MANCHESTER CAMERATA LAUNCHES 2025/26 SEASON
FORGING NEW TIES AND STRENGTHENING EXISTING RELATIONSHIPS IN
WORLD-CLASS PERFORMANCES
©Manchester Camerata
- Led by its Music Director, Gábor Takács-Nagy, the orchestra continues working with its Artistic Partners: violinist Daniel Pioro, composer Rushil Ranjan, and choral groups AMC Gospel Choir and Kantos Chamber Choir
- Manchester Camerata also collaborates with a broad swathe of artists including conductors Jack Sheen, Karel Deseure, Laurence Cummings, Thomas Fetherstonhaugh, John Andrews and Enyi Okpara; sopranos Eleonore Cockerham and Ying Fang, mezzo-soprano Idunnu Münch and horn player Ben Goldscheider
- World premiere of violin concerto by Nick Martin inspired by sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth, commissioned by Manchester Camerata, to be performed by Daniel Pioro in Manchester, Yorkshire and London in September
- Orchestra to perform the world premiere of a horn concerto by Laurence Osborn, written for soloist Ben Goldscheider
- The critically acclaimed concert series Mozart, Made in Manchester, returns to The Stoller Hall with soprano Ying Fang
- A live recording of music including Mozart’s piano concertos no. 7 for three pianos and no. 10 for two pianos to be issued on Chandos in spring 2026
- Orchestra expands its groundbreaking community programme, Music in Mind, introducing new Music Cafés to Greater Manchester in autumn 2025
Manchester Camerata, one of the UK’s most pioneering orchestras, today [19 June] announces its 2025/26 season featuring a range of Artistic Partners and world-class performances. Continuing the orchestra’s drive to expand orchestral music beyond core classical repertoire, Manchester Camerata’s new season platforms contemporary artists such as Nick Martin and Jack Sheen whilst celebrating historical masters such as Mozart. The orchestra continues to be led by its dynamic Music Director, Gábor Takács-Nagy, who has been at the helm since 2011. During that time, he has garnered critical acclaim in the concert hall and on record.
Whilst it maintains excellence in orchestral music-making, Manchester Camerata sees its community work as equal in importance to its performances. The 2025/26 season sees Manchester Camerata expand its provision of Music Cafés as part of its sector-leading Music in Mind programme. It continues to host the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia in which the Music Cafés help people living with dementia and their carers across all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester. This relieves pressure on the NHS as well as improving innumerable lives. Additionally, the orchestra broadens its intake for the new cohort of Camerata 360° Ruth Sutton Fellows who will undergo career-enhancing training across the 2025/26 season.
Clara Marshall Cawley, Head of Artistic Planning at Manchester Camerata, said:
“As we look even further into the future and set new horizons, it’s important that we dig deeper into the creativity and human connection between our artists, audiences, and communities. This is evident in the new, week-long Greater Manchester festival ‘Here We Are’ in October, which invites our audiences and communities to challenge and celebrate all facets of the orchestra’s activity.
The season acknowledges the many different identities that represent both the orchestra and our audiences. Whether this is the music of football, the sound of Mozart, stories of mental health, or one of the brand-new works by composers Nick Martin and Laurence Osborn. The venues we will perform in take us from an Art Gallery in Wakefield to Kings Place in London to our home, The Monastery, Manchester.
The programme and places, combined with the honesty, humanity and energy brought by our Music Director Gábor Takács-Nagy, freelance musicians, administrative staff, and artists, allow us to set new horizons for what a 21st-century orchestra can do.”
Artistic Partners and Collaborations
Daniel Pioro, one of Manchester Camerata’s Artistic Partners,will premiere a new violin concerto. Composed by Nick Martin, it was inspired by the modernist sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth. The piece will receive its first performance at Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester [4 Sep], followed by The Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire [5 Sep] and Kings Place in London [18 Sep].
For five days in October, Manchester Camerata is crossing Greater Manchester in its festival called Here We Are [1-5 Oct]. The orchestra will perform in chamber-group pop-ups across all 10 boroughs, meeting people where they are. More details to be announced in due course.
The orchestra collaborates with local but internationally acclaimed composer and conductor, Jack Sheen, for concerts at The University of Manchester [16 Oct] and Wigmore Hall [18 Oct]. Sheen will conduct his own Hollow Propranolol Séance (II) alongside a programme including music by Ravel and Isabella Gellis with soprano Eleonore Cockerham.
Belgian conductor, Karel Deseure, leads a programme featuring the world premiere of Laurence Osborn’s horn concerto written for soloist Ben Goldscheider, commissioned by Trinity College, Cambridge [30 Oct]. The concert will be performed with internationally renowned Manchester-based dance group Company Chameleon at The Stoller Hall. The programme includes Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 “Haffner” which the orchestra will perform from memory whilst the musicians tell stories through movement and dance alongside Company Chameleon.
Manchester Camerata celebrates Christmas in style with a performance of Handel’s Messiah with Kantos Chamber Choir conducted by Laurence Cummings [7 Dec]. The orchestra also offers a gospel celebration with the critically acclaimed vocal group and Camerata Artistic Partner, AMC Gospel Choir. The beloved programme, Festive Happening, will be performed in Birmingham [13 Dec] and Manchester [14 Dec].
Thomas Fetherstonhaugh leads a programme including Pärt’s Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten with Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus [6 Feb]. In another celebration of great composers, Camerata Music Director Gábor Takács-Nagy conducts Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 with Caroline Pether in a programme including music by Fanny Mendelssohn and Beethoven [18 Feb].
The critically acclaimed concert series Mozart, Made in Manchester, returns with soprano Ying Fang [21 Feb]. The lauded Chinese singer performs various arias by Mozart.
The BBC Music Magazine-Award winning conductor, John Andrews, leads an all-British concert programme at the Royal Northern College of Music [15 Mar]. Andrews is famous for bringing neglected composers to public attention and this programme is an example of that initiative. It includes music by the 20th-century composers William Alwyn, Doreen Carwithen (later married to Alwyn) and Elizabeth Maconchy. Soloists include violist Alex Mitchell, pianist Alexandra Dariescu and cor anglais player Rachael Clegg.
Always seeking to embed itself in its local community, Manchester Camerata performs Sir James MacMillan’s Eleven at the National Football Museum conducted by Enyi Okpara [24 Apr]. The concert features a programme centred around the theme of football.
And John Andrews returns to conduct Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ monodrama, Eight Songs for a Mad King, directed by Ruth Knight with mezzo-soprano Idunnu Münch, at The Stoller Hall[5 Jun].
Community
Manchester Camerata continues to demonstrate that music is a powerful tool for expression, communication and social connection through its work in the Greater Manchester community.
In the 2025/26 season, the orchestra expands its groundbreaking Music in Mind programme, improving countless lives in health and social care by training professional carers and running its flagship Music Cafés for people living with dementia across all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester. Twelve Music Cafés are currently live with a further eight being introduced in autumn 2025. In order to implement the cafés, the orchestra collaborates with local delivery partners in each Greater Manchester borough such as Age UK, Together Dementia Support and Lighthouse Project. Manchester Camerata welcomes all people living with dementia and their carers to take part in the Music Cafés. Their expansion follows a partnership with The University of Manchester of more than a decade and the launch of the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia in Greater Manchester last year, hosted by Manchester Camerata.
The orchestra expands its ABO-award winning programme, the Camerata 360° Ruth Sutton Fellowship, which supports musicians and composers based in Greater Manchester and the surrounding counties. The 2025/26 season sees the inclusion of wind, brass and string players under 30 with an undergraduate music degree or equivalent qualification. The fellowship trains young musicians and composers in their individual crafts, combating the increasing lack of such opportunities in the region. This extraordinary initiative gives Fellows hands-on work experience across the community, performance and creative aspects of Camerata’s work, preparing them for careers in an ever-changing sector.
Manchester Camerata continues its partnership with Webster Primary School in the city centre; there the orchestra helps to embed creative music-making into daily life across the curriculum.
And the Withernsea project – in which Camerata collaborates with Orchestras Live and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council to combat social isolation – celebrates its 10th anniversary.