News

5 Jul | 6pm | New College Oxford Join us for a special performance of Haydn’s first full-length opera Le Pescatrici (The Fisher Girls) in a lively English translation by Gilly French and Jeremy Gray. Directed musically by Steven Devine and produced by Michael Burden, this rarely staged comic‑romantic gem combines wit, mistaken identities, and a joyful finale. The story follows Prince Lindoro in his search for the lost Princess of Benevento. In the bustling Read more

10 July 2026 | 7:30 pm | Festival Hall Fresh from their acclaimed Sky Arts show 100 Years of Big Bands, the LP Swing Orchestra brings a brand-new celebration of swing to Oxford! Under the musical direction of vocalist Georgina Jackson—the UK’s only female commercial Big Band leader—and joined by the sensational voices of Nicola Emmanuelle and Julia Sullivan, this reimagined Rat Pack-style trio takes you on a journey back to the golden age of Read more

15 April 2026 | 7:30 pm | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford Join us for an unforgettable evening as world-renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti performs Elgar’s deeply expressive Violin Concerto in B minor, a work hailed as one of the greatest in the repertoire. The concert also features Elgar’s iconic Enigma Variations, a dazzling orchestral masterpiece full of mystery and emotion. Conducted by Marios Papadopoulos, this performance promises passion, virtuosity, and the very best of English music. Pre-concert Read more

Oxford Festival of the Arts is proud to announce  SIMPLY SWING night at the New Theatre on 13 July with the BBC Big Band directed by the inimitable Barry Forgie, and one of the UK’s finest jazz and big band vocalists, Iain Mackenzie. [Iain Mackenzie] knows how to swing a band to rude health – Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club World-class musicians … a brilliant musical force – The Telegraph Join us for the last night Read more

Haydn came to Oxford in 1791, where he was conferred with a Doctorate from the University of Oxford.  A ‘Grand Music Festival’ in the Sheldonian was fully reported in The Gentleman’s Magazine. ‘When Haydn appeared, and, grateful for the applause he received, seized hold of, and displayed, the gown he wore as a mark of the honour that had in the morning been conferred on him, the silent emphasis with which he thus expressed his Read more

We are delighted to announce that Oxford Festival of the Arts is embracing “Disappearance of Worlds”, an exhibition by Chantal Meza – a Mexican painter living and working in the UK, whose work for the past decade has confronted the violence, terror, and the complexities of disappearance in both a human and ecological context – within this year’s edition of the festival. This project is collaboration with Pembroke JCR Art; Pembroke College Oxford, University of Oxford; Read more

We are proud to present Songs of Bulbul, a captivating new dance performance by Aakash Odedra inspired by the ancient Sufi myth of a caged songbird, in collaboration with the Oxford Playhouse. Featuring choreography by Rani Khanam and music by Rushil Ranjan, this exquisite performance is an immersive dialogue between the intense physicality of Kathak and the spiritual journey of Sufism, merging music, dance, and poetry traditions, renowned for precise rhythm and storytelling. Nightingales, or ‘bulbuls’, hold a special Read more