Cambridge Summer Music Festival – the city’s oldest music festival – is back this month, promising another enviable line-up of top musicians performing in venues across the city and beyond.
The much-loved annual event runs from today (Wednesday, 1 July) to Saturday, 25 July.
Ben Johnson, acclaimed international tenor and the festival’s director since 2022 – who will also be giving a singing masterclass at The Old Divinity School as part of the festival this Saturday (4 July) – says: “I think we’ve got some really exciting, big events this year.
“For example, we’ve got the London Mozart Players coming for the finale, and I don’t think they’ve been to our festival before.
“It [the London Mozart Players’ concert] is a brilliant programme celebrating the Boyd Neel Orchestra.
“It’s got gorgeous string music in it, by Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.
“It’s a fab programme, brilliant soloists, and Petroc Trelawny, from BBC Radio 3 and TV, is coming to present it and talk about the programme.
“That’s a bit of a coup to get Petroc, and the London Mozart Players at Saffron Hall – I think that’s going to be my highlight of the festival.”
Ben, who has enjoyed a varied career as a singer, conductor, teacher and artistic director, also singles out a performance of Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony by Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra on Sunday, 5 July, at Saffron Hall, and the Choir of Clare College doing Spem in Alium at Our Lady and the English Martyrs Catholic Church on Saturday, 4 July, with The Coro Giovanile Clairière of the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana and Concerto Scirocco as other events to watch out for.
“And I should mention La Nuova Musica are doing a Handel oratorio,” adds Ben. “I booked them in my first year and they were sensational.
“I’m happy to have them back performing Handel at Trinity, which is such a lovely venue to do a Handel work in…
“I should say that’s sort of what I try and do, I try and match the venue and the music together because, unlike a lot of festivals, you have so many different venues.
“Cambridge is rich in lots of beautiful spaces for music, all over the city – or as far as Saffron Hall, and we have music in Childerley Barn.
“It’s really important to me to match the music to the space, so the right music is in the right place, and when that works, I think the whole experience is just… having done it for a few years, I think I’m getting there now.”
Ben notes that “we also have some really intimate music, chamber music,” adding: “I like to support up-and-coming young musicians, particularly in this very difficult time that classical music finds itself in in this country.”
He reveals: “So we’re teaming up with other things, we’re supporting the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, with Lily Mo Browne and Graham Johnson on 18 July.
“She [Lily Mo Browne] won the Ferrier last year, so this is a lovely showcase for the Ferrier winner.
“We have the [2025] Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) Gold Medal-winner, who’s an oboist – Ewan Millar – coming, again, another showcase for a young, award-winning musician, and a series of concerts from our association with YCAT, which is the Young Classical Artists Trust.”
There will also be a recital featuring Canadian pianist Ryan Wang, who captivated audiences worldwide when he won BBC Young Musician in 2024 at the age of 17, on Tuesday, 7 July, at Pembroke Auditorium.
Ben co-founded the Southrepps Music Festival in Norfolk and is a vocal professor at the Royal College of Music.
His international performance career has included concert, recital and opera performances, and he has made several appearances at the BBC Proms, performing at the Last Night in 2017.
He has performed in most of Europe’s great concert halls, as well as Carnegie Hall and Boston Symphony Hall in the USA.
Ben has enjoyed a close relationship with the English National Opera, as well as performing extensively with companies including Glyndebourne, Opéra National de Lyon, Bergen National Opera, and Opéra National de Bordeaux, among others.
For the Cambridge Summer Music Festival line-up, go to cambridgesummermusic.com. Visit benjohnsontenor.org for more on Ben.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk ’
