Ex Cathedra have revealed their concert series for 2025-2026.

The season includes a strong French flavour with works by Duruflé, Michel-Richard de Lalande and Daniel-Lesur, all featured. Concerts celebrating midsummer and Christmas Music by Candlelight also make a welcome return. 

Three guest conductors - Steven Grahl, James Burton and Eamonn Dougan, will join artistic director Jeffrey Skidmore and Ex Cathedra, presenting one concert each.

Music for a Summer’s Evening opens the season this month, celebratiing of the joys of summer with madrigals, part-songs, close harmony and readings from across the ages - all performed under the glow of candlelight. Steven Grahl has selected a programme of music from Orlando Gibbons to Britten, Vaughan Williams, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Joanna March, Duke Ellington and the world premiere performances of Piers Connor Kennedy’s Songs - which demonstrate the vocal and whistling prowess of the choir. Music for a Summer’s Evening tours to Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, Hereford, London and Moseley between 6 and 17 June.

Next up is Duruflé’s Requiem at Birmingham Town Hall on Sunday 19 October. A work of luminous beauty and serenity, it is performed alongside Britten’s much-loved Rejoice in the Lamb, and St Cuthbert and the Otters, penned by guest conductor James Burton. The concert will feature young singers from Ex Cathedra’s Academy of Vocal Music choirs and a partner school. Vaughan Williams’ A Vision of Aeroplanes opens the concert with more music of awe and wonder, unleashing the choir and Town Hall organ to thunderous effect.

A Goodnight - Music of Remembrance and Hope (All Saints Church, Kings Heath, Birmingham on Saturday 8 November), is a programme of contemplation and comfort for Remembrance weekend. Designed by guest conductor Eamonn Dougan, the programme includes works by William Byrd, Johann Ludwig Bach and Kerensa Briggs. Richard Rodney Bennett’s work is an exquisite memorial to Linda McCartney, while James MacMillan sets the poetry of a young Scottish soldier killed in World War 1.  

The festive season begins with Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at Birmingham Town Hall on Sunday 7 December, conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore. From the moment it bursts into life in a blaze of virtuosic Baroque trumpets, drums, winds and strings, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio fizzes with energy. This performance of all six cantatas is the perfect way to start your festive season, fortified by the infectious joy of Bach’s brilliance.

For those needing some calm amidst the festive rush, then Christmas Music by Candlelight is a concert of spellbinding seasonal music and a central part of many people’s Christmas traditions. This year’s tour takes in Coventry, Hagley, Hereford, Leicester, Lichfield, London, Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton. There is also a visit to Moseley in Birmingham, before an annual residency at St Paul’s Church in the city's Jewellery Quarter.

2026 begins with The Sun King’s Favourite on Sunday 15 February at Birmingham Town Hall. Music was an essential part of daily life during the court of Louis XIV, and for over 30 years one man was at its heart. In this special concert, Ex Cathedra celebrates the 300th anniversary of Michel-Richard de Lalande, beloved by the Sun King, with three sensational pieces. His heart-stopping, tender De profundis was perfomed at the Sun King’s funeral at 1715 and in the very first ‘Concert Spirituel’ at the Tuileries Gardens in 1725. Lalande’s music remained popular in Paris for decades after his death, performed far more than any other composer in the pioneering 'Concert Spirituel' series (1725-90). The Grand Motet Cantata Domino was also frequently top of the bill with its climactic high tenor solo. It’s a rare opportunity to hear this fantastic music in the UK, repertoire for which Ex Cathedra has enjoyed huge critical acclaim.

On Tuesday 17 March, Ex Cathedra’s Scholars Ensemble will present The Garden of Love - a concert where love and nature are in full bloom. Works by Claude Le Jeune, Eric Whitacre, Palestrina and Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, all feature within the programme. 

Bach’s St John Passion on Good Friday (3 April 2026) brings the season to a close at Birmingham's Symphony Hall. Expect dramatic choruses, poignant solo arias and achingly beautiful orchestration that explore the characters' emotional depth - and offers audiences space to pause and reflect. Three centuries after its first performance, this is a masterpiece that still speaks to us profoundly, regardless of belief.

For further details on all upcoming concerts, and to purchase tickets, visit excathedra.co.uk