The best: Classical music concerts around Manchester in 2025

On Fri 25 Apr, Manchester Collective joins forces with world-renowned electronic composer and musician Clark and award-winning choreographer Melanie Lane for Refractions, an unforgettable one-off concert merging the worlds of classical music, contemporary dance and experimental sounds.

Devised as a continuous aural and visual feast for the senses, the concert sees the innovative multi-talented artists unite with the Collective to weave a musical thread across time, as medieval and baroque traditions collide with modern electronica while dancers invoke rituals from ancient and alien civilisations alike.

Find out more HERE, and book tickets below.

Staged across two shows at the Stoller Hall, Manchester Camerata’s tremendously popular Mozart: Made in Manchester series returns as a pair of playful horn concertos that capture the unlikely yet jovial friendship between the legendary composer and Joseph Leutgeb, one of the greatest horn players of the classical era.

The first concert, which takes place on Wed 2 Apr, will feature an assortment of Mozart’s pre-eminent horn works, as well as Marianna Martines’ Overture in C Major and Haydn’s Symphony No.94, led by esteemed conductor Gábor Takács-Nag and leading horn maestro Martin Owen.

Part Two will continue the showcase of boisterous yet intricate pieces that sprang from the bond between Mozart and Leutgeb, with highlights including the gleefully mischievous cat-and-mouse third movement of Concerto No. 4.

Book your tickets to Mozart, Made in Manchester Part 1 HERE, and Part 2 below.

Marking their long-awaited return to Manchester with another enchanting two-piano programme, the Labèque sisters take to The Bridgewater Hall stage for a night of musical delight featuring a Philip Glass masterpiece alongside Ravel and Debussy on Tue 8 Apr.

The concert opens in Belle Époque Paris, with Debussy’s rarely played set of six sublime miniatures, alongside Ravel’s Mother Goose, played in the composer’s original piano duet arrangement. Then, the pair transport audiences across a vivid, sweeping landscape with Glass’s soaring yet tempestuous dance chamber opera Les Enfants Terrible, crafted by Glass’s long-time collaborator Michael Reisman.

As part of their ambitious Portico Reunited project, Manchester’s iconic library invites visitors into the constantly evolving realm of classical music with a curated programme of chamber works, ideal for seasoned concert-goers and total newcomers alike.

The vibrant programme is set to include Grażyna Bacewicz’s Quartet for Four Violins alongside selections from Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Fantasiestücke for String Quartet.

On Fri 2 May, Scottish Ensemble and renowned choreographer Örjan Andersson combine to present a delightfully dynamic reimagination of Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.

Billed as ‘the human condition painted in high-intensity colours’, the fresh, compelling production offers the Ensemble new dimensions in which to create breathtaking visual renderings of the passion, intricacy and deep complexity within both masterworks, uniting performers and audience across sound and spectacle to uncover the heart of the music.

On Sat 24 May, the Hallé ushers in the nominally warm and sun-dappled summer with a symphony of seasonal melodies at the Bridgewater Hall.

Led by Agata Zajac and presented by Petroc Trelawny, the uplifting spectacular promises ‘a harmonious journey through the essence of summer’, with orchestral favourites including the entrancing overture to Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the lilting pastoral beauty of Beethoven’s Sixth, Debussy’s tranquil Prélude à l’aprés-midi d’un Faune, Gershwin’s sultry Summertime from his folk opera Porgy and Bess and many more.

Featuring Mahler’s jaw-dropping Symphony No. 3, described as a wondrous paean to love and the natural world, the BBC Philharmonic’s The Voice of Nature concert provides a fitting finale to their Bridgewater Hall concert season with performances from contralto Jess Dandy and the choral forces of the Hallé Choir, the CBSO Children’s Chorus and CBSO Youth Chorus.

This December, DJ, broadcaster and global dance titan Pete Tong returns to Manchester with another instalment of his blockbuster Ibiza Classics show, backed by long-time collaborator Jules Buckley and The Essential Orchestra.

Having debuted in 2015 as part of BBC Radio 1’s Prom at the Royal Albert Hall, Ibiza Classics has entertained retired ravers and music-lovers of all tastes around the nation. The unmissable live concert promises a night of unbridled joy and halcyon White Isle nostalgia with a 10-year celebration of the world’s most famous orchestral electronic music event.