Highlights from BREMF 2026: Bringers of dreams

Booking has opened for Brighton Early Music Festival's 2026 season, here's a closer look at what's on offer, from this superb programme that showcases just how much range early music can cover, from grand orchestral reimaginings to intimate late-night song.

Pre-festival: 19–27 September
The season opens gently with a free Polyphony Crawl on 19 September, short performances by the BREMF Consort of Voices staged across four churches in the city. The following weekend brings a run of participatory workshops: a choral session with Donald Greig exploring Florentine Renaissance polyphony, a family-friendly Laboratory of Lullabies, an instrumental workshop at period pitch A=440 with William Lyons, and two half-day baroque dance workshops with Mary Collins.

Weekend one: 2–4 October
The festival proper opens with City of Dreams, a Florentine extravaganza with the Monteverdi String Band narrated by Maria de' Medici. The following night, ensemble Spiritato present The Planets; a celestial pre-imagining of Holst's famous suite performed on period instruments. Families are catered for with OAE TOTS, a musical adventure for pre-schoolers from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, while Dream Lab offers something more experimental: three new early music pieces performed alongside audience feedback sessions in the St Augustine's café.

Week two: 9–11 October
Purcell's The Fairy Queen gets a full staging by the London Handel Players and BREMF's own Emerging Artists singers, bringing Shakespeare's midsummer magic to life. The same weekend showcases the festival's investment in new talent, with the Emerging Artists Showcase followed by BREMF Clubnight; a relaxed pub-set evening of performance. Polia's Power offers a female perspective on a 15th-century novel via the Artemis Consort, illustrated with video projection. The One Song exhibition, an audio-visual installation exploring music, memory and identity, also opens this week and runs through to 28 October.

Week three: 15–18 October
This stretch belongs largely to Dowland: three distinct late-night concerts across "Dowland Day" trace themes of sleep, melancholy, anxiety and faith; from tenor Kieran White and Republic of Viols, through Dowland's Foundry, to an intimate lute song set from Ruby Hughes and Jonas Nordberg. Elsewhere, The Fine Hand connect medieval European song to Appalachian ballad traditions in Send it by the Water, alongside a hands-on dream-symbolism workshop, an A=415 instrumental workshop, and Stars of the Night from recorder ensemble Ymnus.

Closing week: 23–25 October
The festival winds down with Brother Sun, the BREMF Community Choir marking the 800th anniversary of St Francis of Assisi's death; a family singing workshop exploring songs of home and sleep; Whispers in the Night, inspired by Tartini's "Devil's Trill" Sonata; and In Terra Aliena, a meditation on belonging from the Utopia Ensemble. The final weekend also brings a coffee morning discussion with author Philipp Blom on home and utopia, and a community SongPath walk linking nature and song to close the season.

Full listings and booking are available via the festival's website, with general sale opening Monday 3 August.