Stamford International Music Festival

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Stamford International Music Festival

Stamford's very own International Music Festival. Founded by Freya Goldmark, coming to town 17th-19th May 2019! Founded in 2016 by Freya Goldmark.

Our ensemble of young professional chamber musicians has some great concerts planned - check out the programme at simfestival.com! Uppingham's very own International Music Festival, UppFest.

17/05/2026

At the heart of this year’s SIMfestival: Dvořák, Korngold and Widmann.

The concert opens with Jörg Widmann’s 180 Beats per Minute: six exhilarating minutes of pure rhythmic energy inspired by early techno beats.

From there we move into Dvořák’s Dumky Trio. Rather than following a traditional structure, the piece unfolds as a sequence of contrasting “dumky”: music that moves between melancholy and exuberance, introspection and dance, often within moments.

After the interval comes Korngold’s extraordinary String Sextet, a work I have wanted to programme for a very long time. Korngold has been one of my favourite composers since I was a teenager, and this lush, sweeping sextet, written when he was just seventeen, already contains so much of the emotional richness and lyricism that makes his music so distinctive.

Several of our musicians have said this may be the programme we are most excited to play all weekend…

Tickets at

Friday 22 May, 7pm
Stamford Arts Centre
SIMFestival 2026

13/05/2026

“As a Jew, if I had been in Europe during the war, I would have been on very different trains.” — Steve Reich

One of the most important works of contemporary classical music from the last fifty years, Steve Reich’s Different Trains is a work of extraordinary power.

Performed live by the internationally acclaimed Ligeti Quartet, who performed in The Hague last week and travel to China immediately after the festival. It feels very special to welcome them to Stamford for this late-night performance.

Written in 1988 for string quartet and recorded speech, the piece reflects on Reich’s childhood journeys across America during the Second World War, set against the vastly different journeys taking place across Europe at the same time, when trains were transporting Jewish people to concentration camps under the N**i regime.

Fragments of recorded speech from Holocaust survivors are woven into the live quartet alongside train sounds and sirens, with the rhythms of speech transformed into music itself. The result is urgent, hypnotic and deeply moving: music that feels at once like memory, history and live experience unfolding in real time.

And somehow there feels something especially powerful about experiencing this music in the Ballroom at Stamford Arts Centre, thought to be the oldest surviving assembly room in Britain.

Thursday 21 May, 9pm, Arts Centre Ballroom

🎟️ Tickets available from

07/05/2026

Pianist and composer returns to SIMFestival for the fourth year. We’re very happy that Jo has once again agreed to make us a special arrangement, this year a reimagining of Turina’s ‘El Circo’ to be premiered at our Festival Finale on Saturday 23rd May.

Photos from last year’s finale performance of Jo’s wonderfully fun Suite from Manuel De Falla’s Three Cornered Hat for large chamber ensemble, commissioned by us.

04/05/2026

Tchaikovsky Goes on Holiday! ✨🎻
📍 Stamford Arts Centre | 🗓 Saturday 23rd May | 🕑 2:00pm | 🎟 £8

Join our festival musicians, led by violinist & educator Emma Purslow, for a fun, interactive children’s concert (ages 4–10). Travel with Tchaikovsky from Moscow to Florence—through cafés, circuses, opera & more—as he searches for his lost hat!

A playful introduction to classical music, inspired by Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence.

27/04/2026

‘As the festival enters its second decade, its sense of purpose feels clearer than ever – rooted in friendship,
shaped by artistic curiosity and enriched by its connection to Stamford. A few days set slightly apart from everyday life, it offers the chance to gather, listen closely, and experience music in all its immediacy.’

‘For Freya, what remains most special is the spirit of collaboration at the heart of the festival. ‘It still amazes me that musicians I respect so much are happy to come and play here – I don’t take that for granted.’

Huge thank you to the wonderful for this article out now in the May issue.
Freya chatted to Clare all about the upcoming festival and what to expect - less than a month to go now!

Tickets available at
Photos by

01/04/2026

🎉Children’s Concert - 23rd May, 2pm 🎉

We’re delighted that SIMFestival’s Children’s Concert will be returning under the wonderful leadership of violinist Emma Purslow.

Rather than ‘dumbing down’ the experience, we’ll present fantastic chamber music in a way that invites children to explore it with curiosity and imagination, and to connect with the music on their own terms.

In this year’s interactive concert, Tchaikovsky is going on holiday! Starting in Moscow (wearing lots of fuzzy furs) when he arrives in the Italian city of Florence he is far too hot – and he’s lost his hat! As we explore a variety of sights and sounds – from a café to a circus, the opera, a museum, and a final carriage ride along the river – we’ll retrace the composer’s musical steps.

Based on Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, a string sextet inspired by the composer’s visit to the city, and using Tchaikovsky’s own letters to map his journey, this concert offers a relaxed introduction to the wonders of classical music without the pressure of a formal performance setting.

Tickets £8 from
Aimed at primary school age. Everyone is welcome.

Photos from our 2025 children’s concert by

09/03/2026

Beethoven, Korngold & Grieg to launch the SIMFest 2026 programme 🚀

This Sunday, 15th March 7:30pm at St Martins Church, Freya and Jo present a programme for violin and piano reflecting the musical ideas and repertoire that will shape the May festival.

Beethoven Violin Sonata No.10

Grieg Violin Sonata No.2

Korngold Much Ado About Nothing Suite

Tickets £22 from and as always free for Under 17’s.

20/12/2025

Tonight’s players ✨
As we prepare for our Christmas Concert, we’re delighted to share these moments from past SIMFestivals, captured in 2023-2025 by .

Slide 1: Eliza Millett .millett
Slide 2: Alessandro Ruisi
Slide 3: A shot of our super appreciative audience 🥹
Slide 4: Freya Goldmark
Slide 5: Peteris Sokolovskis
Slide 6: Luba Tunnicliffe — joining SIMFestival for the first time this evening .tunnicliffe

Together they perform Mozart’s String Quartet No.23 and Schubert’s String Quintet in C major, closing the year with two cornerstone works of the chamber music repertoire.

The concert is nearly sold out (yay!) we can’t wait to welcome you. 🎄🎶

23/05/2025

Our first ever Children’s concert!
Led by the incredible we introduced a young audience to the violin, cello, piano, bassoon, trumpet and clarinet through Martinu’s ‘Kitchen Revue’.

Now, more than ever, access to classical music in schools is under threat, with music classes and instrumental teaching increasingly cut back. This makes it all the more vital that we find other ways to introduce children to the richness and joy of live music. From the festival’s very beginning, we’ve made all concerts free for under-17s—a simple decision that has allowed families to come together and try out classical music in a welcoming environment.

Rather than ‘dumbing down’ the experience, we aim to present fantastic chamber music in a way that invites children to explore it with curiosity and imagination. It’s a chance to connect with the music on their own terms, while still being treated as thoughtful, engaged listeners.

Looking ahead, we hope to build stronger links with local schools and introduce more children to the extraordinary experience of live music—whether as audience members or performers. Music has an innate power to lift, soothe, and inspire in just moments. What a gift it is to introduce children that power too.

19/05/2025

Late Night Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross

A very special concert by Alessandro, Freya, Edgar and Nathaniel in the beauty of St Martin’s Church.

📷

Address

27 St Mary's Street
Stamford
PE9 2DL

Website

https://simfestival.com/

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