CONCERTS
Music Director Marios Papadopoulos
Welcome from Marios Papadopoulos
Music Director
It’s hard to know where we would be without Bach, and it’s hard to know where Bach would be without Mendelssohn. It was the latter composer who, among others, persuaded the world that Bach’s music could resonate outside its own time. There is a potent message there for our own contemporary view of great music, and its ability to speak over chronological and cultural boundaries.
This season, our most ambitious yet, celebrates both Bach and Mendelssohn in a dedicated festival. In the case of Bach, we take you from the most intimate to the most grand. Master pianists Sir András Schiff and Víkingur Ólafsson take on piano works, as well as our own Solo Celli performing the composer's Cello Suites. On a slightly larger scale we hear the Brandenburg Concertos and on the largest of all, we perform the Everests of his output: the B minor Mass and St Matthew Passion. We will present Bach arranged by Mendelssohn, and the latter composer’s own polyphonic Reformation Symphony and choral masterpiece Elijah, among many other works. A study day at Magdalen College will shed further light on the relationship between the two composers.
There is, however, plenty more to discover in our season – from Mozart to Piazzolla to a living composer who’s proving a great favourite among our audiences, Alexey Shor, who will be Composer-in-Residence with us for two years. I look forward in particular to leading our world-class players through Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Dvořák's Symphony No. 8, and to marshalling the huge forces of Verdi’s Requiem. We have some mouthwateringly talented soloists for you. In addition to those already mentioned, don’t miss Bomsori Kim, Sir Bryn Terfel and our close associates Maxim Vengerov, Martha Argerich and Angela Gheorghiu. It’s also a genuine pleasure, as part of our special celebration of Bach and Mendelssohn’s music, to welcome the Academy of Ancient Music, visiting from Cambridge, and Morningside Music Bridge from the United States for special guest appearances in our season. Finally, I am delighted to announce the creation of our own professional choir – the Oxford Philharmonic Choir – who will make their public debut on 21 November.
Maxim Vengerov
Friday 4 October 2024
Olivier Hall, St Edward's School, Oxford, 19:00
Mozart Concertone for Two Violins in C major, K. 190*
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 1 in B flat major, K. 207
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major, K. 211
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216
Maxim Vengerov violin/director
Carmine Lauri violin*
Mozart’s first concerto, dated 14 April 1773, was for the violin. That charming piece was already broadening the horizons of the form before the composer followed with more during the course of 1775, all filled with the character, comedy, pacing and emotional breadth Mozart was soon to bring to the opera stage. Frequent collaborator of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Maxim Vengerov, comes to the stunning Olivier Hall of St Edward’s School for the joy and melancholy of Mozart’s first three Violin Concertos. He is joined by OPO Concertmaster Carmine Lauri, for a rare chance to hear Mozart’s Concertone for two violins, a fascinating developmental work fusing the baroque concerto grosso style with the latest fashions in symphony and concerto form.
Tickets £60 £42 £32 £20 (students from £5)
Tchaikovsky Five
Thursday 17 October 2024
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Glinka Overture Ruslan and Ludmilla* Side-by-Side
Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti Voice-Leading** world premiere
Walton Viola Concerto in A minor Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti beatboxer
Isobel Neary-Adams viola
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
John Traill conductor **
Emerging talent from the University of Oxford is to the fore in this concert showcasing the winner of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s Senior Concerto Competition and the world premiere of a piece presented in our 2024 Composers' Workshop. Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti is both composer and soloist in his Voice-Leading for beatboxer and orchestra, while Isobel Neary-Adams plays Walton’s dark, excitable, lyrical and quick-witted viola concerto. Having opened with Glinka’s sprightly Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture, joined by a cohort of Side-by-Side alumni, the concert concludes with Tchaikovsky’s symphonic expression of hope in the face of adversity, his luminous Symphony No. 5.
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)
Supported by the University of Oxford in celebration of the
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s Silver Jubilee.
The Firebird
Thursday 31 October 2024
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre, Op. 40
Shor Violin and Viola Concerto
Mussorgsky Night on Bald Mountain (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov)
Stravinsky The Firebird Suite (1919)
Marc Bouchkov violin
David Aaron Carpenter viola Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Music would never be the same after Igor Stravinsky unleashed The Firebird in 1910 – a ballet score that would herald the pictorial powers with which the composer would shock and enchant generations of theatregoers. Stravinsky found the perfect subject matter in the collision of the evil magician Kaschchei with the just and irrepressible Firebird. The suite of music from the ballet ends in an infernal dance ripe for Stravinsky’s own brand of violent syncopation. Marios Papadopoulos conducts it here, alongside wickedly entertaining music from Saint-Saëns, and an atmospheric mountain climb from Mussorgsky. The concert is complete with the virtuosic and lyrical concerto for violin and viola by Alexey Shor, our Composer-in-Residence, highlighting the instruments’ poetic qualities while seamlessly blending their technical brilliance and emotional depth.
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)
Contrasts
Saturday 2 November 2024
Holywell Music Room, 19:30
Schumann Fantasy Pieces for clarinet and piano, Op. 73
Delius Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano
Milhaud Suite for clarinet, violin and piano, Op. 157b
Ciesla Balinese Moods for solo clarinet
Piazzolla Le Grand Tango for violin and piano
Bartók Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano
Adrian Adlam violin
Laura Ruiz Ferreres clarinet
Thomas Hell piano
Associate Concertmaster of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Adrian Adlam, joins the orchestra’s Solo Clarinet Laura Ruiz Ferreres and pianist Thomas Hell for a programme of chamber music taking in the serene, the exotic, the groovy and the pugnacious. Both Delius and Schumann appear to search for peace and seclusion in their works for violin and clarinet while Piazzolla turns up the heat in the most grandiose of his tangos. Alexis Ciesla explores the sound of Asian music in his Balinese Moods while all three instruments are united for Bartók’s folk dances in disguise and Milhaud’s sassy reimagining of music originally written for the 1936 film Voyageur sans bagages.
£30 (students £5)
Young Artists' Platform
Pre-concert recital 18:30
Whatever the Weather
FUNomusica Family Concert
Sunday 17 November 2024
Oxford Town Hall, 16:00
Alasdair Malloy presenter
A meteorological musical marvel!
Whatever the weather is outside, we have music to match as the Oxford Philharmonic and weather man Alasdair Malloy lead us through sun, rain, wind, snow and storms in search of a harmonious climate.
We’ll explore the Colours of the Wind, go Singing in the Rain, and find ourselves well and truly Frozen before we find Another Day of Sun!
Tickets adults £10 children £4
Most suitable for ages 4−8
Pre-concert craft activities at 15:00
In partnership with
Bach Mass in B Minor
Thursday 21 November 2024
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:00
Bach Mass in B minor, BWV 232
Madison Nonoa soprano
Anna Devin soprano
Kathryn Rudge mezzo-soprano
James Gilchrist tenor
James Platt bass
Oxford Philharmonic Choir
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Marios Papadopoulos assembles a team of front-rank soloists and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir at the Sheldonian Theatre for a performance of Bach’s monumental Mass in B minor. In the late 1740s, Bach returned to two movements of the Latin Mass written a decade and a half earlier, expanding them into what many consider his towering achievement. The B minor Mass would prove the culmination of the composer’s work in sacred music, establishing new ways of organising sounds, words, harmonies and keys while creating the most epic of journeys in faith and music.
Tickets £54 £40 £30 £18 (students from £5)
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Huw Williams Organ Recital
Friday 22 November 2024
Merton College Chapel, 13:15
Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue in C minor, Op. 37 No. 1
Bach Trio Sonata No. 6 in G major, BWV 530
Bach Vater unser im Himmelreich, BWV 682
Mendelssohn Sonata No. 6 in D minor, Op. 65
Huw Williams organ
On the mighty Dobson organ at Merton College, Bath Abbey organist Huw Williams orients his recital around the last of Bach’s sublime Trio Sonatas – with its Italianate striding Vivace, rocking Lento and rambunctious final Allegro – and the Lutheran chorale Vater unser im Himmelreich, which forms the basis of the last of Mendelssohn’s mighty organ sonatas and Bach’s own canon from the Clavierübung. Completing the programme is Mendelssohn’s Prelude and Fugue in C minor, in which the composer, directly inspired by his hero Bach, laid out his vision for a new contrapuntal music.
Free entry with retiring collection
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
The Brandenburg Concertos
Friday 22 November 2024
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:00
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B flat major, BWV 1051
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047
Soloists of the Oxford Philharmonic Mahan Esfahani harpsichord/director
Desperate to find a new job in 1721, Bach wrote a set of instrumental concertos and sent them off to the Margrave of Brandenburg in the hope of getting an offer. Had the Margrave so much as glanced at the score for Six Concertos With Several Instruments Bach had sent him, he might have sensed that the composer had delivered something superlative – the highpoint of the composer’s project to expand the language of ensemble instrumental music and to assimilate varied European styles into his own, bettering them in the process. Charismatic harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani is our guide through the delectable smorgasbord that is Bach’s Brandenburgs.
Tickets £54 £40 £30 £18 (students from £5)
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Mendelssohn Piano Trio
Saturday 23 November 2024
Holywell Music Room, 19:30
Programme to include:
Bach Prelude from Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006 (arr. Mendelssohn)
Bach Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 (arr. Mendelssohn)
Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49
Soloists of the Oxford Philharmonic
Marios Papadopoulos piano
It was Felix Mendelssohn who brought Bach back into currency in nineteenthcentury Germany. In addition to reviving countless works by his Leipzig forebear, Mendelssohn made his own arrangements, including his expanding of the poised calligraphy of Bach’s Partitas for solo violin. This performance of two of Mendelssohn’s most effective transcriptions is capped by the composer’s own Piano Trio No. 1, a joyous conversation for violin, cello and piano in which the thunderously dramatic alternates with the gently elegiac.
Tickets £30 (students £5)
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony
Friday 29 November 2024
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture, Op. 26 * Side-by-Side
Mendelssohn Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 25
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56, ‘Scottish’
Nuron Mukumi piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
Wandering the streets of Edinburgh and rambling the hillsides of the Hebrides in 1829, Mendelssohn was overcome. Nothing, apparently, had prepared him for the impact of the dramatic Caledonian coastline and imposing capital. Mendelssohn’s splendid symphonic souvenir of Scotland moves from dark standing stones to Scottish folk tunes across forty minutes of free-flowing, rugged musical brilliance. Marios Papadopoulos conducts it here after the sea-spray of the composer’s Hebrides Overture and the passionate G minor Piano Concerto under the agile fingers of Nuron Mukumi, alumnus of the Oxford Piano Festival.
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Insight Day: From Bach to Mendelssohn
Curated by Sir Nicholas Kenyon
Saturday 30 November 2024
Grove Auditorium, Magdalen College, 09:00–12:50 & 14:00–17:30
Explore the fascinating links between two great creative geniuses in this insight day of talks, music and debate. Leading scholars of J.S. Bach and Felix Mendelssohn come together to discuss the links between the composers, their families, and the growing interest in the music of the past.
Mendelssohn’s famous revival of Bach’s St Matthew Passion is but one aspect of a compelling story of rediscovery and renewal. The day will include an exclusive presentation of the unique Mendelssohn collection of Bach materials in the Bodleian Library and an opportunity to view the recently acquired autograph of Bach’s Cantata for Ascension Day on display at the Weston Library.
Keynote speakers include leading scholars Christoph Wolff, Thomas Schmidt and Benedict Taylor, Michael Maul of the Leipzig Bach Festival, and cultural historians Astrid Köhler, Leanne Langley, and Susan Wollenberg. Bodley librarian Martin Holmes will present the Mendelssohn material. Malcolm Bruno will introduce his newly published edition of the Mendelssohn/Bach St Matthew Passion, with commentary by Peter Ward Jones and Stephen Roe. Pianist-scholar Kenneth Hamilton and Monika Hennemann will illustrate Mendelssohn’s arrangements and travels, and the day will end with a debate about early music performance today.
Chaired by Sir Nicholas Kenyon and Katy Hamilton.
Tickets: £35 to include morning and afternoon tea breaks (students £15)
Limited tickets for an exclusive presentation of the Bodleian Library's Mendelssohn/Bach material. Free to participants, must be pre-booked by calling the box office on 01865 980980. Tickets available on Friday 29 at 15:45–16:15 or 16:30–17:00 and Saturday 30 at 13:10–13:40. 13
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Bach Magnificat
Saturday 30 November 2024
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Bach Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226
Bach Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068
Bach Motet No. 2, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225
Bach Magnificat in D major, BWV 243
Soloists from the Oxford Philharmonic Choir
Oxford Philharmonic Choir Academy of Ancient Music
Laurence Cummings director/harpsichord
The Academy of Ancient Music visit from Cambridge –gleaming trumpets and Music Director Laurence Cummings in tow – joining the Oxford Philharmonic Choir and its soloists for this portrait of Bach both vocal and instrumental, excitable and reflective. We hear music from the festive season 1723/24, including the exuberant Magnificat Bach wrote for Christmas Day and the energetic Cantata he wrote for New Years’ Day. There’s rest for the trumpets in Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3, though here they underpin textures more than tracing the music’s outline. The concert opens with Bach’s motet Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf – almost a concerto for florid eight-part choir.
Tickets £54 £40 £30 £18 (students £5)
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Mendelssohn's Elijah
Sunday 1 December 2024
Sheldonian Theatre, 18:00
Mendelssohn Elijah, Op. 70 (sung in English)
Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha soprano
Angharad Lyddon mezzo-soprano
Adam Gilbert tenor
Sir Bryn Terfel bass-baritone
Crouch End Festival Chorus
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Premiered in Birmingham, a German oratorio with a Christian soul composed by a practicing Lutheran from a famously Jewish family, Elijah is the consummate work of bridge-building, understanding and reconciliation. ‘I was able to sway at will the enormous mass of orchestra, choir and organ’ wrote Mendelssohn from the West Midlands back to Leipzig as he reported on preparations for the oratorio examining the Old Testament figure of Elijah, a ground-shaking and inspiring monument to the nobility of faith. Sir Bryn Terfel is Elijah in this performance at the Sheldonian Theatre uniting soloists, the Crouch End Festival Chorus and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra.
Tickets £60 £42 £32 £20 (students from £5)
‘An Hour with Bach’ Conversation with Víkingur Ólafsson
with musical examples
Monday 2 December 2024
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Víkingur Ólafsson piano
The performance lasts 30 minutes with a 30 minute Q&A
Víkingur Ólafsson’s recording of original works and piano transcriptions of music by Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most lauded releases of 2019 and won BBC Music Magazine’s Recording of the Year award. The Icelandic pianist has spent decades finding his own way of playing – and indeed owning – Bach, putting his superlative sense of articulation and evenness of touch in service of the poetry of Bach famous and lesser-known, grand and unassuming. Now the pianist with the colossal following comes to the Sheldonian Theatre presenting his Bach transcriptions that delicately balance the old and new, the familiar and the unexpected.
Tickets £38 £28 £22 £15 (students from £5)
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Christmas with Sir John Rutter
Thursday 12 December 2024
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Programme to include:
Rutter Brother Heinrich’s Christmas
The Choir of Merton College Choristers of Winchester Cathedral Sir John Rutter conductor
Supported by Jon & Julia Aisbitt
Sir John Rutter returns to Oxford for another Christmas celebration in the company of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Merton College Choir and the Choristers of Winchester Cathedral. Sir John's musical fable Brother Heinrich's Christmas forms the centrepiece of a programme that features carols and Christmas music old and new including some of Sir John's own carols, and as ever the audience has the opportunity to sing along with the choir and orchestra in classic Christmas hymns.
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)
Happy Birthday Marios
Friday 20 December 2024
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83*
Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Marios Papadopoulos piano/conductor
Michael Papadopoulos conductor*
Music Director Marios Papadopoulos celebrates a landmark occasion as soloist in Brahms’s Piano Concerto in B flat major and conductor in the same composer’s Symphony No. 4. Brahms wrote the second of his concertos at the ripest moment of his productivity, apparently able to animate any possible musical idea and to blend beauty with ferocity and drama with intimacy. Rising star Michael Papadopoulos, makes his debut as conductor with the Oxford Philharmonic to provide an accompaniment of symphonic proportions to this, the grandest of piano concertos of the Romantic era.
After the interval, Marios Papadopoulos steps on the podium to conduct Brahms’s Apollonian final symphony – a work conceived as a retreat from the world that reflects on the composer’s lifelong servitude and his luminous acceptance of the end of his creative and mortal lives.
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)
Piano Trio Rarities
Saturday 11 January 2025
Holywell Music Room, 19:30
Schubert Notturno in E flat major, Op. 148
Esmail 'Saans'
Hidgon Piano Trio No. 1
Shostakovich Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 8
Brahms Piano Trio in C major, Op. 87
Carmine Lauri violin
Peter Adams cello
Russell Hirshfield piano
Love courses through this programme of chamber music delicacies played by two principal string players from the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, joined by the eminent American pianist Russell Hirshfield. When Shostakovich wrote his first piano trio, he was smitten; his longing for a fellow student peers out from behind the trio’s yearning melodies.
‘You won’t have heard such a beautiful trio from me,’ wrote Brahms to his publisher of his own C major trio, a work that could easily sweep you off your feet.
Reena Esmail wrote her own piano trio Saans as a wedding gift for a close friend, while the sublime slowness of Schubert’s nocturne for piano trio could easily accompany a tryst. No less beauteous is Jennifer Higdon’s trio exploring whether colours and their shades can be reflected in music.
Tickets £30 (students £5)
The Incredible Voyage of Alasdair Malloy
FUNomusica Family Concert
Sunday 19 January 2025
Oxford Town Hall, 16:00
Alasdair Malloy presenter
Alasdair always loves travelling from Scotland to join his friends in the Oxford Philharmonic but this time things don’t go quite to plan and he ends up having the most Incredible Journey!
Instead of flying direct, he ends up having a riotous ride on boats, broomsticks, cars, carpets, roads, rails, spaceships, shoes, hooves and a yellow submarine!
Fortunately, he has help from classical composers including Rossini, Saint-Saëns and Grieg, and the music from films such as Aladdin, Harry Potter, Moana and Star Wars, but will he get here on time?
Don’t miss this exciting adventure in music and motion!
Tickets adults £10 children £4
Most suitable for ages 4−8
Pre-concert craft activities at 15:00
In partnership with
Verdi Requiem
Saturday 25 January 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:00
Verdi Messa da Requiem
Lauren Fagan soprano
Maria Schellenberg mezzo-soprano
David Junghoon Kim tenor
Blaise Malaba bass
Crouch End Festival Chorus
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
There is no more dramatic setting of the Requiem Mass in the repertory than Giuseppe Verdi’s, written to commemorate friends but giving full voice to the composer’s theatrical instincts and vivid response to religious imagery and poetry. World-class soloists and the massed voices of the Crouch End Festival Chorus gather at the Sheldonian Theatre for this performance of Verdi’s soul-stirring work of awe and redemption, often referred to as ‘an opera in disguise’, with the full force of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and its Music Director, Marios Papadopoulos.
Tickets £60 £42 £32 £20 (students from £5)
Martha Argerich
Sunday 23 February 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Coleridge-Taylor Ballade in A minor, Op. 33* Side-by-Side
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
Martha Argerich piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
Tickets £60 £42 £32 £20 (students from £5)
Monday 24 February 2025
Barbican Hall, 19:30
Coleridge-Taylor Ballade in A minor, Op. 33
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
Martha Argerich piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
£65 £45 £30 £18 (no fees through OPO box office)
Supported by Prof. Christopher Wood
The great Martha Argerich returns to the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra as a concerto soloist, in Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto, surrounded surrounded in this programme by orchestral music of brilliance and drama. Samuel ColeridgeTaylor’s Ballade promises a wild ride: its energy and urgency will make any audience sit up and listen. To close, Marios Papadopoulos conducts Tchaikovsky’s great symphonic tussle with fate. In his red-blooded Symphony No. 4, the composer who always wore his heart on his sleeve manages to mine the consolation of hope from the turmoil of tragedy and despair, creating a live music experience like no other.
Bach Cello Suites Part I
Friday 28 February 2025
Holywell Music Room, 19:30
Bach Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007
Bach Cello Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009
Bach Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011
Peter Adams cello
It was Bach’s six suites for solo cello that alerted twentieth-century ears to the wonders of the composer’s work. This music of the most inward concentration and outward consolation has traversed cultures and genres, forming the subjects of books, films and even animations. Peter Adams, Solo Cello of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and the youngest ever professor in the history of London’s Royal Academy of Music, comes to the Holywell Music Room for this traversal of the oddnumbered suites, beginning with the well-known G major Prelude.
Tickets £30 (students £5)
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Mark Williams Organ Recital
Saturday 1 March 2025
Magdalen College Chapel, 12:00
Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue in D minor, Op. 37 No. 3
Bach Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit, BWV 669
Bach Christe, aller Welt Trost, BWV 670
Bach Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist, BWV 671
Mendelssohn Sonata in A major, Op. 65 No. 3
Bach Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543
Mark Williams organ
At the stunning new Herman Eule organ in Magdalen College’s chapel, the college’s Informator Choristarum presents a recital exploring the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and its legacy in the works of Mendelssohn. Surrounding the three stern Kyrie preludes from Bach’s Clavierübung, Mark Williams combines the composer’s magnificent A minor Prelude and Fugue and its flurry of pedal solos with the organ music by Mendelssohn that carried forward Bach’s tradition: the third of the Preludes and Fugues with which he set out his stall as an organ composer and the third of his imposing organ sonatas, based on the Lutheran chorale Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir.
Free entry with retiring collection
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Bach Cello Suites Part II
Saturday 1 March 2025
Holywell Music Room, 19:30
Bach Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008
Bach Cello Suite No. 4 in E flat major, BWV 1010
Bach Partita in A minor, BWV 1013
Bach Cello Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012
Mats Lidström cello
Mats Lidström, Solo Cello of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and an internationally known pedagogue and virtuoso, picks up the mantle from his colleague Peter Adams at the Holywell Music Room, completing our traversal of Bach’s solo cello suites with the evennumbered suites. The bouncing Gigue of No. 2 contains the most extended two-part writing of the six, while No. 4 is noted for its pair of almost skeletal Bourrées. The fiendishly difficult sixth and final suite was written for an instrument of five strings and demands extensive hopping across strings as it urges itself forward from a propulsive Prelude.
Tickets £30 (students £5)
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
St Matthew Passion
Sunday 2 March 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 18:00
Bach St Matthew Passion, BWV 244
Nicholas Mulroy evangelist
Ashley Riches christus
Julia Doyle soprano
Helen Charlston mezzo-soprano
Guy Cutting tenor
Michael Mofidian bass-baritone
Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford
The Boys of Radley College
Owen Rees conductor
On 11 April 1727, Bach’s day-to-day industry delivered what many consider to be his masterpiece: his ‘great passion’ after St Matthew’s Gospel. Bach didn’t generally write for posterity, but even he sensed this piece might outlive him, making special efforts to make his musical telling of Christ’s final days on earth sing with divinity and speak with humanity. The choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford and the boy choristers of Radley College join the Orchestra and handpicked soloists for this performance under Owen Rees of the composition able, in the words of Sir Nicholas Kenyon, ‘to reach beyond sectarianism and even beyond religious observance, to say something to the whole of humanity'.
Tickets £54 £40 £30 £18 (students £5)
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Mendelssohn Octet
Monday 3 March 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66
Mendelssohn String Octet in E flat major, Op. 20
Soloists of Morningside Music Bridge, Boston*
Soloists of Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra
‘One of the miracles of nineteenth-century music’ is how the music critic Conrad Wilson described Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings – the vivacious, brilliant and nigh-on perfect work of the 16-yearold composer who had no models to draw on. Soloists of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra join distinguished alumni from the Morningside Music Bridge Festival for this performance of Mendelssohn’s joyous score, following the second of the composer’s piano trios, which finds the composer at his most impassioned and rhapsodic.
*Morningside Music Bridge brings together the finest emerging artists to perform on an international stage and measure themselves against the very best young performers globally.
Tickets £38
£28
£22
£15 (students from £5)
Young Artists' Platform
Pre-concert recital 18:30
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Luke Mitchell Organ Recital
Wednesday 5 March 2025
The Queen's College Chapel, 13:10
Bach Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 544
Bach Three settings of Allein Gott in der höh sei ehr from the Clavier-Ubung III
Bach O Mensch Bewein' Dein' Sünde Gross, BWV 622
Bach Partita on 'Sei Gegrußet, Jesu Gütig', BWV 768
Luke Mitchell organ
Recent organ scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford and one of the instrument’s fast-rising talents, Luke Mitchell wraps up our organ recital series with an all-Bach programme including the three Gloria settings from the composer’s Clavierübung III. Among the relative rarities on the menu is the unusually eloquent O Mensch Bewein' Dein' Sünde Gross from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein, in which the well-known passion chorale is elaborated with an ornamental melody to moving effect. To open his recital, Luke brings us one of the very greatest Preludes and Fugues for organ to have sprung from Bach’s pen, in the composer’s favoured melancholic key of B minor.
Free entry with retiring collection
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Sir András Schiff
Wednesday 5 March 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Bach Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080
Sir András Schiff piano
Sir András Schiff has made the music of Bach his own. In a career spanning five decades, the great Hungarian pianist has focused on the music of the composer whom he describes as a ‘great scientist who systematically set new challenges for himself, which he then solved at the highest level possible.’ One such challenge was The Art of Fugue – Bach’s big project to lift the fugal form to new heights just as it was falling from fashion. The result is a work of immense richness, imagination and possibility that a great friend of Oxford, Schiff, will perform at the Sheldonian Theatre.
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students £5)
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
Thursday 13 March 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Bach Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 5 in D major, Op. 107, ‘Reformation’
Anthony Robb flute
Antje Weithaas violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
After its pious opening, Mendelssohn’s ‘Reformation’ Symphony explodes into a declaration of faith and equality – an image of the Lutheran Reformation as one of fortitude, industry, democratisation and joy, all of which permeate the composer’s best-kept symphonic secret. Before the embracing energy of Mendelssohn’s symphony comes the composer’s supremely elegant Violin Concerto in the sensitive hands of Antje Weithaas and music by Mendelssohn’s beloved Bach: the standout Orchestral Suite No. 2, with its modish flute solos.
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Christoph Eschenbach conducts Bach and
Mendelssohn
Thursday 20 March 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Mendelssohn Overture to Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21
Bach Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major, BWV 1042
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, ‘Italian’
Christoph Eschenbach conductor
Tbc violin
Two things inspired Mendelssohn more than anything else: travel and literature. This concert under Christoph Eschenbach celebrates both, opening with all the magic and mystery of the composer’s overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the play by Shakespeare for which he wrote extensive
Tickets £60 £42 £32 £20 (students from £5)
incidental music, and concluding with the boundless exhilaration and joy of his Italian Symphony, which overflows with the composer’s unique brand of perfected spontaneity. Between them comes the Violin Concerto in E minor from Mendelssohn’s other great love: Bach.
Bach Mendelssohn Festival
Dvořák Eight
Thursday 10 April 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Humperdinck Prelude from Hänsel and Gretel
Wieniawski Fantaisie brillante, on themes from Gounod’s Faust, Op. 20
Waxman Carmen Fantasy
Dvořák Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88
Bomsori Kim violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Winner of the Concerto Prize at the 2024 BBC Music Magazine Awards, Bomsori Kim brings her virtuosic storytelling to two spellbinding violin works distilled from great operas: Waxman’s famous Carmen Fantasy and Wieniawski’s wickedly entertaining fantasy on themes from Gounod’s Faust. Complementing these performances, Marios Papadopoulos conducts Humperdinck’s glowing prelude to Hänsel and Gretel and Dvořák’s thrilling Symphony No. 8, a supreme marriage of immediacy and architectural brilliance.
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)
Mozart Great Mass in C Minor
Thursday 17 April 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Mozart Regina coeli, K. 108
Mozart Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425, ‘Linz’
Mozart Great Mass in C minor, K. 427
Lucy Cox soprano
Sophie Bevan soprano
Alessandro Fisher tenor
Gareth Brynmor John baritone
Sir John Rutter conductor
Oxford Philharmonic Choir
In the summer of 1782, just before marrying, Mozart began work on his Great but incomplete Mass in C minor. Having encountered the masterpieces of Bach and Handel, Mozart began to reappraise his values as a composer. The result was the dark and otherworldly music Mozart completed as the torso of his score—a setting of the Ordinary of the Mass more profound in substance and grand in scale than any he had written before. Sir John Rutter conducts Mozart's monumental Great Mass in C minor, the culmination of a programme that includes the composer’s playful symphony composed during a brief stay in Linz and the Regina coeli, which comprises some of the most sublime music Mozart wrote for the church.
Tickets £54 £40 £30 £18 (students £5)
Mahler One
Saturday 10 May 2025
Oxford Town Hall, 19:00
Palazzo Sisyphus world premiere*
Shor Piano Concerto No. 1
Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D major, ‘Titan’
Behzod Abduraimov piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Marcello Palazzo conductor*
Mahler’s symphonies are his spiritual autobiographies, laying out his experiences and suffering for all to hear. His strikingly confident Symphony No. 1 of 1889 is cast in two parts: first the optimism and energy of youth; then the crisis of rejection and death.
Yet Mahler’s symphony powers towards an exultant conclusion, overtly popular in style and imbued with a new confidence – the confidence of life itself. Marios Papadopoulos conducts Mahler’s Titanic symphony here after the world premiere of Sisyphus by University of Oxford and OPO Composers' Workshop alumnus
Marcello Palazzo and another work from our Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor: with unexpected twists in its traditional structure, Shor’s Piano Concerto No. 1 blends nostalgia and exhilaration, and features the remarkable soloist Behzod Abduraimov.
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)
Young Artists' Platform
Pre-concert recital 18:00
The Tuneful Toy Box FUNomusica
Family Concert
Sunday 18 May 2025
Oxford Town Hall, 16:00
Alasadair Malloy presenter
It’s all fun and games today as the musicians of the Oxford Philharmonic and Alasdair Malloy open up their tuneful toybox and play music to match the contents. They’ll be bringing favourite toys to life with music and counting down the top ten toys of all time as they go!
What do you think they will find in there?
Tickets adults £10 children £4
Most suitable for ages 4−8
Pre-concert craft activities at 15:00
In partnership with
Beethoven Seven
Thursday 22 May 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Beethoven Overture 'Coriolan', Op. 62
Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 6
Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
Carmine Lauri violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Marios Papadopoulos takes the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra through the momentous symphonic dance that is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, a work whose pounding, marching and pirouetting permanently realigned western music’s fundamental relationship between rhythm and harmony. Another of our own musicians, Concertmaster Carmine Lauri, is the soloist in the most lyrical and operatic violin concerto by the great guru of virtuosity, Niccolò Paganini, a work that will fill the Sheldonian Theatre with rococo elegance. To open, all the ferocity and impact of one of Beethoven’s most striking orchestral overtures, ‘Coriolan’.
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)
Supported by Simon & Alison Ryde
Tchaikovsky Pathétique
Friday 6 June 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Wagner Overture The Flying Dutchman*
Side-by-Side
Mats Lidström The RFK Concerto for cello and orchestra* European premiere
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, ‘Pathétique’
Mats Lidström cello
Andrew Litton conductor
Tchaikovsky described his Symphony No. 6 as ‘the best thing I have ever composed or will compose.’ It presents the culmination of the composer’s thoughts on life and love, subjects on which this tortured individual had plenty to say, while leading a symphony orchestra to bear its soul and casting a spell on audiences
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)
like no other symphony of its era. Andrew Litton conducts this pivotal symphony, having navigated the stormy waters of Wagner’s Prelude to The Flying Dutchman, and is joined by the Orchestra’s Solo Cello Mats Lidström in the performance of his own concerto marking the centenary of the birth of Robert F Kennedy.
Haydn ‘Oxford’ Symphony
Thursday 12 June 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Haydn Symphony No. 49 in F minor, ‘Le passione’
Haydn Trumpet Concerto in E flat major, Hob.VIIe
Ravel Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn
Debussy Hommage à Haydn
Haydn Symphony No. 92 in G major, ‘Oxford’
Sergei Nakariakov trumpet
John Lubbock conductor
One of Britain’s genuine musical heroes, John Lubbock leads the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra in a celebration of the genius of a composer with close links to the city and university, Joseph Haydn. Bookending the programme are the Austrian composer’s unremitting symphony on Christ’s passion and the celebratory work he conducted himself at the Sheldonian Theatre on receiving his honorary doctorate here, the ‘Oxford’ Symphony. Alongside the composer’s gleaming trumpet concerto, we hear John’s own arrangements of intriguing salutes to Haydn by composers from another time and territory: Debussy and Ravel.
Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)
Angela Gheorghiu
Thursday 19 June 2025
Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30
Strauss II Overture Die Fledermaus
Mascagni Prelude & Intermezzo Cavalleria Rusticana
Puccini Preludio sinfonico
Lehár Overture The Merry Widow
Verdi La Traviata Prelude Act I
Puccini ‘In quelle trine morbide’ from Manon Lescaut, Act II
Puccini ‘Donde lieta usci’ from La bohème, Act III
Puccini Manon Lescaut Intermezzo Act III
Puccini ‘Un bel di vedremo’ from Madama Butterfly, Act III
Puccini ‘O mio babbino caro’ from Gianni Schicchi
Angela Gheorghiu soprano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Angela Gheorghiu, one of the most glamorous and gifted opera singers of our time, returns to perform with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra to close the season at the Sheldonian Theatre. Together, they will celebrate a composer to whom she has dedicated a lifetime: Puccini. After landmark appearances as his heroines Tosca and Madama Butterfly on the world’s greatest opera stages, Gheorghiu performs the most beloved arias from Puccini’s operas, while the orchestra brings its storytelling talents to bear in enchanting overtures and tragic intermezzos from favourite operas and operettas.
Tickets £60 £42 £32 £20 (students from £5)
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra
Since 1998, the Oxford Philharmonic has brought inspirational performances to Oxford and beyond. The Orchestra prides itself on creating unique musical experiences, bringing new and engaging interpretations to well-loved works in the classical repertoire. Its continual search for excellence is underpinned by the uncompromising standards of its Founder and Music Director Marios Papadopoulos, who with some of the UK’s and Europe’s finest instrumental musicians has shaped the Orchestra’s distinctive sound.
The Oxford Philharmonic works regularly with some of the world’s greatest classical artists, among them Maxim Vengerov, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Martha Argerich, Sir András Schiff, Evgeny Kissin and Sir Bryn Terfel. Violinist Maxim Vengerov became the Oxford Philharmonic’s first-ever Artist-in-Residence in 2013 for an unprecedented four seasons. Since then, Vengerov has performed with the Orchestra across the UK and recorded the violin concertos of Brahms and Sibelius, as well as leading an ensemble of OPO Principals in a recording of Mendelssohn’s Octet.
In addition to its annual concert season in Oxford, performances across the UK, family concerts and annual Piano Festival and Chamber Music Series, the Oxford Philharmonic is in growing demand internationally. It appeared at the Tivoli Festival in Copenhagen in June 2019 and, in June 2022, made its critically acclaimed US debut at Carnegie Hall.
In February 2023, the Orchestra celebrated its 25th anniversary with a gala concert at the Barbican, in which Maxim Vengerov played Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Other engagements during the Orchestra’s Silver Jubilee year included concerts in Dubai in February 2023 and a tour of Germany and Austria, where the Orchestra made its debut at Musikverein, Vienna and at Isarphilharmonie, Munich with soloist Martha Argerich. In an exciting 2023/24 season, the Orchestra returned to Dubai in February for six concerts at Dubai Opera. In May, the Orchestra undertook a major debut tour of Japan, performing nine concerts to capacity audiences in four cities, including Tokyo.
In December 2020, the Orchestra filmed a concert in a tribute to all those working on developing a vaccine for Covid-19 at the University of Oxford, including the world premiere of John Rutter’s Joseph’s Carol, commissioned for the occasion.
Since its founding, the Oxford Philharmonic has been firmly committed to outreach work, with projects taking music to areas of social and economic disadvantage, hospitals, Special Educational Needs schools, and partnerships with Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council. In December 2021, the Orchestra’s former Sub-Principal Violin Jamie Hutchinson was awarded the prestigious Salomon Prize, a joint prize between the Royal Philharmonic Society and Association of British Orchestras, in recognition of the educational initiatives she spearheaded with the Orchestra during the pandemic.
In 2002, the Oxford Philharmonic was appointed Orchestra in Residence at the University of Oxford, the first relationship of its kind between a symphony orchestra and a higher education institution. For the last 22 years, the Oxford Philharmonic has offered tuition and performances opportunities to hundreds of University students.
The Oxford Philharmonic has appeared on several recordings including albums of cello concertos by Shostakovich and Solo Cello Mats Lidström on BIS Records, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy; A Merton Christmas with the Choir of Merton College; Haydn’s The Creation with the Choir of New College; the Handel/Mendelssohn Acis and Galatea with Christ Church Cathedral Choir; and works by Nimrod Borenstein for Chandos. The Orchestra’s latest CD, The Enlightened Trumpet with soloist Paul Merkelo, was released on Sony Classical.
The Oxford Philharmonic recently signed a recording contract with the label Platoon and recorded a selection of Mozart’s symphonies in September 2023, now available on all streaming platforms.
The Orchestra and its Music Director were awarded the City of Oxford’s Certificate of Honour in 2013, in recognition of their contribution to education and performance in Oxford.
The Oxford Philharmonic Academy
The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra has been committed to education and community outreach since its founding in 1998. We provide free, worldclass opportunities to children and young people throughout Oxfordshire. In February 1999, we began offering £5 tickets to students. Despite two decades of inflationary pressures, we have kept the ticket price for students at £5, and even expanded our Ticket Access Scheme to under18s. Now, students and under-18s make up over a quarter of our audiences.
The Oxford Philharmonic Academy incorporates all of our educational programmes, which range from pre-primary to post-graduate level. We work with young people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds, helping to address inequalities throughout Oxfordshire. Participants in our education programmes have gone on to perform with every major orchestra in the UK, and have won prizes including the Leeds International Piano Competition and BBC Young Musician.
Postgraduate Education – Oxford Piano Festival
The Oxford Piano Festival was established in order to bring the most talented young pianists and renowned teachers to Oxford for a world-leading series of events. Under Festival President Sir András Schiff and the Patronage of Alfred Brendel, the Festival has established itself as an international destination for teachers, aspiring musicians, and audience members.
Tertiary Education
As the Orchestra in Residence at the University of Oxford for the last 22 years, we have offered for free numerous tuition and performance opportunities to hundreds of students, including one-to-one lessons from senior Philharmonic members, apprenticeships in orchestral playing, full symphonic premieres for emerging composers, workshops and masterclasses from our own outstanding players and visiting international artists, including Lang Lang, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Maxim Vengerov, to name a few.
Secondary School Education
Through our partnership with the Oxfordshire County Music Service, we provide secondary school students with expert tuition and apprenticeships. The winner of our Senior Concerto Competition goes on to perform a concerto with the Orchestra at the Sheldonian Theatre.
The Orchestra holds workshops at local schools, at which children share their passion for music with their peers and are taught by the Orchestra’s appointed musicians.
Primary School Education
Last Season, we engaged 22 state schools in music education projects, democratising engagement with and learning about music.
SEN(D) Schools
Specially-trained OPO musicians visit schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities, where pupils explore how sound is produced, shared and enjoyed.
Preschool Education
In collaboration with Oxford City Council, the OPO hosts three family concerts per year at Oxford Town Hall. These ‘FUNomusica’ concerts are designed for families with children aged under 8. These concerts accommodate children’s need to move around, make noise, and participate while learning.
Hospitals
Our visits to hospitals give patients the opportunity to attend intensive, immersive workshops, where they sing, play and collaborate on introductory musical pieces, use abilityappropriate/adapted instruments, and enjoy performances by professional musicians.
Booking Information for Concerts in Oxford
Box Office
Online: oxfordphil.com
Telephone: 01865 980 980 (Mon–Fri 09:00–17:00)
Email: boxoffice@oxfordphil.com
The box office at the Sheldonian Theatre opens 4 hours before each concert. The box office at all other venues opens 1 hour before each concert.
Opening Times
Doors open 30 minutes before the advertised concert start time and 10 minutes before a pre-concert event.
Booking Dates
Tuesday 3 September 2024, 11:00 – Priority booking for Patrons and multi-buy purchases of 12+ concerts
Friday 6 September 2024, 11:00 – Priority booking for Friends and multi-buy purchases of 8+ concerts
Tuesday 10 September 2024, 11:00 – General booking
Priority booking for multi-buy purchases by telephone only
Multi-buy and Group Bookings
Book 8-11 concerts and save 10%.
Book 12+ concerts and save 15%.
Book 10+ tickets for one concert and save 10%.
Discounts cannot be combined and must be booked in one transaction. Multi-buy tickets cannot be refunded and can only be exchanged for events within the same season.
Fees
There are no transaction fees.
Postage fee of £2 per order.
Concessions
Under 18s and full-time students receive £5 tickets in the lowest price band or a £5 discount for all other price bands through generous contributions to our Ticket Access Fund for Students.
Special Requirements
All our venues have disabled access and facilities. If you require a wheelchair space or have specific access or seating requirements, please call the box office so that we can advise you on the best seating arrangement for your needs.
Latecomers
We will do our best to admit latecomers whenever possible at an appropriate point in the performance. Latecomers will be seated in a designated area until the interval, when they can take their allocated seat.
Unreserved Seating
Unreserved seating entitles you to a seat within your chosen area rather than a specific seat. Sponsors and those with disabilities are entitled to reserved seating in these areas, allocated at the Orchestra’s discretion.
Refunds and Conditions of Sale
Tickets may be exchanged for another concert or a credit voucher (valid for six months) if returned at least two weeks before the concert. An administration fee of £2 per ticket will apply.
For sold out concerts only, we can accept returned tickets and attempt to re-sell them for you. This is not a guarantee, but if the ticket is sold then a refund will be given with a £2 admin fee per ticket.
Please note that children under the age of 6 cannot be admitted to OPO concerts, with the exception of FUNomusica family concerts. Children over the age of 2 years require a ticket for family concerts.
We reserve the right to refuse admission and to change the date, time, artist, programme or venue of any event where unavoidable.
Please see our website for full T&Cs and FAQs.
Privacy Policy
The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to ensuring that your personal data is protected. We use the information that we collect about you in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. This privacy policy sets out how we use and protect any information that you share with us.
Venue Information
Barbican Hall
Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS
Grove Auditorium, Magdalen College
Longwall Street, Oxford OX1 4AU
Holywell Music Room
Holywell Street, Oxford OX1 3SD
Magdalen College Chapel
High Street, Oxford OX1 4AU
Merton College Chapel
4 Merton Street, Oxford OX1 4JD
Olivier Hall, St Edward’s School
Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 7BG
Oxford Town Hall
St Aldate’s, Oxford OX1 1BX
Sheldonian Theatre
Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3AZ
The Queen's College Chapel High Street, Oxford OX1 4AW
Sheldonian Theatre Seating Plan
Chairs (unreserved, cushioned chair with cushioned backrest)
Row A (cushioned bench with wooden backrest)
Lower Gallery (cushioned bench with cushioned backrest)
Semi-Circle (cushioned bench with no backrest)
Upper Gallery (unreserved, cushioned bench with wooden backrest)
Area Balcony (unreserved, cushioned bench with no backrest)
Stewards Gallery (unsighted & unreserved, cushioned bench with cushioned backrest)
The Sheldonian Theatre was constructed between 1664 and 1669, and is a Grade I listed building. Please note that there are no lift facilities and that the majority of seats are benches, some without backrests. If you require a wheelchair space, have any access requirements or questions about seating, please contact the box office on 01865 980 980.
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Patron
HRH Princess Alexandra
Life Presidents
Geoffrey de Jager
Harry Leventis
Honorary President
The Rt Hon the Lord Patten of Barnes, CH
Vice President
Sir Victor Blank
Patron
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Piano Festival Patron
Alfred Brendel KBE
Piano Festival President
Sir András Schiff
Patron for New Music
Marina, Lady Marks
Music Director
Marios Papadopoulos MBE
Conducting Fellow
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey
Composer in Residence
Alexey Shor
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Trust
Registered Charity No. 1084256
Sir Ivor Roberts KCMG (Chair)
Geoffrey de Jager (Deputy Chair)
Dr Saphié Ashtiany
Marco Assetto
Raymond Blanc OBE
David Haenlein
Lord Hall
Dr Russell Hirshfield
Sir George Iacobescu CBE
Rasha Khawaja
Colin Maund
Dr Marios Papadopoulos MBE
Sir Jonathan Phillips
Prof. Sir Andrew Pollard
Lord Stewart
Prof. Christopher Wood
Advisory Council
Dr Saphié Ashtiany (Chair)
John Caunt
Prof. Michael Earl
Joanna Foster CBE
Peggotty Graham
Jeff Hewitt
Robert Jackson
Lord Krebs
Dr Jill Pellew
Sir Jonathan Phillips
Bob Price
Hilary Reid-Evans
Lady Stewart
Prof. Sir John Vickers
Angela Wade
David Whelton
Finance and Risk Committee
Colin Maund (Chair)
Prof. Michael Earl
David Haenlein
Jeff Hewitt
Tom Purves
Honorary Members
Lord Butler of Brockwell
Sir Jeremy Greenstock
Lady Heseltine
John Leighfield CBE
Margarita Louis-Dreyfus
Dr Michael Peagram
Prof. Reinhard Strohm
Francesca Schwarzenbach
George Tsavliris
Bruno Wang
Oxford Philharmonic
Orchestra Productions Ltd
Company No. 03592323
VAT No. 208 4077 20
Directors
Dr Saphié Ashtiany
Marco Assetto
David Haenlein
Anthi Papadopoulos
Dr Marios Papadopoulos MBE
Board Members,
American Friends of the Oxford Philharmonic
Joshua M Berman
Russell Hirshfield
Marios Papadopoulos MBE
Saundra Whitney
Christopher Wright
Advisory Council, American Friends of the Oxford Philharmonic
Alex Gorsky
Hon. Kerry Murphy Healey
Sir John Hood
Leila Larijani
Aviad Meitar
James Sherwood†, Chairman Emeritus
Executive Management
Music Director
Dr Marios Papadopoulos MBE
Chief Operating Officer
Anthi Papadopoulos
Education and Community Director
David Haenlein
Administration
Artistic Planning Manager
Janet Marsden
Orchestra Personnel Manager
Ellie McCowan
Development Coordinator
Fiachra Kelleher
Development Officer
Jemma Crossley
Concerts Officer
Ellie Rayfield
Education Officer
William Emery
Ticketing and Events Officer
Carolina Abeledo Vilariño
Marketing Administrator
Maja Persson
Philanthropic Consultancy
Support
Global Philanthropic
Press and PR
Nicky Thomas Media
Friends and Patrons Liaison
John Caunt
Librarian
Helen Harris
Office Assistant
Marcello Palazzo
Stage Manager
Max Howard
Donors and Benefactors
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Trust (charity No. 1084256) acknowledges with deep gratitude the financial contributions made over the last twelve months by the following:
Individuals
Diamond Benefactors
Alex & Elena Gerko
Platinum Benefactors
Anonymous, Marco & Francesca Assetto, Geoffrey & Caroline de Jager, Prof. Raymond Dwek CBE & Mrs Sandra Dwek, Simon & Alison Ryde, Prof. Christopher Wood
Gold Benefactors
Jon & Julia Aisbitt, Prof. Paul Davies & Dr Saphié Ashtiany, Bahaeddine & Gabriella Bassatne, Dr John & Baroness Ruth Deech, David Haenlein, Colin & Rosemary Maund, Dr Michael Peagram
Silver Benefactors
Anne Marie Graff, Lord Laidlaw, Sir Sydney Lipworth KC & Lady Lipworth CBE, Inge Margulies, David & Elizabeth Ure
Benefactors
Anonymous, Lady Aird, Raymond Blanc, John & Chris Caunt, Dr Peter Collins, Eric Coutts, Michael & Susan Crystal, Michael & Heather Dalgleish, Deborah & Antony Elliott OBE, Anita Higham OBE, Alun Evans & Hilary Reid Evans, Peggotty & Andrew Graham, Verne & Andrea Grinstead, Ron & Penny Gulliver, Lady Horton, Robert & Caroline Jackson, Peter & Lorna Klimt, Mr & Mrs John Leighfield CBE, Mike Lester, Juan Enrique Manosalva Brun, Sir Ivor & Lady Roberts, Lord & Lady Stewart, Earl & Countess of Stockton, Laura Tomlinson, Andrea Vögeli, Per Wimmer
Members
Aeonian Circle
Prof. Paul Davies & Dr Saphié Ashtiany, Maggie Copus, Hellios Information Ltd, Anita Higham OBE, David & Elizabeth Ure
Patrons
Stefanie Adami, John & Hilary Bach, Angela Beatson Wood, Mary Beattie, Dr Karen & Dr Eric Caines, Katherine Carpenter, Brian & Jean Carroll, Emma Chamberlain OBE, Leo Tong Chen, Prof. David Coleman, Peter Coleman, Dr Robert F Coles, Charles & Gisela Cooper, Dame Kay Davies, N Dimsdale, Joseph & Lou Docker, Svetlana Egorova, Blair & Kathy Eldridge, John Faux, Christopher & Marian French, David & Elizabeth French, David Golding, Ailsa Granne, Wal & Christine Gray, Raymond Hartman, Jeff & Pauline Hewitt, Valerie Hill, Dr Sally Hope, Chris & Nicola Hornby, Keith & Antoinette Jackson, Prof. Richard Jenkyns, Anthony Kedros, Sir David & Lady Keene, Prof. Martin Kemp, Sir Anthony & Lady Kenny, Kaye & David Lillycrop, Alexander Lingas, Jenny Loehnis, Lord & Lady
Londonderry, Eric & Clare Lowry, Roger Michel, J C Miller, Amanda & David Milne KC, Joy Morning, John & Margaret Orme, Richard Otten, Dominic Parr, Neil Pearson, Sir Nick & Lady Pearson, Mark & Jill Pellew, Dr David Pick, Derek & Muriel Pilkington, Tom & Hilde Purves, John & Poppy Pool, Michael Rouse CBE, Sander Schakelaar, Ben & Emma Seymour, Alan Smith, Gregory & Susan Spence, Mark Sterling, Angela Wade, Michael & Christine Warburton, Dr Trudy Watt, Sam & Suzanne Webber, Liz Willmott, Robert Barclay Woods CBE
Trusts, Foundations, Institutions and Public Sector
Diamond Benefactors
A.G. Leventis Foundation, Anonymous
Platinum Benefactors
Arigato Trust, The Michael Bishop Foundation, John Ellerman Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, H.K. Leventis Foundation, Thompson Family Charitable Trust
Gold Benefactors
Foyle Foundation, Bernard Morris Charitable Trust, The James & Shirley Sherwood Foundation
Silver Benefactors
Anonymous, The R & S Cohen Foundation, Michael Marks Charitable Trust, The Tolkien Trust
Benefactors
The Ammco Trust, Calleva Foundation, The Coln Trust, Colwinston Charitable Trust, The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, Dalgleish Trust, Doris Field Charitable Trust, The Garrick Charitable Trust, JFR Charitable Trust, Michael Watson Charitable Trust, The Nancy Bateman Charitable Trust, The John Thaw Foundation, The Patricia Routledge Foundation, The Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation, David Ure 2013 Trust, The Wavendon Foundation, The Thistle Trust
Patrons
The Bartlett Taylor Charitable Trust, The N Smith Charitable Trust, Souldern Trust, The Stanton Ballard Charitable Trust
Corporates
Silver Benefactors
BMW UK, Hellios Information Ltd, Santander UK PLC
Benefactors
All Souls College, Blake Morgan, John & Arthur Beare, Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Smart Work
American Supporters
Diamond Benefactors
Dr Russell Hirshfield & Leila Larijani, Pfizer Inc., Kari Jonassen Tiedemann, Rosenblatt Charitable Trust
Platinum Benefactors
Anonymous, Thomas A Barron, Barclays, Ruth & Joshua M Berman, Mary Jaharis, JP Morgan, Faanya Rose, Christopher Wright
Gold Benefactors
Anonymous, The Alphadyne Foundation, CeCe & Lee Black, Elena & John Coumantaros, Zvi & Ofra Meitar Family Fund, Ruth Gjessing-Newman, Kallinikeion Foundation, Hon. Kerry Murphy Healey, Kristen & Kent Lucken, Mary McFadden, Mr & Mrs Blake Samuels, Dee Schwab
Silver Benefactors
BofA Securities, Paula Begoun, Samantha & Nabil Chartouni, Whitaker Irvin, Mary Mochary Management Trust, Natalie Pray, Woods & Erica Staton, Adam Zoia Benefactors
Birchtree Global, Captain Lynn Danaher, Gavin Garrett, JCC Foundation, Lili Forouraghi Charitable Trust, MAI VILMS Charitable Foundation, Aniko Gaal Schott, Robert Shaw, Daisy M Soros, Barbara Tober Patrons
Afsaneh Beschloss, Layla Diba, Rick Donner, Larry Miller, Linda Pedro, Peter & Mary Jeanne Tufano, Alec Wang
Contact us
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra 01865 987 222 (general) | 01865 980 980 (box office) | info@oxfordphil.com 29a Teignmouth Road, London NW2 4EB oxfordphil.com
American Friends of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Email: camilla@oxfordphil.org | Tel: + 212 729 0127 864 Lexington Avenue, 2nd floor, New York, NY 10065 afoxfordphil.org
The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra is a member of the Association of British Orchestras.
This brochure is published by Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra Productions Ltd. Information is correct at time of going to print (July 2024).
Photography credits: p. 33 Master of the Saint Lucy Legend, Mary, Queen of Heaven, c. 1485/1500 Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington; p.8 Salvator Mundi, Albrecht Dürer, ca. 1505, Courtesy The Met collection; Apple and Biscuit, Gudrun Mitterhauser, Marco Borggreve, F Broede, Sim Canetty-Clarke, Richard Cave, Benjamin Ealovega, Getty Images - David M Benett, Chris Gloag, InClassica, Samit Event Group, Grigoriy Yaroshenko, Frances Marshall, Meriotta Mendez, MidAmerica Productions, Inc., Pier Andrea Morolli, Nicholas Posner, Nick Rutter, Igor Studio, Nicholas Posner, Ari Magg, ViolaGo Photo, Carducci Quartet, Unspalsh, Freepik.
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