2023
Alexander Krichel, István Simon and Juliane Banse perform Winterreise.
Welcome to the Oxford International Song Festival impact report. I am delighted to be reflecting on another tremendous year for the Festival; we end 2023 under our new name and visual identity, having presented one of our most ambitious and exciting programmes so far. Now in its Sholto Kynoch 22nd year, the Festival – Art:Song – Artistic Director Images, Words, Music – was one of our busiest and most successful to date. We engaged over 250 artists and speakers at 74 events in 25 venues across 16 days, with events exploring visual art, poetry, fashion and dance all in tandem with classical song. My heartfelt thanks go to our 1828 Syndicate, Artistic Director’s Circle, Schubert Circle, Friends, and the charitable trusts and foundations who support us – all that we have achieved in 2023 simply wouldn’t be possible without your continued support.
with St Frideswide has begun very well indeed and I look forward to reporting more on that later in the year.
Alongside the main Festival, our year-round education programmes continue to go from strength to strength. The first cohort of Oxford Song Young Artists finished their year-long tenure by curating our spring minifestival ‘A Grimm Weekend of Song’ in April, presenting wonderfully inventive fairytale-themed concerts in a fantastic showcase of their artistry and professional development. Our new partnership with local primary school St Frideswide has been a great success; we worked with all pupils from Early Years to Key Stage 2 over three academic terms delivering a range of creative and singing activities, and also helped the school to compose a new school song. Our second year working
2024 is already set to be a very exciting year: we will be announcing full details of this year’s Festival very soon (please save 11-26 October in the meantime!), and we are also laying the groundwork for major plans as we look forward to celebrating Schubert’s Bicentenary in 2028. In the meantime I hope that you enjoy reading the enclosed and thank you so much again for your continued support.
Song Futures, our programme dedicated to contemporary classical song, was one of this year’s Festival highlights. Alex Ho completed his tenure as our Associate Composer with song cycle The Glass Eye, one of the most substantial and impressive works we have commissioned to date, and you can hear the Radio 3 broadcast of the world premiere, performed magnificently by Hugh Cutting and Dylan Perez, as part of the New Music Show on BBC Sounds. In September, in a collaboration with Oxford’s Humanities Cultural Programme, I was delighted to give the inaugural performance for the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities with former Oxford Song Young Artist Harriet Burns –complete with hard hats in a building site! Cultural partnerships with a wide range of organisations in Oxford and further afield are a fundamental part of our programming and we look forward to more artistic collaborations in the years to come.
Photo © Jason Warner, Fyrefly Studios
IMPACT REPORT
Presenting our annual centrepiece event, the Oxford International Song Festival, alongside other concerts throughout the year in Oxfordshire and venues further afield including London, Birmingham, Hastings and Wells
○ Supporting the next generation of singers, pianists and composers through our Young Artist Programme and our Young Performers’ Programme
Iain Burnside and Roderick Williams perform in SJE
○ Supporting new music through our commissioning programme, Song Futures, and our Associate Composer scheme
○ Supporting singing in schools through our Schools Programme
Voice Electric: Lotte Betts-Dean with visuals by Purple Taiko
○ Increasing accessibility to the song repertoire through our Discover database – a much-used resource for song texts, and composer and artist information
○ Complementing concerts with educational opportunities to enhance the experience of song, including talks, language labs, artist Q&As and more
ARTISTS, “ YOUNG
WORDS, AND IMAGES ENRICH TWO REMARKABLE EVENTS IN THE HOLYWELL MUSIC ROOM” The Arts Desk
Photo © Jason Warner, Fyrefly Studios
OXFORD INTERNATIONAL SONG FESTIVAL’S MISSION IS TO CELEBRATE AND PROMOTE SONG. WE DO THIS BY:
HOW DID WE DO THIS YEAR?
HAVING NOW HEARD “ THE GLASS EYE , I WOULD SAY THAT THIS IS NOT ONLY A SUBSTANTIAL WORK, BUT AN EXTRAORDINARILY IMPORTANT ONE.”
With thanks to your wonderful support, we delivered...
ARTISTS AND SPEAKERS
AND EDUCATIONAL EVENTS
DURING THE OXFORD INTERNATIONAL SONG FESTIVAL
CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS BENEFITTED FROM OUR
IN THE OXFORD INTERNATIONAL SONG FESTIVAL
YOUNG ARTIST PROGRAMME
DIFFERENT LANGUAGES PERFORMED
superb mesmerising
world class music interesting new music heartening heart-warming
extraordinary
best ever!
gripping accessible valuable ambitious unmissable human relaxing affordable life-affirming!
nourishing
affected
a privilege
soulful
pleasure
professional
musical soothing the soul
fabulous
informative
lyrical
compelling
treat
immersive
eye-opening
warm
eclectic
helpful enticing
better than ever
uplifting brilliant
inspiring
great huge
joyful
fun
different
bliss
vivid
creative
intimate
surprising illuminating
always a pleasure integrated
wider-ranging
diverse
NEW WORKS COMMISSIONED
comradely
unique
superlative
unexpected
pleasant vibrant
electrifying
delightful innovative exhausting
fascinating busy
transcendent
well-organised
extremely rewarding
sublime thought-provoking
impressive
exciting intense
joyous
varied
TOTAL AUDIENCE ATTENDANCE
SONGS PERFORMED
precision outstanding thrilling I loved it
interesting engaging
emotional
stellar
planned
amazing
quality good moving
familiar fulfilling absorbing high standard dynamic diverting sublime
terrific
excellent friendly
beautiful
historical
value
magical
exhilarating
invigorating
classy
enriching stimulating memorable
rewarding entertaining
exceptional
high quality
wonderful welcoming fresh
lovely
captivating
in-the-moment
transformative contemplative
enlightening Schubert educational imaginative marvellous
engrossing
enthralling
highly enjoyable
energy
revelatory
unusual programmes very pleasant experience
energising life-enhancing
refreshing
PUPILS AT ST FRIDESWIDE PRIMARY SCHOOL THROUGH OUR SCHOOLS PROGRAMME
WORLD PREMIERES
YOUNG PERFORMERS’ PROGRAMME
CONCERTS
BENEFITTED FROM OUR
Opera Today
11–26 OCTOBER 2024