F E S T I V A L 3-14 march 2025
retune 2025 AT A GLANCE
OUMSandstudentensembles
Lunchtime with Five Old Ladies
Indian Classical Showcase
A lovely day-dream: Betty & Grace
SHOUT! ~ Brass Sextet
Bacewicz: Music for Strings
The Heart's Desire: Queering the English Anthology
Inviolate ~ æftersang
Faculty of Music IWD Concert
A Night of Opera and Ballet ~ OUWO
Mon 3rd, 1pm, Holywell Music Room
Mon 3rd, 6pm, Holywell Music Room
Tue 4th, 7.30pm, JdP Music Building
Wed 5th, 1pm, Holywell Music Room
Wed 5th, 7pm, Holywell Music Room
Thu 6th, 11.30am, Trinity College Chapel
Thu 6th, 730pm, Location TBC
Fri 7th, 1.15pm, Christ Church Cathedral
Fri 7th, 730pm, Wesley Memorial Church
International Women's Day Concert ~ SMS Sat 8th, 5pm, Somerville College Chapel
A Celebration of the Coleridge-Taylors ~ OUChorus
Choral Contemplation: 'Retuning: Between Empowerment and Vulnerability'
An Evening of Organ Music at LMH
La voix féminine
Sat 8th, 7.30pm, St Matthew’s Church
Sun 9th, 530pm, Somerville College Chapel
Sun 9th, 7pm, Lady Margaret Hall Chapel
Mon 10th, 11am, Holywell Music Room
Music by British Women Mon 10th, 1pm, Holywell Music Room
The Female Viola: 20th century French works Mon 10th, 3pm, Holywell Music Room
Panel: Queering Musical Discourse Mon 10th, 6pm, Holywell Music Room
Sketchbook ~ OUSE Mon 10th, 8pm, Christ Church Cathedral
Trans Voices Tue 11th, 11.30am, Trinity College Chapel
Taan: Raga Explorations on the Organ Tue 11th, 1.15pm, Exeter College Chapel
The female composer as performer Tue 11th, 8pm, Lady Margaret Hall Chapel
Duo and solo piano music ~ SFP Wed 12th, 7.30pm, Somerville College Chapel
Rejection, Resilience and Rebellion: A Woman’s Life Thu 13th, 1pm, Holywell Music Room
Fanny Hensel Piano Trio Thu 13th, 4pm, Holywell Music Room
Longing and Belonging ~ ABBI Thu 13th, 7.30pm, Holywell Music Room
Let's Build A Town! ~ Music at Oxford Fri 14th, 6pm, St Edward’s School
Farrenc and Beach: Orchestral Pioneers Fri 14th, 8pm, New College Antechapel
Welcome to RETUNE 2025!
The RETUNE Festival celebrates the commitment, courage, and creativity of underrepresented music-makers with a two-week series of workshops, panels, and concerts. We are delighted to be back for another year, and can’t wait to showcase even more amazing music in venues across Oxford.
There are 27 events this year, covering a range of genres and styles. Some concerts offer the opportunity to hear student performers in specially curated recitals; others feature pre-existing ensembles who have dedicated their termly concert to the Festival. We are particularly thrilled to be collaborating with professional artists for the first time (see p4 & p17), and are honoured to feature a world premiere (see p15).
All of our events spotlight music that has been excluded from historical processes of canon formation which traditionally favour composers who are white, able-bodied, cisgender, and heterosexual men. Our mission at the Alternative Canon Project is to redress this balance by programming a wider range of music, giving marginalised voices a platform, and introducing audiences to some incredible music in the process.
To purchase or reserve tickets for the Festival, scan the QR code, or visit www.alternativecanonproject.co.uk/retunefestival. New for this year is the RETUNE Festival Pass, which gives you access to all Festival-organised events, and saves you £30! More information and T&Cs can be found on our website.
Thank you to those who have assisted us in the organisation of the Festival (especially Oxford University Music Society, and the Faculty of Music), and the biggest thank you to YOU for supporting the work of RETUNE - we can’t wait to see you at a concert (or multiple!) very soon.
Artistic Directors
Erin Black | Evie Brenkley | Ella Machtynger | Erin Townsend
Lunchtime with Five Old Ladies
George Robarts, baritone | Thomas Eeckhout, piano
mon 3rd, 1pm, Holywell music room
Turn-of-the-century Britain: a stuffy, supercilious place dominated by a small handful of composers, who all wore unbearably uncomfortable clothes,andallchurnedoutunbearablysentimentalmusic.Right?
Wrong! Well, perhaps right about the clothes. But a multitude of wonderful songwriters from this era, who were widely performed in their own lifetime, have since been swept under the carpet and consigned to the cultural dustbin Not through any failings of their own: they have simply been condemned as old-fashioned and artistically irrelevant. Too old Too romantic Too female George Robarts and Thomas Eeckhout are here here to set the record straight. This colourful programme launches a staunch defence of some of Britain’s finest and most neglected musicians –featuring Victorian parlour songs, Georgian pastoral idylls, and a startling Edwardian flirtation with German Expressionism. The tunes will be going round in your head for days afterwards.
Tickets: £5/£12
Indian Classical Showcase
Trina Banerjee, Nithya Srinivasan, Nanditha Dileep
mon 3rd, 6pm, Holywell music room
Join some of the university's foremost Indian Classical musicians for a memorable night of beautiful, virtuosic music in the stunning Holywell Music Room! Consisting of North Indian Hindustani and South Indian Carnatic music, Indian Classical is one of the richest musical traditions globally, yet too often underperformed or misrepresented in the West. Immerse yoursef in a evening of its spellbinding and meditative sounds with performances from singers and instrumentalists from across the university and beyond.
Tickets: £5/£10
‘A lovely day-dream’: Betty & Grace
Instrumental chamber music with strings and wind
Elizabeth Maconchy and Grace Williams became firm friends when they met at music college, and wrote regular letters to one another from 1927 until Grace’s death in 1977. They shared thoughts and feelings about their personal lives, their careers, and their musical output. 50 years of friendship and musical landscape are documented within their correspondence, which in 2019 was published thanks to the stellar scholarship of Sophie Fuller and Jenny Doctor. This concert showcases chamber music by Maconchy and Williams, presented alongside readings from their letters. With St Hilda’s housing the Maconchy Archives, programming this music and performing it here feels personal and pertinent. We hope ‘A lovely day-dream’ will introduce Betty and Grace to new ears: as composers, as women, and as friends. tue 4th, 7.30pm, jdp at st hilda’s college
Tickets: £5/£10
SHOUT!
wed 5th, 1pm, holywell music room
SHOUT! aims to shift focus onto the music of female composers, highlighting some underrated gems within the male-saturated Classical repertoire. Each piece finds a new lease of life in a bespoke arrangement for brass sextet, performed by an ensemble comprising some of Oxford University's foremost brass musicians and reimagining the possibilities of this neglected music. Ethel Smyth receives a Hollywood makeover whilst Fanny Mendelssohn finds herself partial to some smooth jazz. Big names like Florence Price and Lili Boulanger sit side by side with some lesser known
known contributions from the likes of Ursula Greville and Alicia Scott Spottiswoode. Different as these remarkable women may be, they all share a common truth: their music deserves to be played, their voices deserve to be heard, and their stories deserve to be told - and what better way to do so than with first-class brass?
tickets: £5
Brass sextet, led by Esme Harper all proceeds will be donated to Solace Women’s Aid
Bacewicz: Music for Strings
Josefine Viola Quartet
wed 5th, 7pm, holywell music room
The Josefine Viola Quartet will play a concert of music by Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1959), centred around her quartets for violins and cellos, both arranged for violas. Bacewicz was a polish composer and violinist, and was one of the first female polish composers to gain international recognition. She led the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1936-38, which gave her the opportunity to hear and play some of her own music. As such many of her works feature the violin, and she wrote many pieces for the solo instrument, some of which we have transcribed for viola.
free entry
The Heart's Desire: Queering the English Anthology
Christopher Churcher, baritone | Ben Carter, piano
thu 6th, 11.30am, trinity college chapel
With a free pre-recital talk given by Dr Jacob Kingsbury Downs themes of love, loss, and longing, the programme programme weaves together moving, human narratives from the English song anthology; featuring music by Quilter, Butterworth, and Britten.
A recital celebrating the works of well-known English song composers, delving into the often-overlooked queer narratives of their personal lives Through free entry
Inviolate
æftersang ensemble directed by Jess Norton Raybould
thu 6th, 7.30pm, location tbc
‘Inviolate’ celebrates the powerful legacy of Black composers, past and present, whose work challenges us to rethink the boundaries of music and tradition. From Vicente Lusitano’s pioneering chromaticism to Errollyn Wallen, the first Black Master of the King's Music, this concert offers a series of reflections on the sacred. Through inventive re-tellings of texts from across the church year and beyond, we explore how sacredness is continuously reshaped and redefined by the choral tradition.
International Women's Day Lunchtime Concert
Phaedra Ensemble with Music Faculty students
fri 7th, 1.15pm, christ church cathedral
Oxford University Music Faculty's International Women's Day concert celebrates women in film. We are delighted to welcome the exciting and innovative new music collective, Phaedra Ensemble, who will be performing alongside Music Faculty students in this recital. free entry
A Night of Opera and Ballet
Oxford & Cambridge University Wind Orchestras | Maria Copley & Jane Hammond, conductors
fri 7th, 7.30pm, wesley memorial church
This term, Oxford University Wind Orchestra has the exciting opportunity of collaborating with Cambridge University Wind Orchestra for our programme of Opera and Ballet, conducted by Maria Copley and Jame Hammond respectively.
OUWO are celebrating International Women*'s Day early with Ethel Smyth's Overture to The Wreckers, Cecile Chaminade's La Sévillane Overture and Jodie Blackshaw's Peace Dancer, as well as Leonard Bernstein's Overture to Candide and, as the collaborative piece between the two orchestras, Maurice Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé Suite. It's such a pleasure and a privilege to be able to perform such a selection of music, with full credit to some very erudite arrangers to enable us to do so. We would so love to see as many people as possible at this concert; to celebrate our work together as two ensembles, to share and champion alternative composers, and to raise money to get 40 people to the National Concert Band Festival finals in Manchester!
sat 8th, 5pm, somerville college chapel
Join Somerville Music Society for their annual celebration of International Women*'s Day. Featuring performances from members of the Somerville community.
The centrepiece event of RETUNE 2025
A Celebration of the Coleridge-Taylors
Oxford University Chorus & Players | Louis Benneyworth & Hattie Twigger-Ross, conductors
sat 8th, 7.30pm, st matthew’s church
Tonight, for International Women*’s Day, we celebrate the musical world of the Coleridge-Taylor family. Avril, and her father Samuel (whose centenary we mark through our concert), were hugely significant voices in the British music tradition of the 20th century, with both contributing a hoard of orchestral, choral, and chamber music. A fascination with Longfellow's epic poem 'The Song of Hiawatha' underpins our musical narrative (indeed, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor named his son Hiawatha). In fact, a festival existed during the late 1890s that was devoted to the sharing of Samuel's cantata 'Hiawatha's Wedding Feast', and so it feels fitting that this work is at the heart of this centrepiece concert.
tickets: £6.50/£13.50
Choral Contemplation Retuning: Between Empowerment and Vulnerability
Somerville College Choir | Will Dawes, conductor
sun 9th, 5.30pm, somerville college chapel
Somerville Chapel, unique among Oxford colleges, was founded in 1935 as a non-denominational space. Each Sunday during term time, Somerville offers a weekly secular service of 'Choral Contemplation'. Each term has a central theme, which in Hilary Term is ‘On Being Vulnerable’. Weekly speakers will explore vulnerability through reflections on our fragile earth, caring relationships, divinity, our identities and how we express ourselves in various spaces. The final contemplation of term is this collaboration with Alternative Canon Project, ‘re-tuning’ our meaning of vulnerability and empowerment
free entry
An Evening of Organ Music
Alex Hall, organ & George Ke, organ
sun 9th, 7pm, lady margaret hall chapel
Come and join us for a relaxed evening of organ music. Taking place in the beautiful Chapel of Lady Margaret Hall, this joint recital by organ scholars Alex Hall and George Ke will celebrate the works of underperformed composers We aim to highlight the beauty and diversity of organ repertoire and showcase the full range and versatility of such a magnificent instrument, in the surroundings of the stunning acoustics of LMH Chapel Whether you are a regular concertgoer or have never heard the organ before, this concert will give you a fresh insight into some truly exciting music!
free entry meaning of vulnerability and empowerment in the context of International Women’s Day, with speaker Aparajita Kaul (Somerville MCR Women’s Rep).
Image:HughWarwick
La voix féminine
Natasha De Costa, mezzo-soprano | Erin Black, piano
mon 10th, 11am, holywell
music room
A recital dedicated to the remarkable artistry of French women composers including Pauline Viardot, sisters Nadia and Lili Boulanger, Mel Bonis, and Augusta Holmès. This programme celebrates their enduring legacy and contributions to the art song repertoire, showcasing both beloved and lesser-known works.
free entry
Music by British Women
Instrumental and vocal music from modern titans
mon 10th, 1pm, holywell
music room
Enjoy an afternoon of music by British women from the twentieth century to the present featuring Dorothy Howell, Cecilia McDowall, Madeleine Dring, and a very exciting premier from Tabby Hopper who is currently studying Music at Oxford University. This recital will contemplate a number of issues that have faced British women across this period via the medium of string quartet with cor anglais, wind trio, voice and more.
free entry
The Female Viola:
20th century French music
Arielle Ollagon, viola | Eri Yamamoto, piano
mon 10th, 3pm, HOLYWELL MUSIC ROOM
This recital features works composed by French females in the 20th century transcribed for viola and piano duo Instruments, such as the viola, depend greatly on the transcription. The viola did not gain popularity as a solo instrument until after the turn of the 20th century. As a result, it lacks the wealth of repertoire that its violin and cello brethren enjoy For this reason, the viola benefits tremendously from borrowing music written for other instruments, allowing broader
broader access to repertoire As a violist, I have the ability to choose works that I believe should be transcribed, and made accessible for my instrument. These works expand the viola repertoire and are my way of fitting myself into the tradition of transcribing for viola
tickets: £5/£10
Sketchbook
Oxford University String Ensemble | Louis Benneyworth & Tom Kirby, conductors
mon 10th, 8pm, christ
church cathedral Grazyna Bacewicz, this promises to be a hugely engaging and narrative evening of music.
‘Sketchbook’ represents everything descriptive - be that whimsical, imaginary, thrilling or terrifying - and OUSE will take a deep dive inside the musical canvas and present a vibrant evening of vivid music Featuring the musical voices from several talented composers within our own community - drawing upon landscapes and images that are significant to them - and pairing these with evocative works by Grace Williams and Grazyna
£5/£10
Queering Musical Discourse
Panel Event
chaired by Erin Townsend
mon 10th, 6pm, holywell music room
Following last year's successful panel on 'Loosening the Canon', this year RETUNE turns to queer issues, increasingly pertinent in a cultural climate that is not always welcoming to those whose sexual or gender identity differs from the cis-het norm. This theme brings together queer performers, practitioners and academics who work in diverse areas from broadcasting to drag, all engaging with music in a queer way to challenge conventions and break binaries. We ask how it is that they queer musical discourse in their research and practice, professional and public lives, and crucially, why this is so important at this point in time.
free entry
jacob bird george haggett
linton stephens freya jarman
Trans Voices
Barnabas Sharp, baritone | Erin Black, piano
tue 11th, 11.30am, trinity
college chapel
This recital aims to showcase new works for baritone voice by up-and-coming composers who fall under the transgender and non-binary umbrella, a small but growing community
community who have been severely underrepresented on the topic of classical music in the 21st century. These compositions, in a variety of styles, will be performed by Barnabas Sharp (they/them), a freelance composer and choral scholar at the Choir of Queen's College, Oxford.
free entry
The female composer as performer
Tom Kirby, oboe | Erin Black, piano
tue 11th, 8pm, lady margaret
hall chapel
Though women as virtuoso performers have been an established part of Western musical culture since the 19th century, in the 21st century female composers struggle to penetrate the hegemony of their male counterparts. In his crusade to play more diverse repertoire, Tom was interested to discover that the vast majority of high-profile music for oboe composed by women had been written by professional
women oboists themselves What does it mean for a composer to write for her own instrument - in this case, the oboe? This recital analyses the ways these issues are understood through the traditionally female realm of performance in a way that might amplify the woman composer's authentic voice.
free entry
Taan: Raga Explorations on the Organ
tue 11th, 1.15pm, exeter college chapel
Anita Datta is an organist, conductor, and composer of Indian origin from East Yorkshire. Drawing on the improvisation-based traditions of both Hindustani Classical and Western Church Music traditions, she presents a concert exploring the entanglements between sounds, peoples, and cultures of musicianship through the versatility of the organ, in Exeter College Chapel
RETUNE is proud to present the World Premiere performance of Anita Datta’s symphonic organ work, Ādi, a multi-movement offering that extrapolates from the Indian Classical multi-raga structure of ‘Ragmala’ and from the French romantic form of the grand Organ Symphony. This commission builds on Dr Datta’s dual musical and cultural heritage to offer an exploration of a range of traditional ragas, engaged with through the pluralistic sound-universe of the organ, and transformed creatively through Indian and Western compositional techniques. The result is a unique palette that honours both the time-worn classical inheritances of each canon, even as it challenges the limits of both. Inspired by Komal Ni/‘flat-7’ ragas including Malkauns, Ahir Bhairav, Gujari Todi, and Jog, Ādi playfully reflects on the nature of originality in music-making, improvisation, and of artists as creators in a transient moment in time.
Ādi is commissioned as part of the EXTRAPOLATE project by ZerOclassikal, the UK’s leading platform for championing radical and contemporary approaches to South Asian classical m
Dr Anita Datta, organ free
entry
Duo and solo piano music
Alexander Kwon, Eliam Lau, Mar Umbert, pianos
wed 12th, 7.30pm, somerville college chapel
Pianists Alexander Kwon, Eliam Lau, and Mar Umbert put on a concert of two piano and solo piano music by Madeleine Dring, Chen Ning Chi, Tan Dun, and Alicia de Larrocha. This concert is a collaboration between the RETUNE Festival and Somerville Festival of the Piano
Tickets: £5/£10
Rejection, Resilience, and Rebellion: A Woman’s Life
Ellen Pearson, mezzo-soprano | Francesca Lauri, piano
thu 13th, 1pm, Holywell music room
A woman’s journey of overcoming experiences of intimidation, assault and rejection. Francesca Lauri and Ellen Pearson tell this narrative through a programme of exclusively female composers
including Elaine Hugh-Jones, Rita Strohl, Margaret Bonds, Victoria Wood, and many more. Expect an emotional journey with a little bit of cheekiness thrown in at the end!
Tickets: £5/£12
Fanny Hensel Piano Trio
Kira Lee, violin | Peter Murray, cello | Felix Patten, piano
thu 13th, 4pm, Holywell music room
An anonymous critic in the Neue Berliner Musik Zeitung, spoke highly of Hensel’s Piano Trio, describing the first movement as “a masterpiece, and the trio most highly original.” Often regarded as a significant departure from her intimate lieder and shorter piano pieces, Hensel’s Trio showcases her capabilities as both a composer and pianist, with its virtuosic piano writing, and poetic allusions to her brother Felix’s compositions. Hensel’s music takes us “through stormy waves into a marvellous edifice”, then into her very own “lieder mode”, before closing with a flourishing finale.
free entry
Longing and Belonging
Betty Zhaoyi Yan, soprano | Yuchen Zhang, piano
thu 13th, 7.30pm, Holywell music room
This concert explores the universal tension between yearning for what is elusive, and finding solace in the places, emotions, and identities that ground us. Featuring a blend of Chinese art songs, indigenous melodies from ethnominority groups, ancient Chinese poems, and Italian operatic arias, this program shows music that speaks to the human spirit's shared experiences of desire, nostalgia, and connection.
This performance is supported by the presence of traditional Chinese instrumentalists, creating a bridge between classical Western traditions and the rich musical heritage of China By juxtaposing these musical traditions, Longing and Belonging invites audiences to reflect on the universal emotions that connect us across time, culture, and geography.
Tickets: £5/£10
This concert is co-organised with Art Beyond Border Initiative (ABBI), a platform dedicated to fostering inclusive art communication and distribution across the globe.
Let’s Build A Town!
Produced by Music at Oxford and the Cultural Programme at the University of Oxford, with support from the Faculty of Music, Magdalen College and the Marchus Trust
fri 14th, 6pm, st edward’s school
In 1931, Hindemith's opera Let's Build A Town, inviting schoolchildren to imagine a city where there are no adults and they are in charge, was performed by local children in Oxford’s Holywell Music Room. In March 2025, young people from Oxford will restage scenes from the same piece, interspersed with new co-created music and theatre exploring what they think it means to build a town today. This project is the culmination of months of collaboration between Music at Oxford, St Francis CofE Primary School, Oxford Spires Academy and the University of Oxford, truly multidisciplinary in every sense of the word. Highlighting not just an underperformed work, Let's Build A Town also features the contributions of childrens' voices from a local state school, challenging parameters of socioeconomic disadvantage often found in music - especially 'classical', and suggesting an alternative way to create art which involves many voices including those of children.
free entry
Booking advised https://www.musicatoxford.com
Image:SimonVail
Orchestral Pioneers
Student orchestra conducted by Euan Kemp
fri 14th, 8pm, new college antechapel
Louise Farrenc and Amy Beach represent two female pianist-composers who were pioneers of gender equality in orchestral composition. This concert features the European premier of Beach’s ‘Maria Stuart: Scena and Aria for Alto and Orchestra’, alongside Farrenc’s brooding Symphony No. 3 in G minor.
Tickets:£5/£10
