Sheffield Chamber Music Festival

Music in the Round hosts Sheffield Chamber Music Festival, an annual festival of classical music each May, as well as star-studded seasons each spring and autumn.

Its resident world-class musicians Ensemble 360 regularly perform live music in the Crucible Playhouse and other venues around the city.

Music in the Round concerts also span folk and jazz, Middle Eastern and experimental new music, in spaces where audiences can be close to the performers, sitting just a few metres from the stage.

In 2024, Music in the Round celebrates its 40th anniversary, with the highlight the Sheffield Chamber Music Festival, set to be a sensational nine days of concerts in the Crucible Playhouse from 17 – 25 May 2024.

Tickets for Music in the Round concerts cost from £16 to £21 full price, with all tickets just £5 for under 35s. Discover what’s on at www.musicintheround.co.uk

Sheffield Chamber Music Festival 2024

Get Closer to World-famous Classical Stars

Guest Curator of this year’s Sheffield Chamber Music Festival is Steven Isserlis, “one of the greatest cellists of all time” Classic FM. The superstar cellist has carefully selected the music for over a dozen spellbinding concerts taking place across nine days (17 – 25 May 2024), and will also be performing himself, alongside Sheffield’s world-class Ensemble 360 and invited guests, in two unmissable concerts! 

Star violinist Jennifer Pike, multi-award-winning pianist Steven Osborne, and sought-after singer Roderick Williams – soloist at King Charles’ coronation – are also among the stars performing in the intimate setting of the Crucible Playhouse with Music in the Round in their anniversary year.

Discover the Wonders of Classical Masterpieces

From Mozart and Beethoven for strings, to Chopin and Bach for solo piano, there’s a huge variety of musical masterpieces to discover in Music in the Round’s anniversary year. Concerts range from short lunchtimes, afternoon matinees and epic evenings.

Explore Beethoven’s virtuosic music for cello and piano, a blistering celebration of Russian music for string quartet, some of Chopin’s finest piano music, one of Mozart’s best-loved chamber works and for those looking for something instantly recognisable, a chance to hear Schubert’s second piano trio, with its famous melody  frequently used in soundtracks for film and television. 

Enjoy an Eclectic Variety of Music Up Close

From the jazzy sounds of Gershwin to captivating improvisation rooted in thousands of years of Indian tradition, chamber music covers a wide variety of genres performed up close by a small group of musicians – and Music in the Round’s events regularly reflect this.

The lively and entertaining Calefax Quintet make their Sheffield debut in January performing unique arrangements of everything from Haydn to Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’, leading sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun shares intimate duets with tabla player Harkiret Singh Bahra, while Ensemble 360 performs everything from classical staples to a critically-acclaimed work by one of our greatest living composers, Thomas Adès

Share the Joys of Classical Music With Children

Music in the Round regularly presents classical music concerts for younger audiences.

This May younger listeners can enjoy a brilliant first concert for 3-7 year-olds based on the best-selling children’s book ‘Sir Scallywag and the Battle of Stinky Bottom’.

A very special guest singer, Roderick Williams, soloist at the King Charles’s Coronation, also joins the Music in the Round musicians for an unmissable concert for 7-11 year-olds combining well-known classical favourites with new works performed by him with flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn. 

Step Out of the Concert Hall for a Completely Different Music Experience

Music in the Round takes its name from the ‘in the round’ concert experience you get at events held in their home venue, the Crucible Playhouse. It’s a unique space, where you sit just metres from world-class musicians and can soak up the electric atmosphere.

However, Music in the Round also offers a number of opportunities to get out of the concert hall each year.

This spring, two of the country’s most spectacular improvisers John Butcher and Rodhri Davies present their incredible experiments in sound on saxophone and harp in the little-known city centre gem, Channing Hall.

A sunrise concert inside one of the city’s best kept secrets, the intimate Samuel Worth Chapel, accompanied by the beautiful sounds of the dawn chorus, is definitely one of Ensemble 360’s more unusual concerts this year.

Award-winning local group, Abbeydale Singers, present a gorgeous afternoon of choral music, alongside Ensemble 360 and rising stars of the opera and concert stage, singers Anna Huntley and Ella Taylor, in a modernist church in the leafy suburbs of Broomhill. 



And to Top It All Off… A Performance by the People of Sheffield for the People of Sheffield

To complete its 40th anniversary celebrations in 2024, Music in the Round will also be staging a brand new production of community opera, The Monster in the Maze, in November. 

Written by acclaimed British composer, Jonathan Dove, the opera will feature around 150 Sheffield people across an orchestra, brass band, children’s, youth and adult choirs, all brought together to perform on the Crucible Theatre’s iconic stage.  Tickets go on sale in April!

A woman holding a trumpet poses against a bright pink wall.

While you are here in Sheffield why not…

Have a bite to eat or a nice relaxing drink

Piccolino

Located in Millennium Square, Piccolino brings a true taste of Italy to the heart of the city. Their dishes are rustic, simple and delicious and are created using the best, freshest ingredients. 

Silversmiths

Silversmiths is situated in the heart of Sheffield City Centre close to Sheffield Hallam University and Sheffield Train Station. Their aim is to produce the finest modern British cuisine with a strong Yorkshire influence and a hint of fine dining in a relaxed environment for all to enjoy.

Public

Public is quite simply stunning. Occupying the former gent’s toilet below the grade-1 listed Victorian town hall, Public is a tiny haven of fine drinks and delicious food - or as it was once described: ‘A Wes Anderson train carriage crowbarred in to an old bog’.

Leopold Square

Set against the stunning architecture of several magnificent Grade II listed buildings, Leopold Square has been stylishly rejuvenated into a vibrant city centre leisure spot, offering top quality bars and restaurants.

Getting about

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