St Martin-in-the-Fields Announces 300th Anniversary Concert Season

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Alice Coote, Iestyn Davies, and Danielle de Niese headline the London venue's landmark programming.

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St Martin‑in‑the‑Fields will mark the 300th anniversary of its landmark building in Trafalgar Square with a new autumn season of concerts, bringing together world-class artists, new commissions, major anniversaries, partnerships and imaginative programmes. The programme demonstrates how music supports and illuminates the wider work of the church, encapsulating St Martin's distinctive position at the heart of London – as both a centre of artistic excellence and innovation, and a place of refuge and social justice. The anniversary celebrations form the opening chapter of the wider 2026–27 season, continuing with a broad programme of performance for a wide variety of audiences.

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Chris Denton, Chief Executive of St Martin-in-the-Fields, commented, “As we celebrate our 300th anniversary, I feel enormously proud of the classical music programme we have developed at St Martin‑in‑the‑Fields in recent years, establishing the church as the leading home for Baroque and choral music in London. We are consistently working with world‑class artists and ensembles – many of whom have made St Martin's their London home – commissioning new work and presenting imaginative, ambitious and forward-looking programmes that continue to draw wide and varied audiences into this remarkable space.”

The tricentenary of James Gibbs' iconic building is marked with celebrations that place the church's history, welcome and artistic life side by side: in addition to an outstanding autumn season of musical performances, there are celebratory services, a Flower Festival, and a programme of talks and special events.

At the heart of the celebrations is a new on-site exhibition, launching on 20 June, bringing the building's story to life through extraordinary artwork and rarely seen objects from the archive. Highlights include the original 1726 doorknob depicting St Martin sharing his cloak with a beggar, the Pearly Stole worn by the vicar of St Martin's for Pearly family weddings and baptisms, and items on loan from the Thames mudlarking community reflecting lives in the parish — from watermen's tokens and boathooks to a tailor's buttons, a theatre token and a Dean Street dinner plate — all beautifully displayed in the foyer and online.

A special anniversary event on 12 November tells the story of 300 years of music at St Martin's, through works written for the church or by composers associated with it, and music reflecting its values and wider work. It includes the overture to Handel's Alessandro, first heard in London at the time of the building's completion; John Rutter's Lord, thou hast been our refuge; Vaughan Williams 's Serenade to Music and Holst's Pageant of St Martin's, recalling those composers' association with the church; and music by Benjamin Britten , reflecting the composer's own pacifism and the church's role in the aftermath of the First World War as a place of welcome and refuge.

Presented by Clive Myrie and performed by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, founded at the church more than 60 years ago, alongside the Church's professional choir St Martin's Voices, the concert features soprano Danielle De Niese and trumpet virtuoso Aaron Akugbo. The programme includes a work by St Martin's Composer-in-Residence, Lucy Walker and a specially-commissioned new fanfare from Philip Wilby for solo trumpeter Aaron Akugbo, members of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, and organ. The commission launches a new partnership that demonstrates the church's commitment to nurturing young talent (12 November).

Several concerts have been specially programmed to reflect St Martin's values as place of ‘courageous change', and its long-standing commitment to social justice and inclusion.

On the eve of World Homeless Day, SANSARA presents the UK premiere of a new unaccompanied choral version of Gavin Bryars's powerful Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, and the UK premiere of highlights from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang 's Poor Hymnal, inspired by the treatment of homeless people in New York and the question, ‘What would it be like to actually pay attention to the people who are around you?'. Joined by The Choir with No Name, Streetwise Opera and the Choral Scholars of St Martin's, the concert brings together organisations nationally recognised for their work with people who have experienced homelessness. (9 October).

Ex Cathedra, led by Jeffrey Skidmore, explore the legacy of Tallis's Spem in alium, with a newly commissioned 40-part motet by Roderick Williams written in response to the values of St Martin's. Inspired by the biblical significance of the number forty, often linked to adversity, the work draws on texts evoking endurance, life on the margins, and the urban wilderness that is home to so many of society's outcasts: John Gould Fletcher's In the City of Night, Stevenson's Songs of Travel, and extracts from the 1824 Vagrancy Act (22 October).

Windborne - the Boston-based a cappella vocal quartet who gained global attention in 2017 with their viral performance outside Trump Tower of the 1840s protest song ‘The Song of the Lower Classes' - make a welcome return to St Martins with a specially curated programme called Courageous Change, exploring courage, empathy and hope for a better future (3 October).

The King's Singers bring their inimitable warmth and virtuosity to an anniversary programme entitled The Voice of Humanity – Finding Harmony, combining songs inspired by the civil rights movement, social justice and music that celebrates the joy of singing together in one of London's most beautiful and historic spaces (30 October).

The 2026/27 Autumn/Winter season welcomes back all of St Martin's partner choirs and ensembles, as well as leading world-class groups and artists for some extraordinary events.

The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists return to St Martin's for three landmark performances across the season. These include Handel's oratorio Theodora, directed by Tom Guthrie and conducted by Christophe Rousset, with a world-class cast including Alice Coote , Iestyn Davies and Marie Lys (19 November); A Venetian Christmas - based on the historic Christmas Eve celebrations at St Mark's Basilica in Venice - led by the Francesco Corti, making his MCO debut (17 December); and a special performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion, conducted by Masaaki Suzuki, marking the work's own 300th anniversary (9 February).

The Sixteen and Harry Christophers return for two significant concerts, including a Central London performance on their Choral Pilgrimage 2026: Lead, Kindly Light, centred on music by Spanish Renaissance composers Morales and Vivanco alongside new works by Kerensa Briggs and James MacMillan (3 September), as well as their annual seasonal performance of Handel's Messiah (10 December).

Tenebrae and Nigel Short celebrate their 25th Anniversary with a forward-looking programme that includes two world premieres of newly commissioned works by Joanna Marsh and Jason Max Ferdinand, alongside music by Glinka, Bruckner, Frank Martin , Kerensa Briggs and Poulenc (17 September). They return for a special Holy Week concert which includes a world premiere of Owain Park's Canticles for a Passion (23 March).

I Fagiolini and conductor Robert Hollingworth present a concert staging of Monteverdi's pioneering opera L'Orfeo, bringing it vividly and intimately to life with a cast including Matthew Long in the title role and Rebecca Lea as Euridice (20 November).

BBC Singers and Britten Sinfonia come together to mark 50 years to the day since the death of Benjamin Britten , performing a programme centred on his Cantata St Nicholas and including Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, A Hymn to the Virgin and Arvo Pärt's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten (4 December).

The English Concert and Harry Bickett are joined by an all-star cast for a performance of Handel's opera Sciopone, written in 1726 – the year that the famous Joseph Gibbs St Martin's building was completed (16 October).

Dunedin Consort and their director John Butt make a welcome return for a performance of Handel's Belshazzar with a world-class cast including Ed Lyon, Beth Taylor, Matthew Brook and Alexander Chance (14 January).

The Tallis Scholars return for Passiontide programme centred on Victoria's Tenebrae Responsories (18 March).

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields give the 300th anniversary celebration, alongside performances with violinist Stella Chan in music by Beethoven, Mozart and Caroline Shaw (25 September), the world premiere of a new commission by Conrad Tao (19 February), and a series of programmes next spring featuring Grammy Award-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich, Leeds and Chopin Competition winner Eric Lu, and cellist Sterling Elliott (1 May, 25 May and 24 June).

London Mozart Players with Grammy-award nominated guitarist Sean Shibe bring a bold programme that blends Baroque masterpieces reimagined for guitar to Celtic-inspired contemporary music (18 September), as well as a multi-media immersive staging of Bach concertos with violinist Ruth Rogers and oboist Olivier Stankiewicz (27 November).

Olivier Latry, organist of Notre-Dame de Paris, showcases the versatility and colour of St Martin's 3,000+ pipe organ — built in 1990 and central to both concert and church life — in a major solo recital in the heart of London (8 January)

Alongside its relationship with internationally recognised ensembles, St Martin's continues its ongoing relationships with many of the UK's boldest and most exciting ensembles among the next generation of top-level groups shaping the future of music-making.

12 Ensemble present a spiritually charged programme centred on Poulenc's Organ Concerto, performed with James McVinnie and conducted by Naomi Woo. Joined by St Martin's Voices, the concert includes music by Messiaen, Isabella Gellis, Poulenc and Fauré (23 October)

Stile Antico explore music of the night, the small hours and dawn in an atmospheric late‑night concert (16 January), with repertoire ranging from Tallis, Byrd and Lassus to Nico Muhly 's Gentle Sleep, including Allegri's Miserere and Tavener's Ave Dei Patris Filia.

The Carice Singers, led by George Parris, mark their 15th anniversary with a programme spanning five centuries of sacred music and tracing Stravinsky's roots, Russian and otherwise, from Gesualdo via Rachmaninov to the Symphony of Psalms in the two-piano version (24 September).

SANSARA are at the heart of the concert marking World Homelessness Day, mentioned above (9 October)

Voces 8 return for a festival concert blending chant, polyphony and traditional carols (8 December)

Echo Vocal Ensemble and their Director Sarah Latto give an International Women's Day concert centred on the 17th-century Abbess Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, alongside three specially commissioned responses by Héloise Werner, Shruthi Rajesekar and Anna Rocławska‑Musiałczyk (5 March)

New music and key premieres feature prominently across the season, from the major choral commissions and anniversary projects already mentioned, to artist‑led programmes and thematic events which consistently place contemporary composers alongside established repertoire in ways that reflect St Martin's continued commitment to living music. At the same time, many concerts reflect St Martin's desire to offer wider audiences fresh new ways of encountering music.

A concert from London Voices , Video Ga

_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/uk-regional/article/St-Martin-in-the-Fields-Reveals-300th-Anniversary-Season-of-Concerts-20260512)._