Piano Festival 2024

Welcome from Marios Papadopoulos
Artistic Director

In concert halls, public spaces and even on reality TV, the piano appears to be enjoying a resurgence in popularity. No other instrument has become such a powerful symbol of music-making, domestic and professional. No other instrument has woven its way consistently through various threads of history and culture, from Oxford to Osaka.

This year’s Oxford Piano Festival promises a more diverse and revealing look at the piano than any previous edition of the event. In repertoire ranging from Scarlatti to Gershwin, and Schumann to Rogers and Hammerstein, our recitalists and soloists will prove just why the piano remains at the heart of our musical lives.

For 2024’s festival, we welcome a new generation of pianists who are making their names across the world: Icelandic musician Víkingur Ólafsson, American-Armenian pianist Sergei Babayan, and Australian virtuoso Jayson Gillham are all carving out unique places for themselves among the pantheon of poet-pianists. We welcome back great names including Barry Douglas, while it seems fitting that our final concert forms something of a double farewell, as we hear stalwart British pianist Kathryn Stott in concert for the final time.

Join all of us this summer for fresh but inspiring look at this wonderful instrument — and to hear some true gems it has birthed.