For Halloween Ars Lryrica has cooked up a devilish stew of mad scenes and eerie instrumental music from Henry Purcell through C. P. E. Bach. Come in costume to experience fully the scary sounds of Rebel’s Les Élemens, which begins in “Chaos,” or the hysteria of Dejanaria’s meltdown at the end of Handel’s Hercules. Mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz makes a much-anticipated Ars Lyrica debut, and violin virtuoso Manami Mizumoto braves Tartini’s fearsome “Devil’s Trill” Sonata.

EPSG:4326

Haunted Spirits

Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

England’s Chapel Royal, in the years before and after Oliver Cromwell’s Republic, nurtured some of the nation’s finest composers. After attending one of its services in 1662, Samuel Pepys noted how ‘the music was more full than it was’, referring to improvements made since the restoration of Charles II. Arcangelo and a dream team of singers undertake An English Baroque Journey, taking in emotionally-charged anthems by Pelham Humfrey, Maurice Greene and Matthew Locke and ending with Handel’s majestic setting of words from the Book of Psalms.

Arcangelo; Hilary Cronin soprano; Daisy Livesey soprano; James Hall countertenor; Jeremy Budd tenor; Hugo Brady tenor; Matthew Long tenor; Dominic Sedgwick bass; William Gaunt bass; Jonathan Cohen director, harpsichord

Wigmore Hall

Beyond the celebrated composer of opera lies a musician deeply inspired by the dances and songs of his time. Theatre music sits alongside lively hornpipes, jigs, and traditional Scottish and Irish tunes, revealing a Purcell who is vibrant and theatrical.

Henry Purcell: Rebellion

Smith Square Hall

From Venice to Vienna, London to North Germany, this concert traces the fantastical style throughout the 17th century, featuring composers such as Castello, Bertali, Schmelzer, Biber, Locke, Purcell, Froberger, and Weckmann. Here, the Baroque is at its boldest and most vibrant: music that dares to push boundaries, sometimes even crossing them, yet still has the power to astonish, move, and enchant.

Stylus Phantasticus

Travel back in time. Markets bustle in Paris. Church bells ring out across the Vatican. Featuring music from six different cities, each with their own distinctive sound world, this programme ranges from the playful street cries of Janequin to the serene harmonies of Allegri, bringing to life the dawn of the Baroque era.

A Renaissance Roadtrip

Elena Langer: Ariadne

You left for dead. I love you.

Ariadne wakes on the shore and finds Theseus gone. She helped him escape Crete, leaving her home, her family, and the life she once knew behind. Now she has been abandoned. King Minos' daughter writes to the lover who has abandoned her in a poignant one-act drama which explores how absence is defined by love. A powerful and intimate retelling of the myth of Ariadne, Elena Langer sets Glyn Maxwell’s Poem Ariadne to Theseus for the first half of English Touring Opera’s Autumn Double Bill.

Purcell: Dido & Aeneas

Queen Dido of Carthage prepares to wed the Trojan hero, Aeneas. But the rejected King Iarbas plans his revenge, threatening to drive the lovers apart. Based on Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid, Purcell’sDido and Aeneas recalls the tragedy of the Queen of Carthage in a masterpiece of Baroque music, theatricality and despair.

Elena Langer: Ariadne & Purcell: Dido & Aeneas

Hackney Empire

An exhilarating musical journey, where West African and European traditions call out to each other.

Join Manchester Collective’s string ensemble, percussionist extraordinaire Sidiki Dembélé and his band for folksong and storytelling from the Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal. Born out of his family’s griot tradition of West African oral history and music, Sidiki’s work ‘Teriya’ (‘friendship’ in Bambara) celebrates where our roots intertwine.

Our destination is the musical meeting point between cultures. Guiding us there and directing from the violin is Rakhi Singh. Hear the old anew with her bold reimaginings of classical and folk tunes, baroque mixed with African percussion, and plenty of improvisational magic along the way.

Manchester Collective and Sidiki Dembélé: Constellations

Royal Northern College of Music

Henry Purcell’s sacred works are paired with ones by his predecessors, offering a rich portrait of church music in transition. Purcell crafted music for Anglican liturgy that, though less elaborate than his symphony anthems, is no less dazzling.

Here The Deities Approve

Royal Academy of Music

A glance at Fretwork’s copious discography reveals the scope of its musical interests and appetite for exploring the glories of the viol consort repertoire. It is joined by a cast of close colleagues and friends to celebrate its 40th anniversary at Wigmore Hall with a programme that reaches back to the consort music of Dowland, John Jenkins and William Lawes and forward to works by Sir George Benjamin and Silas Wollston. ‘Fretwork is the finest viol consort on the planet’, wrote the London Evening Standard, a view endorsed by sage critics worldwide.

Fretwork; Sir George Benjamin conductor; Susan Bickley mezzo-soprano; Iestyn Davies countertenor; Ian Bostridge tenor; Silas Wollston organ

RNS Moves, our one-of-a-kind musical ensemble made up of professional disabled musicians and non disabled members of Royal Northern Sinfonia, return to Wylam Brewery in Newcastle.

Caroline Shaw, Arvo Pärt and Philip Glass at Wylam Brewery

Kings Place, London

Exhibition Park

An afternoon concert at Oscarshall on Bygdøy presented in two parts, one in the Salon and one in the Dining Room, with the audience switching halls after the intermission. Programme includes works by Purcell, Dowland, Lawes, Mertz, Schubert, Sor, Falla, Barroso and Mozart.

Oscarshall

The British baroque quartet Red Priest presents an exhilarating program of masterpieces from the 17th and 18th centuries in its distinctive, high-energy style. The highlight is their arrangement of Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons."

07 RED PRIEST: "A BAROQUE EXTRAVAGANZA"

Lambertikirche

Musik für 3 Streicher, a product of the composer’s mid-20s, sets out to encompass the span of human emotions and experience. Ilya Gringolts, Lawrence Power and Nicolas Altstaedt begin their expedition through the string trio repertoire with two movements from Wolfgang Rihm’s monumental work. Their programme also includes the remarkable Ricercari by Roman Haubenatock-Ramati, who escaped Nazi and Stalinist persecution to join General Anders’s Polish Army and survived the Second World War to become editor of new music for Universal Edition in Vienna.

Ilya Gringolts violin; Lawrence Power viola; Nicolas Altstaedt cello

Broken Branches takes its title from Karim Sulayman and Sean Shibe’s eponymous album, a cornucopia of musical and literary treasures drawn from East and West. Their programme touches on the mystical nature of being, something innate that connects different cultures, religions and regions with deep bonds of common kinship, and the universal stories and emotions that bring people together in union.

Karim Sulayman tenor; Sean Shibe guitar

Since its founding, the Ensemble Théodora has explored the ties between European nations at the turn of the 18th century. This program celebrates the creativity of European composers who settled in London in the 17th and early 18th centuries.

A Tour of Europe in the 18th Century

Église Saint-Christophe

Recorded before a live audience at the Hôtel de Girard, centered on Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. A blind listening of several recordings to select a reference version. Broadcast on France Musique on Sunday, July 12, from 4 to 6 p.m.

The Record Critics' Tribune

Hôtel de Girard

Since its founding, the Ensemble Théodora has explored the connections between European nations at the turn of the eighteenth century. This program celebrates the creativity of European composers who settled in London in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

A Tour of Eighteenth-Century Europe

Église Saint-Bernard

An intense tragédie lyrique in which love, destiny and passion meet in deeply moving music. A staged version of an opera in three acts, blending music, theatre, dance and stage machinery effects.

Dido and Aeneas

Opéra Comédie

Henry Purcell’s gift for setting English words to music shines in the moving and emotional anthem ‘Let mine eyes run down with tears’. In contrast, the powerful ‘Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei’, a Latin psalm setting, features a bold bass solo, probably written for a favoured singer at the court of Charles II, John Gostling.

And Again I Say, Rejoice

Imagine the voice of heaven itself: music that belongs to eternity yet somehow always feels new. Thomas Tallis’ Spem in alium is a landmark of Renaissance music – a masterpiece that seems to create its own sense of time and space. For more than 50 years, The Tallis Scholars have been the world’s pre-eminent performers of Tallis’ music; this should be extraordinary.

The Tallis Scholars

Cadogan Hall 

Chamber Concert “In memoriam”

Evangelische Akademie Tutzing

Munich Residence

Is there an English sound we can all agree on? Of course not. But at least we can celebrate the music of English composers and how they have depicted the country over time. Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending is enduringly popular as a portrait of rural England. But it was written amongst military manoeuvres preparing for World War I and so must be heard as much as a heartbreaking piece about loss as it is some depiction of bucolic Albion. Our leader, Sophie Rosa, is our violin soloist. If you’ve heard Sophie before you know what a treat you’re in for, and if you haven’t then you really wouldn’t want to miss this performance

We also have music by two composers who bookend the idea of English classical music. Henry Purcell wrote wild, emotive music for both the palaces and backstreets of early 17th century London. Edward Elgar is the composer we associate with pomp and circumstance and the rigour of Empire. But actually no – listen to Elgar’s Serenade for Strings and you can hear the same raw emotion of Purcell. Maybe the English aren’t so straight laced after all!

The Lark Ascending

Derby Cathedral

Guest performance in Essen

Philharmonic Essen

Felix Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" combines feather-light ghost dances and sparkling gaiety. The music, composed in 1843, is arguably the most beautiful musical setting of Shakespeare's comedy of the same name. In it, young people lose themselves in a fairy world and experience turbulent emotional turmoil. 150 years earlier, the British composer Henry Purcell composed his equally heartwarming stage work "The Fairy Queen" on the same subject. Marie Jacquot, the future WDR chief conductor, also leads the musical mythical creatures of Norwegian conductor Kristine Tjøgersen through the enchanted summer night forest.

Marie Jacquot - Midsummer Night's Dreams

Museum Ludwig

Fancy a few artistic extravaganzas? Then the third palace concert of the season is just the right place for you. We've got a musical brawl by Biber on offer, a monkey dance à la Purcell, and wild dance numbers by Rameau. Bach's son, Wilhelm Friedemann, also goes against the grain of the laws of harmony. Astor Piazzolla's work isn't quite as bizarre, but then again, the tango was long considered extravagant. And Piazzolla, in particular, repeatedly built stylistic bridges to Baroque music, for example in his version of the "Four Seasons." Where Vivaldi celebrates country life, here we wander through the dance halls of Buenos Aires—including a fugue in "Spring."

3rd Castle Concert

Sondershausen Castle

Spoleto Festival USA presents Opera Queensland’s production of Dido and Aeneas in association with Circa.

Heart-stopping acrobatics and Henry Purcell’s masterful score for Dido and Aeneas—rich, haunting, and unforgettable—soar to new heights in a visionary collaboration with the internationally acclaimed physical theater ensemble Circa. This is opera transformed: soaring voices, awe-inspiring physical artistry, and striking design collide in a riot of color, motion, and sound.

College of Charleston

An immersive production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, conducted by Jonathan Sells and directed by Andrew Staples.

The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists present Purcell’s operatic masterpiece, with the Cutty Sark as a stunning backdrop. A cast of leading soloists bring this drama – based on Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid – to life as never before.

With the hull of the historic ship looming over the narrative like a spectre of the Trojan fleet, the production will incorporate Purcell’s Funeral Sentences, written for the funeral of Queen Mary who founded the Royal Hospital for Seamen, on the site of the present Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas

Cutty Sark

Since forming their duo in 2016, saxophonist Huw Wiggin and harpist Oliver Wass have continued to develop and refine their programmes of music for this unusual pairing of instruments. Huw and Oliver have developed a reputation as warm communicators who draw audiences into their intimate and engaging performances.

The Highclere Concert

Highclere Castle

Ari Tujian, countertenor

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

Dutch-Argentinian soprano Ana-Carmen Balestra is known for her clear expressive voice and sparkling stage presence. A graduate of the Guildhall Opera Course, she has garnered attention for her talent as both an opera and lieder singer.

Ana-Carmen Balestra soprano & Salome Jordania piano

The Bridgewater Hall

BRSO baroque · Rachel Podger

Experience the Australian Chamber Orchestra in a uniquely intimate setting, bathed in the warm glow of candlelight. This renowned ensemble, known for their virtuosic playing and adventurous programming, will present a program that spans centuries of musical expression. In the candlelit Samueli Theater, hear Purcell's hauntingly beautiful Fantasia on One Note, Handel's majestically celebratory Concerto Grosso in A Major, Op. 6 No. 11, a sonically immersive new work by John Luther Adams, Vaughan Williams' ethereally soaring "The Lark Ascending" (arranged by Adam Johnson), and Schubert's String Quartet in D minor, D.810 "Death and the Maiden" (arranged by Richard Tognetti).

Australian Chamber Orchestra

Segerstrom Center for the Arts

5. Chamber Concert: Time Stands Still

Allerheiligen-Hofkirche

Norah Bernstein, soprano

The violin soars melodiously above the rest of the quartet in the gorgeous arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ most popular work The Lark Ascending, which concludes this concert of English music.

Cast

For more than two decades, Magdalena Kožená has captivated global audiences as one of the world's leading voices. The New York Times once described her unique presence as "vocally elegant, emotionally direct, and stylistically accomplished." In the intimate atmosphere of the small hall, the versatile singer, accompanied only by Daniele Caminiti's sensitive lute playing, presents a program of Baroque classics such as Purcell's world-famous lament "When I am laid in Earth" and arias by the composer and prima donna Barbara Strozzi.

Magdalena Kožená / Song recital

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Symphony Nova Scotia welcomes Lionel Meunier, internationally renowned Artistic Director of the award-winning Belgian vocal ensemble Vox Luminis. Praised for his detailed, spirited approach, Lionel is joined by Irish-born soprano Sinéad White, known for her “gorgeous and subtle vocal palette” (La Scena Musicale) and “luminous soprano” (Whole Note). Together, Lionel and Sinéad take us through a program of radiant highlights from Purcell’s beloved operas, including “Fairest Isle” from King Arthur and “If Love’s a Sweet Passion” from The Fairy Queen. Plus, in a first for our orchestra, we perform Handel’s dazzling Il delirio amoroso (The Delirium of Love), showcasing virtuoso solos for violin, cello, oboe, and recorder.

Lunenburg: Purcell’s King Arthur & The Fairy Queen

St. John's Anglican Church

London in 1748, it attracted 12,000 people, and a veritable traffic chaos arose around London Bridge. We expect more civilized conditions around the churches of Funen when the Odense Symphony Orchestra, together with the ultra-concise Magnus Fryklund, tackles Handel's masterpiece in our traditional baroque church concert, which also offers a concert version of Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas - an epic story of love and betrayal. We guarantee goosebumps and existential angst in the most beautiful packaging to complement the baroque fireworks.

Music For The Royal Fireworks

Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Faaborg Kirke/ Faaborg Church

Saint Hans Church Odense

Paul Lay and Joël Suhubiette, artistic director of the Les Éléments Chamber Choir, pursued a parallel musical career that took them to Toulouse and then to Paris. The two musicians share a curiosity for all types of music, which they enjoy exploring and bringing into dialogue in original creations. Their encounter sparked a desire to confront their worlds and blend them into a unique creation. In this unique program, for which he composed the music inspired by poems by Pablo Neruda, Henry David Thoreau, Victor Hugo, and Emily Dickinson, Paul Lay presents several original pieces for choir and jazz trio around the theme of light. These pages are complemented by arrangements of works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell, and György Ligeti for choir and jazz trio.

Waves of Light

Le Corum

Between Baroque and Modern: Purcell and Schoenberg reveal two fates, caught between suffering and life, yearning and searching. Until the question remains: How much pain can love endure?

Dido and Aeneas / Expectation

Theater Bremen

When you hear Sir Simon Rattle speak about Gustav Mahler, it seems as if he knew the composer personally. But it probably feels the same if, like the chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, you have been engaged with the deeply personal and autobiographical music of the late Romantic composer for more than 50 years. Mahler once said that his symphonies contained an entire world – and no one can guide orchestra and audience through these intricate worlds better than Sir Simon Rattle.

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra & Choir / Sir Simon Rattle

Sir Simon Rattle | Mahler 2

Gasteig HP8

OverBridges

CongressCentrum Pforzheim CCP

Acclaimed for her “imaginative intelligence and warmth” (The Guardian), British pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen crafts a hauntingly beautiful program traversing centuries of English music, illuminating the lineage between early keyboard works and modern soundscapes. Hear graceful works by Henry Purcell, Dr. John Bull’s expansive Walsingham Variations, Joseph Haydn’s Sonata in C Major, and Beethoven’s stirring and expressive Sonata No. 30 in E Major. The shadowed lyricism of John Dowland’s In Darkness Let Me Dwell echoes forward into Thomas Adès’s spectral Darknesse Visible, blurring time and texture. In Momen’s hands, this journey through centuries becomes a seamless meditation on introspection, memory, and transformation.

Mishka Rushdie Momen, piano

Washington Performing Arts

The fairy queen Titania, spirits of the night, a singing poet, the peasant couple Mopsa and Corydon, journeymen craftsmen, and many more characters find themselves in the woods on a balmy summer night – chaos is inevitable. But what role does the cunning goblin Puck play in all this?

The Fairy Queen

Das MuTh

Prepare for Baroque brilliance with Richard Egarr at the helm! The former Philharmonia Baroque and Academy of Ancient Music director guest-conducts heart-stopping hits from the 17th and 18th centuries and moves to the harpsichord for the electrifying solos in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. Rowan Pierce, whose silvery soprano enchanted fans of the Netflix series Bridgerton, makes her Music of the Baroque debut with Handel’s virtuosic “Silete venti” (“Be silent, winds”). Selections from Purcell’s joyful Fairy Queen complete this spectacular program.

Baroque Blockbusters!

Harris Theater

North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie

Purcell lived in a world shaped by the English Civil War, where tales of rebellion against rulers captivated audiences. His suite for Aphra Behn’s play Abdelazer accompanied one such story.

Music for Rebels and Royalty

"...please obediently notify the departure to England" Baroque music from Germany and the Kingdom

Bochum Baroque

Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr

The story , inspired by the fourth book of Virgil 's Aeneid , narrates the ill-fated love between the Queen of Carthage and the Trojan hero. Dido , initially reluctant to give in to her feelings, is reassured by her sister Belinda and gives in to her passion for Aeneas. But the happiness of the two lovers is threatened by a sorceress and her witches who plot her ruin. During a hunting trip, the forces of evil unleash a storm, and a spirit, sent in the guise of Mercury, orders Aeneas to leave Carthage to fulfill his mission in Italy. Despite the prince's pain and uncertainty, Dido, wounded by the mere thought of his betrayal, drives him away and chooses to die. The opera ends with one of the most famous pieces in the history of music, Dido's lament " When I am laid in earth ," the prayer of a woman who asks to be remembered, but for her tragic fate to be forgotten.

Teatro Massimo di Palermo

Our very own musical shapeshifters, Royal Northern Sinfonia, prove their adaptability, morphing to adapt to Henry Purcell’s music from the 1600s. Bjarte Eike, known for pushing the boundaries of classical music, leads proceedings and there’s a fabulous cast of singers too.

Purcell's Dido and Aeneas

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

Spectacular chaconnes, singing icicles and mysterious characters of the night: Henry Purcell drew on some of Lully’s most famous opera scenes and turned them into iconic episodes of Restoration theatre that are much loved to this day.

French Scenes in Purcell Operas: 'Love's Triumph'

From Romantic composers to contemporary musicians, Baroque music remains an inexhaustible source of inspiration. With the help of German countertenor Nils Wanderer, Clemens Schuldt has designed a program as unexpected as it is inspiring. Beyond the irresistible theme of its first movement, Brahms's fourth and final symphony synthesizes the composer's entire musical legacy.

The Nils Wanderer Experience

Montcalm Palace

Experience Baroque splendor with flutist Sooyun Kim leading an ensemble through elegant works by Telemann, Purcell, and Couperin.

Golden Baroque: The Luminous Flute

Bethesda Bookshop

Vivaldi meets the Middle East in this engaging and immersive concert experience! Discover the intersection of baroque and folk with Persian and Swedish music and instruments. Mohammad Sahraei, a multi-instrumentalist and ethnomusicologist originally from Iran, plays the tar and daf, while our very own Kirsty Money plays the nyckelharpa in this concert of Middle Eastern and European classics. Symphony Nova Scotia also premieres Vivaldi’s “Grosso Mogul” Violin Concerto – one of the most famous concertos of the Baroque era apart from The Four Seasons – and performs highlights from Telemann, Purcell, Geminiani, Mozart, and more.

Vivaldi Meets the Middle East

St. Andrew's United Church

Following the success of Medea and Jason last season, the Les Surprises ensemble continues with Pierre Lebon a new operatic adventure based on Purcell's famous Dido and Aeneas . This creation, which will have the originality of being performed by an all-female vocal team, echoes the historic first performance given in a girls' school.

Six singers, all winners of the last Clermont-Ferrand International Singing Competition, perform all the roles in a production inspired by 17th-century English "masques," combining music, theater, dance, and machinery. Purcell's score is complemented by texts by Virgil and Shakespeare ( Richard III, Macbeth, The Tempest ), creating a total spectacle in which all the artists are simultaneously singers, dancers, actors, instrumentalists, and stage managers. The sea, omnipresent, becomes the moving heart of the story, a reflection of human passions.

Didon et Énée

Opéra-Théâtre Clermont-Ferrand

Don’t miss this chance to immerse yourself in the opulence and beauty of one of history’s most influential and ornate musical eras. From the grandeur of Bach to the ebullience of Handel let the music captivate your senses.

The Baroque Era: Bach and Beyond

Phoenix Convention Center

Countertenor Iestyn Davies and harpist Oliver Wass come together to perform their journey through the ages with a programme spanning 400 years of music. Oliver Wass is a renowned soloist on the concert stage and was the first ever harpist to win the Guildhall Gold Medal. He joins together with internationally renowned countertenor Iestyn Davies who last appeared on the Garsington stage as Oberon A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2024) which featured in the 2024 BBC Proms to great critical acclaim.

Iestyn Davies & Oliver Wass

Wormsley

Founded 40 years ago, Concerto Köln is one of the outstanding protagonists of early music. It's fortunate that the journey to Duisburg is not far – and that the Duisburg Philharmonic also includes seasoned experts in musically informed performance practice. This creates ideal conditions for an extraordinary encounter in a concert that brings together well-known and lesser-known masterpieces by composers of the 17th and 18th centuries. Examples such as those of the Italian Antonio Vivaldi, the German George Frideric Handel, the Frenchman Jean-Philippe Rameau, the Bohemian Jan Dismas Zelenka, and the Englishman Henry Purcell demonstrate that all of Europe was shaken by the tremendous musical developments of this period. Some of these masters will perform "vocal specialties" – arias from operas or sacred works – or, like the piano pioneer Domenico Scarlatti, excerpts from their instrumental works. The name of countertenor Valer Sabadus, who is another guest from Cologne in Duisburg, shines as brilliantly as his voice.

From all over Europe

CityPalais

A celebration of the work of three members of the Restoration Chapel Royal: Pelham Humfrey, John Blow and their younger contemporary Henry Purcell. Humfrey’s verse anthem ‘Lift up your heads’, a rousing setting of verses from Psalm 24, and Blow’s stately ‘I was glad’ for choir, strings and trumpets set the scene for Purcell’s peerless ode to music’s patron saint.

Music of the Restoration Chapel Royal with Amy Carson, Alexander Chance, and Anthony Gregory

And there was light: By the end of the 16th century at the latest, affect had become an indispensable component of music. Stylus luxurians – "luminous style" – is what music theorist and composer Christoph Bernhard calls this creative device, which was also prevalent in the Baroque period and is characterized by theatricality and intense emotional expression. The Ensemble Astrum researches, experiments, and creates. In their program "And there was light ," the trio of artists led by award-winning Salzburg recorder player Felix Gutschi and Dutch soprano Noëlle Drost dedicate themselves to the stylus luxurians and take the audience on an emotionally profound journey through the Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical periods.

Museum Concert: Ensemble Astrum And there was

Mozart Residence

The Collegium Musicum performs music from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, with repertoire ranging from solo cantatas to madrigals, oratorios, operas, concertos, and other orchestral works. Recent concerts have included performances of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, Handel’s Concerti Grossi, op. 3, Purcell’s King Arthur and The Fairy Queen, Lully’s Psyché and Thésée, Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo, Cavalli’s Ercole amante and La virtù de’ strali d’Amore, and Monteverdi’s Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi.

Collegium Musicum

Eastman School of Music

The magnificent ode ‘Of old, when heroes thought it base’, also known as ‘The Yorkshire Feast Song’, shows Purcell at his most inventive in a celebration of the history of York from Roman times,complete with subtle references to the Glorious Revolution. Purcell’s music is heard alongside two masterpieces of Renaissance polyphony.

Resounding Shores: The Pale and the Purple Rose

The Orchestra Now Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman returns with the orchestra to Symphony Space for another free concert. The concert opens with Strauss’s beloved tone poem Don Juan. Then tenor Ryan Michki, a winner of the 2024 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition, performs Vaughan Williams’ emotional English song cycle On Wenlock Edge, written after the composer had spent three months studying with Maurice Ravel in Paris. Also on the program are Steven Stucky’s arrangement of Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary, originally composed 330 years ago in 1695, and Samuel Barber’s epic and expansive Symphony No. 1 in One Movement.

The Orchestra Now: "Don Juan" and Vaughan Williams

Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space

Bach’s Third Orchestral Suite

Wooddale Church

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

MSM Camerata Nova

Manhattan School of Music

Saxophone Studio Recital

University of Wisconsin-Madison

The English Concert brings their magic touch to Caramoor once again. After captivating audiences with all-Vivaldi programs in 2021 and 2023, this renowned British ensemble returns under Harry Bicket’s masterful direction from the harpsichord. Playing on authentic 17th-century instruments, they achieve something truly special—passionate, fiery performances that never sacrifice precision or delicate beauty. Experience firsthand why they’re considered one of the world’s premier period-instrument ensembles. 

The English Concert

The Rosen House at Caramoor

Hardly any other Baroque opera has recently gained as much popularity as »Dido and Aeneas« (1689). This entertaining and deeply moving work was penned by the congenial English composer Henry Purcell. The tear-jerking lament »When I am laid« has become famous – the climax of a tragic love affair between the Carthaginian princess Dido and the Trojan prince Aeneas. But a magical world, cunning witches and a hunting society also invite you to enjoy listening and smiling.

Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg / decorated company Berlin / Antonius Adamske

Louise Brugger Bidwell teaches piano at UC Berkeley in the Music 168C Program. She is trained as a pianist and composer and enjoys playing a variety of the wonderful keyboard instruments in the UCB Music Department. She has studied composition at UC Berkeley and gave piano concerts at Stanford for ten years while studying with Adolph Baller. She has performed many concerts at UC Berkeley on the departments historic Erard and Wieck pianos. Her interest in the harpsichord and early keyboard instruments has developed in recent years. Besides attending Professor Davitt Moroney’s course on French Music and Poetry, she also attended his Masterclass in the Music of William Byrd at the Flint Collection in Delaware. She gave concerts of William Byrd’s Music in a Noon Concert and at the Women’s Faculty Club. In 2020, she gave an on-line concert at the Women’s Faculty Club to celebrate JS Bach’s Birthday. She has given concerts at the Women’s Faculty Club and at St. Alban’s Church in Albany featuring Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, Johann Jakob Froberger, François Couperin and others, including John Thow and Jeremy Hunt.

Friday Concert: Keyboard Music from England, France, Germany and Spain

University of California, Berkeley

The setting is Carthage, in ancient times: the hero Aeneas flees from burning Troy and arrives in North Africa via the Mediterranean Sea with his fleet of ships, where he meets the beautiful queen Dido. They are lovestruck – and yet fail to bond because of fate’s intervention. Aeneas continues on his journey to form a new kingdom in Italy, while the abandoned Dido is left no alternative but to stay.

Dido & Aeneas

Bebelplatz

Purcell’s ground-breaking opera makes its long-awaited Opera Lafayette debut. Mary Elizabeth Williams returns to Opera Lafayette as Dido, the ill-fated Queen of Carthage, following her internationally lauded performance in last season’s Morgiane. The famously haunting aria “When I Am Laid in Earth” brings the resilient Dido to a crossroad in this woman-centered storyline, delivering an unforgettable saga of love, loss, power, and humanity.

El Museo del Barrio

Sixth & I

Phantasies

Künstlerhaus am Lenbachplatz

Lamento

Cortot Room

Starting this season, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra's program will feature a new, colorful highlight: Blue Week. This festival replaces the former Academy Concerts and combines unique works and programs while showcasing the special qualities of the orchestra's musicians. In this first edition, they will make metamorphoses of all kinds audible – in this concert, humans are transformed into animals, oboe notes into alienated soundscapes, and fantasies into sonic reality.

Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra

Starting this season, there will be a new colorful accent in the program of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra: THE BLUE WEEK. The festival replaces the former Academy Concerts and combines unique works and programs on the one hand and showcases the special qualities of our orchestra musicians on the other. In the first edition, they make metamorphoses of all kinds audible - in this concert, people are musically transformed into animals, oboe notes into alienated soundscapes and fantasies into sounding reality.

2. Blue Concert METAMORPHOSES

Dido and Aeneas, the ancient Roman myth of love and betrayal, was recounted 2000 years ago in Virgil’s Aeneid – and still resonates today. The Trojan hero Aeneas lands on the shores of Carthage, where the beautiful and proud Queen Dido reigns. Just after winning her love, Aeneas suddenly departs – summoned by the gods. Was it destiny or betrayal? No composer has evoked this question with more poignancy than Henry Purcell, whose renowned 17th-century opera Dido & Aeneas is a gem of the baroque repertoire. The program includes sparkling instrumental dances from Purcell’s King Arthur and The Fairy-Queen.

Henry Purcell

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 6, 2026

Leeds Song: Mary Bevan and Joseph Middleton · Leeds Conservatoire

Nov 7, 2026

Elgar Piano Quintet · Sheffield Theatres

Nov 15, 2026

Quatuor Quatrâmes · Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier

Nov 18, 2026

Leeds Song Young Artists Alumni · Leeds Conservatoire

Nov 24, 2026

Bostridge, Bloxham & Goldscheider · Zürcher Kammerorchester

Past events

Oct 31, 2026

Haunted Spirits · Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Oct 30, 2026

Arcangelo; Hilary Cronin soprano; Daisy Livesey soprano; James Hall countertenor; Jeremy Budd tenor; Hugo Brady tenor; Matthew Long tenor; Dominic Sedgwick bass; William Gaunt bass; Jonathan Cohen director, harpsichord · Wigmore Hall

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