Kirklees Concert Season 2026-27

An intoxicating mix of energy and dark lyricism opens the symphonic concert season on 24 September as the Orchestra of Opera North perform Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. Another wartime work, Sibelius’ Sixth Symphony, opens proceedings, while cellist Guy Johnston provides a light-hearted interlude between the two with Tchaikovsky’s ‘Variations on a Rococo Theme’.

Literature becomes music on 3 December in Debussy’s dreamlike Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, while courtly charm threads through both Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier suite and Ravel’s La valse. Opera North’s Prinicipal Guest Conductor Antony Hermus returns to the podium, and we welcome Liza Ferschtman as soloist in Korngold’s Violin Concerto which completes this quartet of classics.

The start of 2027 sees the return of another popular conductor to Kirklees. Ryan Wigglesworth picks up the baton on 21 January to conduct Brahms’ Third Symphony, written while the composer was at the height of his powers. This compelling piece has been paired with Mendelssohn’s elegant Die schöne Melusine and Berlioz’s passionate, lovelorn song-cycle, Les nuits d’été, with soloist soprano Sophie Bevan.

Two mighty ‘M’s come together on 22 April for what promises to be an unmissable event featuring two giants of the classical canon. Mahler’s emotional Ninth (and final complete) Symphony is preceded bythe intimacy of Mozart’s sunny ‘Linz’ Symphony – one of his finest – which opens the concert. Opera North Music Director Garry Walker returns to the podium to conduct.

Sibelius’ Second Symphony (27 May) has one of the most uplifting finales in the symphonic repertoire, despite the composer writing it while struggling to cope with his daughter’s ill health. This stands in contrast to Strauss’ expression of despair in Metamorphosen, composed towards the close of the Second World War. David Aspin and Oliver Casanovas Nuevo from the Orchestra of Opera North are the soloists in Bruch’s Double Concerto for Clarient and Viola. Erina Yashima conducts.

The season concludes on 4 July with an afternoon concert directed by the Orchestra of Opera North Leader Kate Stillman. A mix of American and European music, it features Jessie Montgomery’s Banner, the vitality of Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Grieg’s Holberg Suite for string orchestra, and Schubert’s Fifth Symphony, the composer’s tribute to his beloved Mozart.

Alongside the orchestral events, the intimate Kirklees chamber lunchtimes are the ideal way to while away a lunch hour at Dewsbury Town Hall in the company of close-knit groups of musicians playing the music they love. Starting at 12.30pm and with food available beforehand, these offer a magical moment in the middle of day, highlighting different players and ensembles from the Orchestra of Opera North and occasionally the Chorus too.

On Mondays at 1pm, people can marvel at one of the finest organs in the country as the Town Hall’s organist David Pipe curates a lively series of guest appearances on the historic ‘Father’ Willis organ, which has been delighting audiences since 1881. This year, we welcome players from Denmark, France, Germany and Greece, as well as some of the finest organists playing in the UK today.