The Schubert Project

Many international musicians arrive in Oxford this October to take part in The Schubert Project - the UK's first complete performance of Schubert's songs, and a world first in the scope of a single festival. Around Schubert's amazing achievement - about six-hundred-and-fifty songs by the age of thirty-one - the Oxford Lieder Festival (from 10 October until 1 November 2014) has many other events to illuminate the songs and bring Schubert's world to life.

Artists include Sarah Connolly, Susan Gritton, Angelika Kirchschlager, Mark Padmore, Thomas Allen, Ian Bostridge, Christiane Karg, John Mark Ainsley, Joshua Ellicott, James Gilchrist, Daniel Norman, Neal Davies, William Dazeley, Stephan Loges, Christopher Maltman, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Doric String Quartet and the Schubert Ensemble.

The Bodleian Library will show several Schubert manuscripts; the Ashmolean Museum will host live music events and a specially-devised audio guide; there will be four performances of a new play by Iain Burnside; Schubert's sacred music will resound around college chapels; the Botanic Gardens will collaborate on a study event looking at Schubert's relationship with nature; a pop-up theatre will recreate a famous Schubert gathering; and local restaurants will feature Viennese food and wine.

Masterclasses, talks and workshops abound, and the festival will stretch to all corners of the city from Christopher Wren's Sheldonian Theatre and Europe's oldest concert hall - the Holywell Music Room - to the contemporary settings of the O'Reilly Theatre, the Phoenix Cinema and the recently-restored Ashmolean Museum.

Information: www.oxfordlieder.co.uk

Posted: 9 July 2014

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