Anoushka Shankar performs her father Ravi Shankar & Philip Glass’s album
Passages for only the second time in the UK
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play the UK premiere of new work from
Oscar-winning film composer Rachel Portman
London Symphony Orchestra showcases 19th and 20th century orchestral works conducted by the acclaimed Susanna Mälkki
A birthday party for Baroque pioneer William Christie
Performances from Sheku and Braimah Kanneh-Mason
(Asian independent) Brighton Festival 2025’s classical programme sees this year’s Guest Director, the Grammy-nominated musician and composer Anoushka Shankar, perform music by her father Ravi Shankar alongside Britten Sinfonia and Indian classical musicians, while Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play a brand-new piece by Rachel Portman, Oscar-winning composer of scores such as Emma and Chocolat. A concert from the London Symphony Orchestra is led by acclaimed Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki and William Christie presents artists from Les Arts Florissants, his academy for young Baroque singers. Celebrated cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays a wide-ranging programme with Castalian String Quartet and violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason works with Brighton & East Sussex Youth Orchestra.
For the first time since the 2017 BBC Proms and only the second time ever in the UK, in a Brighton Festival Exclusive on Friday 9 May Anoushka Shankar will perform in full Passages, her father Ravi Shankar’s album created in collaboration with American composer Philip Glass. The album, a sharing of different musical vocabularies, combines Glass’s minimalist style with Shankar’s expressive brand of Indian classical music, with both writing arrangements based on themes suggested by the other. This collaborative spirit will be recreated live on stage by Anoushka Shankar, Britten Sinfonia and a specially curated ensemble of Indian classical musicians.
Rachel Portman, the first female composer to win an Academy Award, for the 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, has written a new concerto for violin, narrator and orchestra that considers the Tipping Points we may have reached in the climate crisis. The UK premiere will be performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist Francesca Dego on Thursday 22 May, as the centre piece of a nature-themed programme conducted by Grammy Award-winning Ludovic Morlot. This concert will also include Sibelius’s orchestral hymn to the Finnish forests, Tapiola Op. 112 and the monumental Vespers of the Blessed Earth from American composer and environmental activist John Luther Adams with Brighton Festival Chorus.
On Saturday 17 May, London Symphony Orchestra is accompanied by acclaimed violinist Leila Josefowicz and led by one of today’s most versatile conductors, Susanna Mälkki in a series of orchestral showpieces including Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. The programme is prefaced by the high-energy A Short Piece for a Large Orchestra, by pioneering mid-20th century Black-American composer Julia Perry.
Harpsichordist and founder of Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants, William Christie celebrates his 80th birthday with a concert at Glyndebourne Opera House on Sunday 4 May. Christie has played a pioneering role in the rediscovery of Baroque music, bringing forgotten French repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries to audiences worldwide. This performance will also showcase members of Le Jardin des Voix, Christie’s academy for young Baroque singers.
On Sunday 18 May, celebrated cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and the prizewinning Castalian String Quartet present a programme including a contemporary response to Bach’s iconic Solo Cello Suites by British composer Natalie Klouda that blends Baroque and Indian classical styles; Schubert’s final chamber work, Quintet in C and Thomas Adés’ “magically allusive” (The Guardian) Arcadiana.
Violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason plays with Create Music’s Brighton & East Sussex Youth Orchestra on Monday 12 May, supported by Mayo Wynne Baxter. An opportunity for these young classical musicians to be inspired by an accomplished young professional through a performance of accessible music, the programme includes Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite and Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain (featured in Disney film Fantasia). Also to feature is early 20th century composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whose work received two world premieres in the very same Brighton Dome Concert Hall that this concert takes place.
Conductor Harry Christophers’ elite vocal ensemble The Sixteen perform a programme ranging from music by a mystic 12th century German abbess, via the ‘holy minimalism’ of Arvo Pärt, to two contemporary British pieces for the rare combination of choir and violin on Saturday 10 May. On Monday 19 May, a song recital from one of the country’s finest mezzos, Dame Sarah Connolly, supported by Patron Margaret Polmear, includes a selection of German, French and English language songs by Schumann, Wolf, Debussy and Barber.
Brighton Festival’s series of lunchtime concerts returns, showcasing young and emerging artists and giving audiences the opportunity to see the classical stars of tomorrow. The series features a wide range of ensembles and programmes, including medieval ensemble Rune, who will perform musical stories inspired by 14th century Italian poet and scholar Giovanni Boccaccio’s masterwork Decameron, in association with Brighton Early Music Festival. Elsewhere, established French ensemble Quatuor Van Kuijk honour countryman Ravel’s 150th birthday alongside music from their new album and the 2025 Glyndebourne Jerwood Young Artists perform popular operatic extracts.
Brighton Festival 2025 Guest Director Anoushka Shankar said:
“I’m thrilled to be welcoming an incredible range of performers from across the spectrum of classical music to Brighton Festival 2025. This year’s Festival explores art’s power to challenge and uplift and there are so many unique perspectives and collaborations in the classical programme that will do exactly that. I’m also hugely excited to share the music of my father, Ravi Shankar, with Brighton Festival audiences”.
Brighton Festival 2025 runs from 3-26 May. Anoushka Shankar has worked with the Festival to shape a programme that imagines a hopeful future after a difficult time, celebrating our collective ability to recover, take action and come together to change the world for the better, inspired by the idea of a ‘New Dawn’.
Brighton Festival takes place from 3-26 May 2025. Please see full event listings for times, locations and prices at brightonfestival.org.
Join the conversation:
#BrightonFestival2025
