Now in its 12th year, Oxford’s foremost festival of early music returns in February.
TUESDAY 24 February
6pm CHORAL EVENSONG
Keble College Chapel | Free (retiring collection)
Sung by Keble Chapel Choir.
7.30pm THE BRABANT ENSEMBLE directed by Stephen Rice
Keble College Chapel | £35/£25/£10 students
Spem in Alium and other Tudor Treasures
Tallis’s monumental work ‘Spem in alium’ features in two versions, bookending a concert of sacred greats from sixteenth-century England, performed by The Brabant Ensemble and directed by Stephen Rice. Focussing on the pre-Reformation period and the reign of Queen Mary I, the programme includes some of the most sumptuous Tudor polyphony by Taverner, Tallis, Mundy, Sheppard, and Byrd.
WEDNESDAY 25 February
1pm VOCAL SHOWCASE
Keble College Chapel | Free (retiring collection)
Keble’s Graduate musicians entertain in a programme of solos and duets for voice with organ and theorbo.
7.30pm LA SERENISSIMA
Keble College Chapel | £35/£25/£10 students
Crossing Borders
La Serenissima return to Keble Early Music Festival to play a new orchestral Crossing Borders programme, featuring music by Vivaldi and contemporaries. The group has twice won the Gramophone Award for Baroque Instrumental music and topped the UK Classical Chart in 2018 and celebrated 30 years of “whipping up a storm with Vivaldi” (The Telegraph) with a residency at London’s Wigmore Hall during 2024-2025.
THURSDAY 26 February
1pm THE BATE COLLECTIVE directed by Dr Jonathan Williams
Keble College Chapel | Free (retiring collection)
A varied programme of baroque delights from France and Germany presented by Oxford students, performed on historic instruments from the Bate Collection.
7.30pm THE ILLYRIA CONSORT
Keble College Chapel | £35/£25/£10 students
Viennese Treasures
The violin sonata in 17th-century Austria
Leader of the Academy of Ancient Music and a host of other period ensembles, Bojan Čičić has received plaudits across the globe for his staggering virtuosity and musicianship. He is joined by the Illyria Consort in a contemplative programme of violin music from 17th century Vienna, drawing on Bohemian, German and Italian influences.
FRIDAY 27 February
1pm LUNCHTIME LUTE SONG from Renaissance Italy
Keble College Chapel | Free (retiring collection)
Performed by Matthew Pope (tenor), William Prior (alto), Theo Nisbett (viol), with James Tomlinson (lute).
4pm THE LUTE AND THE LUTHIER Lecture with Michael Lowe
O’Reilly Theatre | £10/£5 students
Widely considered the greatest living luthier, Michael Lowe discusses the dark art of lute making and the relevance of the instrument in its historical context through an illuminating and informative lecture.
5pm JOHN DOWLAND 400 Jakob Lindbergt
O’Reilly Theatre | £20/£7 students
Marking the 400th anniversary of the death of the great lutenist performer/composer, the world’s most celebrated living lutenist performs a tribute programme celebrating the genius of John Dowland (1563-1626) ‘whose heavenly touch upon the lute doth ravish human sense’. Performed on an 8-course lute built by Michael Lowe.
7.30pm BACH’S ‘THE ART OF FUGUE’ Mahan Esfahani
Keble College Chapel | £30/£20/£7 students
No one has done more to popularise the harpsichord as a concert instrument in the present day than Iranian-American virtuoso Mahan Esfahani. Patron of the Keble Early Music Festival, he returns to perform J S Bach’s great swan song, ‘The Art of Fugue’, often cited as the summit of contrapuntal ingenuity, and amongst the greatest achievements in Western music.
SATURDAY 28 February
12.00 THE AFTERLIFE OF ANCIENT GREEK MUSIC from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance
O’Reilly Theatre | Free (retiring collection)
Ancient Music at Oxford
This lecture-recital follows the transmission and transformation of Greek music theory from its philosophical foundations in Pythagoras and Plato to its rearticulation in Late Antiquity, and its eventual revival in the Renaissance by figures such as Girolamo Mei and Vincenzo Galilei. The event concludes with performances of surviving Greek musical fragments on a reconstructed kithara, accompanied by the AMO chorus.
7.30pm BACH’S ST JOHN PASSION
Keble College Chapel | £40/£30/£10 students
Instruments of Time & Truth
Keble Chapel Choir
Gwilym Bowen (Evangelist)
Keble Choir joins the Instruments of Time & Truth, Gwilym Bowen (Evangelist) and a stellar lineup of soloists, in a performance of the Passion story as told in John’s Gospel. Entwining the theatrical and theological Bach provides some of the most dramatic and impassioned music ever composed in recounting the horrific events of Christ’s arrest and crucifixion.
KEMF Workshops
FRIDAY 20 February
BAROQUE STRING WORKSHOP
An open baroque performance workshop for secondary-school aged students grades 6+ led by Oxford-based period instrument ensemble Instruments of Time & Truth in partnership with the Oxfordshire County Music Service. Baroque bows will be provided.
www.timeandtruth.co.uk/kemfworkshop2026
Admission free
SATURDAY 21 February
THAMES VALLEY EARLY MUSIC FORUM
A day-long workshop for voices and instruments (A=440) directed by Philip Thorby, in association with Thames Valley Early Music Forum
£16 TVEMF members
£20 non-members
www.tvemf.org.uk/future-events