Wigmore Hall announces 2023-24 season

London’s Wigmore Hall has announced the programme for its upcoming 2023-24 season which will run from September 2023 to July 2024 featuring more than 500 concerts. The season, which is set to be the largest programme of classical music concerts in the UK, will welcome 2500 artists.

Alongside a new £1 ticket scheme designed to help struggling families access the Hall’s family concerts, the season will also present ‘low stimulus’ concerts for neurodivergent audiences. Works created as part of the Wigmore Hall’s new music commissioning programme, Voices of Today, will be showcased among the 28 world and UK premieres audiences can look forward to as part of this programme.

John Gilhooly, Wigmore Hall’s artistic and executive director, said: ‘As we celebrate the new season, recent news has cast a long shadow over the future and well-being of classical music in the UK… We hope our new £1 ticket scheme for struggling families will be a signal to parents and teachers that it is never too early to start and that children's musical education needn't be a victim of the cost of living crisis.’

Families struggling with the current cost of living crisis will be able to buy £1 tickets to Wigmore Hall family events ©James Berry

The venue will also welcome new collaborators this season, with Solomon’s Knot becoming the Hall’s baroque ensemble in residence. The group will join current artists in residence pianist Jeremy Denk, violinist Veronika Eberle, mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, soprano Louise Alder, 12 Ensemble, Apartment House and Trio Gaspard.

Solomon’s Knot artistic director Jonathan Sells said: ‘Ever since our debut with the 1725 St John Passion in 2019, we have felt so comfortable and welcome at Wigmore Hall. We look forward to sharing new ideas and fantastic music with that audience over the coming years, attracting newcomers to experience the magic of the Hall’s justifiably famed acoustic.’

Soprano and composer Héloïse Werner who will hold the role of associate artist for the 2024-25 season while Australian composer and violinist Brett Dean will take up the position of composer in residence. Elsewhere, the programme will focus on composers including Laurence Osborn (b. 1989) and Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-96) as well as celebrating anniversaries associated with Rachmaninov and Byrd.

Gilhooly has also fostered new partnerships further afield, with a ‘Wigmore Hall Festival’ opening Ireland’s new Whyte Recital Hall at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. The new space will host five of Wigmore Hall’s September concerts as well as masterclasses and Q&A sessions with the artists. Across the channel, young singers taking part in the Wigmore French Song Exchange programme will perform at the Salle Cortot in Paris, following a year of mentoring with Dame Felicity Lott and François Le Roux.

Gilhooly commented: ‘I am particularly proud to have forged new friendships abroad – bringing Wigmore Hall artists to Ireland's first purpose-built chamber music concert hall opening in September, as well as a song exchange programme in Paris… Our musical lives are immeasurable enriched by these international connections and friendships.’