What's on

We are thrilled to welcome five-time Grammy-nominated composer and electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani to launch our new season! Ciani has released over 20 solo albums, and her work has been featured in films, games and countless commercials.

An exhilarating musical journey, where West African and European traditions call out to each other. Join Manchester Collective and percussionist extraordinaire Sidiki Dembélé for folksong and storytelling from the Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal.

Experience an unforgettable afternoon of music and film as the renowned Shepherd Brass Band presents a unique and captivating live screening of the Academy Award-winning short film Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers.

Experience an unforgettable afternoon of music and film as the renowned Shepherd Brass Band presents a unique and captivating live screening of the Academy Award-winning short film Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers.

The Swingles are delighted to be returning to York for a show that explores the group’s unique musical legacy. The five-time Grammy winners offer a celebration of the ensemble’s early repertoire, focused on the arrangements of their founder.

To mark the centenary of Miles Davis’s birth, Peter Edwards and a five-piece Nu Civilisation Orchestra Ensemble perform Davis’s music live as the soundtrack to John Akomfrah’s acclaimed 2013 documentary The Stuart Hall Project.

Reginald Mobley celebrates music’s power not only to keep us tethered but also to draw us closer together. Solitude invites audiences into a quiet and intimate place, to pause and unplug from the busy world around us.

Joseph Kamaru, aka KMRU, is a Nairobi-born, Berlin-based sound artist who has carved out a serious and definitive space on the list of essential authors in ambient-experimental music.

Praised for his unfailingly communicative playing, acclaimed British pianist Leon McCawley has been delighting audiences worldwide for over three decades. He returns to York this autumn for a recital featuring works by Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin.

On the eve of the prestigious Brass in Concert Championship in Gateshead, Shepherd Brass Band teams up with the internationally renowned Cory Band for a tantalising mix of music, including Cory Band’s Brass-in-Concert programme.

We celebrate Quatuor Diotima’s thirtieth anniversary with a special concert that highlights their longstanding association with the University, featuring the premieres of two new commissions by composers with a close connection to York.

Bristol-based artist Surgeons Girl has built a strong reputation for hardware-led live performance, appearing at venues including Berghain, Tresor, Akademie der Künste, ICA, Southbank Centre (QEH), La Trabendo Paris and Doka Amsterdam.

This box of choral delights (named after one of the sweetmeats of a Monty Python choccy box sketch) is served up in The 24’s characteristic style, combining well-known classics and truly niche gems.

To mark the bicentenary of Beethoven’s death in 2027, Duo Pleyel performs two of the composer's symphonies, including his monumental ‘Eroica’ Symphony, in extraordinary four-hand arrangements by his undervalued student Carl Czerny.

Following a string of sold-out concerts, University Symphony Orchestra returns with a programme featuring works by Poulenc, Britten, Vítězslava Kaprálová and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood.

Bach's Mass in B minor, completed in the final year of his life, is widely regarded as his ultimate masterpiece. Experience the awe of Bach’s choral writing as an exceptional lineup of vocal soloists joins the acclaimed Yorkshire Baroque Soloists.

Following a string of sold-out performances last December, Raymond Briggs’ magical Christmas story, The Snowman, returns to York this festive season with live music by the Shepherd Brass Band.

Following a string of sold-out performances last December, Raymond Briggs’ magical Christmas story, The Snowman, returns to York this festive season with live music by the Shepherd Brass Band.

Following a string of sold-out performances last December, Raymond Briggs’ magical Christmas story, The Snowman, returns to York this festive season with live music by the Shepherd Brass Band.

Make the festive season merry and bright with this beautiful and varied programme of Christmas favourites reimagined for saxophone. Jess Gillam, along with her seven-piece band, presents a show packed with Christmas classics and wintry delights!

Accordion and drums like you have never heard them before. Meet the untethered brainchild of Amy Thatcher and Francesca Knowles. This genre-blasting duo defies preconceptions about what their instruments can do.

Get into the festive spirit and enjoy ‘familiar’ music by Felix Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny Hensel that you may not have heard before, along with other seasonal musical fare.

In our first-ever rush-hour concert, two leading period-instrument ensembles join forces to present one of the most famous pieces of chamber music ever composed: Mendelssohn’s electrifying and sublime Octet in E-flat.

As our Beethoven 200 celebrations continue, Duo Pleyel returns for their second appearance this season to perform two of the composer’s celebrated middle-period masterpieces: Symphonies nos. 6 and 8.

Join us for a screening of the documentary Internal Victories (Wavelength Films), which follows composer Michael Betteridge and pianist Clare Hammond as they co-create pieces for solo piano with prisoners at HMP Oakwood in Staffordshire.

Recognised as a ‘pianist of extraordinary gifts’ (Gramophone) and ‘immense power’ (The Times), internationally acclaimed pianist Clare Hammond pairs familiar favourites in this programme with fascinating works by lesser-known female composers.

Join us for an unmissable evening celebrating a trio of JS Bach’s most joyous and festive masterpieces! Combined with exceptional soloists and thrilling choruses, this promises to be an uplifting, high-energy showcase of Bach at his most uplifting.

This is not an homage to the myth or legend of Beethoven. It is a journey inspired by a deaf musician that drives the overarching theme of this programme, combining music by Beethoven with thrilling contemporary works.

We are delighted to welcome the Grammy Award winners The King’s Singers to York for the very first time, as they take audiences on a magical journey that explores some of the greatest Romantic vocal music ever written.

Paul Lewis is widely regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. His award-winning cycle of Beethoven’s piano sonatas has received unanimous global acclaim, consolidating his reputation as one of the composer’s foremost interpreters.