Classical Music’s Platinum Jubilee Round-up

With preparations well underway for parades, parties and events of all kinds across the UK, we can be absolutely certain that HM Queen Elizabeth II’s 70^th year on the throne will not pass unnoticed. We’ve put together a round-up of some of the ways the classical music industry will be celebrating the Platinum Jubilee during the June Bank Holiday Weekend and beyond.

The English Music Festival

The English Music Festival returns to Dorchester Abbey in Oxfordshire (pictured) this month (27 - 29 May 2022). Alongside a packed programme, the festival will celebrate the Jubilee with a concert at Sutton Courtenay’s All Saints’ church this Saturday (28 May).

As well as works by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and Robin Milford, London’s Elysian Singers will perform part-song collection A Garland for the Queen which was originally commissioned for Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953.

More information about the concert and tickets can be found here.

©The English Music Festival

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is celebrating the Queen’s 70^th year on the throne with a Platinum Jubilee concert held next Tuesday (31 May) at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. The orchestra, conducted by Andrew Manze, will present a ‘best of British’ programme including the National Anthem alongside Frank Bridge’s Dance Rhapsody and Elgar’s Cello Concerto, for which cellist Nicolas Altstaedt will join the orchestra. The concert will culminate in a performance of Vaughan Williams’ one-act ballet, Job, based on the illustrations of William Blake.

More information about the concert and tickets can be found here.

The Southbank Centre

Jubilee festivities at the Southbank Centre take place across the whole Jubilee weekend and encompass diverse genres including punk, jazz, folk dance and party. The Centre’s classical offering begins on 1 June with a concert presented by BBC Radio 2 and the BBC Concert Orchestra including soundtracks from on-screen depictions of royals including The King’s Speech, The King and I and The Queen.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Christopher Warren-Green), the Royal Choral Society and the Bach Choir also perform a celebratory concert of pieces from Queen Elizabeth I’s Coronation or a royal wedding. The event, which will also feature soloists soprano Fflur Wyn and trumpet player Crispian Steele-Perkins, will be presented by BBC Radio 3’s Katie Derham and will take place at the Royal Festival Hall on 4 June.

More information about the concert and tickets can be found here.

©Southbank Centre

ORA Singers

Vocal ensemble the ORA Singers (pictured) celebrates the reign of Britain's longest-serving monarch with next week’s release of two singles (2 June). William Byrd’s 16th century work, O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth our Queen will be presented alongside a new commission by British composer, Bob Chilcott, using the same words as Byrd’s original, written in praise of Elizabeth I.

The singles are accompanied by music videos filmed in the Queen’s House in Greenwich and the ORA singers will also perform these works at Aldeburgh Festival on 11 June, followed by a series of live performances throughout 2022  Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Ambronay Festival, Hatfield House Festival and Canterbury Festival.

©The ORA singers

Hertfordshire Festival of Music

This year’s Hertfordshire Festival of Music will start next Thursday, running from 2-11 June. The festival has some royal connections, with last year’s featured living composer, Judith Weir CBE, also holding the role of master of the Queen’s music. The festival’s Jubilee celebrations include This year’s first event (2 June) a free outdoor concert given by the Hertfordshire Festival of Music Concert Band in the grounds of Hertford Castle.

The festival will also hold a Jubilee Choral Celebration featuring music from the Queen’s 1953 coronation alongside works by Parry, Walton, Handel and Purcell. The Choir of All Saints’, Hertford, the Choir of Hertford St Andrew and Hertford Chamber Choir will come together to perform the programme with organist William Whitehead under the batons of conductors Manvinder Rattan, Jane Eldred and Martin Penny.

More information about the concerts and tickets can be found here.

The Jubilee Elgar Festival

The Elgar Festival taking place next week (3 - 5 June) in Worcester has this year been dedicated to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The festival’s Royal Platinum Jubilee Gala concert will take place in Worcester Cathedral on 4 June, hosted by writer and presenter Ian Skelly. The event will include works by Vaughan Williams, Ian Venables and, of course, Elgar performed by Elgar Festival Chorus and the resident English Symphony Orchestra (conducted by festival artistic director Kenneth Woods).

More information and tickets for the gala concert can be found here.

Opera Holland Park

Opera Holland Park (pictured) is celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee by offering visitors early entry (doors open from 5pm on 3 and 4 June), happy hour and Jubilee-themed dining alongside its performances of Eugene Onegin on 3 June and Carmen on 4 June.

Artists will also be performing a series of pop-up performances before the shows.

You can find out more about celebrating the Jubilee at Opera Holland Park here.

©Ali Wright

The Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House celebrates the 70^th year of our monarch with its A Very Royal Opera House tours. Running across the June bank holiday weekend (3-5 June), the unique tours offer a ‘glimpse of the hidden spaces known to Royals throughout history’, including the Royal Box and retiring rooms, as well as the opportunity to learn about famous royal visits to the venue.

More information about tour tickets can be found here.

Royal School of Church Music

To mark the Platinum Jubilee the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) has launched its Platinum Project. The school has commissioned In Our Service, a new choral piece from British composer Thomas Hewitt Jones and is hoping to get choirs around the country singing it on or around the Jubilee weekend. The sheet music, suitable for cathedral and church choirs, choral societies, chamber choirs, community choirs and schools, is available to purchase at the RSCM website and may be emailed or photocopied within each choir without further charge.

Participating choirs are encouraged to share their progress on social platforms using the school’s hashtags: #RSCMPlatinum and #InOurService.

Tedd Joselson

Belgian-American pianist Tedd Joselson will make his return to the concert platform after a 23-year hiatus with his Platinum Jubilee concert Flights of Fantasy on 8 June at the Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore. Presented in association with the Musicians' Initiative (conducted by Alvin Seville Arumugam) the concert will feature the world premiere of Manu Martin's Lim Fantasy of Companionship for Piano & Orchestra as well as works by Tchaikovsky and Brahms.

More information about the concert and tickets can be found here.

Buxton Opera House

Buxton Opera House will celebrate the Jubilee on Monday 13 June with local school children performing on the Opera house stage in Happy and Glorious – Jubilee Singing Celebration. Students from Buxton Junior School, Earl Sterndale C of E Primary School, Harpur Hill Primary School and St Luke’s C of E Primary School will be joined by Platform 3’s Kaleidoscope Community Choir (led by Carol Bowns) to present a selection of songs.

This project, funded by Arts Council England through the Foundation Derbyshire Jubilee Fund, is led by musical director, Tom Newall.

More information about the concert and tickets can be found here.

©David J King

Aldeburgh Festival

Britten Pears Arts’ Aldeburgh Festival will also present the choral collection created to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in its A Garland for the Queen concert on Saturday 14 June. The BBC Singers (conducted by Owain Park) will perform the collection as part of a programme including One Day to Sing by the Singers’ associate composer, Judith Weir, and world premieres by Hilary Campbell and Britten Pears Young Artist Omri Kochavi. This concert will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

More information about the concert and tickets can be found here.

BBC Proms

The BBC Concert Orchestra will mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with Prom 10: Music for Royal Occasions celebrating the relationship between music and monarchy with performances by the orchestra (conducted by Bramwell Tovey) with BBC Singers.

The programme, presented at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday 22 July (and broadcast by the BBC on Sunday 24 July), will encompass a wide range of repertoire including Handel’s Coronation Anthem ‘Zadok the Priest’ and Water Music and work by composers including Britten, the current Master of the Queen’s Music Judith Weir, and British composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad, who’s BBC commission, Your Servant, Elizabeth, will receive its world premiere.