London Festival Of Chamber Music Comes to Smith Square Hall
The Festival celebrates chamber music as an art of connection-between musicians, audiences and generations.
The inaugural London Festival of Chamber Music takes place 25-29 March 2026 at Smith Square Hall, welcoming international artists and audiences to a series of concerts curated by 2026 Festival Artistic Director, pianist Alessio Bax. The Festival celebrates chamber music as an art of connection-between musicians, audiences and generations. Through world-class performances and open collaboration, it seeks to create an environment where discovery and artistry thrive.
The musicians invited by Alessio Bax are well known to London audiences, but in this Festival they will reveal themselves in a new light. They will live and breathe the music together, rehearsing and exchanging ideas. Concert programmes include music by Mozart, Beethoven, Ligeti, Schubert, Ravel, Respighi, Strauss, Kurt Weill, Luciano Berio, Garth Knox as well as Cypriot folk songs, and much more.
The Festival Artists joining Alessio Bax for the London Festival of Classical Music are Sarah Aristidou (soprano), Alena Baeva (violin), Lucille Chung (piano), François Leleux (oboe and conductor), Eugene Lee (violin), Lawrence Power (viola), Natalia Lomeiko (violin), Nabil Shehata (double bass and conductor), Paul Watkins (cello and conductor) and Radovan Vlatković (French horn).
"In a city blessed with one of the world's richest musical landscapes, the London Festival of Chamber Music at Smith Square Hall offers something truly new," says Alessio Bax. "It's a rare week in which some of today's most inspiring musicians come together not only to perform, but to create, to collaborate, and to share a profound sense of camaraderie with their audience."
Across seven concerts, the Festival Artists will perform chamber music, lead workshops with young musicians, and some will show a different side to their musical personalities, stepping on to the podium as conductors and soloists in partnership with the new generation musicians of Sinfonia Smith Square.
The Festival opens on 25 March with Nabil Shehata conducting Sinfonia Smith Square in R. Strauss's Horn Concerto No.1 performed by Radovan Vlatković and Beethoven Symphony No.2. The same evening there will be an immersive concert at 9.30pm, in which audience members sit on stage close to the performers. The programme contrasts Schubert's Andantino Varié and Messiaen's Interstellar Call with two solo works by Luciano Berio, before culminating in Elgar's Piano Quintet. 26 March sees an all-star ensemble perform Schubert's Trout Quintet, while soprano Sarah Aristidou opens the evening with a vivid set of culture-spanning songs drawing on European, Middle Eastern and Indian traditions. 27 March's lunchtime programme explores the close creative ties between Robert and Clara Schumann and Brahms. On Friday evening Sinfonia Smith Square, conducted by Paul Watkins present a programme of music by Mozart and Beethoven including the Triple Concerto with soloists Alena Baeva, Paul Watkins and Alessio Bax.
During the day on 28 March Festival Artists join musicians from Sinfonia Smith Square for a day of public workshops focusing on chamber repertoire and ensemble craft, giving audiences insight into the collaborative process. The Festival closes with Pasculli's Donizetti-inspired Oboe Concerto, performed by François Leleux; Respighi's Il Tramonto for soprano and string quartet; and Schubert's Symphony No. 5, performed by Sinfonia Smith Square and conducted by Leleux. The evening also includes Sarah Aristidou singing Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre with Paul Watkins conducting Sinfonia Smith Square.
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