New Music Biennial – a Free 3-Day Festival for Bradford 2025

Dates: 6–8 June 2025
Location: Multiple venues across Bradford city centre
Tickets: Free – booking required

New Music Biennial, the UK’s free festival of adventurous sound, lands in Bradford for the first time – bringing three days of genre-breaking performances to venues including Bradford Cathedral, The Underground and St George’s Hall.

This nationally celebrated event showcases 20 bold works from some of the country’s most exciting composers and performers – from intimate chamber pieces to radical audiovisual experiences. Many pieces will be performed in Bradford for the very first time before touring to London’s Southbank Centre, airing on BBC Radio 3 and being released by NMC Recordings.

Festival Line-up – 6–8 June 2025

• Chasing Sunlight – Sinfonia Cymru
  An engaging new audio-visual concerto harnessing the power of the senses
• Penumbra – Outlands Network
  Combines voice, video, lighting and live looping in a striking performance
• N’dehou – Daniel Kidane & The Carice Singers
  World premiere of a powerful choral work
• Bantam’s Drift – Brighter Sound
  Soundscapes reflecting South Asian youth culture in Bradford
• Moth x Human – Oxford Contemporary Music
  A cross-species sonic collaboration spotlighting declining biodiversity
• Into the Night – Jasdeep Singh Degun & BBC Concert Orchestra
  New work by the celebrated sitarist and composer
• Ghost Weavers – Threads of Sound
  Immersive experience blending folk song and heritage
• The Path – Halina Rice & BBC Concert Orchestra
  Trailblazing electronic sounds and orchestral innovation
• Holocene – Ailís Ní Ríain & Onyx Brass
  A bold brass ensemble work exploring our geological epoch
• Requiem – All Men Unto Me
  Live performance of three electrifying tracks from their new album
• Yearn – Sipho
  An emotionally charged performance on themes of loss and longing
• DANCE SUITE – Alex Groves & Zubin Kanga
  What would baroque sound like on a 2025 dancefloor?
• Nocturnal Sun – Chisara Agor
  Live performance and conceptual film journeying through an arid landscape
• MARCH – CoMA (Contemporary Music for All)
  Joyful, participatory music reflecting on protest and collective action
• Beyond Borders – Thar Farraige – Linda Buckley
  Chamber and folk music meditating on love, loss and home
• Mercury Songs – Spitalfields Music
  A bold five-piece ensemble reinterpreting British folk traditions
• GLOW – Xenia Pestova Bennett & Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble
  Electro-acoustic soundscapes at St George’s Hall
• Voice Notes – Another Sky Festival
  Powerful sonic portraits of refugee and migrant stories
• Dhamaal – Core – Shri Sriram & Serious Trust
  Joyful, high-energy fusion of South Asian, jazz and electronic music
• Peace – Verity Watts & Manchester Jazz Festival
  Contemporary jazz responding to the question: what does peace sound like?

Explore bold new sounds, connect with the future of music, and witness world premieres – all for free.

Book your free tickets now