Wigmore Hall’s packed 2022/23 season continues into the Spring with 158 concerts and events from January to March 2023. Highlights include:

• A rare performance of Henze’s El Cimarrón (The Runaway Slave) forms part of a focus on American baritone Will Liverman
• Soprano and composer Héloïse Werner takes over Wigmore Hall on 8 March, International Women’s Day
• 18-year-old Korean pianist Yunchan Lim makes his Wigmore Hall debut
• The Arditti Quartet celebrates founder Irvine Arditti’s 70th birthday
• Wigmore Hall Learning Festival 2023 presents concerts and workshops for everyone from babies and the under-fives to people living with dementia and their carers
• Sir Stephen Hough, with four of today’s leading singers, gives a recital of his own songs, including the world premiere of the cycle Songs of Love and Loss
• Return visits from some of the world’s great artists including vocalists Dame Sarah Connolly, Christian Gerhaher and Nina Stemme, pianists Dame Imogen Cooper, Angela Hewitt, Elisabeth Leonskaja with the Jerusalem Quartet and Sir András Schiff, violinists Hilary Hahn, Alina Ibragimova and Leonidas Kavakos, cellists Steven Isserlis and Sheku Kanneh-Mason.

Sir Stephen Hough is joined by soprano Ailish Tynan, mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, tenor Nicky Spence and baritone James Newby performing a recital of his own songs (2 Jan), including the World Premiere of a new song cycle, Songs of Love and Loss.

Baritone Will Liverman sings the title role in a rare performance of Henze’s powerful El Cimarrón (The Runaway Slave) (11 Mar), and gives a recital of music by black composers with pianist Jonathan King (13 Mar). Described by Henze as a Recital for Four Musicians, El Cimarrón is performed by a baritone, a guitarist, a flautist and a percussionist, although all four musicians play percussion instruments during the work. It tells the true story Esteban Montejo a Cuban slave who escaped to freedom and lived in the mountains as a runaway until the abolition of slavery on the island in 1886.

Renowned pianist Graham Johnson is joined by mezzo-soprano Sophie Rennert and baritone Roderick Williams and actors Janet Suzman and Alexandra Gilbreath for Mother Clara, a Liederspiel. Written and devised by Johnson it tells the true story of the relationship between Eugenie Schumann, the youngest daughter of Robert and Clara Schumann, and Eugenie’s life partner, the mezzo-soprano Marie Fillunger.

Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin is performed twice in the spring, with the tenor Simon Bode and pianist Igor Levit (13 Jan), and with the countertenor Iestyn Davies and pianist Joseph Middleton (9 Feb). Christian Gerhaher gives a recital of Holliger, Schumann and Wolf (12 Feb), and settings of Tang dynasty (618-907AD) poetry sung by bass-baritone Shenyang, to celebrate Chinese New Year (28 Jan). Elizabeth Llewellyn presents the last of three concerts of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor songs (19 Mar).

Alongside leading soloists, Wigmore Hall presents choral music of the highest calibre. Belgian choir Vox Luminis joins forces with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra to perform two neglected Baroque choral works, Biber’s Requiem in F minor and Steffani’s Stabat mater (24 Feb). Harry Christophers directs The Sixteen in a selection of William Byrd’s masterful late works (23 Mar), The King’s Singers and Fretwork come together for a programme of Byrd and Thomas Weelkes (24 Jan), and the Dunedin Consort explore Handel in Rome (30 Mar).

Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin are performed by Liza Ferschtman (5 & 6 Jan) and Hilary Hahn (4 Mar). Alina Ibragimova begins a series focusing on Mozart’s Violin Concertos (9 Mar), and Leonidas Kavakos performs with pianists Enrico Pace (22 Feb) and Kirill Gerstein (5 Mar).

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, and his sons, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, perform together with musicians from the Western classical tradition (7 & 8 Mar), and present the Refugee Orchestra Project (9 Jan) which aims to show the significant role that refugees from across the globe play in contributing to culture and society.

A variety of pianists will take the Wigmore Hall stage in Spring 2023, from the 18-year-old Korean Yunchan Lim (18 Jan), who became the youngest winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition earlier this year, to Christian Zacharias, who retires from the concert stage with a farewell recital (10 Feb).

Elisabeth Leonskaja, one of the most celebrated pianists of our time, performs Brahms with musicians from the Berlin Staatskapelle (29 Jan), and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor with the Jerusalem Quartet (15 Feb)

Mariam Batsashvili performs Beethoven and Liszt (12 Jan), brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen give a recital of piano duets, including an arrangement of Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring (23 Jan) and Daniil Trifonov performs with his former teacher Sergei Babayan (17 Mar). Masterpieces by Schubert, Liszt and Beethoven are performed by Dame Imogen Cooper (25 Mar), Sir Andràs Schiff gives two concerts (18 & 20 Feb) and the 18th century French composer Hélène de Montgeroult is championed by pianist Clare Hammond (28 Jan).

Boris Giltberg continues his Ravel Piano Series (14 Feb) and in the week of his 150th Birthday, the story of Rachmaninov’s life is told through music and words by pianist Lucy Parham, and the actor Henry Goodman, who reads from diaries and letters (25 Mar).

Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani concludes his searching exploration of the solo keyboard works by Bach, performing The Well-tempered Clavier Book II (25 Feb).

In celebration of its founder’s 70th Birthday, the Arditti Quartet performs a selection of works written for or dedicated to Irvine Arditti, including three UK première performances (3 Feb).

A trio of concerts (3, 4, 5 Feb) featuring Mozart String Quartets is performed by the Hagen Quartet. Amongst the other Ensembles at Wigmore Hall in the spring are the Elias String Quartet (3 Jan), Belcea Quartet (21 Jan), Castalian String Quartet (25 Jan), Pavel Haas Quartet with pianist Boris Giltberg (1 Feb), Quatuor Ebène (25 Feb), Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective (17 Mar), Chineke! Chamber Ensemble (19 Feb) and Il Pomo d’Oro (14 Mar). Wigmore Hall’s Chamber Ensemble in Residence, The Nash Ensemble, continues its Beethoven and the Romantics series (14 Jan, 11 & 12 Feb, 18 Mar) and they are joined by soprano Claire Booth for the world première of a new work by Julian Anderson (28 Mar).

The Rolling Calf, a trio led by Wigmore Hall Associate Artist Elaine Mitchener with the saxophonist Jason Yarde and bassist Neil Charles, are joined on 22 January by Pat Thomas on piano and electronics. A leading light in the black British avant garde, Rolling Calf performances combine texts by revolutionary thinkers from the African diaspora with electroacoustic improvisation.

Wigmore Hall’s Sunday morning series of concerts has been bringing the world’s great artists to an enthusiastic public since 1976. Spring 2023 includes performances by the Adelphi (8 Jan), Aris (5 Mar) and Marmen Quartets (26 Mar), the outstanding Smetana Trio (19 Mar), the cellist Natalie Clein (22 Jan) and the violinist Alena Baeva (19 Feb).

Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and livestreamed on Wigmore Hall’s website, the Wigmore Hall/BBC Radio 3 Monday Lunchtime Concert series reaches an international audience and highlights for Spring 2023 include mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre (30 Jan), pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet performing Haydn (20 Feb), baritone Konstantin Krimmel performing songs by Eusebius Mandyczewski (6 Feb), and cellist Steven Isserlis and friends championing the neglected music of 18th Century master cellist and composer Luigi Boccherini (27 Mar).

Soprano and composer Héloïse Werner takes over the Wigmore Hall for International Women’s Day on 8 March. In a morning concert with the Tippett Quartet, she gives the world premiere performance of her own work Les Leçons du Mardi and performs music by composers Kate Whitley, Doreen Carwithen, Caroline Shaw and Freya Waley-Cohen. In the evening Werner performs with her groundbreaking ensemble The Hermes Experiment.

Since 1994, Wigmore Hall's renowned learning programme has been giving people of all ages and backgrounds opportunities to take part in creative music making, engaging a broad and diverse range of people through in-person and online creative projects, concerts, workshops and resources.

This work is celebrated with the Learning Festival 2023: Past, Present and Future, a series of concerts workshops and events from 8-24 February which explores the Hall’s archive to investigate the history of the venue and to imagine the Wigmore Hall of the future. Everyone can take part, from babies and children under five, to families and school groups and to people living with dementia and their carers.