Wigmore hall launches new season and announces ambitious fund

Martin Cullingford, Gramophone Editor
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Director's Fund aims to reach £20m to support the next generation of artists

Wigmore Hall: new season and new fund announced (photo: Kaupo Kikkas)
Wigmore Hall: new season and new fund announced (photo: Kaupo Kikkas)

Wigmore Hall, the famed London chamber music venue, has announced details of its 2024/25 Season, alongside a new fund to invest in the next generation of artists.

‘In the face of an uncertain public funding environment for classical music in the UK, the Director’s Fund has been set up to invest in future generations of artists at every stage of their careers, innovative independent programming and an uncompromising quality of experience', explains a statement from the venue.

John Gilhooly, Artistic and Executive Director of Wigmore Hall added: ‘With £7 million already pledged, we are aiming to reach at least £10 million by 2027, with ambitions to reach £20 million within a decade. We are currently 97 per cent self-funded; this target will allow Wigmore Hall to become 100 per cent self-sufficient, if necessary.’

The new season – which starts in September – will feature 550 concerts, involving 2,600 musicians, and include more than 30 world and UK premières by composers including the Master of the King’s Music Judith Weir, Peter Eötvös (who died last week), Helen Grime, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Caroline Shaw.

Other highlights will include Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood playing the ondes Martenot in a collaboration with violinist Daniel Pioro, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and pianists Isata Kanneh-Mason and Jeneba Kanneh-Mason performing both together and individually, a major centenary celebration of Gabriel Fauré, and a return to Wigmore Hall for the remarkable winner of the 2022 Cliburn International Piano Competition, Yunchan Lim.

Pianists Martha Argerich, Leif Ove Andsnes, Richard Goode, Benjamin Grosvenor, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Vikingur Ólafsson and Sir András Schiff will also be performing, and there will be residencies by violinist Vilde Frang, cellist Gary Hoffman, guitarist Sean Shibe, tenor Nicky Spence and oboist Olivier Stankiewicz.

Gilhooly also announced that audiences have now exceeded pre-pandemic levels, the highest in the 123-year history of the hall.

For full details of the new season, visit Wigmore Hall's website.

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