Brighton Early Music Festival

Brighton Early Music Festival BREMF 2026: Bringers of Dreams | 2 - 25 October 2026
https://linktr.ee/brightonemf

Part of the cultural landscape of Brighton & Hove since 2002, Brighton Early Music Festival (known as BREMF) presents an annual festival each autumn, plus education and community projects through the year. We strive to make music from the last 1000 years relevant to the audiences of today and often explore cross-arts and multimedia collaborations.

Join us for an evening of moonlight, transformation and imagination. 🌙In Lunaris, Anna Stegmann and Jorge Jiménez move f...
15/10/2026

Join us for an evening of moonlight, transformation and imagination. 🌙

In Lunaris, Anna Stegmann and Jorge Jiménez move freely between the centuries. See what happens when medieval canons merge with Luciano Berio's modern sounds, while Béla Bartók converses with Johann Sebastian Bach.

📅 Sunday 18 October, 6:30pm
📍 St Nicholas Church
🎟️ £20; under 30s half price; under 12s free

Another dreamy weekend ahead. 🌙Starting on Thursday, The Fine Hand join us for a hands-on workshop where you'll transfor...
14/10/2026

Another dreamy weekend ahead. 🌙

Starting on Thursday, The Fine Hand join us for a hands-on workshop where you'll transform your dreamscape into symbols and images, creating unique graphic scores and bringing them to life through music. No musical experience required, and all ages welcome. Then on Friday evening, they take to the stage to explore the connections between medieval European song and Appalachia's ballad traditions in Send it by the Water. Blending historical performance, improvisation and folk traditions, they create a poignant journey through migration, memory, imagined homelands and the dreams we inherit.

Saturday is Dowland Day, starting with Draw on, Sweet Night, where tenor White and Republic of Viols explore music of sleep, melancholy and dream-like vision. Next, we have Nightly Cares: A Pilgrim’s Solace, where lute-song experts Dowland's Foundry are joined by award-winning actor Will Keen in a profound exploration of John Dowland’s darkest final songbook. To end the day, Ruby Hughes and Jonas Nordberg make their festival debut in Amidst the Shades, a captivating and nuanced programme that weaves songs by John Dowland with the music of Robert Johnson, Henry Purcell and Errollyn Wallen in an intimate and expressive late-night duo concert.

On Sunday, Olwen Foulkes leads the A=415 Instrumental Workshop, a chance to explore some baroque chamber music repertoire together with like-minded enthusiasts. Closing out the weekend, Anna Stegmann and Jorge Jiménez bring us Lunaris, a programme for recorder and violin exploring moonlight, transformation and imagination which invites us to look upwards and to dream.

It’s the perfect way to wrap up the week. We look forward to seeing you there!

13/10/2026

🌿 Round off the festival with a SongPath Walk through Stanmer Park!

Join us for an afternoon of nature, singing and wellbeing, finishing with a refreshing glass of apple juice in Home Farm Orchard. A lovely way to bring the 2026 festival to a close. ☁️🌙

📅 Sunday 25 October, 1:30pm–3:30pm
📍 Stanmer Park
🎟️ £10; under 12s free

What a weekend!This past weekend saw London Handel Players take to the stage on Friday with Purcell's The Fairy Queen f...
12/10/2026

What a weekend!

This past weekend saw London Handel Players take to the stage on Friday with Purcell's The Fairy Queen featuring our BREMF Emerging Artists vocal soloists.

On Saturday it was the turn of the Emerging Artists ensembles, who presented an afternoon Showcase and evening Clubnight.

And we rounded off the weekend on Sunday with a very atmospheric performance from Artemis Consort.

We also took the time to drop in on the One Song exhibition, running at Fabrica gallery in association with BREMF until 28 October.

See you next weekend?

10/10/2026

🧚A truly magical Fairy Queen performance from , directed by and with staging & choreography by Mary Collins.

And fantastic performances from the 8-strong cast of singers - BREMF EA soloists & London Handel Players Young Artists:munden .bruguera .wu

Plus wonderful dancers Mary Collins, Stephen Player, Kath Waters, Anne Deller, and .fs.santiago

bremf2026

09/10/2026

Take a look behind the scenes at rehearsals for tonight's production starring the and this year's emerging artist singers:

and . Plus London Handel Players Young Artists: .bruguera .munden and . With BREMF Emerging artist alumnus .wu

earlymusic

09/10/2026

Daniel Thomson of Dowland's Foundry shares what to expect when they join us on Saturday 17 October. ✨

Joined by actor Will Keen (His Dark Materials), 'Nightly Cares: A Pilgrim’s Solace' is a profound exploration of English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer John Dowland’s darkest final songbook.

The ensemble revisits the collection, with its imagery of night-time and the dark night of the soul, illuminated throughout by San Juan de la Cruz’s original poetry and commissions by Brighton composer Barry Mills, including a world premiere.

📅 Saturday 17 October, 6:30pm
📍 St Nicholas Church
🎟️ £20; under 30s half price; under 12s free

08/10/2026

Next week, The Fine Hand are showing us how to turn dreams, memories and drawings into music. 🎼

On Thursday 15 October, join a hands-on workshop where you'll transform your dreamscape into symbols and images, creating unique graphic scores and bringing them to life through music. No musical experience required, and all ages welcome.

Then on Friday 16 October, The Fine Hand take to the stage for a live performance of Send it by the Water. Using a visual score, they will weave historical sounds into a beautiful journey exploring migration, memory and the dreams passed down through generations. 🌊

Visit our website to learn more and book your tickets. 🎟️

08/10/2026

Here’s a look back on a fabulous opening festival weekend. Thanks you to all the wonderful artists, audience and volunteers who made it so special!

From the open mic night to TOTs, from florentine renaissance to baroque orchestral virtuosity, and the launch of our brand new we had a blast. See you soon for weekend 2!! Lots more to come…🤩

Open mic night - led by Emily Baines
City of Dreams - Monteverdi String Band, The Royal Sackbut Collective , BREMF Consort of Voices, Saria Steyl & Daria Mazzocchio
The Planets (pre-imagined) - Kinga Ujszasi Spiritato
Dream Lab - Carina Drury - cello Stéphanie Dyer, musician Vache Baroque Contemporary Vocal Sünds

We're bringing another weekend of dreams to Brighton. Here's what's on...On Friday, our One Song exhibition begins and r...
07/10/2026

We're bringing another weekend of dreams to Brighton. Here's what's on...

On Friday, our One Song exhibition begins and runs to the end of the month. This audio-visual installation and community archive by artist Kadir Karababa explores how music carries memory, identity and a sense of home across borders. One Song in Brighton has been developed in partnership with BREMF and Fabrica gallery, working with Brighton community groups to invite participants to share a song that transports them to the place they first called home.

On Friday evening, BREMF Emerging Artists singers alongside the London Handel Players bring Purcell’s much-loved setting of the spellbinding Midsummer Night’s Dream, evoked in Shakespeare’s play, to life in The Fairy Queen.

On Saturday, it's our Emerging Artists Showcase featuring Bruegel Consort, Les Acolytes, Themelion and Vega Consort, each performing 20-minute sets. In the evening, our Emerging Artists are back for the BREMF Clubnight, a relaxed evening of early music performance in a welcoming pub atmosphere.

On Sunday, Artemis Consort retells The Dream of Poliphilus from a female perspective, blending Renaissance music with live video projections.

We can't wait to share it with you!

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