The Chelsea Festival

Pink Floyd’s iconic rock suite Atom Heart Mother forms the centre piece of a stunning Chelsea Festival curtain raiser. Heralding 14 days of extraordinarily varied events, Chelsea’s Cadogan Hall will provide the venue for a rare recreation of this rock classic on 14/15 June. Elsewhere in a festival that boasts a whole series of top drawer names in many musical genres, top classical artists Nicola Benedetti and Barbara Bonney will feature in other Cadogan Hall concerts, the former directing a concert for the first time. The Festival also sees the premiere of a brand new performing version of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas directed by the acclaimed Jonathan Miller.

Elsewhere there is comedy from the Sandi Toksvig and Josie Long, talks and literary-leaning concerts featuring Simon Hoggart and Eleanor Bron, jazz from Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Claire Martin and Ian Shaw, and world sounds from West Africa – kora player N’Faly Kouyaté – Japanese koto player Yoko Nishi, top Lebanese diva Hiba Al Kawas and the extraordinary choral sounds of the Estonian Orthodox Choir. Amongst a number of firsts and premieres, the festival also features the third premiere in the hugely well received Confluences series by Alec Roth and novelist Vikram Seth.