Wigmore Hall Unveils Full Season Of More Than 500 Concerts

In his 15th season as Wigmore Hall's Artistic Director, John Gilhooly today unveils the full line-up of concerts and artists for the 2021-22 concert season from 1 September 2021 to 31 July 2022.

Across more than 500 concerts, Wigmore Hall will welcome over 2,500 of the finest singers, instrumentalists and ensembles from within the United Kingdom as well as from over 30 nations, most of whom will be returning to UK for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020. The breadth, scale and calibre of the season signal a full return to the pre-pandemic level of programming.

Young people under-35 will have special access to 25,000 tickets at £5 for selected concerts throughout the year.

Spotlight will fall on a number of leading artists who perform multiple times at the Hall. These 'Artists in Residence' are the countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, the saxophonist Jess Gillam, the violinists Alina Ibragimova and Christian Tetzlaff, the pianists Sergei Babayan, Angela Hewitt, Benjamin Grosvenor and Leon McCawley, jazz bassist Christian McBride, soprano Fatma Said, the Danish String Quartet and ensembles Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Arcangelo, Gabrieli Consort, The Sixteen, Solomon's Knot and Tenebrae.

As one of UK's most important commissioners of new music, Wigmore Hall will host 50 UK and world premières, bringing the total of commissioned or co-commissioned new works to a record-breaking 700 since 2007. The season's Composer in Residence is the British composer Huw Watkins.

Wigmore Hall's much-acclaimed streaming programme, which reached over 7 million viewers over the past 18 months, was recognised last week by The South Bank Sky Arts Awards for Innovation in the Arts During the Pandemic for 'leading the way in transmission of live performance by exceptional performers, providing a much-needed morale boost for classical music lovers during the peak of the pandemic.' Over 150 concerts will be streamed online next season, beginning with 15 streams in September.

John Gilhooly, Artistic and Executive Director of Wigmore Hall, said, 'It has been a great joy welcoming audiences back to Wigmore Hall again, with the hope of fuller houses from September. Having navigated through the most difficult period in the Hall's history, we are under no illusion about the challenges ahead. There is the possibility of postponements or cancellations as each international territory moves through this crisis at a different pace. However, we also want to be as confident as we possibly can be, and we will be quick on our feet in reacting to challenges, as required, to deliver this, with solutions in the Hall itself, or online, as we have done right through this crisis.'

'It is only thanks to the generosity of our patrons, Friends and many donors, as well as Government support, that we have emerged from this stage of the pandemic intact. We will continue to need the audiences' support in the year ahead, as we put the musicians, who have lost so much in this period, back on our stage. Already, donors have pledged £1.5m towards next season. Many are signing up to three-year commitments through our newly formed Wigmore Ensemble circle of giving, and we hope to achieve at least £3m in fundraising in each of the next three years ahead.'

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