Founded in 1999 by renowned pianist Marios Papadopoulos, Music Director of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, with the aim of showcasing music-making and teaching of the highest quality at the piano, the Oxford Piano Festival is a firmly-established and eagerly-anticipated part of the UK’s musical calendar.
This year’s festival takes place from 26th July to 3rd August 2025 and features a sparkling roster of some of the world’s leading pianists performing a wide range of repertoire from Beethoven and Chopin to Prokofiev and Stravinsky via Liszt and Schubert. Star performers Sir Stephen Hough CBE, Nikolai Lugansky and Vikingur Olafsson are honoured return guests this year and the Festival is delighted to highlight pianists Akiko Ebi, Andrey Gugnin, Isata Kanneh-Mason and Sophie Pacini in 2025, as they each make their welcome Festival debuts.
Featured throughout the week alongside the brilliant soloists will be a series of key masterclasses, hosted by a wide range of outstanding musicians of the day, including Rustem Hayroudinoff, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Stephen Kovacevich, Kathryn Stott, Arie Vardi and Ashley Wass, as well asMarios Papadopoulos himself. The roster of events is completed by an innovative talk by esteemed arts/music consultant, Lydia Connolly to signpost aspiring young musicians to important aspects of artistic life within the classical music industry. Student participants benefitting from the expert teaching and the overall immersive experience during Oxford Piano Festival week are talented advanced piano students of Diploma level and above.
Events will take place at some of Oxford’s most beloved historic venues such as Sir Christopher Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre, the Holywell Music Room and Christ Church Cathedral.
The Festival is gratified to have keyboard legends Alfred Brendel as its Patron and Sir Andras Schiff as its President.
Remarks Festival founder, Marios Papadopoulos, fresh from his own recent highly-praised collaboration with Martha Argerich at the Barbican:- “The Festival’s objective is simple: to inspire, support and encourage music-making at the piano of the very highest order. Welcoming world-renowned soloists and teachers each year, the Festival provides gifted young players with a rare opportunity to work alongside and learn from some of the world’s finest pianists and teachers, to perform and to learn new repertoire, as part of a dedicated community of artists which encourages exchange over competition”.
Included herewith for your convenience is a link to the complete brochure for the Oxford Piano Festival 2025:-
More information about the Festival at: https://oxfordpianofestival.com/