Guildhall School of Music & Drama announces its Summer 2026 Season

Proving Up by Missy Mazzoli (UK premiere) 

1, 3, 5 & 8 June, 7pm, Milton Court Theatre 

Set on the vast, unforgiving plains of 1870s Nebraska, Proving Up is an opera by acclaimed composer Missy Mazzoli, offering a haunting reflection on the American Dream and the human desire to make a life in a hostile world. 

Inspired by Karen Russell’s short story, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek, the opera follows the Zegner family as they strive to fulfil the rigid demands of the Homestead Act in order to claim ownership of the land they have settled. Among these requirements, one stands out with a powerful symbolic weight: a single glass window. 

When their eldest son is left incapacitated, the family sends their youngest child, Miles, across the prairie on a perilous journey to share the window with neighbouring homesteaders awaiting a government inspection. As Miles moves through an immense and indifferent landscape, he encounters forces – human and otherwise – that expose the brutal tension between hope, survival and sacrifice. 

Premiered in 2016, Proving Up marked a defining moment in Missy Mazzoli’s operatic career. A Grammy-nominated composer described by The New York Times as “one of the more consistently inventive, surprising composers now working in New York”, Mazzoli has created a body of stage works acclaimed for their visceral emotional power and distinctive contemporary voice, including Breaking the Waves and The Listeners. 

Scored for a striking chamber ensemble that includes suspended acoustic guitars, Proving Up unfolds in a sound world that is at once intimate and disquieting, amplifying themes of fragility, endurance and loss.   

As You Like It by William Shakespeare 

22, 23, 26, 27 & 28 May, Silk Street Theatre 

Escape to the Forest of Arden in Shakespeare’s timeless comedy of love, transformation and newfound freedom. As courtly order gives way to pastoral possibility, disguises are assumed, identities shift and the boundaries between gender, nature and politics begin to blur. Owen Horsley directs a new production of Shakespeare’s generous and life-affirming play. 

Both playful and searching, As You Like It delights in the confusions of romance while reflecting on the deeper pleasures of self-discovery, companionship and life lived beyond convention. In this world of music, wit and unexpected encounters, bewilderment becomes a source of joy and renewal. 

Guildhall Jazz Orchestra: Porgy and Bess

Thursday 21 May, 7.30pm, Milton Court Concert Hall  

Guildhall Jazz Orchestra welcomes internationally acclaimed trumpet soloist Ingrid Jensen for a performance of Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ luminous 1959 reimagining of George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. 

Directed by Scott Stroman, this concert marks the start of the centenary year of Miles Davis, revisiting a defining collaboration in which operatic melody is transformed into a sound world of shifting colour, spacious lyricism and quiet intensity. 

Hailed as one of the most gifted trumpeters of her generation, Jensen is celebrated internationally as a sought-out educator, soloist and collaborator, with The New York Times describing her as being “as versatile as she is vigorous”. 

Cross-discipline celebration

Making It Festival 

8-26 June, Silk Street Theatre & Milton Court 

What does it mean to “make it” as an artist in the 21st century? As traditions evolve and power shifts, artists with the skills to create their own work become the trailblazers of our culture.  

Join us for the 2026 Making It Festival: a celebration of new, original work made by Guildhall School’s vibrant and multi-skilled community. The programme will also include special events, installations and pop-up performances across campus. 

The full Festival events lineup will be released in April.  

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Wednesday 10 June, 6.30pm, Barbican Cinema 

“These days. This place isn’t what it used to be."  

Blurred memories, broken dreams and an endless grind: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow takes us into the world of work and the pressures of contemporary life.  

Guildhall School presents this annual series of short films curated by professional writers for the returning screen project. Throughout the Spring Term, the cohort transformed into a film production company, designing, constructing and performing in the School's largest cross-degree collaboration to date, bringing these compelling stories and curated series of films to life on screen.  

Short films included:  

Walking Shadows by Helen Iley  
Two cleaners begin their first – and final – shifts at a concert hall, where hopes, dreams and losses echo through the wings, the backstage corridors and the bags of nuts served in the interval.  

THE CLOPEN by Tatenda Shamiso  
Following a legendary ‘clopen’ – where a member of staff closes late at night and returns to open the next morning – the staff of a café-bar retrace the hijinks, conflicts and quiet catastrophes of the previous evening, all while trying to survive the morning shift.  

Dirtier Dishes by Helen Iley 
At an extravagant event, a bus boy observes the expectations and pressures of both the waiting staff below and the guests upstairs. An undercurrent of change begins to stir, yet the question remains whether any of them will truly act.  

SKIMMR by Tatenda Shamiso  
A Gen-Z trust fund baby and their loyal hype squad hold interviews for a new Customer Success Associate at their nonsense fintech startup. Will the candidates expose the grift, or drink the Kool-Aid and join the cult company? 

London Schools Symphony Orchestra: Rituals of the Heart 

Monday 13 April, 7.30pm, Barbican Hall 

Conducted by Dominic Wheeler, the programme moves from the vibrant colours of Guildhall alumna Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari to the intimate expressiveness of Richard Strauss’ celebrated songs, performed by Guildhall sopranos Lowri Probert and Avery Lafrentz. Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde: Prelude & Liebestod closes the first half with its sweeping emotional arc and shimmering orchestration. After the interval, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances brings the concert to a powerful conclusion – a late masterpiece of rhythmic vitality and rich orchestral colour. 

Junior Guildhall Symphony Orchestra and String Ensemble 

Saturday 4 July, 6pm, Milton Court Concert Hall 

Junior Guildhall’s Symphony Orchestra and String Ensemble present a vibrant programme spanning the 20th-century orchestral repertoire, from the intensity of Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony for string orchestra to the luminous colour of Respighi’s Pines of Rome. 

Fantasia on Welsh Nursey Rhymes by Grace Williams and D’un matin de printemps by Lili Boulanger completes an evening celebrating imagination, lyricism and the distinctive voices of the last century. 

The concert is conducted by Julian Clayton and Peggy Wu, showcasing the artistry and ambition of Junior Guildhall’s outstanding young musicians. 
 

Free events
 

Alongside the ticketed programme, Guildhall School’s summer season features a rich programme of free events offering audiences the chance to experience the breadth of activity across the School. Highlights include a public Piano Masterclass with internationally renowned pianist Richard Goode, the return of Final Recitals, where graduating classical and jazz musicians present their culminating performances, and GradEx 2026, the Production Arts Graduate Exhibition showcasing the design and technical work behind Guildhall’s major productions. Elsewhere, audiences can explore innovative student work through the Bauhaus Festival, combining short films with live scores, and the Union Chapel Organ Project Concert, featuring new works for organ and electronics performed on the venue’s historic water-powered instrument. 

The season features a wide range of free concerts and series, including Chamber at Six, Strings at Six, Songs at Six and the School’s popular ‘at Eight’ performances such as Keyboard at Eight, Electronics at Eight and Chamber at Eight. Ensembles including Exaudi, Cleveland Watkiss’ Vocal Jazz Ensemble with Guildhall Jazz Voices and Plus-Minus Ensemble also take to the stage, alongside annual competitions and showcases. Open to all and unticketed, these events offer a free way to experience Guildhall’s vibrant musical community up close.