Haydn: The Creation 1 October 2025 Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford OX1 Concert / Performance The first in a series of concerts and recitals celebrating 500 years of music-making at Christ Church, our renowned Cathedral Choir is joined by The English Concert and Frideswide Voices for a special performance Franz Joseph Haydn's magnum opus The Creation.
LATER IN THIS SERIES:-
Violin and piano recital: Charlie Lovell-Jones and Julian Chan
9 October
Cathedral
Concert / Performance
Charlie Lovell-Jones (2017, Music) and Julian Chan present all known works for violin and piano by the 20th-century British composer and Christ Church alumnus Sir William Walton, including the Italianate Two Pieces. They open their programme with Mozart’s last large-scale work for violin and piano, written concurrently with Don Giovanni. Given Walton’s love of Italy they continue the Italian theme by ending with Respighi’s monumental Violin Sonata of 1917.
Piano recital: Louise Guy
28 October
Cathedral
Concert / Performance
House Law student Louise Guy presents a programme of Romantic music for Christ Church's 500th anniversary music festival, including Chopin’s Grande Polonaise and Liszt's La Campanella.
Organ recital: Peter Holder
30 October
Cathedral
Concert / Performance
From African and English folk melodies to an original theme of J. S. Bach – even student drinking songs – this inaugural recital by Peter Holder, Organist of Christ Church, takes the works of four Western composers woven around earlier themes, inspired by the first Organist to be appointed to Cardinal College by Wolsey, John Taverner, and his seminal Mass setting based on the 16C song Western Wynde.
In conversation: Errollyn Wallen CBE, Master of the King's Music
1 November
Upper Library, Christ Church
Talk / Lecture
Errollyn Wallen CBE, the Master of the King's Music, discusses her life and career with former House post-doctoral researcher and music writer Dr Leah Broad. This event takes place in Christ Church's beautiful Upper Library.
Piano recital: Judith Valerie Engel
16 November
Cathedral
Concert / Performance
Christ Church alumna Judith Valerie Engel explores the music of some of the many women composers who were actively engaged in European musical life, but have been all but forgotten, in this recital for our 500th Anniversary music festival.
Alamire sings Taverner
19 November
Cathedral
Concert / Performance
Alamire, consisting of the world’s finest consort singers under the directorship of David Skinner, perform some of the most expansive and flamboyant compositions of Christ Church's founding Organist John Taverner.
The Little Kitchen
20 November
Christ Church Cathedral
Concert / Performance
The UK based new-music ensemble, presents a programme of Bobby McFerrin, Phoebe Bridgers, João Gilberto and more arranged for an ensemble of singers, string players, and jazz combo by Luke Sitaraman, Lay Clerk of the Cathedral Choir, and Daniel Munks.
Piano recital: Libby Burgess
21 November
Christ Church Cathedral
Concert / Performance
Organist, Pianist and House alumna Libby Burgess performs music by JS Bach, Ferrucio Busoni, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, as well as works by composer connected to five centuries of music making at Christ Church.
Phantasm and Elizabeth Kenny: John Dowland's Lachrimae
22 November
Cathedral
Concert / Performance
Award-winning viol consort Phantasm and acclaimed lute player Professor Elizabeth Kenny perform John Dowland's deeply expressive Lachrimae.
Performance and formal dinner: William Walton's Façade
25 November
Christ Church Hall
Concert / Performance
First performed in 1923, William Walton's Façade - An Entertainment sets a series of poems by renowned English modernist Edith Sitwell to rhythmically vibrant and even jazz-influenced music. This performance takes place around a three course meal with wine in the Renaissance grandeur of the Great Hall.
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St Aldate's, Oxford, OX1 1DP,
United Kingdom
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