Arts & Culture
The Grand Tour - A European Journey in Song with Oxford Lieder Festival

The seventeenth Oxford Lieder Festival (October 12 to 27 2018) will celebrate a rich tapestry of music, words and performance in European song and will showcase the pinnacles of the repertoire while exploring wider cultural influence.

International stars including Louise Alder, Sarah Connolly, Véronique Gens, James Gilchrist, Thomas Oliemans, Christoph Prégardien, Kai Rüütel, Carolyn Sampson, Toby Spence and Camilla Tilling, together with prize-winning young artists, take part in a wide range of concerts and related events.

Sholto Kynoch, founder and Artistic Director of the Festival, has just been been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in the Academy’s 2018 Honours.

In a new collaboration with the Bodleian Library, Oxford Lieder is co-hosting the Albi Rosenthal Fellowship: a three-month residency at the Bodleian, this year specifically for a composer. American composer Ross S. Griffey has been appointed and, as well as his residency at the Bodleian Library, in October he will lead a composition workshop at the Oxford Lieder Festival and give a talk on his research, with some of his existing work being heard. Following the residency, Oxford Lieder will commission a major new cycle – based on his research in the Bodleian – to be premiered at the 2019 Festival.

Oxford Lieder presents other events throughout the year, including a Spring Weekend of Song, as well as recitals across the country through the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform. Exceptional young professional duos apply for the Young Artist Platform, and this year’s winners – selected though 45 minute audition recitals at the Spring Weekend – are: Harriet Burns (soprano) and Michael Pandya (piano) and Jessica Dandy (contralto) and Dylan Perez (piano). They give a series of recitals in music clubs, societies and festivals nationally, as well as showcase recitals at the Festival in October.