Wigmore Hall launches 125th anniversary season
Florence Lockheart
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
The Hall confirms it has reached its £10 million funding target early, and will proceed without funding from Arts Council England
London’s Wigmore Hall has revealed details of its 125th anniversary season, with nearly 600 concerts set to take place at the venue. The hall’s future will be underpinned by a Director’s Fund which has reached its £10 million target ahead of schedule and is expected to grant the organisation independent long-term financial security and allow it to remain ‘artistically ambitious’.
With the hall’s future secured, the milestone 125th anniversary season will kick off on 9 September with a recital of Schubert Lieder and solo piano works by baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Maria João Pires, followed by performances from pianists Elisabeth Leonskaja, Igor Levit, and Leif Ove Andsnes, alongside violinist Christian Tetzlaff, soprano Véronique Gens, mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński.
Wigmore Hall director John Gilhooly said: ‘This landmark anniversary season celebrates Wigmore Hall’s heritage whilst looking firmly to the future. The financial security provided by the Director’s Fund will allow us to remain artistically ambitious for years to come, ensuring that Wigmore Hall continues to be a vital and independent force in the musical life of the UK and beyond. We are deeply grateful to music lovers at home and abroad who so faithfully support our work.’
As well as the successful Director’s Fund campaign, Wigmore Hall has also received a £500,000 grant from the AKO Foundation which will underpin Wigmore Hall’s ‘£5 Tickets for Under 35s’ scheme. Launched a decade ago in partnership with Classic FM, the scheme will continue for the next five years thanks to this influx of funding.
Gilhooly commented: ‘I am encouraged by the government’s recent commitment to getting the arts back on the curriculum. Over the past ten years, our U35 Scheme has attracted 200,000 people to concerts, but until the systemic failure to embrace the arts in the classroom is properly addressed, millions of young people will remain excluded. Those early years in a child’s development are crucial if we truly want to diversify and sustain our audiences for all art forms.’
The 2025-26 season will also feature a Focus Day event highlighting the legacy of composer and violist Rebecca Clarke with insight talks and performances of her songs by mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately and soprano Ailish Tynan, plus several world premières and a concert marking 100 years since Clarke's own Wigmore Hall debut in 1925. The season also sees debuts from soprano-conductor Barbara Hannigan and Anja Mittermüller, the youngest-ever winner of the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition.
In September, the venue marks the 275th anniversary of Bach’s death with a performance of the St Matthew Passion by Dunedin Consort, while Vox Luminis and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra perform the B Minor Mass, and Les Arts Florissants present Bach’s cantatas. The season also features the return of pianist Rebeca Omordia’s African Concert Series in March and June, plus the hall’s BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
A two-week 125th Anniversary Festival in May and June will mark the end of the season. The festival will be centred around the launch of There Is Sweet Music Here: The World of Wigmore Hall, a new Wigmore Hall biography by historian Julia Boyd and will feature performances by artists including Lise Davidsen, Igor Levit, Yunchan Lim, Abel Selaocoe, Elaine Mitchener, Hespèrion XXI with Jordi Savall and London Voices among others. Full festival details will be announced in 2026.
