The London Song Festival

26/10/2025

I am very excited about the next London Song Festival concert, which celebrates Ethel Smyth and the Suffragettes, part of the 2025 London Song Festival series “Women, as composers, as poets, and as visionaries and pioneers who changed the world”. This is on Friday 31st October at 7pm at Hinde Street church in central London.

I have devised a programme that explores the work of the Suffragettes, who faced arrest, imprisonment and the horror of forced-feeding in their fight to gain what is for us today a basic human right, that women should be able to vote in elections just as men do. The programme also explores Ethel Smyth’s life, with particular reference to her “passions” as she called them, her relationships with a series of women, as detailed in her Memoirs.

I am joined by the incredible Ella Taylor and Lotte Betts-Dean as we perform songs by Ethel herself, and by Rebecca Clarke, Muriel Herbert, Liza Lehmann, Amy Beach, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Frank Bridge, Charles Ives, Samuel Barber and others. There is also a song by Sam Meredith

Tickets can be bought from https://www.londonsongfestival.org/ethel-smyth-and-the-suffragettes-31st-october

Come and join us - it will be lovely to see you there!

22/10/2025

One week to go to the deadline for applications for The London Song Festival / Schubert Society of Britain masterclass and Schubert Song Prize with the brilliant Joseph Middleton. Open to voice and piano duos age 32 and under.

The winning duo will recieve a cash prize and two guaranteed concerts in 2026, one for the Schubert Society and another for the London Song Festival. The rep is two songs, at least one of which must be by Schubert.

Application forms and full details are here; One week to go to the deadline for applications for The London Song Festival / Schubert Society of Britain masterclass and Schubert Song Prize with the brilliant Joseph Middleton. Open to voice and piano duos age 32 and under.

The winning duo will recieve a cash prize and two guaranteed concerts in 2026, one for the Schubert Society and another for the London Song Festival. The rep is two songs, at least one of which must be by Schubert.

Application forms and full details are here;

The 2025 London Song Festival masterclass is given by the internationally acclaimed collaborative pianist and Director of Leeds Lieder, Joseph Middleton. It is open to voice and piano duos age 32 and under, selected by audition, who are asked to present two songs (in any language), at least one of w...

16/10/2025

A lovely rehearsal yesterday with the brilliant Katie Bray for our concert tomorrow evening of songs by the Boulanger sisters, Lili and Nadia. Here is a clip from ‘Le Retour’, a song that tells of Ulysses setting off to go back to Ithaca after the Trojan War. The song quotes from Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune.
You can hear this and many other gems by both Boulanger sisters, sung by Katie and Guy Cutting tomorrow evening, 17th October, at 7pm at Hinde Street church in central London. It’s the opening concert of the 2025 season of The London Song Festival, which has the theme “Women, as composers, as poets, and as visionaries and pioneers who changed the world”.
Tickets, from just £5, are available from https://www.londonsongfestival.org/the-boulanger-sisters-17th-october
It will be lovely to see you there! 🙂

15/10/2025

Je veux que mon sang, goutte à goutte,
Monte à tes lèvres lentement.
Comme un flot limpide et calmant, ..
Bois-le: mon âme y sera toute
Dans un suprême enivrement

I want my blood, drop by drop,
To rise slowly to your lips.
Like a limpid and calming stream..
Drink it: my soul will be completely present there
In a supreme intoxication.

This is part of a highly erotic poem by Armand Silvestre, set to music by Nadia Boulanger, just one of the extraordinary songs by her and her sister Lili, that I, Katie Bray and Guy Cutting will be performing on Friday as part of The London Song Festival 2025 series that celebrates 'Women, as composers, as poets, and as visionaries and pioneers who changed the world'.

Come and join us, Friday 17th October, 7pm, Hinde Street church in central London. Tickets from just £5 if you're a student, otherwise still a bargain at £15 and £20, available from this link:

Concert 1: The Boulanger Sisters - Friday 17th October 7pmKatie Bray - mezzo-sopranoGuy Cutting - tenorNigel Foster - piano

14/10/2025

A great rehearsal yesterday with the brilliant Guy Cutting for our concert this Friday celebrating the Boulanger sisters, Nadia and Lili. This is the opening concert of The London Song Festival 2025 season, which has theme of

‘Women, as composers, as poets, and as visionaries and pioneers who changed the world’

Here is a little clip of one of our favourite songs, Les lilas qui avaient fleuri, from Lili’s cycle ‘Clairières dans le Ciel’. The harmonies and textures she uses in the piano part are just extraordinary!

Come and hear Guy, Katie Bray and me perform this and many more beautiful songs by the two Boulanger sisters on Friday 17th October, 7pm, at Hinde Street church in central London. Tickets, from just £5 if you’re a student, are available now from

https://www.londonsongfestival.org/the-boulanger-sisters-17th-october

See you there for an evening of French beauty and deliciousness!

11/10/2025

The London Song Festival is unashamedly political this year! My theme for 2025 is

Women, as composers, as poets, and as visionaries and pioneers who changed the world

and I am particularly looking forward to three of the concerts, all of which have a very strong political message. They are:

Friday 24th October - African American Women Composers and the fight for Civil Rights, with Francesca Chiejina, Lea Shaw and Michaella Moore
https://www.londonsongfestival.org/songs-by-african-american-women-composers-24th-october

Friday 31st October - Ethel Smyth and the Suffragettes, with Ella Taylor and Lotte Betts-Dean
https://www.londonsongfestival.org/ethel-smyth-and-the-suffragettes-31st-october

Friday 7th November - Women Immigrants and Refugees in Britain, with Katy Thomson, Lily Mo Browne and Rekha John-Cheriyan
https://www.londonsongfestival.org/women-immigrants-and-refugees-in-britain-7th-november

These three concerts all have a strong message against racism, and for equality and inclusion in everything. If you stand against racism and bigotry, and for diversity, inclusion, love and hope, then buy your tickets for these concerts now, from the links above. Tickets from just £5 for students. Let's all use our music to bring a message of love and beauty to the world :)

10/10/2025

Just a week to go to the opening concert of the 2025 London Song Festival, and I am so excited! My theme this year is

"Women, as composers, as poets, and as visionaries and pioneers who changed the world"

and the opening concert celebrates the Boulanger sisters, Nadia and Lili. Lili was the first woman to win the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1913, and Nadia was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras, including the BBC Symphony, the Hallé, the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony.
They both wrote incredible songs - I'm falling in love with them more and more - their harmonic language is just so magical - heartrendingly beautiful. Rehearsals are going wonderfully - come and join me and the brilliant Katie Bray and Guy Cutting on 17th October at Hinde Street church in central London. Tickets and details here
https://www.londonsongfestival.org/the-boulanger-sisters-17th-october
This is a concert not to be missed - come and be transported into their world of French deliciousness 😃

03/10/2025

Just 2 weeks to go to the opening concert of this year’s The London Song Festival, and I am so excited.

My theme this year is ‘Women, as composers, as poets, and as visionaries and pioneers who changed the world’, and the opening concert focusses on the Boulanger sisters, Nadia and Lili, and their incredibly gorgeous songs - so beautiful, so atmospheric, and so very French! I am thrilled to be joined by the brilliant Katie Bray and Guy Cutting to perform their most luscious songs.

Both sisters were pioneers - Lili was the first women to win the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1913, and Nadia was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras, including the BBC Symphony, the Hallé, the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony.
Come and join us on Friday 17th October, 7pm, at Hinde Street church in central London and lose yourselves in a sea of French deliciousness. Tickets from just £5 for students, available from

Concert 1: The Boulanger Sisters - Friday 17th October 7pmKatie Bray - mezzo-sopranoGuy Cutting - tenorNigel Foster - piano

28/09/2025

On Friday 14th November The London Song Festival puts the spotlight on the poet Sara Teasdale, part of my series of concerts called ‘Women, as composers, as poets, and as visionaries and pioneers who changed the world’.

The wonderful Kristin Dauphinais joins me in a programme of settings of Teasdale’s poems by Amy Beach, John Duke, Lori Laitman, Martha Helen Schmidt and others - a celebration of an American poet set by American composers. I think we all need to be reminded that despite all the hideousness coming from America these days, it nevertheless remains a country with a huge heritage of poetry and music. Beauty and Art will always triumph over hatred and ugliness!

Tickets (from just £5 if you’re a student) can be purchased at https://www.londonsongfestival.org/the-life-and-loves-of-sara-teasdale-14th-november

Friday 14th November, 7pm, at Hinde Street church in central London. It will be lovely to see you there !

27/09/2025

Something slightly different for the The London Song Festival concert on Friday 28th November, part of my series celebrating 'Women, as composers, as poets, and as visionaries and pioneers who changed the world'.

This is 'Women Writers of the Screen and Stage', when I am joined by Georgina Cohu and Hector Bloggs as we celebrate women composers and lyricists who have written songs for films and for stage shows from the 1930s right up to the present. The programme includes songs from films ranging in date from the 1930s to the present, including Swing Time, Fifty Shades of Grey, Sweet Charity, A Star is Born, The Bodyguard, The Last Dragon, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Coco, and stage shows including Irma la Douce, On the Town, and Wonderful Town.

You can buy tickets from https://www.londonsongfestival.org/women-writers-of-the-screen-and-stage-28thnovember It will be lovely to see you there!

26/09/2025

Just 3 weeks to go to the opening concert of the 2025 The London Song Festival.

My theme this year is “Women, as composers, as poets, and as visionaries and pioneers who changed the world”, and we begin on Friday 17th October with an evening of French deliciousness sung by the amazing Katie Bray and Guy Cutting, in a programme of songs by the Boulanger sisters, Nadia and Lili.

They were were both pioneers; Lili was the first women to win the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1913, and Nadia was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras, including the BBC Symphony, the Hallé, the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony.

This programme includes extracts from their song-cycles, Les Heures Claires (Nadia) and Clairières dans le Ciel (Lili), together with many other gems of Song.

Buy your tickets now from:

Concert 1: The Boulanger Sisters - Friday 17th October 7pmKatie Bray - mezzo-sopranoGuy Cutting - tenorNigel Foster - piano

26/09/2025

One of the concerts of the 2025 London Song Festival that I am most excited about is on Saturday 6th December. This is a rare complete performance of all 27 songs that Debussy wrote for Marie-Blanche Vasnier, a high soprano with striking green eyes with whom the 18-year-old composer enjoyed an affair from 1880 to around 1887, given by the winners of the 2024 London Song Festival Schubert Song Prize, Eyra Norman and Abhisri Chaudhuri.

Tickets, from just £5 for students, are available from

Concert 9: Marie-Blanche Vasnier, muse of Claude Debussy - Saturday 6th December, 7pmEyra Norman - sopranoAbhisri Chaudhuri - piano