Most Innovative Small Music Festival 2026
Emerging Artist Development Excellence Award 2026

(ninth annual Greater London Awards)

Journeys of the Imagination and of Longing

The 2026 London Song Festival will take you on a journey to wherever your imagination will lead you. Its inspiration came initially from four anniversaries that fall in 2026; the 150th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for the telephone and the birth of the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, and the centenaries of the publication of A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and the launch of the first liquid propelled rocket - a motley collection of things to celebrate you might think…. The nine concerts of this series will be Reaching Out to a distant lover, places of fantasy and magic, Spain, the stars, and the Mystic East, and Reaching Back to Ancient Greece, and Childhood. We go on a journey through Life itself as itemised by Shakespeare’s Seven Ages, and there are two Prize Winners Concerts; the Rebecca Clarke Song Competition Pianists Prize Winners Concert, and the London Song Festival Schubert Song Prize Winners Concert.

All nine concerts take place at the LSF’s usual venue of Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ (nearest tube Bond Street), in the heart of London’s West End.

Tickets for all the concerts are an absolute bargain; the top price is just £20, with £15 for the usual concessions, and just £5 for students.

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Reaching Out to a Distant Lover
A concert celebrating the 150th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for the telephone
Thursday 5th November, 7pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Ellen Pearson – mezzo-soprano
Laurence Kilsby – tenor
Nigel Foster – piano

A programme exploring and celebrating the special feelings and the heartbreak of being in love with someone who is far away. This was a favourite subject of poets of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and this programme, devised by Nigel Foster, includes songs by Schubert, Wolf, Korngold, Gustav Mahler, Duparc, Roussel, Berlioz, Chaminade, Menotti, Amy Beach, Frank Bridge, John Ireland, Richard Rodgers and others.

Ellen Pearson is currently a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. She has also been an Oxford International Song Young Artist, a Wigmore Hall French Song Exchange Artist, a Samling Artist, and a Britten Pears Young Artist. She won the Loveday Song Prize at the 2025 Kathleen Ferrier Awards, and First Prize at the 2024 Ashburnham English Song Competition.
Laurence Kilsby won First Prize at the Das Lied Competition at the Heidelberger Frühling Festspiele, the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition and the Cesti Competition at the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik. He has sung leading roles with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Opéra national du Rhin, Opéra Comique, and at the Aix-en-Provence and Innsbruck Early Music Festivals, and at the BBC Proms.
Nigel Foster is the Director of the London Song Festival. His career as a collaborative pianist has taken him all over Europe, as well as in Asia (Japan, Malaysia), New Zealand and the Americas (USA, Colombia) as well as London’s Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush Room) and St John Smith Square. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM in the UK and on French, Welsh, and Greek television.

Reaching Back to Ancient Greece
Saturday 7th November, 2pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Rachel Munro – soprano
Lotte Betts-Dean – mezzo-soprano
Nigel Foster – piano

The myths of Ancient Greece have inspired and fascinated poets, painters, sculptors, musicians and artists of all kinds for the last two or three thousand years, and their hold on the world’s creative imagination continues unabated to the present. These timeless stories of Gods and Goddesses, Titans, Sirens and Naiads, larger-than-life mortals, love, heroism and elemental passions, are brought to life in songs by Schubert, Erich Wolff, Richard Strauss, Roussel, Debussy, Lili Boulanger, Respighi, Vaughan Williams, Gurney, Frank Bridge, and Edward Picton-Turberville, in a programme devised by Nigel Foster. Are the old Greek Gods really dead?

Rachel Munro is an Oxford International Song Young Artist. She is an avid recitalist who has performed recently at the  2026 Leeds International and North Aldborough Festivals and won first prize at the prestigious North Aldborough Festival ‘New Voices’ Singing Competition.
A regular at the London Song Festival, Lotte Betts-Dean was an Oxford Lieder Festival Young Artist, and her other festival appearances have included the Buxton International Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Lewes Festival of Song, Two Moors Festival, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Tête-à-Tête Opera. She has sung leading roles with Opera Holland Park, at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Sydney Opera House, and for the Bayerische Staatsoper. Her competition successes include the 2017 Peter Hulsen Orchestral Song Award, the inaugural 2018 Musician’s Company New Elizabethan Award, and the 2020 Overseas Prize and the 2020 Audrey Strange Memorial Prize for an outstanding singer at the Royal Over-Seas League Competition.
Nigel Foster is the Director of the London Song Festival. His career as a collaborative pianist has taken him all over Europe, as well as in Asia (Japan, Malaysia), New Zealand and the Americas (USA, Colombia) as well as London’s Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush Room) and St John Smith Square. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM in the UK and on French, Welsh, and Greek television.

Reaching Out to Places of Fantasy and Magic
The London Song Festival Prize Winners Concert
Friday 13th November, 7pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Siri Bengtsson Marklund – soprano
Bohdana Ravliuk – piano

A recital presented and curated by the winners of the 2025 London Song Festival Schubert
Song Prize, exploring the far reaches of the imagination, where reality can impose no restrictions.

Siri Bengtsson Marklund is a Swedish soprano currently studying at the Royal College of Music.
She has performed in the Royal College of Music’s Song Plus concert series and is a Leeds
Song Young Artist.
Bohdana Ravliuk is a Ukrainian collaborative pianist, also studying at the Royal College of
Music. She is an Oxford International Song Young Artist and has performed at festivals
including the Klaipėda Piano Masters Festival in Lithuania, the Feuerwerk Einbeck in Germany,
and the 2025 Ticino Musica Festival in Lugano, Switzerland.

Reaching Back to Childhood
A concert celebrating the centenary of the publication of A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh
Saturday 14th November, 2pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Harriet Burns – soprano
George Robarts – baritone
Nigel Foster – piano

Winnie-the-Pooh has been a staple of children’s reading for the last 100 years - it is difficult to imagine any child, after being introduced to them, not becoming obsessed with the adventures of Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit and all the other inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood. These stories are the inspiration for a programme devised by Nigel Foster, based on adults looking back on their childhood, with songs by Brahms, Schubert, Finzi, Vaughan Williams, Quilter, Florence Price, Charles Ives, Dvořák, and others, and some settings of ‘The Hums of Pooh’ by Harold Fraser-Simson, published in 1929. Who has not looked back on their childhood with nostalgia for what it was, or for what it might have been?

Harriet Burns has performed at Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Lieder Festival, International Lied Festival Zeist, Ryedale Festival and de Singel in Antwerp. Her competition successes include the Compulsory Song Prize and Recital Prize at the International Vocal Competition in 's-Hertogenbosch and First Prize at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards. She is a City Music Foundation Artist, a Samling Artist, and a Britten-Pears Young Artist.
George Robarts won the 2025 Lotte Lenya Competition in New York. He is an Oxford International Song Young Artist and has sung Schubert at the Leeds Song Festival. In 2026 he sang leading roles with English Touring Opera and the Buxton International Festival., and previously with Longborough Festival Opera, Garsington Opera, Nederlandse Reisopera, Opera Holland Park, the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms.
Nigel Foster is the Director of the London Song Festival. His career as a collaborative pianist has taken him all over Europe, as well as in Asia (Japan, Malaysia), New Zealand and the Americas (USA, Colombia) as well as London’s Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush Room) and St John Smith Square. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM in the UK and on French, Welsh, and Greek television.

Reaching Out through Life – The Seven Ages of Man
including performances of the winning songs of the inaugural Shakespeare in Song
Composition Competition
Thursday 19th November, 7pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Katie Bray – mezzo-soprano
Archie Inns – tenor
Nigel Foster – piano

The ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech from Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ forms the inspiration for this concert, which describes the journey of a human life. Isn’t every human life motivated by imagination and longing? This programme, devised by Nigel Foster, features performances of the two prize-winning songs from the inaugural Shakespeare Song Writing Competition and Fischer Fund Prize, which was co-presented by Shakespeare in Music and The London Song Festival.  Alongside these, there will be songs by Britten, Elgar, Frank Bridge, Arthur Somervell, Finzi, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Bloch, Duparc, Nadia Boulanger, and others.

Katie Bray won the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the 2019 Cardiff Singer of the World and has since sung at the Oxford International Song Festival, the Glenarm Festival and the Ryedale Festival. She has sung leading roles for English National Opera, Irish National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Garsington Opera, Grange Park Opera, Longborough Festival Opera and Opera Holland Park.
Archie Inns is a 2026 Oxford International Song Young Artist. He is also a Countess of Munster Recital Scheme Artist and winner of the Luxon Amit Folkestone-on-Song Bursary Award and Song Prize, the Mendl-Schrama Prize, the Oxford and Cambridge Club Music Prize, and the Dorothy Richardson English Song Prize. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music.
Nigel Foster is the Director of the London Song Festival. His career as a collaborative pianist has taken him all over Europe, as well as in Asia (Japan, Malaysia), New Zealand and the Americas (USA, Colombia) as well as London’s Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush Room) and St John Smith Square. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM in the UK and on French, Welsh, and Greek television.

Reaching Out to Spain
A concert celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Manuel de Falla
Thursday 26th November, 7pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Lorena Paz Nieto – soprano
Julien Van Mellaerts – baritone
Nigel Foster – piano

Spain has long had a vibrant place in the European imagination – so near yet so far, cut off physically from France by the Pyrenees, a land of mystery and romance that few had visited but everyone had heard of. This programme, devised by Nigel Foster, explores this pan-European fascination with Spain. Manuel de Falla (born on 23rd November 1876, so this concert is just three days after his 150th birthday), is perhaps everyone’s archetypal Spanish composer. Each of his songs is paired with a song inspired by Spain, but written by a non-Spanish composer, and in a language that is not Spanish. These are by Hugo Wolf (from his Spanisches Liederbuch), Robert Schumann, Adolf Jensen, Ravel, Jacques Ibert, Honegger, Louis Albert, Delibes, William Walton, Frederick Keel, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.

Spanish soprano Lorena Paz Nieto was an Oxford Lieder Young Artist and winner of the Ludmilla Andrews Russian Song Prize, and Vocalist of the Year’ at the 2019 LUKAS awards. She has given recitals in the Crush Room and Linbury Foyer at the Royal Opera House, the Heidelberger Frühling Festival, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Sinfonia Smith Square, two recitals and a masterclass on Spanish song in Japan, and recently a tour of China visiting ten cities to give recitals, lectures, vocal masterclasses and adjudicating music competitions. 
Julien Van Mellaerts has won the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and the Kathleen Ferrier Awards. He has sung for the Verbier Festival, the Salzburg Mozartwoche, the Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Lieder, for Opera Holland Park, New Zealand Opera, and at the Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall.
Nigel Foster is the Director of the London Song Festival. His career as a collaborative pianist has taken him all over Europe, as well as in Asia (Japan, Malaysia), New Zealand and the Americas (USA, Colombia) as well as London’s Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush Room) and St John Smith Square. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM in the UK and on French, Welsh, and Greek television.

Reaching Back to Love’s Loss
The Rebecca Clarke Song Competition Pianists Prize Winners Concert
presented by SWAP’ra and the London Song Festival
Saturday 28th November, 2pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Jasmin Allpress - piano
Gabriella Noble – mezzo-soprano
Alfred Fardell – piano
Archie Inns - tenor

The London Song Festival is delighted to present the inaugural SWAP’ra Rebecca Clarke Pianists Prize Winners Concert. Awarded jointly in 2026, the Rebecca Clarke Pianist Prize celebrates outstanding artistry in song accompaniment and programming. Prize winners Jasmin Allpress and Alfred Fardell curate and perform a programme with the singers with whom they won the prize, showcasing the creativity and collaborative spirit at the heart of art song. Their programme includes songs by Poulenc, Gurney, Joni Mitchell, Aaron Copland, Kurt Weill and many more.

Jasmin Allpress has performed at festivals including the Leeds International Chamber Festival, Festival dei Giovani Musicisti Europei di Mondovì, New Music North West and Lake Summer Music, and performed in venues including Wigmore Hall, Wiener Saal, Salzburg, the Bridgewater Hall, Nottingham Theatre Royal, Chester Storyhouse and St James’s Piccadilly. She studied at Chethams, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Alfred Fardell studies at the Royal Academy of Music. He is the winner of the Dorothy Richardson English Song Prize, the Rex Stephens prize and the Marjorie Thomas Art of Song Prize. He is an Oxford International Song Artist and a Samling Artist.
Gabriella Noble is an Oxford International Song Young Artist. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has taken part in the Wigmore French Song Exchange and was an Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera.
Archie Inns is a 2026 Oxford International Song Young Artist. He is also a Countess of Munster Recital Scheme Artist and winner of the Luxon Amit Folkestone-on-Song Bursary Award and Song Prize, the Mendl-Schrama Prize, the Oxford and Cambridge Club Music Prize, and the Dorothy Richardson English Song Prize. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music.

Reaching Out to the Stars
A concert celebrating the Centenary of the launch of the first liquid propelled rocket
Friday 4th December, 7pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Erika Baikoff – soprano
Jonathan Eyers – baritone
Nigel Foster – piano

The launch of the first liquid propelled rocket on 16th March 1926, though it only flew for 2.5 seconds and rose only 41 feet, was the start of the Space Age, and potentially opened the way for humans to reach the moon, the planets and, who knows, maybe ultimately the stars. Human beings have always reached for the stars, in our imaginations and in our dreams. After all, dreaming and imagining and fantasising are the things that make us human. This programme, devised by Nigel Foster, explores poets’ reactions to, and impressions of, the stars, the moon, and the sun, and how are the catalyst for human thought and human dreaming. We have songs by Clara and Robert Schumann, Schubert, Debussy, Reynaldo Hahn, Nadia Boulanger, Finzi, Holst, Amy Beach, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and many more.

Erika Baikoff is a recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She is the winner of the 2019 Helmut Deutsch Liedwettbewerb and the 10th Concours international de chant-piano Nadia et Lili Boulanger, and has just been announced as a BBC New Generation Artist. In recital, Erika has sung for the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center amd both the Heidelberg Festival and Schubertíada. She has sung leading roles with the Bayerische Staatsoper, at the Theater an der Wien, with Houston Grand Opera and Palm Beach Opera.
Jonathan Eyers won the inaugural Rebecca Clarke Song Competition earlier this year. He is an Oxford Song Young Artist, a City Music Foundation Artist and a Britten-Pears Young Artist. He has sung roles for English National Opera and with the London Symphony Orchestra, and on BBC Radio 3.
Nigel Foster is the Director of the London Song Festival. His career as a collaborative pianist has taken him all over Europe, as well as in Asia (Japan, Malaysia), New Zealand and the Americas (USA, Colombia) as well as London’s Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush Room) and St John Smith Square. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM in the UK and on French, Welsh, and Greek television.

Reaching Out to the Mystic East
Friday 11th December, 7pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Natalka Pasicznyk – soprano
Sian Sulke – mezzo-soprano
Nigel Foster – piano
Martin Handley - speaker

The Orient has long been a source of fascination and wonder to Europeans; an ancient and huge civilisation, exotic and mysterious, and so very different from anything European. Chinese poetry was known in Europe through translations by Franz Toussaint (into French), Launcelot Cranmer-Byng (into English) and others, and this programme, devised by Nigel Foster, takes settings of those translations by composers including Albert Roussel, Marguerite Canal, Armande de Polignac, Rebecca Clarke, Constant Lambert, Granville Bantock and Charles Griffes. These songs will be woven together with readings from Europeans who have travelled to China, from Marco Polo in the 13th century to John Barrow, who was part of the first British diplomatic mission to China in 1793.

Natalka Pasicznyk is a soprano who studied at the Royal College of Music with Mary Nelson. She was a 2025 Leeds Song Young Artist and is a 2026/27 Oxford Song Young Artist. She has performed at renowned venues, such as the Howard Assembly Room in Opera North, King’s Place Concert Hall and the Royal Albert Hall.
Sian Sulke is a Samling Young Artist, and member of the Royal College of Music Opera Studio. Her competition successes include the Joan Chissell Schumann Competition at the RCM, and the Nicholas Partridge Award at the Eastbourne International Singing Competition.
Nigel Foster is the Director of the London Song Festival. His career as a collaborative pianist has taken him all over Europe, as well as in Asia (Japan, Malaysia), New Zealand and the Americas (USA, Colombia) as well as London’s Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush Room) and St John Smith Square. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM in the UK and on French, Welsh, and Greek television.
Martin Handley is a presenter on BBC Radio 3, and also a conductor, pianist and actor.