This is the very first festival devoted to Shakespeare in Music. It creates a focus not only for music of his time, but for all those composers inspired by him through succeeding generations. The original music is late Renaissance and Early Baroque and his legacy blooms in the Romantic and more modern periods.

The four-day festival from 2 to 5 May features a wealth of enjoyable music in lunch-time and afternoon recitals plus three evening concerts. Exquisite motets by Byrd and Tallis, and favorite madrigals, songs and sonnets. A dramatic reading of Venus and Adonis intercut with Mendelssohn's Songs without Words. The RCM's Recorder Consort playing music from abroad that Shakespeare might well have heard. Early vocal treats include the Linarol Consort with Héloïse Bernard as soprano soloist. Later operatic extracts from the English tradition come courtesy of soloists from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Charles Dibdin's rarely performed music for David Garrick's 1769 Shakespeare Jubilee will surprise and delight, while those who love Lieder will remember an impressive first performance of all sixteen of Roger Quilter's Songs from Shakespeare newly arranged for string quintet accompaniment. Scroll through the programme at https://www.shakespeareinmusic.org to find your favourite.