SHEFFIELD CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2027
Ensemble 360
Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
14-22 May 2027
Tickets go on sale at 10.00am on 22 September
Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s
MOZART String Quartet No.15 in D minor K.421 (33’)
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No.11 Op.95, ‘Serioso’ (20’)
GRIEG String Quartet (33’)
Norway’s multi-award-winning Engegård Quartet brings its customary boldness, energy and freshness to Sheffield. It is a quartet with a deep affinity with Mozart and Beethoven and a profound commitment to Norwegian music.
Fresh from releasing a highly praised complete recorded cycle of Mozart’s string quartets, this concert brings together key strands of their musical life.
Beethoven’s Serioso retains its power to move as it veers violently between brutish power and yearning lyricism before tumbling to its thrilling conclusion. Grieg’s only completed string quartet is joyously inspired by the unique sound of the hardanger fiddle, evoking singing, dancing and quarrels in a distinctly Norwegian musical language.
Part of NORTHERN LIGHTS A sweeping weekend of elemental music from the frozen north.
Friday 27 November – Sunday 29 November 2026
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Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s
GRIEG Andante con moto (10’)
GRIEG Cello Sonata (28’)
SIBELIUS Andante Festivo (5’)
SIBELIUS String Quartet in D minor, ’Voces intimae’ Op.56 (28’)
Masterpieces and miniatures for strings and piano by two giants of Nordic classicism.
Grieg’s Cello Sonata is a passionate, expressive, dancing work, full of sweeping melodies and stirring tension. Sibelius’s taut String Quartet broods and bristles with soulful intensity and culminates in a fiery finale.
Part of NORTHERN LIGHTS A sweeping weekend of elemental music from the frozen north.
Friday 27 November – Sunday 29 November 2026
Save 20% when you book for 10 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction.
Save 10% when you book for 5 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Find out more.
Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s
THORVALDSDÓTTIR Spectra (11’)
GUÐNADÓTTIR Point of Departure (8’)
ARNALDS This Place is a Shelter (4’)
SIGURÐSSON Nabraska (11’)
THORVALDSDÓTTIR Reminiscence (7’)
BJÖRK (arr. Tassie) Unravel (4’)
BJÖRK (arr. Tassie) Jóga (5’)
ARNALDS Beth’s Theme (from the soundtrack to Broadchurch) (5’)
BJANASON Stillshot (11’)
JOHANNSSON Passacaglia (6’)
Phaedra Ensemble launches our Northern Lights weekend with a dazzling portrait of contemporary Icelandic music ranging from celebrated glacial works by Anna Thorvaldsdóttir and Oscar-winning Hildur Guðnadóttir, to new arrangements of the ever-inventive Björk and Ólafur Arnalds’ haunting original music for Broadchurch.
Evoking distant plains, shimmering permafrost landscapes, the flickering of flames and the chill of the tundra: this is music from the land of fire and ice.
Part of NORTHERN LIGHTS A sweeping weekend of elemental music from the frozen north.
Friday 27 November – Sunday 29 November 2026
Save 20% when you book for 10 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction.
Save 10% when you book for 5 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Find out more.
Tickets:
£5 (free to ticket-holders for other Northern Lights events, please book ahead)
Setting the scene for the weekend, join a panel of musicians and experts who will shine a light on some of the composers and music featuring across the three days.
Part of NORTHERN LIGHTS A sweeping weekend of elemental music from the frozen north.
Friday 27 November – Sunday 29 November 2026
Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s
JS BACH Suite No.1 in G BWV 1007 (20’)
ADÈS Forgotten Dances (18’)
MESSIAEN O Sacrum Convivium (4’)
MONK Nightfall (10’)
REICH Electric Counterpoint (15’)
A magnetic performer, prolific recording artist, and a curious and wide-ranging musical explorer, this is a chance to experience one of the most celebrated musicians working today in the intimate setting of the Crucible Playhouse.
Making a triumphant return to Sheffield, Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe presents a virtuosic tour of four centuries of music, including a transcription of Bach’s beloved first cello sonata, Steve Reich’s thrilling masterpiece Electric Counterpoint and a recent commission by the UK’s leading contemporary composer Thomas Adès, alongside two of the standout works from his celebrated album Lost & Found.
Save 20% when you book for 10 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction.
Save 10% when you book for 5 or more Music in the Round Sheffield concerts in one transaction. Find out more.
Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s
BEETHOVEN
Piano Sonata No.1 in F minor Op.2
Piano Sonata No.3 in C Op.2
Piano Sonata No.2 in A Op.2
Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor Op.57 ‘Appassionata’
On the threshold of a Beethoven bicentenary year, Ensemble 360’s pianist Tim Horton launches his latest marathon project. With his familiar commitment, rigour and virtuosic playing, he embarks on the monumental feat of a complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle.
This thrilling afternoon launches a journey through Beethoven’s staggering achievements for piano, with works including his celebrated Appassionata sonata.
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Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Telegraph
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Times
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Guardian
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ BBC Music Magazine
“Chopin by a pianist whose name is rapidly becoming synonymous with searching originality, rhetorical aptness and kinaesthetic authority… Kolesnikov, always eager for the deep dive, here resurfaces with rare pearls of perfect proportion and lustre from the long-picked-over beds of Chopin interpretation” Gramophone on Pavel Kolesnikov
CHOPIN Complete Nocturnes
Described by Bachtrack as “a poet of the piano”, Pavel Kolesnikov is one of the world’s most exciting young pianists. Lauded for his staggering ability to cast new light on familiar repertoire, he makes his Music in the Round debut with a sumptuous tour through the complete Chopin Nocturnes.
Among the most gorgeous music for piano ever written, these intimate dramas of powerful intensity cover a vast emotional spectrum, from the lyrical and dreamy to unparalleled passion. This epic musical journey, up close, promises to be an unforgettable highlight of the season.
Please note, there will be two intervals due to the length of this concert.
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Tickets:
£17
£10 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s
TENNEY Saxony (25’)
TASSIE O Suns – O Grass of Graves world premiere (10’)
LAIDLOW Content (30’)
ZUCCHI/LAIDLOW Interfaces Improvisation (15’)
Praised for his “urgently visceral” playing (Tempo), London-based Canadian saxophonist David Zucchi performs a programme of innovative works for saxophone and live electronics. James Tenney’s groundbreaking Saxony (1978) sees a shimmering wall of sound built from tape delay and saxophones of every size, while Benjamin Tassie’s new work, O Suns – O Grass of Graves, explores the fragile sound world of the saxophone’s delicately unstable multiphonics.
The second half showcases Zucchi’s recent collaborations with composer and creative technologist Robert Laidlow. Content translates the internet’s overwhelming abundance (memes, infinite-scroll feeds, push notifications) in a raucous concert work for saxophone and electronics, while Interfaces Improvisation sees Laidlow perform alongside Zucchi using his tactile new electronic instrument, a ‘stacco’, which uses live AI to melt timbres together and control live-processed sound.
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Tickets:
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£14 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s
PURCELL Fantasia No.5 (4’)
MACMILLAN For Sonny (5’)
MACMILLAN Memento (4’)
BRITTEN String Quartet No.3 (26’)
ELGAR Piano Quintet (37’)
No stranger to Sheffield audiences, pianist Martin Roscoe was a frequent collaborator with the Lindsay String Quartet, founders of Music in the Round. Here he joins forces with another titanic quartet, the prolific Brodskys, who have been performing for over half a century to prizes and plaudits around the world.
Elgar’s Piano Quintet is an undisputed masterpiece: a tender yet muscular work of epic emotions. The emotional core of the piece begins with a ravishing viola melody, and its final movement magically conjures a stirring chorale before plunging to a thrilling and thundering conclusion.
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Tickets:
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£10 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s
SAARIAHO Six Japanese Gardens (selected movements) (10’)
Ancient Chinese ritual music (6’)
VON BINGEN O vis eternitatis (8’)
YANG YONG River Song (5’)
Improvisation (10’)
ISANG YUN Sori (10’)
Fumeux Fume 12th century Troubadour song (5’)
HOSOKAWA Small Chant (5’)
From the intimate to the divine: an intriguing musical exploration of Chinese music and philosophy alongside European classical traditions.
Moving between eastern and western instruments, these innovative musicians explore how ancient divination practices have inspired music, ritual and performance for over 1,000 years.
Praised for their “highly imaginative” (I Care If You Listen) and “powerfully theatrical performance” (Tempo) with an “intoxicating […] mood of poetry, restraint and elegance”, (The Stage) Tangram specialise in cross-cultural productions and are Associate Artists at LSO St Luke’s.
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Tickets:
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IRELAND Summer Schemes; Down by the Salley Gardens; We’ll to the woods no more; Sea Fever; The Vagabond; Youth’s Spring Tribute
CLARKE Down by the Salley Gardens; The Cloths of Heaven; The Seal Man
BOYLE A Song of Enchantment; The Joy of Earth
TIMBLE Green Rain; My grief on the sea
WOOD I’d roam the world over with you
GURNEY Down by the Salley Gardens
HEAD Tewkesbury Road
F WALEY-COHEN The Moon, the Moss & the Mushrooms (Music in the Round co-commission)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Songs of Travel
Music in the Round’s Singer-in-Residence Roderick Williams returns with a programme of heartrendingly beautiful English song, including Vaughan Williams’ glorious cycle Songs of Travel.
This musical voyage around our island home, performed by Roderick and pianist Christopher Glynn, two of the most charming and gifted musicians the country has produced, also includes a cosmically titled new commission from Freya Waley-Cohen inspired by the Exmoor landscape and its fairy-tale folklore.
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