Featuring boundary-pushing innovation, intimate recitals and more, Manchester’s upcoming classical concert schedule boasts a thrillingly diverse array of live performances from the nation’s most celebrated musicians.
Here are some of the best classical shows around the city this year.
Tarmo Peltokoski is joined by a duo of star-studded soloists and two generations of Hallé singers for Vaughan Williams’ immense, groundbreaking work Sea Symphony.
Joshua Weilerstein makes his triumphant return to the Philharmonic in this musical postcard celebrating the 250th anniversary of American Independence. Three joyous works each cast a different light on the sights and sounds of the USA, culminating in a performance of Antonín Dvořák’s love letter to America – his ‘New World’ Symphony
Hidden Realms is a showcase for the RNCM x Manchester Collective Studio in 2025/26. Led by co-artistic director and violinist Rakhi Singh, the Studio gives five outstanding postgraduate string players first-hand experience of radical music-making and provides real-world experience of the alternative pathways available to musicians outside of traditional orchestral roles.
Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No 2 is at the heart of this performance alongside Panufnik and Ligeti.
Twenty years after leaving Manchester and Chetham’s School of Music, internationally acclaimed pianist Cordelia Williams returns to the city for a three-day residency at Stoller Hall, combining solo performance, chamber music and masterclasses, bringing with her a supergroup of some of the country’s most exciting performers.
The Hallé comes to Aviva Studios for the first time with Anna Meredith’s atmospheric composition ANNO. A recontextualisation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, ANNO takes the audience through a whole calendar year in just one hour of continuous music.
Blurring classical music and other art forms, Manchester Collective join forces with renowned dance-theatre company Thick & Tight to present a captivating live show drawing on queer culture, flickering between ballet and cabaret.
English National Opera (ENO) and Factory International present the UK premiere of Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary opera Angel’s Bone with a libretto by Royce Vavrek – a major new production directed by the visionary theatre maker Kip Williams, in collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
Sir Stephen Hough, largely regarded as Britain’s finest living pianist, returns to close the Bridgewater Hall’s International Concert Series with a dazzling programme that ranges from Beethoven to Mary Poppins.
A spectacular end to the Stockport Symphony Orchestra’s dance-inspired season, both halves of the concert open with rousing Finnish music, with the fantastic Jennifer Pike returning for the ever-popular Tchaikovsky concerto, which she first played with the SSO in 2018.
Join Manchester Baroque as they reconstruct another original 18th-century concert programme, one that took place in Manchester back in 1745.
Whilst in Manchester’s Central Library, Manchester Baroque’s Artistic Director, Prof. Dr Pauline Nobes, came across a transcript of concert programmes and a centenary review of Manchester’s first subscription concert series. Her groundbreaking musical and historical research includes the reconstruction of these 16 concert programmes, originally performed between November 1744 and August 1745.
- Words:
- Wire Editor
- Published on:
- Thu 9 Apr 2026
Billed as a radiant celebration of Iberian colour and craft, the Galicia Symphony Orchestra arrives at The Bridgewater Hall with an impassioned, sunlit programme led by conductor Roberto González-Monjas and featuring the mercurial guitarist, Thibaut Garcia.