Guildhall School of Music & Drama announces its Autumn 2026 Season
Image credit: The Making of Us at Guildhall School. Photo by Zoe Birkbeck.
This Autumn, Guildhall School of Music & Drama presents a vibrant and wide-ranging programme of events for the public to enjoy, including concerts, drama productions, opera and jazz.
Highlights include:
Sir George Martin Centenary Weekend: Renowned producer and Guildhall alumnus Sir George Martin is celebrated with special concerts The Eleanor Rigby Experience: 60 years of Revolver – marking six decades since the release of The Beatles’ pioneering album – and the Sir George Martin Centenary Concert, celebrating his work from Beatles to Bond and Bach
20th and 21st century American composers: Music by Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein is heard in the opening Guildhall Symphony Orchestra & Chorus performance of the Season, in addition to events celebrating electronic artist Pamela Z and British American composer Anna Clyne, showcasing works from the other side of the Atlantic in the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Spotlighting the excellence of Black creatives: Vocalist, composer and Guildhall professor Elaine Mitchener presents the UK edition of George Lewis’ Afrodiasporic Incubator Project Always, Already There, while Guildhall Symphony Orchestra champions composer Hannah Kendall, and Guildhall Jazz Orchestra presents new arrangements of Miles Davis’ works for Big Band.
Guildhall Jazz Festival: The annual free showcase, as part of London’s EFG Jazz Festival, hosts 19 performances from several Guildhall ensembles and guest artists, including Guildhall Jazz Orchestra, Neil Charles and Cleveland Watkiss MBE, National Youth Jazz Orchestra and The Hornsmen of the Apocalypse
World-class recitals: Mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina presents Love Without Borders: A Journey in Three Chapters alongside versatile pianist, composer and Guildhall guest faculty member Jonathan Palmer Lakeland in a rare London recital performance for the international star, ahead of her Carnegie Hall debut in November.
Contemporary theatre: Powerful works by Nina Raine and Laura Lomas place sacrifice and struggle centre stage at Milton Court.
Rarely performed opera: Gian Carlo Menotti's rarely-staged, comedic 1936 opera buffa Amelia al ballo is presented with Leonard Bernstein’s celebrated satire Trouble in Tahiti, in a new double bill set in the 1950s.
Music
Guildhall Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Thursday 24 September and Friday 25 September, 7pm, Milton Court Concert Hall
Guildhall Symphony Orchestra and Chorus open the Season with a programme conducted by Eivind Aadland. Opening with a new fanfare by Diego Jimenez, the concert celebrates American composers, with Aaron Copland's iconic Fanfare for the Common Man and one of the 20th century’s most uplifting and beloved choral works, Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, concluding the first half. The evening continues with Mahler's radiant Symphony No 4, culminating in a luminous choral vision of heaven sung by a soprano soloist
Aigul Akhmetshina & Jonathan Palmer Lakeland - Love Without Borders: A Journey in Three Chapters
Wednesday 30 September, 7.30pm, Milton Court Concert Hall
One of the most sought-after voices of her generation, mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina presents Love Without Borders: A Journey in Three Chapters alongside pianist, composer and Guildhall guest faculty member Jonathan Palmer Lakeland at Milton Court Concert Hall this September. The programme traces a musical journey across three chapters: classical art songs, favourites from opera, jazz and film, and Latin American repertoire.
Always, Already There, curated by Elaine Mitchener
Friday 23 – Sunday 25 October
The first UK edition of George Lewis’ Afrodiasporic Incubator project, curated by vocalist and composer Elaine Mitchener, presented by the Barbican and Guildhall School. A presentation of a rich, radical, diverse and resonant body of experimental music from composers who have been tightly policed as to which genres they could occupy and excluded, both imaginatively and literally, from the contemporary music space.
Artists from the past and present will disrupt and expand the scope of this avant garde arena, including pioneering figures such as Olly Wilson, Ahmed Essyad, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Alvin Singleton and Ben Patterson, as well as the leading lights of today: legendary vocalist Pamela Z, composers and electronic artists Hannah Kendall, Jessie Cox, Cedrik Fermont, Yara Mekawei, Corie Rose Soumah, Njabulo Phangula and Charles Uzor, alongside UK premieres by a host of gifted Afrodiasporic musicians.
Guildhall artists feature as part of Black Art Notes, celebrating graphic and open score work by Afrodiasporic composers, also forming part of the Always, Already There Ensemble with UK premieres by Charles Uzor, Corie-Rose Soumah and Marisse Cato.
Wednesday 4 November, 7pm, Barbican Hall
Guildhall Symphony Orchestra presents a dynamic programme spanning three centuries of works, opening with Hannah Kendall’s The Spark Catchers - inspired by a poem about the 1888 Bow Matchgirls’ Strike. The piece sits alongside Shostakovich’s playful and tender Piano Concerto No 2, with soloist Ryan Sheng. The evening will culminate with Sibelius’ brooding yet romantic Symphony No 1, taking us back to the 19th century, moving through contrasting movements.
Opera
Double Bill: Menotti’s Amelia al Ballo & Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti
2, 4, 6 & 9 November, 7pm, Silk Street Theatre
Two one-act operas anchored by dynamic female protagonists take to the stage for Guildhall School’s Opera Double Bill, directed by Ashley Dean and conducted by Head of Opera Studies Dominic Wheeler. Menotti's rarely-staged 1936 opera buffa Amelia al ballo and Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti – a jazz-inflected, razor-sharp satire of marital disillusionment in postwar suburban America. Witty, emotionally layered and bracingly contrasting, the new productions are set in the 1950s, find surprising kinship between Italian farce and American satire.
Drama
19–24 October, Milton Court Studio Theatre
Preview performance: Monday 19 October
Nina Raine’s searingly honest drama about the NHS follows a tangle of doctors and nurses in a busy London hospital. Professionalism and prejudice, turbulent staff romances, ambition and failure collide in this swirling narrative about a crumbling health service, the dedicated individuals who keep it going and how this affects the patients they come into contact with.
In this dark, yet witty and fast-paced production directed by actor and Guildhall alumnus Ashley Zhangazha, the world of frontline workers is brought to life, demonstrating the human and psychological toll placed on those who work in the NHS. The acclaimed drama premiered at Hampstead Theatre in 2011 and, following its sell-out run, was revived there in 2014.
“…highly authoritative, emotionally intelligent examination of the best and the worst aspects of our NHS and the people who dedicate their lives to it.” – The Observer
19–24 October, Milton Court Theatre
Preview performance: Monday 19 October
A girl is locked in a room. A woman jumps in front of a train. A boy's heart falls out of his chest. A butterfly has a broken wing.
Written for the National Theatre Connections Festival 2019, Laura Lomas' hypnotic play is a symphony of dislocated and interconnected scenes as a series of young characters search for meaning in a complicated and unstable world. Set in the present day, Chaos bounces through physics, the cosmos, love and violence, and through all this, the characters find order in the disorder of each other.
Directed by Amelia Sears and designed by Peter Butler, this mesmerising drama honours life’s chaos, marking it as an opportunity to seize.
“Fresh, ferociously intense and visually striking.” The Stage on Laura Lomas’ House Party
Jazz
Wednesday 23 September, 7pm, Milton Court Concert Hall
A dynamic showcase celebrating the first concert of the academic year, featuring the Guildhall Jazz department's newest musicians who will take to the stage for the first time alongside renowned faculty members.
Improvisers’ Ensemble featuring Cleveland Watkiss MBE
Tuesday 20 October, 7pm, Milton Court Concert Hall
Acclaimed vocalist, composer, and Guildhall alumnus and Fellow Cleveland Watkiss MBE joins Guildhall's Improvisers' Ensemble. A co-founder of the vastly influential Jazz Warriors Big Band, Watkiss is one of the UK's most innovative improvising musicians.
Guildhall Jazz Festival x EFG London Jazz Festival
Wednesday 18 – Sunday 22 November, Milton Court Concert Hall
A celebration of emerging jazz talent featuring student ensembles, special projects and headline performances at Guildhall School’s annual Jazz Festival, in collaboration with EFG London Jazz Festival. Free to all to attend, the four afternoons and evenings of performances at Milton Court feature sets from emerging percussionist‑composer Max Kroon, Molly Davies’ new programme Hatchling - an exploration of the work of Linda May Han Oh, and Neil Charles’ Dark Days featuring the composer on bass, alongside drummer Mark Sanders and vocalist Cleveland Watkiss MBE. The weekend continues with high‑energy appearances from the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and The Hornsmen of the Apocalypse, who present genre-bending compositions by Angus Grierson that fuse big band with modern metal. Sunday’s programme brings performances by Electric Counterpoint, the National Youth Jazz Collective, Novos Londrinos and concludes with Itiberê Orquestra Família with the Guildhall Improvisers Ensemble.
The festival also showcases a vibrant line‑up of Guildhall Jazz students, alumni and ensembles, with a tribute to Miles Davis from Guildhall Jazz Orchestra directed by Scott Stroman, as well as Guildhall vocalists, instrumentalists and composers presenting new collaborations, original work and re‑imagined repertoire throughout the week.
Electronic and Produced Music
Guildhall Session Orchestra presents Vangelis: Albedo 0.39
Saturday 21 November, 5.30pm & 6.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre
Guildhall Session Orchestra celebrates 50 years of award-winning, Greek composer Vangelis’ groundbreaking, cosmic 1976 sophomore album, Albedo 0.39, in this special one-hour performance of exciting orchestral treatments, directed by Head of Electronic & Produced Music, Mike Roberts.
Academy Award winner, Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou (Vangelis), is widely regarded as one of the most influential and important figures in the history of electronic music. He first gained attention as a Greek popstar in the group Aphrodite's Child but became widely known for his Oscar-winning composition for Chariots of Fire (1981) and Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner (1982). As a musician who never trained and actively avoided learning how to read or write music, he signed with RCA and released several albums including his landmark record, Albedo 0.39 (1976), a breathtaking, electronic avant-garde work that heavily features experimental synthesiser and the keyboard, with jazz-infused and assorted rhythms for an out-of-this-world voyage.George Martin sitting in a London studio in 1993. Image supplied by Edward Webb
The Eleanor Rigby Experience: 60 Years of Revolver
Friday 4 December, 5.30pm, 7.30pm & 9.30pm, Milton Court Concert Hall
Guildhall’s weekend double-bill of concerts celebrate the centenary of legendary producer and Guildhall alumnus, Sir George Martin. The weekend commences by marking 60 years since the release of the groundbreaking Beatles album, Revolver, with a special performance by Guildhall Session Orchestra, directed by Head of Electronic & Produced Music, Mike Roberts. The performance will be present brand-new orchestral arrangements of the entire album, arranged by musicians from the department and inspired by Martin's unique orchestration of ‘Eleanor Rigby’.
Sir George Martin Centenary Concert
Sunday 6 December, 4pm & 7.30pm, Milton Court Concert Hall
Seventy-five years since his first output as a producer, this special performance reflects across six decades of Martin's pioneering production and musical invention — from The Beatles and Bond to classical collaborations — performed by the Guildhall Session Orchestra.
Children and Young People
London Schools Symphony Orchestra
Tuesday 15 September, 7.30pm, Fairfield Halls, Croydon
The LSSO brings a vivid new programme inspired by the sea to Croydon’s Fairfield Halls, opening with Ethel Smyth's turbulent Overture to "The Wreckers", conducted by incumbent LSSO Conductor in Residence Sitali Dewan. Former LSSO Conductor in Residence for 2023-24, Enyi Okpara, will then take to the podium for John Pickard's Sea-Change, followed by Anna Clyne's defiant Restless Oceans and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, a shimmering retelling of Sinbad's voyage and triumph across the Arabian seas.
Junior Guildhall Symphony Orchestra
Saturday 5 December, 6pm, Milton Court Concert Hall
Julian Clayton conducts a vivid programme spanning folk-inspired rhythm, expressionist intensity and symphonic sweep. Bartók's Dance Suite draws on Hungarian and Eastern European folk melodies to dazzling effect, while Berg's Altenberg Lieder brings a luminous intensity to the stage. The evening builds to Dvořák's Symphony No 8, a work of soaring melody and joyous energy. An exhilarating evening that showcases the full range of Junior Guildhall's young musicians.
Free events & ResearchWorks
Alongside the ticketed programme, Guildhall School’s Autumn Season features a rich programme of free events offering audiences the chance to experience the breadth of activity across the School. Highlights include free masterclasses from pianists Sofya Gulyak, Richard Goode and Pedja Muzijevic, oboist Philippe Tondre, cellist Ralph Kirshbaum and clarinettist Laura Ruiz Ferreres.
The season features a wide range of free concerts and series, including performances by Guildhall Symphonic Wind Orchestra, the Ubu Ensemble and artist in residence Satoko Inoue.
Throughout the year, the Research department runs a regular series of seminar events that are open to all, both online and in person in Silk Street’s Lecture Recital Room. The ResearchWorks series aims to create a space to share and discuss the School’s innovative research with staff, students and the wider public. It embraces a wide range of disciplines within music, drama and production arts, including composition, performance, pedagogy, cultural history and musicology, scenography, theatre studies and music therapy. In partnership with the School’s De-Centre, it also looks at the ways in which performing arts can have a positive impact on a wide variety of societal issues. The first session of the 2026/27 season will be The Art of Positive Fatalism from Lukas Pairon and John Sloboda, on 21 September at 5pm in the Lecture Recital Room, Silk Street.
Visit gsmd.ac.uk/events for full listings & images available HERE.
Notes to Editors
Tickets and more information
For more information on Guildhall School’s Autumn Season visit gsmd.ac.uk/autumn2026
· Priority booking for Guildhall Patrons & Circle members opens on Tuesday 28 July, 10am
· General booking opens on Tuesday 4 August, 10am
For further press information please contact:
RDMR
Grace Siemens-Filmer, Senior Communications Officer | grace@rdmr.co.uk | +44 (0) 7498 918350