Norfolk and Norwich Festival returns in May

The Norfolk and Norwich Festival is set to return in May with 17 days of performance in and around the city of Norwich from 9 to 25 May. The festival’s classical programme is set to feature a broad range of talent, from BBC Radio 3 New Generation artists to established ensembles including Britten Sinfonia and the BBC Singers.

The 2025 festival kicks off on the evening of 11 May with the Idrîsî Ensemble, who perform their programme Lost Harmonies: Endangered and Medieval Traditions at Norwich Cathedral. This is followed by the Leonkoro Quartet’s concert of Haydn, Mendelssohn and Berg at Norwich Theatre Playhouse.

This year’s BBC Radio 3 New Generation programme at the festival will take place at the Octagon Chapel on 13 and 14 May with concerts by American cellist Sterling Elliottm who teams up with Joseph Havlat, saxophonist Emma Rawicz and her collaborative quintet and the Chaos String Quartet who blend classic and contemporary works.

Guitarist Sean Shibe launches his 2025 festival residency with a programme of Forgotten Dances at Maddermarket Theatre on 15 May, before joining forces with 12 Ensemble and GBSR Duo on 16 May for ‘a programme of high and low art, from the 17th century to the present’ and St Peter Mancroft. Shibe then takes the stage at Norwich Castle on 17 May for Lute Episodes.

Mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean also takes up a residency with the festival, collaborating with Joseph Havlat for Messiaen’s greatest song cycle Harawi and guitarist Dimitris Soukaras for Travels With a Guitar, before presenting a unique double-bill, singing work for solo amplified voice with electronics, before being joined by Luke Abbott and Jack Wylie to combine electronics, voice and saxophone.

Ensembles visiting the Festival this year also include Gurdjieff Ensemble, reviving music from a variety of ancient folk traditions from Armenian to Persian, experimental and new music group Apartment House, who celebrate their 30th anniversary in a concert at the Octagon Chapel. At St John the Baptist Cathedral the BBC Singers focusing on James Macmillan’s choral compositions directed by Macmillan himself.

Britten Sinfonia close the festival at Norwich Cathedral with principal trumpet Imogen Whitehead, who is the soloist in Hummel’s 1803 concerto in a programme that also includes Wagner, Arvo Pärt and Beethoven.