas Maknickas piano
Thursday 10 July, 1.00pm
Jesus College Chapel
Multi-award-winning young pianist Ignas Maknickas presents an irresistible programme of Chopin and Ravel, together with Carl Vine’s Five Bagatelles.
Schumann, Finzi and more
Thursday 10 July, 7.30pm
Jesus College Chapel
Festival Director Ben Johnson is joined by his regular duo partner Martin James Bartlett to present their unique take on the song recital. Solo piano music is mixed with song to create an evening of wonderful music.
Matthew McKinney tenor
Friday 11 July, 1.10pm
St Botolph’s Church
Winner of the 2024 Kathleen Ferrier Awards, Scottish tenor Matthew McKinney’s programme includes songs by Ivor Gurney, Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten, Judith Weir and John Ireland. He is joined by South African pianist Roelof Temmingh.
Nash Ensemble Birthday Concert
Friday 11 July, 7.30pm
Cambridge Union
The Nash Ensemble is regarded as a standard-bearer of British music-making around the world. This concert celebrates its 60th anniversary with a not-to-be-missed programme, including Dvorak’s Piano Quintet No. 2, acknowledged as one of the masterpieces of this form.
Young Composers Workshop
Saturday 12 July, from 11.00am
Churchill College
A chance to hear the work of young composers, aged 21 and under – and to gain an insight into composing techniques. Compositions for string trio will be performed and workshopped by professional musicians, with each composer receiving individual feedback
Nardus Williams, soprano
Elizabeth Kenny, lute/ theorbo
Saturday 12 July, 7.30pm
Cambridge Union
The duo of Nardus Williams and Elizabeth Kenny has been wowing audiences across the country. Do not miss them performing music from some of the finest of Lute Song composers in England, alongside some of the giants of Italian dramatic vocal writing.
FitkinWall: Harpland
Sunday 13 July, 7.30pm
Childerley Hall
Composer Graham Fitkin and harpist Ruth Wall follow threads of migration, loss and longing in their new show, inspired by the stories of the Highland Clearances. Ruth Wall’s explorations into Gaelic song, fiddle and pipe tunes of the Scottish Highlands where she grew up, are at the heart of this show.
James Morley: cello
Thursday 17 July, 1.00pm
Queens’ College Chapel
Hailed as ‘Australia’s most exciting young cellist’ by Limelight magazine, James Morley’s programme includes works by contemporary composers Martin Smolka and Luna Pearl Woolf, as well as Kodály’s Sonata for solo cello, described as among the most significant works for solo cello since Bach’s Cello Suites.
Fibonacci Quartet
Thursday 17 July, 7.30pm
Queens’ College Chapel
The multi award-winning Fibonacci Quartet is one of Europe’s leading young string quartets. Their programme includes Smetana’s String Quartet in E minor as well as Janáček String Quartet No. 2, Intimate Letters, regarded as a highlight of the modern string quartet repertoire.
Gorbanoff Quartet
Friday 18 July, 1.00pm
Pembroke Auditorium
Recently graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Gorbanoff Quartet comprise some of the finest young chamber musicians. They will perform two of the most romantic pieces from the piano quartet repertoire: Brahms’ Piano Quartet No 1 and Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E flat major.
Daniel Lebhardt: piano
Friday 18 July, 7.30pm
Pembroke Auditorium
Pianist Daniel Lebhardt has been described by the New York Times as playing with ‘…power, poetry and formidable technique’. His programme presents works from the second half of the 19th century, encompassing the height of the Romantic period.
Jamaal Kashim: harp
Saturday 19 July, 1.00pm
Jesus College Chapel
17-year-old harpist Jamaal Kashim, a BBC Young Musician 2024 semi-finalist, has excelled in both recital and orchestral settings. Recognised for his virtuosity, Jamaal is a three-time winner of the RCMJD Gordon Turner Harp Competition.
Benjamin Britten Curlew River
Saturday 19 July, 7.30pm
Jesus College Chapel
Curlew River, the first of Britten’s three ‘Parables for Church Performance’, tells the hauntingly beautiful and moving story of a demented mother who seeks her lost son, only to find his grave by the side of the Curlew River.
Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin
Sunday 20 July, 3.00pm
Childerley Hall
Wild Arts returns to the Festival to present another unforgettable and innovative performance with Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin, a passionate exploration of life, death and love. The fully-staged production takes place in the stunning setting of Childerley Hall’s Long Barn. An outstanding cast is accompanied by the world-class players of the Wild Arts Ensemble.
Haydn The Seasons
Wednesday 23 July, 7.00pm
Ely Cathedral
After a sold-out performance of Verdi’s Requiem last July, Gabrieli Roar returns to Ely Cathedral to perform Haydn’s The Seasons – an extraordinary masterpiece brought to life by the energy and talent of young singers. Two hundred young singers from across the country take to the stage alongside Gabrieli’s period instrumentalists and outstanding soloists.
Irène Duval: violin
Thursday 24 July, 1.00pm
Sidney Sussex College Chapel
French-Korean violinist, Irène Duval, has firmly established herself as a compelling and versatile performer, winning multiple international competitions. Her lunchtime concert includes Bach Partitas as well as works by Taverner and Ysaÿe.
David Owen Norris: Introducng Elgar’s Piano Concerto
Thursday 24 July, 7.30pm
Sidney Sussex College Chapel
Elgar’s recorded piano improvisations and manuscript sketches are elaborated by David Owen Norris in this first CSM Annual Lecture. He will give a guided tour of the piece, and perform it as a piano solo, with the score on-screen for the audience to follow.
Beethoven Archduke Trio
Friday 25 July, 1.10pm
St Botolph’s Church
The Fuzuki Trio are members of the Cambridge Camerata Academy. For their lunchtime concert this talented group of young musicians pair Rachmaninov’s youthful Trio Elegiaque, written when he was only 18, with the last of Beethoven’s piano trios, the ‘Archduke’, the crowning achievement of the composer’s middle period.
Gus McQuade: classical guitar
Friday 25 July, 7.30pm
Queens’ College Chapel
A fast-rising star in the classical music world, Gus McQuade was the 2022/2023 holder of the Musicians’ Company’s prestigious New Elizabethan Award. He makes his Cambridge Summer Music debut with a programme that includes classics of the repertoire as well as some musical surprises!
Festival Finale: Petite Messe Solennelle
Saturday 26 July, 7.30pm
Our Lady and the English Martyrs Catholic Church
Our Festival Finale brings together a stellar line up of virtuosic musicians to perform this heartfelt and exuberant Rossini favourite, conducted by Festival Director Ben Johnson in the stunning setting of Our Lady and the English Martyrs Catholic Church.
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