...around town

in association with Cheltenham BID

Ignite your musical curiosity and listen out for extra-special pop-up performances on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 July as we take over the streets of Cheltenham.

Step into the Song Surgery for a dose of musical magic, reflect and recharge with Music and Mindfulness, or taste sweet new melodies in a multi-sensory mini-concert.

Song Surgery

Take a moment out of your day to recharge, escape, or nourish – whatever you’re in need of. Drop into the Song Surgery to request your own prescription and receive a dose of song performed specially for you. With soprano Bibi Heal .

Music and Mindfulness with quietnote

Join musician Will Crawford in a unique blend of meditation, mindfulness and the power of music. Explore the connection of the body, mind and breath through guided exercises and music to help aid relaxation, manage stress, and calm busy minds.

Sensory Moments

A blindfolded, multisensory mini-concert with Bittersuite and Phaedra Ensemble. Experience music as you never have before as the performers stimulate your senses with movement, taste and smell to take you on a deeper journey of listening.

Saturday 8 July 10–10.50am

Musical Storytime: The Way Back Home

Cheltenham Town Hall, Pillar Room

£10 adults, £6 children

Recommended for ages 4-7

Explore Oliver Jeffers’ book The Way Home Back Home as musicians from City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra weave a new musical world. Using your listening skills, help the musicians create music inspired by different characters, locations and words from the story. An interactive experience that will leave you with plenty of music-making ideas to take home.

Saturday 15 July 11–11.50am M27a 2–2.50pm M27b

MishMash Ensemble

Cheltenham Town Hall, Pillar Room £10 adults, £6 children

Recommended for ages 7–11 and their families

Join musical storytellers MishMash Ensemble on a magical journey through evocative music across the ages. In this bold, brand-new performance from MishMash Productions, five exceptional woodwind players bring you up close and personal to wonderful music, musicians and instruments.

Mark Simpson & Doric Quartet

Pittville Pump Room

£30, £26, £18

Mark Simpson clarinet

Doric Quartet

Alban Berg String Quartet, Op. 3

Thomas Adès Alchymia

Andrea Tarrodi String Quartet No.3 ‘Light Scattering’

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Clarinet Quintet, K581

Clarinettist and composer Mark Simpson joins the Doric Quartet to open the Festival with a concert that begins and ends with landmark works for clarinet quintet. Adès’s Alchymia has been described as one of his ‘finest achievements of recent years’ (Guardian), while Mozart’s quintet remains a lyrical, beloved classic. Alongside are two shorter works for string quartet that contain multitudes: Berg’s dramatic and expressive String Quartet and Andrea Tarrodi’s captivating third quartet. Kindly supported by Sir Michael & Lady McWilliam

7–9pm M03

City of Birmingham

Symphony Orchestra

Cheltenham Town Hall, Main Hall £48, £38, £28, £18, £10

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Tamsin Waley-Cohen violin

Andrew Gourlay conductor

James B Wilson New work (world premiere –Cheltenham Music Festival commission)

Richard Rodney Bennett Partita

Ralph Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastoral’, Op. 68

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra invoke the wild and pastoral in our opening night concert. Celebrating the work of Ralph Vaughan Williams through the much-loved The Lark Ascending, the concert features a new work from James B Wilson (Last Night of the Proms composer 2022) responding to Vaughan Williams’s ideas and philosophies. Plus, enjoy Richard Rodney Bennett’s joyful Partita and a vivid performance of Beethoven’s lyrical sixth symphony.

James B Wilson’s new work is an RVW150 commission supported by the Vaughan Williams Foundation

9.30–10.45pm M04

Laura Cannell:

Antiphony of the Trees

The Old Courthouse

£17, £10 early bird (limited release available from 31 March) Add a Late Night: receive £5 off your late night ticket when also booking for a 7pm concert on the same day

Experience the beauty of birdsong, from breathy, slow chordal drones to the sound of rapidly beating wings with this atmospheric and immersive concert from composer and improvisor Laura Cannell . Laura first tuned into the sound of birdsong during lockdown, and turned it into beautiful, layered melodies using just recorders and electronics. Inspired by nature and the fen valley where she lives, join Laura at The Old Courthouse for a midsummer evening of birdsong and soundscapes that captures the essence of birds.