How to watch Wigmore Hall’s 2021 concert streams: from Isata Kanneh-Mason to Steven Isserlis

17 February 2021, 11:27 | Updated: 30 March 2021, 11:53

Cellist Steven Isserlis to perform in Wigmore Hall's spring 2021 series. Picture: Jean-Baptiste Millot/PA

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

London’s Wigmore Hall has announced its 2021 spring series, as the intimate chamber venue continues to champion music in pandemic times.

Over six weeks, more than 200 UK-based musicians will come through the doors of Wigmore Hall to perform 40 concerts, from solo recitals to a panoply of choral concerts for the Easter season.

The London venue will host great musicians from pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason and cellist Steven Isserlis, to leading UK choir The Sixteen.

Every weeknight concert, and most of the matinee concerts, will be streamed live in HD on Wigmore Hall’s website. Each concert, lasting 60-90 minutes in length with no interval, will be performed behind closed doors with no audience present.

The concerts, which will run from 22 February to 10 May, come in anticipation of a change in the government’s arts roadmap for this spring.

Wigmore Hall announces spring 2021 concert series. Picture: PA/Matt Crossick

Since lockdown began, the venue has found creative ways to bring live music back for audiences. Online donations to Wigmore Hall are now on course to meet £1m by the anniversary of the first nationwide lockdown, on 23 March.

John Gilhooly, Director of Wigmore Hall said: “As the anniversary of UK’s first national lockdown approaches, the livelihoods of most musicians remain hugely precarious.

“Compounded by uncertainty over European travel in the next few months, it is more important than ever that Wigmore Hall plays a part in providing refuge for musicians in these impossibly challenging circumstances.

“We are heartened and grateful for the overwhelming support that music lovers around the world have shown since we first started streaming concerts on 1 June last year. I hope this generosity will continue as our online donations edge ever closer to the £1 million landmark. I cannot emphasise enough how vital every single contribution has been in enabling us to put on concerts to support musicians.”

Some of the series’ highlights include a special Good Friday concert featuring the first ever Wigmore Hall performance of German Baroque composer, Johann Sebastiani’s St. Matthew Passion.

And for St. Patrick’s Day on 17 March, Limerick-born Gilhooly has devised a special programme featuring Irish singers Ailish Tynan and Robin Tritschler with pianist James Baillieu in a concert including some of the most beloved traditional folksongs which reflect the cultural ties between the two nations.