Wigmore Hall to Offer 600 Concerts and Free Tickets for Under 25s in 2026/27 Season

In the lead-up to its 125th anniversary in May 2026, Wigmore Hall has revealed its 2026/27 concert Season, and a bold expansion of its commitment to young audiences through a new scheme offering more than 5,000 free tickets for under 25s. The initiative tackles financial barriers to accessing classical music amid rising living costs, reaffirming the Hall's mission to serve audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Wigmore Hall's 2026/27 Season marks major anniversaries for Benjamin Britten, Morton Feldman, and Ludwig van Beethoven, as well as György Kurtág's 100th birthday. Highlights include a complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle from Igor Levit and a rare performance of Feldman's five-and-a-half-hour String Quartet No. 2. Star pianist Yunchan Lim surveys Mozart's solo piano music across the Season, while Schubert's Winterreise, performed by Fleur Barron and Julius Drake, is reimagined with elements of Kabuki, a form of classical dance-drama from Japan. There are regular livestreams of Wigmore Hall concerts throughout the Season, and BBC Radio 3 broadcasts a live concert from the Hall every Monday lunchtime, as well as a selection of evening concerts each year.

Building on the success of its £5 Tickets for Under 35s scheme, which has brought more than 200,000 young people through Wigmore Hall's doors in the past decade, a new free-ticket scheme for under 25s launches in September 2026. More than 5,000 free tickets to over 200 concerts—a third of the Hall's annual programme—will be made available to under-25s from the 2026/27 Season. Children under 16 must be accompanied by a supervising adult who is also eligible for a free ticket.

From September 2026, for the first time, Wigmore Hall will introduce surtitles at many vocal performances. Responding to audiences and following encouraging feedback during test concerts earlier this year, English translations of song and choral texts will be discreetly projected on the wall behind the stage during performances. As the UK's largest presenter of vocal music, spanning German Lieder, French chanson, and a millennium of choral repertoire, Wigmore Hall aims to enhance engagement and accessibility while preserving the intimate atmosphere of its concerts.

Also announced today is a series of unprecedented academic and artistic partnerships in Oxford, Berlin, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Glyndebourne, building musical bridges both on and off the stage. A major collaboration with the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities and the Faculty of Music at the University of Oxford will also see Wigmore Hall's archive move to the Bodleian Libraries for long-term preservation and scholarly access. Collaborations with Glyndebourne in East Sussex, Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal / Daniel Barenboim Stiftung, Dublin's Royal Irish Academy of Music / Whyte Recital Hall, and Edinburgh's new Dunard Centre will foster artistic exchange, shared programming, and additional performance opportunities for young artists.

In addition to expanding the geographical reach of the programme, from September 2026 Wigmore Hall welcomes a new cohort of 16 Associate Artists with five-year tenures. These new artistic relationships will result in commissions, cross-disciplinary projects, and collaborations reflecting the breadth of today's musical landscape.