Name: Angela Gheorghiu
Start: 2025-06-19T19:30:00
Location: The Sheldonian Theatre

Step into a world where classical music meets virtuosity in the heart of Oxford. The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra's 2025 season lineup is nothing short of spectacular, featuring a medley of timeless pieces and world-class performances. From the riveting violin fantasies of Bomsori Kim to Angela Gheorghiu's operatic prowess with Puccini's arias, the season promises an unforgettable musical journey. With celebrated conductors and renowned soloists bringing to life the works of Dvořák, Mozart, Mahler, and more, each concert is a testament to the enduring magic of orchestral music.

A Symphony of Sounds: Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra's 2025 Concert Highlights

The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra's upcoming season promises a rich tapestry of musical performances, featuring masterpieces by Mahler and Beethoven, whimsical family concerts, and operatic arias by Puccini. With renowned artists like Angela Gheorghiu and Marios Papadopoulos leading the charge, these events will engage audiences with a blend of traditional symphonies and innovative compositions. From the energetic rhythms of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 to the emotive depth of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, each concert offers a unique journey through the world of classical music.

Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra: A Symphony of Seasons

The 2025 Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra concert series promises to be a feast for music lovers, presenting an eclectic mix of performances, each with its own unique charm. From Nigel Kennedy's dynamic rendition of Vivaldi's Four Seasons to Angela Gheorghiu's operatic homage to Puccini, and the Baroque splendor of 'Fire and Water, By Candlelight,' the series offers a rich tapestry of musical experiences. Featuring world-renowned musicians and conductors, these events highlight both timeless classics and contemporary interpretations, ensuring an unforgettable journey through the world of orchestral music.

A Symphony of Seasons: An Exploration of Oxford Philharmonic’s 2025 Concert Series

Angela Gheorghiu

Marios Papadopoulos

Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra

‘I did think I did see all Heaven before me,’ wrote its composer as he finished a musical reflection on faith that still brings audiences to their feet nearly three centuries after it was written. Handel’s oratorio Messiah changed the landscape of vocal music in Britain and has provided a soundtrack to the festive period for the nearly three centuries since. Join Marios Papadopoulos, a first-rate quartet of soloists and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir for a Yuletide rendition of this rousing celebration of celestial joy and human togetherness.

Handel Messiah

University of Oxford

Glazunov’s Violin Concerto is one of the best-kept secrets of the romantic repertoire, a score whose sensuous, rhapsodic solo line weaves sweetness and melancholia. The sensational prodigy Paloma So plays it here but for the rest of this concert, prepare to party like its 1899 as the Oxford Philharmonic masquerades as its Vienna counterpart to bring in the New Year with the stirring marches, pointed polkas and elegant waltzes of Austrian tradition. Marios Papadopoulos takes charge of music bounding with joie de vivre that’s also all about detail and style. There’s no better way to drive away the January blues than be swept away by some of the most embracing music ever written.

A Viennese New Year

Oxford Town Hall

A captivating programme unfolds with the soloists of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, showcasing a rich blend of Czech and French musical traditions. Dvořák’s Terzetto in C major brings a lively, spirited trio to life, followed by Suk’s deeply emotional Meditation on the old Czech Hymn ‘St Wenceslas’, a tribute to Czech heritage. Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1, ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ sears with intensity, capturing the drama of Tolstoy’s novella. The concert concludes with Fauré’s lush Piano Quintet No. 1, a work of sweeping lyricism and passionate contrasts.

Chamber Music at Merton

Merton College

Alasdair Malloy and the Oxford Philharmonic proudly present another bold, brilliant, blockbusting programme, this time celebrating all your Family Film Favourites! Join us for the most wonderful time in the concert hall where the music of Harry Potter, Star Wars, Frozen, Coco, Encanto and a Disney Quiz will transport you to a world of fantasy and adventure. Don’t forget to come dressed up in your most creative costumes for the occasion!

FUNomusica Family Concert: Family Film Favourites

The evening begins with a world premiere by Mackinnon-Botti, a contemporary composition that promises to challenge and inspire, featuring the composer himself as beatboxing soloist. This is followed by Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, delivering a dramatic exploration of political power, brought to life through a vivid orchestral and vocal arrangement. The concert concludes with Haydn’s Nelson Mass, a monumental work combining magnificence and emotional depth, showcasing the brilliance of both the orchestra and choir.

Haydn Nelson Mass

We are thrilled to welcome OPO Solo Flute Anthony Robb for our first masterclass of 2026.

We welcome applications from advanced students (of at least Diploma standard). This masterclass is open to all flautists who are part-time or full-time students at a UK higher education institution. Up to three flautists will be selected.

Flute Masterclass with Anthony Robb

St Hilda's College

Richard Strauss spent the first half of his career producing a string of opulent, proto-cinematic tone poems that redefined orchestral virtuosity. The most epic of them is also the consummate musical autobiography. Ein Heldenleben is a picture of ambition, bravery and resilience which combines music of unprecedented richness, excitement and tenderness. Strauss’s bold orchestration might scatter its adversaries with panache but it concludes with a humbling glimpse of life’s spiritual journey. Before it, Giuseppe Gibboni is the soloist for the spirited momentum and tender repose of OPO Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor’s Violin Concerto No. 7.

Ein Heldenleben

Violin virtuoso Maxim Vengerov joins Marios Papadopoulos and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra for a stunning evening of intensity and grandeur. Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D minor, with its raw, dramatic sweep, provides the perfect showcase for Vengerov’s extraordinary technique and emotional depth. Following, Brahms’s First Symphony unleashes a tidal wave of tension and triumph, with Papadopoulos leading the orchestra through its stirring passages, culminating in a glorious, heroic conclusion.

Maxim Vengerov

Join Marios Papadopoulos, Founder and Music Director of the Oxford Philharmonic, as he shares his artistry and insight in a piano masterclass.

We welcome applications from advanced students (of at least Diploma standard). This masterclass is open to all pianists who are part-time or full-time students at a UK higher education institution. Up to three pianists will be selected.

Piano Masterclass with Marios Papadopoulos

Spanish music has an atmosphere of its own which Manuel de Falla captured in concert works better than anyone else. His music for Serge Diaghilev’s ballet The Three Cornered Hat thrusts bright colours, crisp rhythms and harmonic panache up against one another and here sets up an evening of Spain-inspired works to include red-hot music by Falla, Rodrigo’s fragrant guitar concerto and pieces by French composers Bizet and Massenet who couldn’t resist the allures of the impassioned dances and folk songs south of the border. Guest conductor from Spain Antonio Méndez leads the orchestra with superstar guitarist MILOŠ for company.

Spanish Nights with MILOŠ

Principal woodwinds of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra take centre stage in a concert welding classical poise to unadulterated beauty. ‘Eight days of strenuous work and three sleepless nights have permitted me to complete it the best I could’ – so wrote the student Maurice Ravel of his Introduction and Allegro, a harp concerto in miniature and a bijou piece of exquisite sensuality. Before it come two works lined with the melancholy of a creative life nearing its end: Debussy’s eerie but cuttingly direct Sonata for flute, viola and harp, and Mozart’s glowingly introspective Clarinet Quintet.

Ravel Introduction and Allegro

Wadham College

In 1857, grieving his late mother, Johannes Brahms began work on his choral masterpiece Ein deutsches Requiem. Brahms’s colleague Schumann believed Brahms would deliver ‘wonderful glimpses of the spirit world’. Brahms obliged with a Requiem unlike any other: a piece that carries the gift of spiritual comfort rather than the threat of impending judgment – a glowing message of brotherhood and consolation, a work of its time and place but with universal resonance. Two outstanding soloists and the Crouch End Festival Chorus join the orchestra and Music Director Marios Papadopoulos for Brahms’s consolatory masterpiece.

Brahms German Requiem

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.

Angela Gheorghiu

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