Salisbury Musick

13/09/2026

🎻 🎻 The Art of the Trio Sonata 🎹

Join us on Friday 2 October, 10.30am to 11.15am, for a morning concert exploring one of the Baroque era's popular musical forms.

📍 All Saints’ Church, Whiteparish, Salisbury SP5 2SU
📅 Friday 2 October
🕕 10.30-11.15am
🎵 Free entry
💛 Retiring collection

The Salisbury Banks Trio will perform trio sonatas by JS Bach, Gottfried Finger, Handel and Telemann, showcasing the conversational interplay that made this genre a favourite of 17th and 18th Century audiences.

Named after the renowned Salisbury violin maker Benjamin Banks, members of the ensemble are:
🎻Shelley Stokes – violin
🎻 David Morgan – violin
🎹 David Stokes – spinet

This concert is just one of many wonderful performances in this year's Salisbury Musick festival of early music. Explore the full programme and book for our ticketed events.

🎟️ Tickets for other festival events are selling now. Follow the link in our bio to book.

12/09/2026

🕯️ The Sigh of Italy: Songs of Love and Lament 🕯️

📍 Medieval Hall, Salisbury
📅 Friday 2 October
🕕 8-9pm

Step into the candlelit Salisbury Medieval Hall for an intimate evening of early music exploring love, longing and reflection.

Soprano Charlotte La Thrope, tenor Hugo Hymas with Sergio Bucheli (lute) and Jacob Garside (viola da gamba) will perform a programme of songs and instrumental music from Italy and France. The performance will feature works by Monteverdi, Caccini, and Rognoni, in a concert which traces the emergence of a new, deeply expressive musical language that transformed European music.

With four outstanding artists who perform regularly with leading ensembles including The English Concert, Arcangelo, Vox Luminis and Les Arts Florissants, this promises to be a magical evening of wonderful music in an atmospheric setting.

🎟 Book now via our website (link in bio)

11/09/2026

🎶 Handel's Messiah gala concert 🎶

Join us for a magnificent conclusion to this year's Salisbury Musick Festival as Salisbury Baroque led by Alice Poppleton join Farrant Singers directed by Philip Lawson to perform Handel's Messiah.

📍 St Thomas's Church, Salisbury
📅 Sunday 4 October
🕕 6.00pm

Written in 1741 and first performed in Dublin the following year, Messiah became one of the most frequently performed works at Salisbury's eighteenth-century music festivals, making it a fitting and inspiring finale to our modern celebration of early music.

Experience the drama, beauty and joy of one of the greatest choral works ever written, performed in the majestic surroundings of St Thomas's Church.

🎟️ Book now via our website (link in bio)

09/09/2026

Don't forget to listen to Blondel playing live on BBC Radio 3's In Tune with Petroc Trelawney.

📆 Today Wednesday 9th September
⏰ 5pm
📻 BBC Radio 3

And if you like what you hear, come to Blondel's concert during Salisbury Musick. They're performing on Saturday 3rd October at Salisbury Medieval Hall . More info and booking details for this and all our concerts is on the website (link in bio).

08/09/2026

Our festival banners include a wonderful quote from James Harris, writing in Salisbury in 1744 which starts … ‘And hence the genuine charm of Music, and the Wonders which it works …’. What does music mean for you?

07/09/2026

We're excited to hear Blondel on BBC Radio 3 In Tune this Wednesday!

Blondel will performing as part of Salisbury Musick at Salisbury Medieval Hall on Saturday 3rd October 5.30-6.30pm

Medieval and Renaissance wind band Blondel is performs live.

06/09/2026

🎶 If Music be the Food of Love ❤️

Join us for a lunchtime concert at St Thomas’s Church, Salisbury. The Close Consort of recorders are joined by soprano and bass Abigail and Richard Hooper to perform love songs, dances and consort pieces.

📅 Saturday 3 October
🕧 12.30-1.15pm
📍 St Thomas's Church, Salisbury

The concert will feature music by 17th Century English composers including William Byrd, Henry Purcell, Peter Philips, Robert Parsons and Anthony Holborne.

With Abigail and Richard, The Close Consort will perform love songs including from John Dowland’s Books of Songs and Henry Purcell’s setting of Spenser’s poem, The Faerie Queene, amongst others

Whether you're discovering early music for the first time or are a long-time admirer, this promises to be a delightful musical journey.

The concert is part of Salisbury Musick - a festival of early music
🎟️ Find out and book your tickets via our website (link in bio)

05/09/2026

🎺 English Brass Music 🎺

Join us for a delightful morning of music, coffee and cake with talented young brass players from Salisbury schools and Salisbury Area Young Musicians (SAYM) who will bring the sounds of the English Renaissance and Baroque music.

📅 Friday 2nd October
⏰ 10.30-11.15am
📍 United Reformed Church, Salisbury

Following last year's successful Venice to Vienna concert, this year's programme celebrates English composers including Byrd, Tallis, Dowland, Purcell and Handel, performed by some of SAYM's finest young musicians, with both ensemble and solo performances.

Highlights include:

📯 Laurie Truluck will give a fascinating demonstration of the natural horn, showing how different the technique of playing it is compared to the modern French horn. Laurie has performed around the world with leading orchestras including the BBC Concert Orchestra and London Mozart Players, and has shared the stage at the Royal Albert Hall with rock bands Alter Bridge and Bring Me The Horizon.

🎶 Music by Handel, including his Sarabande, which was used in Stanley Kubrick's film, Barry Lyndon. The sarabande started life in Spain as a fast and rather wild dance, so lively it was once banned for being too scandalous! By Handel’s time, though, it had slowed down into something much more stately and elegant.

🤴🏻 Uplifting Renaissance music by Henry VIII and Thomas Tallis, as well as William Byrd's moving Earl of Salisbury's Pavane, written in honour of Robert Cecil, the 1st Earl of Salisbury.

After the concert, we would love you to stay for coffee & cake and a chat ☕️ 🍰 💬

A wonderful chance to support local young musicians and experience some majestic music.

04/09/2026

🎶 One Month to go! 🎶

In a month’s time, we’ll be performing Handel’s Messiah for our gala concert – the finale of Salisbury Musick for 2026.

This performance will bring to a close a weekend celebrating early music. The festival runs from 2nd to 4th October, with events taking place across Salisbury and the surrounding area.

As in the eighteenth century, when three-day festivals of music were held annually in Salisbury to great acclaim, Salisbury Musick brings together local musicians and visiting experts to provide a wonderful range of concerts, talks and educational opportunities.

Highlights include:
🎺 English Brass Music featuring talented young musicians from Salisbury schools and SAYM
🎻 Concerts featuring music by Handel, Bach, Telemann, Monteverdi and many others
🚶 Salisbury City Musick Tour
🎹 Fortepiano and harpsichord performances
💬 Talks exploring musical history, instruments and performance practice
⛪ Festival events in some of Salisbury's most beautiful historic venues including Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Medieval Hall and The Salisbury Museum

Now is the perfect time to start planning your festival weekend.

👉 Explore the programme and book tickets on our website (link in bio)

02/09/2026

Thank you to Continuo Connect for making us your featured festival at the moment. https://www.continuoconnect.com/festivals
What a great organisation providing invaluable financial and practical support to early music. Two groups in our festival this year have benefited through the related Continuo Foundation - Blondel and Nocturnalia, both performing on Saturday 3rd October. Nocturnalia are also leading a string workshop on the morning of Sunday 4th October. Full details are on our website.

Period-instrument-focused festivals and Early Music concert series from around the UK. Search our interactive map to find a festival near you.